Kris got her doctorate. From Harvard! How cool is that?! She managed to swing a ticket for me to actually see Commencement in one of the closed-circuit viewing spots so it was much better than not seeing it at all. We had an amazing time in Boston which I saw in a completely different light to the last time I'd been there. We also ate a lot of wonderful food and did a hefty amount of walking.

I popped over the pond to visit Kris at her parents' place in North Carolina. Obviously the weather was amazing. I've never seen the Atlantic look so blue and Pacific-like. Kris also looked absolutely amazing and not just because I hadn't seen her in six weeks. We did some stuff, went a few places, I took some photos.

Apologies for the quality of the photos but with the light, the lenses and the angles involved it just wasn't going to be a good set of shots. Hopefully you can see what the room looked like before and after. I really, really like what it looks like now.

At time of publishing I hadn't actually got around to choosing a paint to go over the matt white undercoat which I've just applied. It'll be waterproof, obviously and probably match one of the colours of the tiles.

Kris and I took off on the train and bikes to Scotland, just a few dozen miles south of Edinburgh, for the week. We stayed in a fantastic place called Barns Tower just outside of the town of Peebles. Cue a large amount of excellent cycling, wonderful walking and even some time to just relax and read without interruptions from phones and computers. Bliss! It only rained a few times too, and we never got soaked. Much kudos to Kris for carrying two heavy panniers on a much heavier bike than mine!

Cormac and Steph turned 30. This seemed like a good idea for a party. 16 of us (and one small child) descended on a large white house in Salcombe, Devon for a week. There was cooking, drinking, running, kayaking, golf (apparently) and lots of wandering around and looking at things in wonderful weather.

Kris' parents came to see us and, being from out of the country, wanted to see something of the British countryside. We settled on staying in the Cotswolds and heading to (among other places) Blenheim Palace.

Kris and I took advantage of the long Easter weekend to hire a car and drive to the Cotswolds and a lovely Vivat Trust property in a sleepy village called Shipton-under-Wychwood. There was lots of cooking, a restaurant trip par excellence, cycling up and down actual hills for once and picnics galore (with attendant ducks). What's more it barely rained once!

Kris and went to Paris! Ostensibly this was to reset her tourist visa, but it turned out she still had three months left on it. No matter as we needed the holiday. We saw pretty much everything the city has to offer (the Louvre, the islands, the Seine, Notre Dame, the catacombs, went shopping, ice-cream, churches, all the Quarters, the Eiffel Tower and all on foot too!) Interesting, a chance to see lots of things and talk about more. Definitely a really rather good time on all counts.

Kris was spending some time in China, researching her Ph.D, teaching to get free accommodation and generally using her time usefully. Given she speaks/reads/writes Mandarin and knows an awful lot about China we figured it'd be the very best time for me to come and visit her and China. Especially as we both needed a holiday.

Beijing, Xi'an, Shanghai, Yangshuo and back to Beijing again. Some fabulous hotels, amazing archeological and historical sites, lots of people (LOTS of people) and some truly astounding scenery. Not to mention some lovely company.

Stowe Gardens in Buckinghamshire. Rather a strange collection of buildings-as-art. Lovely weather though, and fabulous company.

A whole load of us (and Kris, who was over at the time) headed off to Porlock in Somerset to stay at (take over) a hotel on the coast. Walking, running, supporting the local economy buy buying lots of produce from the village shop, murder mystery parties on trains, hiring a whole cinema, kiting, horse riding, falconry, cycling, drinking, cooking, croquette, football (of a sort), pass the parcel, games console playing and all kinds of other things I don't recall were the order of the week.

I believe we also celebrated two birthdays at some point, too.

I got a new front door. It was about time as the last one had holes in it. Seriously. This one looks fabulous. It's not the colour I'd envisaged for it but it's close enough and I already love it.

Oh and the locks on it are very nice.

I headed on over to the Big Apple to see Kris. Cue a week and a bit of Central Park wandering, meals out, exploration of the city, walking a duck down 5th Ave, seeing Avenue Q performed on Broadway and a trip to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

"Ah, Boston in the Fall..." Well with Jenny out there for the next year or so I thought now would be the time to take advantage of a friendly face to show me around. It also being Thanksgiving we took a very short trip to Cape Cod to see what the place was like out of season. The answer: brilliant, cold, windy, deserted, wonderful. Also, this collection contains penguins, autumnal colours, climbing, a squirrel and vague attempts at being vaguely arty, vaguely.

Jenny and I went to Greece. It was brilliant. We had lots of fun and did lots of walking and swimming and eating of food. Probably too much food, if I'm honest. Still, we didn't get burnt, which is nice.

I went to do another fMRI experiment, specifically for left-handed people (no more "Oh you're right handed? Sorry, we can't use you." for me!). Here's what I came away with

I cycled the Rievers Route from Tynemouth to Whitehaven with Jenny. Yes, I wore lycra. Yes, it was padded. Yes, an excellent time was had. Yes, I'd do it again. No, there are no pictures of my arse.

Cormac and Cat had birthdays. This weekend kind of fell between them, sort of. So they had a Murder Mystery Party and we all came. It was great and I got to con people out of money. I also took lots of pictures, some of which are OK, others are just a bit too blurry owing to lack of flash. Still, a damned good time was had by all I do believe.

They're building a guided busway between Cambridge and some villages outside of it, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to cycle it while it was still a little wild and not concreted into submission. My ride was my brand new (less than an hour old) Scott Scale 60 (2006 edition). The ride was fairly hard in places as not only was there only ballast to ride on most of the way, but the foliage has been cut back and laid on the ground (which was mostly bramble, cue one flat tyre as I got to Oakington), and there were temporary fences in the way (probably to stop people like me). The bike performed wonderfully (aside from the puncture) and I'm very happy with my purchase, the day and even the bramble scratches on the back of my knee.

So Ben (another Ben) and I decided to build a snowman. Turns out we went a bit overboard. This guy is about 6'7" tall.

And he has a penguin carved into his chest. Fear the penguin!

Just a few shots I took at V and James' Hallowe'en party. Nothing stunning photographically but there <em>were</em> some wonderful constumes. Which I didn't manage to capture.

"No offense to my parents but my birthday is rubbish. 27th of December? No wonder I don't give anyone else birthday presents. 'Here Keith, one sock is for Christmas and the other is for your birthday'. So I am having a birthday party on the Saturday 12th August."

So a party was had, people enjoyed themselves, the usual.

The Latitude Festival near Southwold. I went along as part of a juggling crew and helped run two workshops a day for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Between those times we got to sample some of the exceedingly varied acts on offer. From Marcus Brigstocke in the Comedy Arena to The Zutons and Snow Patrol. Literary criticism, burlesque cabaret, theatre and live poetry reading. Along with the phenomenal weather and some very late nights (read: early mornings) a damed good time was had by all. Sorry the shots aren't so good; I only had the compact on account of not wanting to tote my big kit around.

As I was cycling out of town after a lunch date I came across this beauty parked in a side street. I was so impressed I cycled home for my camera and came back again. Luckily it hadn't moved. Simply gorgeous.

"What you got there is your top of the range, 23 window Samba or Deluxe, lowered, on a nice set of Raders on a narrowed front beam. Sweet!" - Elaine

Cormac managed to keep a secret. This by way of being a calendar event we decided to celebrate by taking Steph punting and then to a Teri-yaki-catered meal at my house with balloons and helium and cake (by Elaine) and plenty of champagne. Oh, it was also pretty much her birthday too.

An afternoon of relaxation and (you guessed it) more poi and juggling fun with close friends and small boys with water. Also Shaun and Linda's son, Tom.

James' birthday barbecue and evening party on the Green. Lots of people, fun, poi, staff, juggling and general frivolity.

I was in London to see a couple of friends and stopped off in Hammersmith to hook up with a couple (which didn't happen). While I was waiting to find out if/when I'd meet them I found a fountain and decided to take some shots of it.

Wandered by the Strawberry Fair on the Friday and saw an excellent VW Kombi which I took a few shots of, then met people the next day to wander around the fair proper and do some poi and staff demonstrations with other people from the Circus. The evening was a barbecue at Keith's.

Decided to take a walk, so walked to Ely. Seems to be about nineteen miles. Lovely day. Caught the leading edge of a hail storm, otherwise bright and sunny.

James got himself recertified (to fly) so a few of us jumped in a plane and he flew us to Skegness (well, why not?) and back.

The second week of my 30th birthday holiday party blowout thing in Spain. Two more people arrived by plane (boo!) but were happily added to the throng. More climbing, more going out of an evening, some excellent walking, quality foodage, my birthday (including far too many cocktails and a feisty barmaid), time out in Barcelona and Paris and eventually, sadly, a journey home to the UK again.

The first week of my 30th birthday holiday party blowout thing in Spain. Seven of us travelled down from the UK to Spain by a variety of trains initially meeting up at Waterloo and all of us ending up safely in Moraira on the Costa Blanca. This week consisted of eating out, staying in, climbing, sea kayaking, snorkeling, reading in the sun, poi practice and, of course, drinking.

Went to a local lecture on how Chemistry Is Fun. They're right, it is. Lighting wasn't too great though, for obvious reasons.

Finally, a chance to try out the new lens on something worth of its full telephoto ability. Of course with me behind the viewfinder and controlling the settings of the camera the resulting shots aren't all that good, but for a first attempt I'm fairly pleased. Maybe a lower ISO might have helped. Anyway, herein displayed my first trip to Welney Wildfowl & Wetland Trust, and boy was it cold.

Went for a wander around town. plenty of things happening (Rag Week fun, busking). I also went down to the river and attempted to get some shots with the new zoom lens. I'm not sure how good they are, but I thought I'd put them up anway.

Took a wander with Cormac and Steph around Wandlebury, then went back the next day on my bike to try out my new lens having a go at bird spotting. Didn't see anything other than a robin all day. In the end I came back through town and spotted a duckling zipping about at about 40 knots on the water. I managed to get at least one reasonable shot of it. I fully intend to go somewhere with more wildfowl in the very near future and put this kit to better use.

Popped along to the Cambridge Corn Exchange for a Beth Orton gig. Initially not allowed to use "professional" camera equipment (without a press pass) the lead bouncer had a word with the tour manager who allowed myself and a friend to take shots. The warmup band were (probably) called Clayhill and were pretty good too. Beth, obviously, was very impressive and being at the front made the whole thing rather more intimate than for those nearer the back.

My first attempt at anything remotely organised with a camera. My friend Ben plays in a band called Self Inflicted and they were in the process of recording an album and wanted a shot for the insert to the CD case. They'd seen my collection of shots from town a few weeks ago and thought I was good enough to take some pictures for them. We rolled up to an industrial estate one afternoon where one of the band members has a unit (and is building a dune buggy on a VW chassis) and took a rather large amount of shots. These few are the best of the bunch. Given my current level of photographic skill this isn't saying much, but here they are anyway.

Walking in Wales.

A couple of sunset/silhouette pictures apropos of Elaine ringing me and telling me to look out of the window. Which I did. Luckily I had my camera with me. Unfortunately I only had the 50mm lens I keep banging on about so the results are somewhat... odd. Nevertheless I like the dreamy quality (read: blurred, unfocused) to some of the shots. You're perfectly entitled not to if you wish.

Rather than stay cooped up indoors all day I got up at a fairly sensible time and toddled in to town via a fairly roundabout route to see what I could do with the 50mm f/1.4 lens I'm still borrowing. I've tried to be brutal, but probably still put up too many duff ones. Comments (on each photo's thumbnail page) would be nice, please so I can get a feel for how I should develop. Some shots are cropped, none have been processed in any way otherwise. I've still got to learn how to do that.

Popped out to the local park to play off the two Canon 50mm lenses (f/1.4 and f/1.8) against each other. Just a few shots out of the few dozen I took which I liked the look of. And no, I haven't decided which one is the best lens for me. At least, not yet.

Once again Keith managed to pull off a rather memorable party for all kinds of reasons. Either we're all just a bit more grown up, or the fancy clothes we were in lent a bit more gravitas to the night but there was no (truly) excessive drinking, nothing got broken and we managed to do fire breathing without anyone dying. Pretty much all of the usual crowd were there, I had some interesting conversations and drank some very interesting drinks. This was my first outing with the new Canon 350D and it shows. Warning: This time only I've uploaded the full-size, huge images. If you click on the "Full size" button for a thumbnail, be prepared for a 2MB+ download.

It snowed again. After a lazy morning we both decided to go for a walk through town, down by the river and to see if the Botanical Gardens were open. They weren't, so instead we went to a placed called Browns and had some delicious food before walking home again. There was snow and ice and ducks and stuff.

It snowed, so I thought I'd head out and see if I could take some decent shots with my less-than-decent camera. The weather closed in, it snowed a lot more, I got very cold and the light was terrible. In the end I came back with some pretty crappy shots. These are the three which survived the cull.

Every Wednesday we go climbing at Stowmarket. I've never remembered to take my camera (except once, I think). Naturally this time I forgot to get it out until we were getting ready to go to the bar afterwards. Still, here are a few shots.

More climbing with the club. This time to The Roaches in the Peak District. Those of us who've been with the club for a little while went up on Friday night and stayed in the Don Whillans Memorial Hut, did some excellent climbing on Saturday and then stayed in the hut again that night. On Sunday we split into teams and showed around forty new people the basics of bouldering, roped climbing and abseiling. This was a rather excellent weekend. Although I did no leading I climbed some good routes seconding (almost as hard... sometimes). Notable climbs were Delstree, K2, and almost all (not the bottom move) of Bulwark (an E1).

Headed up to Rylstone (just north and west of Skipton) climbing with some other people for the weekend. Drove up on Friday evening and arrived in the dark to find we thought we had two bits of different tents, met some gypsies who lent us a tent until the morning when we found we had all the right bits after all. Climbing on Saturday was pretty good, I think I climbed my first E1, seconded some HVS and VS routes and generally tore most of the skin from my limbs. Sunday was less busy but we headed over to the Cow and Calf area near Ilkley where I top-roped a fairly hard VS before we headed home.

I finally got around to prodding the people who asked me to come for MRIs for medical experimentation for the images they promised me. They sent them at huge BMPs attached to a Word document. Anyway, here they are.

So I decided to take a few pictures of my monitor to show people just how nice it is. I would have booted it into linux but Windows XP is the default and I didn't get to the grub menu in time to select RHEL 4. The background in the last shot isn't my normal one (I make it black usually, saves memory, etc.) but I thought I'd make the image a little more interesting for you.

Rachel and Tony got married. Starting off in a nice little chapel in town for the ceremony everyone was gathered together to see the two tie the knot. After retiring to the court for photos some of us took a trip into town for a little drink before heading home and then to a nearby community centre. Lots of good friends were in attendance as well as bucketloads of food and drink. An excellent time was had by all.

I've joined a climbing club in an effort to get some more outdoor explosure to rock. This was my second trip with them (the first being to Harrison's Rocks (sandstone)) and was on granite at Black Rocks on the south edge of the Peak District National Park. While there I lead my first decent VDiff ascent and did the second half of a Severe.

It was warm, we wanted to see friends. We had beanbags.

It was Cormac's birthday, so he had the bright (mad) idea of going night kiting with power kites. Of course it was raining, but that didn't matter. We had a mini picnic, people came out. Then it got too dark to do anything sensible so we went to someone's house and drank.

The rain washed out any chance of climbing so we did a whole lot of outdoor clothes shopping, went to see some dams and visited a wildlife sanctuary to see otters and owls.

Finally there was enough snow over night for it to settle. After the fun of cycling to work (I do enjoy cycling in fresh snow) I spent ten minutes or so making a snowman at work. I was asked to come back in just after I'd finished but other people from work went out throughout the morning and added other little bits to it. There was enough snow to allow it to remain after all of the rest of the snow had gone days later.

Elaine ordered a new sofa. I thought it'd be too large. It arrived, I think it's too large. But it's so very, very comfortable. So we're keeping it.

Miriam came round on her bike. We took pictures. I helped wheel it back into the driveway, rather than letting some idiot in the street knock it over with their car.

Elaine, Veg and I took a trip to Duxford to see the planes and stuff. Another hot day, an excellent chance to do things like go onboard Concorde 101 (funky retro 70s computers) and actually touch the fastest plane in the world (the SR-71 Blackbird).

Rather than sit indoors on a nice day we decided on the spur of the moment to have a barbecue in the front (only) garden. It was great, even if Cormac managed to kill a square of grass with his skillet.

Elaine and I travelled up to Sheffield for probably the last time for a while to have her presented for her Masters degree in Engineering. We were met at Doncaster station by her father and Clare who joined us for lunch before attending the Congregation at the University. Elaine had a section of the programme all to herself, which really made her name stand out. The photos here are mainly for publication-for-printing purposes, which is why there are so many the same.

Not to be outdone by Elaine a while ago I signed up to be a volunteer for any MRI experiements that might be taking place at the brain imaging centre here. My name came up and I went along to spend an hour and a bit lying in a tube listening to Dido while loud bangs and clangs happened around me. When my image come through I'll put them up too.

While in Sheffield for Elaine's MRI scans we took the bus up to the flat to do some final cleaning, pick up any post that'd dropped through the postal redirection service, take some photos of the place while it was empty and to look at the birds and the other wildlife for the last time.

Elaine and I went to Sheffield for her MRI appointment to find out if her bout of Optic Neuritis was symptomatic of something more pervasive, like Multiple Sclerosis. At time of writing we haven't had the results yet.

A bit of Venetian exuberance on a hot summer's evening. Eighteen of us bought tickets to Jesus College's May Ball and after assembling at Keith's house we took taxis to Jesus, queued, entered, ate hog, doughnuts, popcorn, fajitas and pizza while drinking champagne, Shark, cocktails and water. While the comedians died on their arses, the hypontism act was fun (what we heard of it) and the music was good. Coming home at 0-dark-30 in a taxi and falling in to bed turned out to be the best remedy for a Monday spent at work; Tuesday off!

A few shots showing the packing up of Elaine's flat in Sheffield and the amazing job she did of coordinating the packing of everything into one Transit van generously driven by my dad.

Geoff, Shelly and Rhys (and others) came to town for the bank holiday and we ended up messing around on the grass telling the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears to Rhys before going shopping for a while.

Vicky, Nicky and their little newborn son Benjamin decided to have a little barbecue and alcohol-tasting thingy one Sunday evening. While I didn't indulge in the wine tasting, or beer tasting I did go with the whisky one and very much appreciated the types on offer. Getting a taxi there and back with six other people may not have been the most cost-effective way to do it, but it was a very pleasant way to do it.

For the first time I took Elaine out on the river and we had a go at punting, as well as getting some food down us and enjoying the stunning weather.

It's a nice day, there's not much to do and there's a whiff of wind. _Obviously_ we went kite flying. There are no images of what happened when the sun went down but Cormac brought some glow sticks along, attached them to the powerlines and some of the edges of the kites and long after the sun went down we were still happily powering back and forward across the sky.

Elaine, cooking. That's about it really. You don't want to see the image I didn't upload. No, you really don't.

Shaun, Linda, Tom(!), Elaine and I decided that summer had come and it was time to get out and about so we looked for a National Trust property that would give something for everyon (especially Tom). Wimpole Hall Gardens and the Farm proved to be a big success and was definitely worth a revisit from my point of view.

This is the wedding of Gideon and Jenny in Bath Spa. Being one of the bridesmaids (don't ask, the best man was a woman) and responsible for some of the organisation, Elaine and I travelled up on the Friday and booked in to the hotel. The day was great, the occassion splendid and the food at the reception really quite marvellous. Aside from helping two of my favourite people get married I got to catch up with a lot of friends I haven't seen in a while. The only down-side was not always being able to remember the names of the relatives!

Not content with exhausing ourselves with a weekend of partying Cormac, Steph, Elaine and I headed out to find some wind to put the kites up in. Even though we didn't really get much the pull of a large Blade III and a Bullet was more than enough to make us ache in the morning. Some guys turned up with a 10.5m Blade III and a 9m Blade II which they let us try. Now I have to forget about the new kitchen and buy one. I have some good movies as well, but I can't upload them yet.

Not only did Easter fall on my birthday this year but it was also a handy opportunity to celebrate my housewarming (only three months after I'd moved in, a record!), see some people I hadn't seen in a while and generally find out just how many people my kitchen could hold.

The semi-annual Good Friday Picnic attended by, well, pretty much everyone who could come. Good food, good friends, an aerobie and juggling balls.

Gareth, Bryn and James (plumber, electrician and joint apprentice) came round to remove the old mixer shower and clogged extractor fan and install a new electric shower and wall-mounted (not ceiling-mounted, venting straight into the loft space) extractor.

It was Elaine's birthday the preceeding week but there wasn't anyone around to celebrate with so she came down to see me and I gathered a few good friends together to do it properly. I would have invited more but I didn't have enough crockery. Cormac and I made the food, everyone ate it. Life was good for a time.

It snowed again. Just like it did this time last year. I was out in shorts as normal. Oddly it was my hands that got coldest when cycling. I took a few shots of the house, and stuff.

Shots of the state of play as I packed up and moved out of my old house and have begun to unpack and settle in to my new place on the other side of town. Elaine and I cleaned the old place before I handed back the keys. There's loads to do at the new place. Hopefully I'll catalogue some of the better activities here.

Rory and Nick turned up to take Elaine and me out for a day's walking in the Dales to a place called Simon's Seat. While the weather was just a little rainy in the lowlands we actually got some Christmas snow up in the clouds! Yes, I am wearing shorts. No, my legs weren't cold (my hands were though). Yes, we had a snowball fight.

On returning we drove to the Strid (Google knows) and had a look around before coming home and having hot showers and things like that.

Elaine and I journeyed North to see my parents and maternal grandmother for Christmas. A wonderful time was had by all and I got some stonking presents. These are just a few random shots from when either I remembered the camera, or someone else did.

It was misty when I was heading in to work. Plus the sun was coming up. I carry my camera with me all the time now, because I can.

First house I've looked at with the idea of perhaps buying it. It's located in a nice part of town although a bit far from amenities and things like that. It's wired for ethernet already, which is a nice thing (I'll have to check it with my Fluke of course) but it looks very nice. The lounge is a bit odd (staircase in the corner) but the kitchen is lovely and the rooms are a nice size. I'm not sure I can afford it at the price they're asking, though.

The school across the way from my workplace decided to start letting off fireworks a few days after Guy Fawkes Night. They were Very Close to my window and bloody loud.

This was the day we left North Lees and headed back to Sheffield. Unfortunately we had to make an early start and get out of the place by 10am. Once we'd cleared out and headed to the Longlands Café above Outside (where we missed getting the Special by thirty seconds!) we hung around for an hour, had some hot butties, chilled on the grass and then got the train home. All in all a really rather good mini-break which I hope we get to do again really rather soon.

After another late morning (extremeley tired from the day before's cycling) we opted for a nice leisurely walk along the Edge. We climbed the steep ground to the bottom of the wall, watched the climbers for a bit and then walked a way along the top, criticising people's belay points. Once we'd eaten we simply ambled home for an afternoon snooze, dinner and marshmallows toasted in front of the fire.

We went out for a little bit of a bike ride. From North Lees we dropped down to Hathersage, then to Hope and Castleton. For some strange reason we then decided to go past Speedwell Cavern and push our bikes up the 1:5 gradient pass to Blue John Cavern where we had lunch before taking a guided tour of the place. I nearly came off my bike on a corner and we nearly strangled the guide, but other than that it was great. The freewheel down the pass was amazing and the cycle home easy.

In the morning we took the twenty minute train journey to Hathersage and then cycled vertically about half a mile until we reached North Lees Hall. Safely ensconced we then actually freewheeled back down into town to do some shopping and look at the local attractions. Our first meal and subsequent collapse by the fire were well earned!

Elaine and I needed some time off so we found a place called North Lees Hall (believed to have provided the inspiration for Charlotte Brontë’s description of Mr Rochester’s house, Thornfield Hall, in Jane Eyre, following a visit by the authoress to Hathersage in 1845) and booked in for a three-day break. First off was a departure from my place with bikes and the trip up to Sheffield to stay over at Elaine's for the evening.

Just another example of how old the computer systems running our trains and train timetabling are.

We took out the old comms cabinet which also serves as our PoP onto the network yesterday. We were off the net for 26 hours while we took out the old one, had the benching cut away (hammer, chisel, angle-grinder) and the new one put in place this morning. The angle-grinder nearly didn't cut it (no pun intended) so they're using cutting torches on the other solid steel supports in the room.

Right in the middle of the week we all decided we wanted to get together somewhere away from everything so I got on a train and met up with the rest of the family. We headed to a place near Pickering on the edge of the North Yorks. Moors and camped by the permanent place for the caravan these days. We visited some Roman camps and Robin Hood's Bay before heading home again.

Elaine came to visit and we went to The Castle in London where we bought her her harness. We climbed a good few routes and then met up with Dunk and Liz, Andy and Meri (over from the US briefly and fitting us into their hectic schedule where they could) in Leicester Square for a good meal after climbing and then some essential catching up in the park.

In an effort to get out of the office for the day and collect some freebies, Cormac and I journeyed to Birmingham and I also met the Fotopic crew.

Cormac, Steph and I headed north of Sheffield to climb on the gritstones, eat chinese and generally have a good time in the sun.

We don't need an excuse for a Barbecue! Thursday: Inc. was pleased to host the second occasional barbecue in the sun at chez moi. Plenty of meat, women and wine.

Day nine of my extremely relaxing and fun trip to the States. Features mainly photos of the plane and the people I sat next to.

Day eight of my trip to the States. Pictures of the half-day trip to Philadelphia and my arrival at the airport and subsequent departure to points east.

Day seven of my trip to the States. A late breakfast in an authentic American diner, a drive upstate for a barbecue stopping off first to visit a house full of animals.

Day six of my trip to the States. Not many photos due to us not really doing much (bit of a slack day). Brunch-type meal that made my arteries harden in a diner that felt like something from the era of Grease.

Day five of my trip to the States. The drive to New York followed by exploration of the city (including the Empire State Building), my remembering some of the city from my visit visit here and some cool shots taken in Grand Central Station.

Day four of my trip to the States. The drive to Washington DC. The subway transit system, visiting the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, various parts of Washington's monument area and things like that.

Day three of my trip to the States. Shots of things that we did. Nothing terribly exciting as it was shopping and lazing about and things like that that took our fancy.

Day two of my trip to the States. Having arrived the day before we took what turned out to be the only sunny day of my trip to drive to the coast, buy a frisbee and generally have sun fun on the beach. I put my feet in the Atlantic from the other side of the pond.

Day one of my trip to the States. Features such exciting photos as the plane, the progress screens as I flew over and some random shots of the house, and Andy and Meri.

Visiting my parents and brother in Deryshire, going out for the day on the moors to walk and fly kites and having a meal at Rory's house on an evening.

The weekend of the main move of Shaun and Linda into their stunning new house. Heavy lifting a-plenty!

A productive weekend spent at Dunk's house decorating his lounge in paper and paint. Tons of fun, good company, a learning experience and a large amount of free curry. Damn, some of it was HOT!

A picnic with Andy, Keith, Steph and Jonathan. Fun and food in the sun. All good.

The first Thursday: Inc. barbecue at chez moi. Food, flames and frolics as the sun shone down and the wine was drunk. Oh, I bought a barbecue and implements set, too.

Meeting some of the fine denizens of #drum and alt.fan.pratchett for an instructional visit to the Greenwich Meridian and points East and West.

Popping out during a weekend staying with Gideon and Jenny to have some Sushi and stuff.

A quick visit to meet Jenny's horse Peggy at her stables near London. Neigh lassie. I also got to ride her which is something I haven't done in many many years.

Meeting all kinds of people and doing all kinds of stuff in the 'sunny' city of Leiden. Food, seeing the sights, windmills, being the Karate Kid and generally doing things with other people.

The family comes to visit and we go for a drive to nearby places to see things and go bowling.

We all go to see Geoff and Shelley's little one, Rhys, and celebrate his first birthday in style with toys and icecream and jelly and paper hats!

Karting for the first time in a long time I shatter the lap record for the day and generally treat things far too much like a competition. Still, a wonderful day out and some excellent crashes. If that's not the point of going karting then maybe I'm missing it entirely.

Before the karting we all went to London and had an excellent time in a TGI Friday eating and drinking and generally carrying on silly.

It was earlyish in the morning. It'd snowed. I couldn't be arsed to get to work on time. I took some pictures. I like them.

The standard new years shennanigans around at Keith's house. Food and drink a-plenty.

A bit of a Christmas get-together with the added bonus of Andy and Meri over from the US to join us for a bit of food, drink and company.

Julian and Keith's last big bash before they leave the 20s for the 30s. Off to Tenerife for the lot of us to have a good time in the sun, with sand, rocks to climb, drinks to drink (in excess) and food to munch upon.

Y'see Keith, like, likes his cars like he likes his women; fast, slippery and prone to throw him through fences when he treats them with too little respect.

It's an old, old story. Boy meets MR2, boy plays music too loud, boy spins car 180 degrees on wet road and embeds a gatepost in the rear onside wing crushing the front onside wing, lights assembly and causing internal damage to the subchassis.

How many times have we seen that happen?

Glad you're both O.K.

My first trip to climb outside of a climbing wall. A lovely time had in the gritstones of Derbyshire with Cormac, Steph, Duncan, Mike and Andy.

A week or so off in Crete. Time to unwind, work out what's happening in my life and generally get my head together. Ably assisted and accompanied by Bob a good time was had drinking cocktails and walking some of the better routes on the island.

Jon decided to marry Donna. Luckily she also decided it might be a good idea so they set a date. As a result a whole load of us piled across the North Sea to Amsterdam to do that thing that blokes do when they're young and thing it'll be a good idea. We did the whole tourist thing, the Red Light District and took in a sex show (even took part). I don't have any pictures of that, but if you ask I'll give you some details. This collection's only flagged adult because of some of the cartoons in the sex museum.

Rachel and I in Egypt for the second time. Travelling with Explore Worldwide (lovely company). Really must use them again. Far too much to explain. Take a look at the pictures.

Rachel, her family and I head to Tenerife for a timeshare-type deal. Being able to miss out on the hard sell we had a great time and got to take a real break from work for the first time in a long while.

Rachel won a trip to see one day's play at the US Open Tennis Championship at Flushing Meadows in the States. We headed over there, were rather shocked at the size of New York during the brief time we managed to fit in a little sight-seeing. Still, a rather fun little break.

Rachel and I's first trip to Egypt. A package tour that boasted a rather well-informed tour guide who made the whole thing much better than it might have been. Temperatures of 52 degrees at one point meant that we were very glad of air-conditioning. Still, the country is amazing and we both hoped to return again one day.

These are just the random images viewers of the BOFHcam send in to me here at work. I told people I would stick them up if someone sent them in. So I guess people took me up on the challenge. Now I use Fotopic I'm opening it up again for people to send me their screen captures. Oh yeah, and some of them are pictures I took with the first digital camera I ever had and are of the buildings I've worked in.