Jonners' Canterbury Tales

Posted on August 16, 2008 by jonners992 Comments

This morning we awoke in my flat bright and early and I finished my Ted Dekker trilogy. While there may have been times when it didn’t make much sense to me and where it seemingly didn’t make much sense to him either it was a good series of books and I enjoyed reading them. Seems to be the way with Ted Dekker that his books confuse him at some point in writing them and they lag a bit in the middle as he works it out. Enjoyable though and I will keep reading. At 9:30 Beth and I left my flat for the penultimate time to go to the Home Office in Croydon. We started our journey with the 170 to Clapham Junction and then took the train to East Croydon leading to a five minute walk. I was nervous about this trip, we get it wrong and Beth gets deported and I am stuck with a flat in Canterbury I can’t pay for. We had heard many people talking about how difficult it would be for us to get the visa.
We walked up to the building and queued with others to get into the building. Once inside we went through security who checked we had no bombs or whatever and then joined another queue which took 25 minutes. We eventually got to a desk where we registered our intent to get a visa and were then told to go upstairs for billing. We paid our £595 for the application and then registered again with another lady. Next Beth had her biometric information taken. Basically from the end of our time queuing to this point took 20 minutes. We then had to wait in a reception for twenty minutes before we saw a case worker who just took some of our information to be photocopied and then said we had the visa, no questioning, and no checking of finances, no asking about my employment just a simple photocopying. We went and got lunch and by the time we had finished eating Beth’s passport was completed and we could leave. It really was that easy. Two hours after entering we left again.
When we arrived back at my flat I cleaned the kitchen and my room to the best of my ability (which isn’t that great) and then my parents arrived and I moved out of my flat. On arriving home we played Boom Blox with my parents and waited for Beth’s dad to arrive. He eventually did and so we showed off our Paris pictures to the assembled parents before retiring to bed.

Posted on August 15, 2008 by jonners99No Comments

This morning Beth and I woke late, well Beth did. I sat in our other room and read my book for an hour before she appeared. We had another of the best breakfasts ever at the hotel and then went and bought a print from a street vendor of the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower. We finished packing our things and then got the taxi to the train station. Lunch was from a café and was alright. The train home took two and half hours and we then had to tube across London to Hammersmith to get back to my flat. We had Mama’s pizza with Tim and Danielle and then watched Keeping Mum with them which was relatively funny.

Posted on July 22, 2008 by jonners99No Comments

I had my fourth to last day of work today. It is strange to think that next Monday I will be unemployed (temporarily) and it will really show the buildup to the wedding. Work was dull again today as there was once again very little to do. I was glad when 5:30 rolled around and I could vacate. Dinner was pie and was enjoyed while watching Spaced. I followed this with Click and Top Gear and then started work on the new theme. Let me know what you think of it. The aim was to make the sidebar less cluttered and I think it works. I also apologise that this is my first real blog for a month, the rest are coming.

Posted on July 19, 2008 by jonners99No Comments

I spent most of today filling in job applications but the time that wasn’t spent on this task was on working on small niggling issues across my websites… fun. In the afternoon Beth scarpered to Horsham so I used the rest of the day to finish the brilliant Half Life 2 which I have also now reviewed in the gaming section. I believe I was playing until 10pm at which point I decided to jack it in and go to sleep as I had nothing else to do.

Posted on July 8, 2008 by jonners99No Comments

Today I had work, it was worth it as after I finished I got to have meatballs with my gorgeous fiancee. Its been ages since I had meatballs and they are great. We followed this up with the final two episodes of this season of Doctor Who which was alright but I felt that it wasn’t as good as the finale to season 3 with the Master in it. Ah well its always nice to see Daleks get their butts kicked and it also finally got rid of Rose and Donna. Fingers crossed for a good companion next series (not that Donna was particularly bad).

Posted on June 26, 2008 by jonners99No Comments

This morning after Beth had headed off to work I got the train to Horsham whilst reading my book Black by Ted Dekker which is a very entertaining story about a man stuck in two worlds. One is the present (Denver oddly enough) and the other is set several million years in the future. Even weirder its a christian story with some questions about god in it, this is more than his other book three where the main character just happened to go to seminary.
When in Horsham I headed home and unpacked. I then pumped up both the tyres on the bike that Beth will be inheriting when we get married. My plan was to cycle and get a feel for the bike but this did not work out as the brakes are too tight against the wheels and the rear had a puncture. I walked it to my grandparents then and set to work with my grandfather replacing a bolt and fixing the tyre. Tomorrow will probably take a trip to Halfords and sort the breaks out as well.
At lunchtime I headed into town and met Paddy, we ate at the christian centre and talked to Doug as well. After eating I got Paddy suited for the wedding and then we headed to Tanbridge via Neil’s house (to drop off an invite for the wedding). We got to Tanbridge 5mins before the bell went for the end of the day and so waited around and then headed up to the familiar history corridor. We talked to Mr Head for around an hour and a half before heading home. We discerned that he may be coming to my wedding and that he hated Indiana Jones. In other news he also wants to die in the classroom while teaching because he figures it would be entertaining. I got my money off Paddy for his trip to America and spent the rest of the evening playing games, watching Football and sleeping. The Germany vs Turkey game for the record was very entertaining fingers crossed for Russia vs Spain tomorrow.

Posted on June 24, 2008 by jonners99No Comments

Being monday I worked today. It was just Malin and I and we had a busy day which was nice as it meant it flew by. In the evening was pasta night which comprised of just Beth and me for the first time in oo about two years. After eating which watched the new series of Top Gear which was amazing. The boys built their own police cars which were predictably rubbish but hilarious at the same time. We then watched the first half of Stardust before falling asleep.

Posted on June 23, 2008 by jonners99No Comments

This morning Beth and I walked to church, once again they had problems with their sound equipment after it was struck by lightning a couple of months ago. The service itself was good and was effectively their junior church anniversary service. I walked back from church on my own as Beth wanted to take the bus but when I got in I usurped her from my computer to watch the French Grand Prix which was really rather boring. For a start Lewis Hamilton had his second bad race in a row, this time getting penalised for running wide passing a car. It was perhaps a little harsh but he shouldn’t have been whining about it. But other than that there wasn’t really any overtaking and so Jarno Trulli got a very good podium finish for Toyota something they have not had for a while. For the rest of the afternoon I worked on the sport and game sections which should now be visible on the site. Feel free to leave me feedback on what you think of it. Beth and I ended the day by watching two episodes of Doctor Who and I must say the end of season 3 was great.

Posted on June 20, 2008 by jonners99No Comments

Once again Beth tottered off to work at 9 leaving me to play computer games and search for jobs. Cathy left at about 10:30, hopefully she will visit again soon. When Beth got back from work we tidied a bit and had lunch. After eating we walked to Richmond park and decided to rent bikes for a couple of hours for £10 each. Mine was pretty good, the seat was comfortable and the gears worked relatively well although they were slightly confusing. One had the gear up on the top and the gear down on the bottom and the other was the reverse of this so I got a tad confused. The cycle was relaxing to begin with but we both realised at about a quarter distance just how unfit we both are. It was made a lot worse by the fact that we stopped. Stopping I learned quickly was annoying. Immediately after this it was made worse still by a very large hill which if we hadn’t just stopped we could have gotten further up with momentum. Instead I got about 10 metres further than beth and then we were both walking it. This was followed by a lovely twisty section through trees. We finally came to the downhill section which was good fun and allowed us time to relax. At 2/3 distance we stopped a lay in the sun for a while. Not bad we thought, we had cycled 2/3s of Richmond Park in an hour. I then made the mistake of leading Beth up a hill we had to walk the bikes up as the main path disappeared. We found ourselves at Richmond gate at a pedestrian only exit so we had to lift the bikes over the fence and walk round… oops.
The cycle back to Roehampton gate was easy and relaxing being mainly downhill. The end stretch was especially nice. We arrived back after an hour and a half and decided to do the last stretch again. We began to head back there via the road only I found road cycling really tricky, it wasn’t even much of a hill, I guess I must have been in the wrong gear but I felt a bit pathetic. Then when we did the last downhill stretch again my rear axle popped off locking the back brake at quite a high speed. I got the bike stopped and Beth went back and picked up the main bit. Luckily we weren’t too far from the bike place so I just walked it back. I joked with Beth that I could have died but lets be honest I couldn’t. On the plus side it was a useful experience for me, I know what it feels like when the rear axle flies off (according to Beth it really did fly very quickly in either direction) and I also found a very good saddle and helmet. Beth cannot say the same, her helmet annoyed her a little and she is currently complaining that her backside hurts from saddle sore. A good afternoon though and one that made us feel a bit fitter after we had done it. I am about to add some photos.
In the evening we had a BBQ together in which we had salmon and corn, it was good and not too big or unhealthy, until we had some celebratory cake which may have regained the calories lost biking. Today made me want to get a bike even more so I look forward to getting one when we go to Canterbury although it may help to learn to ride on roads better. After eating and tidying up we watched two episodes of Doctor Who and went to bed relatively early and worn out.

Posted on June 17, 2008 by jonners99No Comments

Today I got up nice and early and just about made it into work on time. We were quite busy today as well which was good as it allowed the day to go fast. I had lunch as I now tend to by the river and noticed a strangely high number of fishermen about. I have not seen one before but today there were at least five different groups in the same area. In the afternoon Annetta came in, I assume she was swatting up for the job interview she has for a position in the shop tomorrow but it was nice to see her. I invited her to pasta night and indeed when I arrived home from work there she was. Pasta night has obviously wound down for the year now with just the three of us in attendance but it was nice to have someone to talk to. We spent the rest of the evening playing wii games which Annetta really enjoyed.