2005 on Ricky Moorhouse

Early Christmas journey.

Fri, 23 Dec 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Well I'm now on holiday for Christmas - Yippee!

As the traffic would probably be really bad to travel down to Devon if we left it till after I finished work at lunchtime, so instead we decided to head down to Okehampton early this morning - leaving Portsmouth at 4.30am! This plan worked well as the traffic was fairly sparse on the roads at that time in the morning and we made probably the best time ever for the journey, arriving at about 7.30 in time for coffee and breakfast :). I quite like travelling at the early hours of the morning, but it was surprising today how late it was before it started to get lighter.

River crossing game

Thu, 17 Nov 2005 11:08:55 +0000

Ka Ho sent me this game today - it can get frustrating but it feels quite an achievement when you finally manage! The instructions are as follows:

Only Mum Dad, or Policeman can operate the raft
Robber cannot be left alone with family
Girls cannot be left alone with dad
Boys cannot be left alone with mum
Select two people onto the raft, click red lever to operate

Useful HTML tags

Mon, 03 Oct 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Just a quick note about some useful HTML tags that have been around for a long time, but I've found particularly useful recently:

Mark text that has been deleted, optionally citing a URL for more details and a date and time of change. Useful for marking alterations to posts.

<del>Example deleted text</del>

< ins cite="url" datetime="date of change >

Mark text that has been inserted, optionally citing a URL for more details and a date and time of change. Useful for marking alterations to posts.

Example inserted text

_Term_
_Definition_

Definition list - example is this list of tags

Kinky Boots

Fri, 23 Sep 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Last week on the vue mailing list, Laura got an invitation for free tickets to the preview of "Kinky Boots", so on Wednesday we both went to see it:

Kinky Boots (12A)

Ricky Moorhouse 22nd September 2005

Rating: 5 out of 5

Brilliant northern comedy based on the true story of a Northampton shoe factory, suffering because of cheap imports from abroad; and their efforts to save the factory by making kinky boots for drag queens.
It was excellent and really funny - well worth watching!

Trip to France

Sun, 11 Sep 2005 00:00:00 +0000

When we got there, we started off by heading into Le Havre for breakfast, and found a little cafe along the seafront where we had croissant and coffee. We then headed back into town to have a look round but unfortunatly it seemed to be mostly closed at that time in the morning and then it started raining. We headed back to the car (particularly thankful that we'd got it with us) and looked at the map to decide what to do. We then headed to a supermarket so we could dry off and sort something out for lunch - which we ended up having there. In the afternoon we headed across to Rouens which was a lovely place to look round and would be nice to explore a bit more another time - hopefully when it's not raining at all!. In the evening it brightened up though - so we headed up to Etretat and had a picnic overlooking the beach

3 Year Anniversary

Thu, 08 Sep 2005 00:00:00 +0000

It's our anniversary! - The last 3 years have past quickly in some ways, but it also seems like we've been together forever! As 3 years is supposed to be leather and Laura had been wanting some boots I decided that I'd get her them as an anniversary present, but when I went to get them I found it would be much easier to go there together and get them after our anniversary. (The boots she got in the end weren't leather, but they're lovely and warm!).

Google grouping search results

Wed, 31 Aug 2005 00:00:00 +0000

I just searched for H&B on google and it gave me this result which appears to have the results in three groups, firstly results for H&B, then for B&H and then at the bottom some others. Is this new?

Things you don't want to hear the pilot saying...

Tue, 09 Aug 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Once we take off, we'll be heading in a North Easterly direction .. No .. a North Westerly direction - I just got distracted by a plane taking off as you do.

We're now over France and should be coming in in about ... erm ... let me see ...

Both of which we heard on our way back from Kefalonia

Travelling to Sandnes, Norway

Fri, 29 Jul 2005 00:00:00 +0000

We left Shepton Mallett early in the morning as we had to get up to Heathrow 2 hours before our flight at 10. We had quite a good drive up and there wasn't too much traffic. We dropped the car off at the airport parking and were taken by minibus to the airport. Check in was amazingly quick and easy with the e-tickets and we could do it all ourselves on the machine (apart from it failed to print the baggage label for some reason - but it was still quicker than queuing). As we were waiting we heard some other people talking about a Wedding, but didn't realise until we got to Stavanger just how many there were on the same flight going to the same wedding!

First time at New Wine

Thu, 28 Jul 2005 00:00:00 +0000

This year we went to New Wine for the first time as we were invited to go and help man the SAMS stand in the marketplace there. We went up to Bath and West on the Friday before things started in order to get the tent up and meet up with Richard. It was surprising how many people there were there already especially as it was only exhibitors and people working there at that point.

Moving House - Chapter One

Tue, 19 Jul 2005 04:54:04 +0000

Firstly we started to look at possible property to buy just to see what we could get and where - mainly on rightmove, but we also arranged a viewing. After the viewing, we both liked the house so decided we should start looking at things more seriously.

Then we spoke to a few of estate agents and a mortgage advisor - to see what the possibilities for the flat were. We looked at both selling the flat and letting it out again, but in the end we decided that we couldn't really afford to keep the flat to let out and buy a new house. Both of the estate agents we spoke to about selling the flat valued it at the same amount, but one of them charged more commision than the other (also conveniently the one that charged the lower commision seemed more trustworhty). So finally we decided to put the flat on the market with Cubitt and West. (If you're interested it's on rightmove)

Trafalgar 200

Mon, 04 Jul 2005 14:54:14 +0000

Last week, the Solent became the destination for many boats from around the world for the International Fleet Review and the International Festival of the Sea (there was even one from Uruguay there!). This was part of the SeaBritain 2005 celebrations and particularly to celebrate 200 years since the battle of Trafalgar. It was expected that on Tuesday the city would be in deadlock with people travelling to the fleet review - so all the schools were closed and I decided to work from home to avoid the raffic. Also, Laura's mum and brother came down to watch and they all went down to the beach to watch from first thing in the morning - I managed to join them briefly at lunchtime and then again for the evenings events once I'd finished work.

Camping on the Isle of Wight

Wed, 08 Jun 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Had a really nice relaxing weekend last weekend camping over on the Isle of Wight. It was nice weather most of the time, but we had a lot of rain on the Friday afternoon, which was unfortunatly when we were at the far point of our walk (down to Alum Bay). We stayed at Stoats Farm Campsite in Totland, which was really convenient for walking, but a bit too far from the bus stop when it's raining! We managed to do both of the geocaches that we'd planned to do (Vectis W and The Lord Palmerston) which was brilliant. The walks were really nice and the views were incredible - particularly from up on top of the Tennyson Downs. It was good to be able to check out our camping gear ready for the Summer, but unfortunatly our camping stove couldn't cope with the wind. Although it did have a good side too - in that we went to the pub nextdoor to the campsite -

Happy Birthday to me!

Wed, 18 May 2005 00:00:00 +0000

It was my birthday back on 5th May, I know this is a bit late – but I’ve been quite busy but still wanted to blog about my birthday! I had a great day - thanks to my lovely wife Laura. First of all she got me breakfast in bed – Egg Muffin :D then I opened my presents (well apart from the ones from my parents which I’d opened the night before). I think my favourite present has to be my smoothie maker that Laura bought me, which was totally unexpected- but has provided no end of tasty drinks!

Google SafeSearch

Wed, 20 Apr 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Today we had an interesting experience with Google's SafeSearch, in that when you searched Google for "church southsea" you got a quite different set of results with SafeSearch on and SafeSearch off, notably for us - that our church website was 2nd on the list with SafeSearch switched off, however didn't appear until the second page with SafeSearch turned on. It would be interesting to know how SafeSearch works, as from looking at the results it seemed like it was using quite a different index.

We have a new minister!

Mon, 18 Apr 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Over the past few months I've been involved in the process of finding a new minister for my church, [St. Luke's Church] - which has involved going to meetings with lots of different people from within the diocese. It's been quite an interesting process (and at times frustrating) and I'll probably write a bit more about some of my experiences along the way later. Throughout the past year and a quarter that we've been without a minister God has been providing for St Luke's in lots of different ways and has been preparing us to receive a new minister. In the past month particularly it has been really amazing to see how God has been working to lead us to the point we're at now. On Wednesday, the PCC unanimously approved the Archdeacon's proposal to appoint Andy Bridgen as our new minister, and on Sunday I had the priviledge to introduce him to the congregation.

Good news to share!

Sat, 02 Apr 2005 00:00:00 +0000

We have good news to share! The good news that Jesus has died for sin so that we can be free to come to God and know him. The barrier is gone!

Through the last few weeks of studying Acts in our homegroup, I've particularly been struck by one main thing - what Acts can teach us about sharing the gospel. Although this is because I prayed that God would teach me more about how to share the good news with others. So what does it say?

Small Groups - Discussion or Teaching

Thu, 10 Mar 2005 15:08:08 +0000

Mark at wordandspirit started a discussion on the nature of small groups, as to whether they are more appropriate for teaching or discussion.

My personal view is that the discussions are very important - often without that people can't manage to get their own grip on the concepts. At our homegroup we generally read the passage in either one whole chunk or smaller chunks that we can look at one at a time with the reading and then working through the passage and the ideas that come from it.

Acts 1 Study

Thu, 10 Feb 2005 12:45:33 +0000

On Tuesday, we just started a new series in Home group, looking at the Book of Acts (based on John Stott's Seeing the Spirit at work Bible study guide). As it was Shrove Tuesday we started off with pancakes (and wraps) before moving on to studying Acts 1. It was a really good study and through my preparation for the study and the study itself I came across some really interesting bits that I hadn't thought about before:

New Image Toys!

Mon, 24 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Just a short note about two great new imaging toys I've found recently:

Picasa

Brilliant application which is now owned by google and has improved greatly since the first verison I tried - it now includes a search function and the star and label organisation system so you can highlight your favorite pictures and put them in virtual groups as well as in folders. It also now appears to have unlimited undo for any enhancements you make to the pictures - including the really easy to use rotating tool to sort out sloping pictures! (Picasa also produced the photo pile image at the top)

Terragen

Puncture on the motorway

Fri, 14 Jan 2005 17:35:13 +0000

Last night on the way home from work coming through the roadworks on the M27, I pulled across into the fast lane, and suddenly the car started making funny noises coming from the front drivers side wheel. It gradually got louder, so I slowed down and pulled into a gap in the cones into the area coned off for the roadworks. I got out the car and realised that I had a flat tyre. So I phoned Laura to explain and see if she knew who I needed to phone to make use of the 'free recovery zone' for the roadworks. I then tried the AA, and was sat in a queue for quite a while until I realised - "I've got a spare tyre - I can change it myself" - duh! So I got on with changing the tyre and just as I'd finished changing the tyre and phoned Laura to let her know that I'd sorted it and was about to head home, a truck with it's orange lights flashing pulled up in the roadworks section on the other side of the road - I explained to him what had happened and he told me the best way to rejoin the traffic. The car seemed to be driving strangely after changing the wheel, so I took it slowly and then took it into Kwikfit today and got it sorted.

Thunderbird Extensions

Wed, 05 Jan 2005 16:09:46 +0000

Following on from my list of firefox extensions, here's my list of Thunderbird extensions:

Minimize to Tray

Changes the minimise in Thunderbird to send it to the system tray and still check your e-mail in the background.

Contact Sidebar

Adds a list of your contacts below the folder pane

Message Faces

Show Face headers in e-mails and news groups

Quote Collapse

Makes quotes in e-mail and news messages collapsable to save space

Quote Colours

Use Multimap for Get Map links

Wed, 05 Jan 2005 12:48:31 +0000

I can't remember where I found it, so I thought I'd put this here so I don't loose it!

In user.js or about:config, find mail.addr_book.mapit_url.format and set it to:

http://www.multimap.com/map/places.cgi?addr2=

@A1&addr3=@CI&pc=@ZI&db=GB&client=public&

cname=Great+Britain&advanced=true&mapsize=big

Or for streetmap use:

http://www.streetmap.co.uk/streetmap.dll?
postcode2map?@ZI

New Year's Challenge

Sun, 02 Jan 2005 11:24:09 +0000

Well yesterday we went out for a meal to celebrate Anne's birthday which is on Tuesday, and we decided to have a New Year's challenge. We had a few different ideas for challenges, (including my suggestion of collecting an object to represent each month throughout the coming year) but the challenge we're doing is a good idea, and that is:

To start of with £10 at the start of the year, and to try and increase it's value by this time next year, when the person who has made the most money gets 10% of everyones total, and the rest goes to their chosen charity - if that makes sense. The rules are as follows: