<?xml version='1.0' encoding='windows-1252'?><rss xmlns:atom='http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom' xmlns:openSearch='http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/' version='2.0'><channel><atom:id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5259854</atom:id><lastBuildDate>Fri, 25 Apr 2008 08:27:39 +0000</lastBuildDate><title>Al Wood's Blogg</title><description/><link>http://www.alandang.com/al/blogg.html</link><managingEditor>Alistair</managingEditor><generator>Blogger</generator><openSearch:totalResults>318</openSearch:totalResults><openSearch:startIndex>1</openSearch:startIndex><openSearch:itemsPerPage>25</openSearch:itemsPerPage><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5259854.post-3626987100146540801</guid><pubDate>Thu, 24 Apr 2008 21:42:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2008-04-24T22:51:44.298+01:00</atom:updated><title>Holiday in St Ives - Part V</title><description>This morning we woke up wanting a more lazy day and Joel played his part by not stirring until 7:30 a full 12 hours after going to sleep! Amazing! Expecting the day to be wet and windy we decided to stay local and started the day by walking down to St Ives and exploring all the shops – again! &lt;div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/P1030349-772097.JPG" border="0" /&gt; &lt;div&gt;With the weather staying rather hot and sunny we bought some ice cream – 3 scoops in a chocolate waffle cone – we headed down to the beach hiding from the seagulls on the way. We took Joel’s socks off and introduced him to sand and very cold water. Although Ang thought it was TOOO COLD, Joel quite enjoyed it.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/P1030369-772244.JPG" border="0" /&gt; &lt;div&gt;In the afternoon we drove to St Michael’s mount and walked across the very windy causeway to the beautiful island. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/PICT8792-762665.JPG" border="0" /&gt; &lt;div&gt;It was so windy that Joel’s eyes started to water, so I give him my glasses to see if it would help. As well as looking rather funny, they didn’t stay on longer than a few seconds so I gave up on that idea.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/PICT8798-762759.JPG" border="0" /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/PICT8828-740800.JPG" border="0" /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We walked up to the top of the mount and experienced some great views across the bay. Ang really enjoyed walking around the castle and I had a good time taking pictures of the flowers in the garden. We caught a boat back to the mainland because the tide had come in and flooded the causeway.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/PICT8838-741078.JPG" border="0" /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;We finished the day with a lovely walk along the beach in St Ives before consuming large portions of Chinese again!&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://www.alandang.com/al/2008/04/holiday-in-st-ives-part-v.html</link><author>Alistair</author></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5259854.post-1022377727810906939</guid><pubDate>Thu, 24 Apr 2008 21:15:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2008-04-24T22:41:41.288+01:00</atom:updated><title>Holiday in St Ives - Part IV</title><description>“I’m not surprised they only have short stay carparks” announced Ang as we walked down the highstreet in Newquay. We’d just spend the last 20 minutes looking for a suitable carpark and were now experiencing the “delights” of what we’d come for ... or were we? To be honest, Newquay was a bit of a disappointment – after the delights of St Ives, it felt a bit tacky and certainly not the special destination we had been expecting. Putting our setback aside, we bought a couple of jam doughnuts, visited a number of surf shops before heading down to the cliffs to view the beach. &lt;div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/P1030274-741720.JPG" border="0" /&gt; &lt;div&gt;Convincing Ang that we needed to make the most of the day, we headed down on to the beach and watched a number surfers having some lessons from the local surf school. We lifted Joel out of his carrier for a bounce on the beach before heading back to the car for his feed of chicken and grape mush.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/P1030286-723080.JPG" border="0" /&gt; &lt;div&gt;Looking at the map we decided to make use of our National Trust membership and drove south to Trelissick Garden. The gardens were stunning with a multitude of different rhododendrons covering the hillside. We pushed Joel’s buggy around the tracks and stumbled across a beautiful looking stately home which just needed to be photographed!&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/P1030321-723224.JPG" border="0" /&gt; &lt;div&gt;There were great views across the fields to the sea.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/P1030324-739130.JPG" border="0" /&gt; &lt;div&gt;After our lovely walk we headed to the coffee shop where Ang and I ordered scones, jam and cream while Joel enjoyed another bounce in the sun. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/P1030335-739341.JPG" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://www.alandang.com/al/2008/04/holiday-in-st-ives-part-iv.html</link><author>Alistair</author></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5259854.post-8228434696016476691</guid><pubDate>Tue, 22 Apr 2008 20:47:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2008-04-23T09:03:14.003+01:00</atom:updated><title>Holiday in St Ives - Part III</title><description>&lt;div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;div&gt;This morning we started by looking out the window to a stunning sunrise, shining across the sea through the mist. It was dazzling and a great start to a great day.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/PICT8782-747553.JPG" border="0" /&gt;After the now routine ritual of feeding Joel with pear &amp;amp; apple and then a cooked breakfast for Ang and myself we jumped in the car and headed towards Lands End for what we thought would just be a waypoint on the way to St Michael’s mount. Driving through the fog we arrived at Lands End and got out the car in the sea midst hoping it would clear. We started off by exploring two boats – an ex life boat and then a trawler – Joel even had a go at the helm!&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/P1030111-740506.JPG" border="0" /&gt;The sea midst cleared to show off the amazing cliffs at Lands End. After feeding Joel we pushed the buggy along the coastal paths towards a children’s farm where chickens, goats and ducks roamed the hill side.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/P1030151-745490.JPG" border="0" /&gt;Passing through the farm we then headed further down the coast and stopped at a point which offered us amazing views in both directions. We took some time to take some photos including one of Joel falling off the cliff (don’t worry, Ang is holding on to him!).&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/P1030174-756760.JPG" border="0" /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/P1030213-714799.JPG" border="0" /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/Joel-Falling-730627.jpg" border="0" /&gt;Heading back to the car park we witnessed a large helicopter landing at Lands End before taking off again – even Joel was impressed by the noisy bird! Back in the car we drove down the coast and stopped off at a recommendation from my parents, Minack Theatre – an open air amphitheatre built into the sea cliffs with stunning views. The sea looked so blue from the sea cliffs and we were lucky enough to witness a pair of birds diving feet under water to catch fish.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/P1030264-766382.JPG" border="0" /&gt;The theatre itself was amazing – built into the mountain in a lifetime’s work by a lady, who continued to build well into her 80s. Ang was inspired! It was such a beautiful setting with the blue sea and sky set against the cliffs and vegetation. Joel enjoyed playing hide and seek in amongst the stage settings.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/P1030259-778351.JPG" border="0" /&gt;We finished the day off by eating in the lovely cafe at Minack which again provided dramatic views across the sea.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://www.alandang.com/al/2008/04/holiday-in-st-ives-part-iii.html</link><author>Alistair</author></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5259854.post-511150137607650676</guid><pubDate>Mon, 21 Apr 2008 18:48:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2008-04-21T20:04:02.913+01:00</atom:updated><title>Holiday in St Ives - Part II</title><description>This morning we woke up to dull, damp and windy weather. We started the day by walking down to the beach and then along the coast in the opposite direction to the first day. This took us away from St Ives and gave us some good views back to the town. &lt;div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/P1030085-700488.JPG" border="0" /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It was a rather wet and windy day so we all had to wrap up well to keep us nice and warm. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/P1030084-789801.JPG" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Joel didn’t seem to mind the rain – in fact he quite enjoyed it – singing to himself as we walked the cliffs.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/P1030079-714185.JPG" border="0" /&gt; After a while Ang and Joel turned back to St Ives leaving me to enjoy the peace and quiet of the waves crashing and the wind blowing! &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This afternoon we went to the local leisure centre and I went swimming with Joel for the first time! He has been having lessons for the past few months and I finally was able to see all the skills he had learnt. He showed me how he could kick and chase after toys as well as go under water for a few seconds – what a talented little man!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The rest of the day we spent lazing around the house before heading into St Ives for some traditional fish and chips. Walking back to the house we had to be aware of the seagulls as yesterday we saw them snatch food out of people’s hands ... we made it home safe and sound.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/P1030092-784822.JPG" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://www.alandang.com/al/2008/04/holiday-in-st-ives-part-ii.html</link><author>Alistair</author></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5259854.post-1681200131064778838</guid><pubDate>Sun, 20 Apr 2008 21:12:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2008-04-20T22:24:12.512+01:00</atom:updated><title>Holiday in St Ives - Part I</title><description>This is the first post from our holiday in St Ives, Cornwall – and so far we have had a fantastic time. Arriving mid-afternoon on Saturday we got lost driving through the narrow streets, parked the car and then headed off to find the keys for our cottage. &lt;div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;First impressions of St Ives were very positive with all the lovely shops selling paintings, surf clothes gifts and pasties wetting our appetite for the week ahead. Heading to the harbour for the first we introduced Joel to the sea – he shed a tear – but I think that was because it was so windy!&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;After picking up the keys to the cottage we climbed the narrow streets to find our home for the week, a terraced house on a hill with views over the harbour and the beach on both sides of the headland. The views from the top room are amazing and we were treated to the moon rise last night as we went to bed.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/P1020989-791104.JPG" border="0" /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;Today we woke up with a fried breakfast before heading down to the beach where Joel walked on the sand for the first time and managed not to get went when chasing the waves. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/P1030018-783783.JPG" border="0" /&gt;  &lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/P1030024-1-759434.JPG" border="0" /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Walking around the headland before heading into St Ives we slowly made our way up to the house to feed Joel. He is definitely enjoying solid food now and ate his chicken, grape and sweet potato casserole in record time before trying apple juice for the first time – it was a little bit too sour for him as the picture shows!&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/JoelEating-777713.jpg" border="0" /&gt;In the afternoon we explored the shops in St Ives more fully and managed not to buy anything. Ang was especially taken by the paintings on offer and is on a mission to twist my arm into buying her one before the end of the week – so watch this space! We finished the day by walking up to the headland on the other side of St Ives before taking Joel back for more food, a bounce on his swing and a big boy bath. This evening we ate too much Chinese takeaway while chilling out in front of the BAFTAS.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/P1030075-723129.JPG" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://www.alandang.com/al/2008/04/holiday-in-st-ives-part-i.html</link><author>Alistair</author></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5259854.post-8429108219772854144</guid><pubDate>Sun, 06 Jan 2008 15:21:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2008-01-06T15:24:18.895Z</atom:updated><title>New Year's Celebrations</title><description>&lt;div style="MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; TEXT-ALIGN: center"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/P1020471-777876.JPG"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_" alt="" src="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/P1020471-777862.JPG" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This year we spent New Years Eve at my parents house in Watford with Ang, Joel, my sis and her husband, my bro and his fiance, my grandmother and my nan! Big family time! &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div style="CLEAR: both; TEXT-ALIGN: center" align="center"&gt;&lt;a href="http://picasa.google.com/blogger/" target="ext"&gt;&lt;img style="BORDER-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; BORDER-TOP: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; BACKGROUND: 0% 50%; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; -moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial" alt="Posted by Picasa" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif" align="middle" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align="center"&gt;&lt;table style="WIDTH: 194px" align="center"&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style="BACKGROUND: url(http://picasaweb.google.com/f/img/transparent_album_background.gif) no-repeat left 50%; HEIGHT: 194px" align="middle"&gt;&lt;p align="center"&gt;&lt;a href="http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/alistair.wood/NewYear2008"&gt;&lt;img style="MARGIN: 1px 0px 0px 4px" height="160" src="http://lh6.google.co.uk/alistair.wood/R4CcQAg28QE/AAAAAAAAa3A/AJbNikGeNG4/s160-c/NewYear2008.jpg" width="160" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style="FONT-SIZE: 11px; FONT-FAMILY: arial,sans-serif; TEXT-ALIGN: center"&gt;&lt;p align="center"&gt;&lt;a style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; COLOR: #4d4d4d; TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/alistair.wood/NewYear2008"&gt;New Year 2008&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://www.alandang.com/al/2008/01/new-years-celebrations.html</link><author>Alistair</author></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5259854.post-3630422258628974480</guid><pubDate>Thu, 03 Jan 2008 21:29:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2008-01-03T21:34:23.217Z</atom:updated><title>Joel With Fuzzy Wuzzy Bear</title><description>Joel is growing! Have a look at these pics showing how Joel has grown since he was born.&lt;img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/2008-01-03-JoelFuzzy-792527.jpg" border="0" /&gt;</description><link>http://www.alandang.com/al/2008/01/joel-with-fuzzy-wuzzy-bear.html</link><author>Alistair</author></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5259854.post-4758573496464124765</guid><pubDate>Wed, 19 Dec 2007 21:25:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2007-12-19T21:58:19.211Z</atom:updated><title>ESco Christmas Party 2007</title><description>&lt;div align="left"&gt;Last night I went to my work Christmas party and had a great time celebrating a good year with both colleagues and favourite suppliers. It has been a very busy year at ESco with lots of new work, new development and new members of staff joining the company at a very exciting time as we are now starting to reap the benefits of moving into our new building last year. Although at some points the workload has been overwhelming it has always been a pleasure to work with such a great group of people, many of whom have become good friends.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align="left"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align="left"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align="center"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align="center"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/P1020247-768053.jpg" border="0" /&gt; &lt;p align="center"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:78%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:verdana;color:#333399;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:arial;"&gt;Myself with friend Clare and Laura.&lt;/span&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align="left"&gt;The Christmas party took place at High Barn, converted and now used as a music venue for live acoustic/jazz and a recording studio. Our entertainment for the evening was provided by &lt;em&gt;Beauty and the Beasts&lt;/em&gt;, a covers band lead by Franco from our renewals department and joined on stage by two "surprise" guests... Lee (one of the directors) who played guitar while dressed as Father Christmas and Laura who belted out "Man, I Feel Like a Woman" to the amazement of the audience. They all certainly provided music to bop along too (even if it was just for a couple of songs).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align="center"&gt;&lt;img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/dsc_0004_(1)-701466.jpg" border="0" /&gt; &lt;span style="font-family:arial;font-size:78%;color:#333399;"&gt;Dragged on the dance floor by Sue the MD!&lt;/span&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It was also special to have Iwan and Richard from Isle Interactive (who are the brains behind a lot of our web development) and Ben Rexworthy from Securinet (our information security consultant). Both Iwan and Ben are personal friends so it is always good to catch up with them.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/dsc_0007-786477.jpg" border="0" /&gt; &lt;p align="center"&gt;&lt;span style="color:#000099;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:arial;font-size:78%;"&gt;Ben from Securinet explaining the complexities of becoming a CISSP to James and myself.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The night went very quickly and all seemed to have a good time. It was just a shame that we all had to get up to work the next morning... (except for the clever few who had booked the day off... LAURA!!!!). &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align="center"&gt;Click on the picture below for more pictures.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align="center"&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div align="center"&gt;&lt;table style="WIDTH: 194px" align="center"&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style="BACKGROUND: url(http://picasaweb.google.com/f/img/transparent_album_background.gif) no-repeat left 50%; HEIGHT: 194px" align="middle"&gt;&lt;p align="center"&gt;&lt;a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/alistair.wood/EScoChristmasParty2007"&gt;&lt;img style="MARGIN: 1px 0px 0px 4px" height="160" src="http://lh4.google.com/alistair.wood/R2l_Tgs1xoE/AAAAAAAAXiQ/j_CXvDWveyc/s160-c/EScoChristmasParty2007.jpg" width="160" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style="FONT-SIZE: 11px; FONT-FAMILY: arial,sans-serif; TEXT-ALIGN: center"&gt;&lt;p align="center"&gt;&lt;a style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; COLOR: #4d4d4d; TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://picasaweb.google.com/alistair.wood/EScoChristmasParty2007"&gt;ESco Christmas Party 2007&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://www.alandang.com/al/2007/12/esco-christmas-party-2007.html</link><author>Alistair</author></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5259854.post-1681313619570754228</guid><pubDate>Fri, 14 Dec 2007 18:57:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2007-12-14T20:46:26.722Z</atom:updated><title>YC8 Christmas Party</title><description>This week we had our YC8 (Youth Cluster, a group that we lead at church) Christmas party with a fancy dress theme. Everyone did brilliantly and we had a great time playing games and singing karaoke songs. I dressed up as a mule (not exactly sure why) and Ang was a beautiful pixie!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/P1020147-1-717266.JPG" border="0" /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/P1020128-1-716983.JPG" border="0" /&gt;</description><link>http://www.alandang.com/al/2007/12/yc8-christmas-party.html</link><author>Alistair</author></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5259854.post-1455852715530964685</guid><pubDate>Fri, 14 Dec 2007 17:55:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2007-12-14T20:43:18.872Z</atom:updated><title>Joel's First 8 Weeks</title><description>&lt;p align="left"&gt;Well, my goodness... the first 8 weeks of Joel's life have just flown by! Where do I start?... It has been an absolute joy and pleasure so far being a dad to little Joel, although life has changed completely and I'm getting used to the lack of sleep. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align="left"&gt;&lt;img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/PICT8447-1-783191.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Everything went brilliantly on the day of birth. &lt;span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0"&gt;Ang&lt;/span&gt; was booked in for a &lt;span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1"&gt;cesarean&lt;/span&gt; because little Joel was in breech position (the wrong way round) and we turned up to the hospital just after 7 in the morning knowing that it would only be a few hours before our lives would change for ever! We were taken up to the operating theatre where I got changed into funny looking theatre clothes complete with a pink hat. The operation went very quickly, it almost felt like we were at the dentists, except that instead of pulling out a tooth they yanked a little baby out... a boy ... little Joel!! The surgeon pulled him out, all wrinkly, and shoved him in our faces... "you have a boy" - how very exciting!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The first few hours of his life Joel became an expert at breast feeding and quickly learnt how to fall asleep. We were very lucky to be assigned our own private room in the ward which meant we could get to know Joel in privacy, as well as have lots of friends and family come to visit. &lt;span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2"&gt;Ang&lt;/span&gt; recovered well from her operation and after a couple of days we were heading home (driving VERY slowly) ready to introduce Joel to were we live and Toby and Josh, our cats.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Since those first few days we have got to know little Joel very well - even learning what each of his different cries means! In the past week, Joel has perfected his smile and has now added very cute noises to his &lt;span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3"&gt;repertoire&lt;/span&gt;. It is even more of a joy to spend time with him now that he shows how happy he is to be played with. Very special. &lt;span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4"&gt;Ang&lt;/span&gt; is also doing well and is loving the time at home with Joel.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Click on the pics below to many more photos from Joel's first 8 weeks.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div align="center"&gt;&lt;table style="WIDTH: 194px" align="center"&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style="BACKGROUND: url(http://picasaweb.google.com/f/img/transparent_album_background.gif) no-repeat left 50%; HEIGHT: 194px" align="middle"&gt;&lt;a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/alistair.wood/JoelRobertWoodWeek1"&gt;&lt;img style="MARGIN: 1px 0px 0px 4px" height="160" src="http://lh4.google.com/alistair.wood/RyYfoRL5BfE/AAAAAAAARl0/eKR0-6273i4/s160-c/JoelRobertWoodWeek1.jpg" width="160" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style="FONT-SIZE: 11px; FONT-FAMILY: arial,sans-serif; TEXT-ALIGN: center"&gt;&lt;a style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; COLOR: #4d4d4d; TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://picasaweb.google.com/alistair.wood/JoelRobertWoodWeek1"&gt;Joel Robert Wood - Week 1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div align="center"&gt;&lt;table style="WIDTH: 194px" align="center"&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style="BACKGROUND: url(http://picasaweb.google.com/f/img/transparent_album_background.gif) no-repeat left 50%; HEIGHT: 194px" align="middle"&gt;&lt;a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/alistair.wood/JoelAt8Days"&gt;&lt;img style="MARGIN: 1px 0px 0px 4px" height="160" src="http://lh3.google.com/alistair.wood/Rz3EM3Cr4nE/AAAAAAAAVKk/BXYtZrkacbw/s160-c/JoelAt8Days.jpg" width="160" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style="FONT-SIZE: 11px; FONT-FAMILY: arial,sans-serif; TEXT-ALIGN: center"&gt;&lt;a style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; COLOR: #4d4d4d; TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://picasaweb.google.com/alistair.wood/JoelAt8Days"&gt;Joel at 8 days&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p align="center"&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;div align="center"&gt;&lt;table style="WIDTH: 194px" align="center"&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style="BACKGROUND: url(http://picasaweb.google.com/f/img/transparent_album_background.gif) no-repeat left 50%; HEIGHT: 194px" align="middle"&gt;&lt;a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/alistair.wood/JoelAt22Days"&gt;&lt;img style="MARGIN: 1px 0px 0px 4px" height="160" src="http://lh6.google.com/alistair.wood/Rz3NGnCr4_E/AAAAAAAAVOg/jgtKr-V2O1k/s160-c/JoelAt22Days.jpg" width="160" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style="FONT-SIZE: 11px; FONT-FAMILY: arial,sans-serif; TEXT-ALIGN: center"&gt;&lt;a style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; COLOR: #4d4d4d; TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://picasaweb.google.com/alistair.wood/JoelAt22Days"&gt;Joel at 22 days&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p align="center"&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;div align="center"&gt;&lt;table style="WIDTH: 194px" align="center"&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style="BACKGROUND: url(http://picasaweb.google.com/f/img/transparent_album_background.gif) no-repeat left 50%; HEIGHT: 194px" align="middle"&gt;&lt;a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/alistair.wood/JoelAt32DaysOld"&gt;&lt;img style="MARGIN: 1px 0px 0px 4px" height="160" src="http://lh5.google.com/alistair.wood/R0cON3Cr5PE/AAAAAAAAVdU/mcw7eD087pE/s160-c/JoelAt32DaysOld.jpg" width="160" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style="FONT-SIZE: 11px; FONT-FAMILY: arial,sans-serif; TEXT-ALIGN: center"&gt;&lt;a style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; COLOR: #4d4d4d; TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://picasaweb.google.com/alistair.wood/JoelAt32DaysOld"&gt;Joel at 32 days old&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://www.alandang.com/al/2007/12/joels-first-8-weeks.html</link><author>Alistair</author></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5259854.post-6087765952116837604</guid><pubDate>Mon, 22 Oct 2007 22:21:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2007-10-22T23:28:12.563+01:00</atom:updated><title>October 22, 2007 - Joel Robert Wood is born</title><description>Just a quick message to say that Joel Robert Wood was born today by c-section at 11:25am, weighing in at 7lb12. Both Ang and Joel are doing very well. Lots more photos to come - but this will get you started!&lt;img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/IMG_1917-1-751308.JPG" border="0" /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/IMG_1930-1-744990.JPG" border="0" /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://www.alandang.com/al/2007/10/october-22-2007-joel-robert-wood-is.html</link><author>Alistair</author></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5259854.post-5532779117974088343</guid><pubDate>Sun, 15 Jul 2007 15:50:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2008-01-05T13:09:26.782Z</atom:updated><title>Jon, Rachel &amp; Charlotte Visit</title><description>This weekend we had a lovely (and privileged) visit from Jon, Rachel and newborn Charlotte as they spend a month in the UK, taking a short break from life in New Zealand. It was really good to see them and catch up with all the happenings in their lives.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/IMG_1311-760993.JPG" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align="center"&gt;Click on the link below for more pics.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div align="center"&gt;&lt;table style="WIDTH: 194px" align="center"&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style="BACKGROUND: url(http://picasaweb.google.com/f/img/transparent_album_background.gif) no-repeat left 50%; HEIGHT: 194px" align="middle"&gt;&lt;p align="center"&gt;&lt;a href="http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/alistair.wood/JonRachelVisit"&gt;&lt;img style="MARGIN: 1px 0px 0px 4px" height="160" src="http://lh5.google.co.uk/alistair.wood/Rpo9uIyj5qE/AAAAAAAAEvo/MEuHY9MQFHs/s160-c/JonRachelVisit.jpg" width="160" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style="FONT-SIZE: 11px; FONT-FAMILY: arial,sans-serif; TEXT-ALIGN: center"&gt;&lt;p align="center"&gt;&lt;a style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; COLOR: #4d4d4d; TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/alistair.wood/JonRachelVisit"&gt;Jon &amp;amp; Rachel Visit&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://www.alandang.com/al/2007/07/jon-rachel-charlotte-visit.html</link><author>Alistair</author></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5259854.post-6330259167222583118</guid><pubDate>Tue, 10 Jul 2007 20:53:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2007-07-10T23:00:48.832+01:00</atom:updated><title>Ang Re-Arranges the Kitchen</title><description>&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/IMG_1187-791628.JPG"&gt;&lt;img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/IMG_1187-791611.JPG" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; After a year of living in a bit of a chaotic kitchen, Ang and I decided to make a change. Ang ordered some purpose made to measure reed baskets from Scotland and as soon as they were delivered we got going on cutting some shelves to size. The picture below shows the finished product...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/IMG_1188-717057.JPG" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://www.alandang.com/al/2007/07/ang-re-arranges-kitchen.html</link><author>Alistair</author></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5259854.post-6882094131879437049</guid><pubDate>Tue, 10 Jul 2007 20:36:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2007-07-11T08:03:02.889+01:00</atom:updated><title>Josh Got A Little Wet</title><description>&lt;a href="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/IMG_1182-707034.JPG"&gt;&lt;img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/IMG_1182-707013.JPG" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div style="MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; TEXT-ALIGN: center"&gt;&lt;a href="http://localhost:1719/f510c7b06533df1ed047a9a332144187/image30310.jpg"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;With all the wet weather we're having in England at the moment, our two lovely cats are really struggling to stay dry. The picture above shows Josh on a very wet evening when he came home drenched! One of many occasions we see them soaked.</description><link>http://www.alandang.com/al/2007/07/josh-got-little-wet.html</link><author>Alistair</author></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5259854.post-5650497032543851786</guid><pubDate>Mon, 02 Jul 2007 17:45:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2007-07-02T18:59:10.825+01:00</atom:updated><title>My Cat Beats Up Dogs (well, almost)</title><description>This weekend we went for a walk to our local park, about 200m away from our house. As usual our two cats, Toby and Josh, followed us down to the park and waited for us patiently on the edge, not daring to move out of their boundary. As we returned home we encountered a large dog which instantly too an interest to the cats. Toby, the larger of the two cats immediately legged it up the nearest tree, but Josh, ever the adventurer, arched his back, stuck his tail up in the air and stood on his tip toes while hissing - he was trying to make himself look as scary and big as possible. If you know him, you'll know that Josh is FAR from scary...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The dog took no notice of this and kept walking towards Josh. By this time, I was more than a little concerned and tried to put myself between the dog and Josh - didn't want the little guy to get hurt - but unfortunately the dog and Josh were moving too quickly, so I wasn't being of much use. Suddenly, out of the blue, Josh charged at the dog making an awful noise as he went - the poor dog didn't know what was going on, turned, yelping as he went and legged it towards his owner. RESULT! It was so funny to see such a small cat (Josh is only &lt;span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0"&gt;ickle&lt;/span&gt;) chase such a large dog away.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I was so proud of the little guy - he was truly an amazingly brave cat. Josh jogged back home with his tail in the air and deservedly had an extra large dinner while I spent time coaching Toby out of the tree... he was all shook up.</description><link>http://www.alandang.com/al/2007/07/my-cat-beats-up-dogs-well-almost.html</link><author>Alistair</author></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5259854.post-5157503928647533205</guid><pubDate>Sun, 06 May 2007 17:28:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2007-05-06T18:36:11.939+01:00</atom:updated><title>We're Going to Have a BABY!</title><description>Well, after 5 and a half years of marriage with just the two of us, we’re ready to move on to the next chapter… Ang and I are expecting a baby in October and here is a picture to prove it!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/twiglet-700343.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Ang is currently 15 weeks pregnant and we are obviously very excited about what the future holds with an addition to the Wood family. We had the 12 week scan a few weeks ago now (picture above) and it was absolutely amazing!! When the little baby appeared on the screen it took me a few moments to digest that the little ‘thing’ that was moving was a part of me and Ang… part of my own flesh and in half a years time would be kicking around in the real world! Words can’t do justice to the feelings I felt seeing the little baby kick and move and wiggle around inside of Ang – very special!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So far we’ve called the little baby &lt;strong&gt;Twiglet&lt;/strong&gt; as is it’s a little piece of 'Wood'  and we’ve decided to wait till its born before discovering its sex – so Twiglet it is for the next 5 months.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Ang has been doing very well, not feeling too sickly, and certainly nothing that a cream cracker can’t solve. She has already ordered baby catalogues and circled the items that need to be purchased as well as venturing on Ebay to buy materiality clothes.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Watch this space for more news and prayer would be appreciated.&lt;/p&gt;</description><link>http://www.alandang.com/al/2007/05/were-going-to-have-baby.html</link><author>Alistair</author></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5259854.post-3723419693485414170</guid><pubDate>Sun, 22 Apr 2007 21:50:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2007-04-22T22:51:13.272+01:00</atom:updated><title>What a Great Weekend</title><description>&lt;div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/IMAGE_068-769677.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_" alt="" src="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/IMAGE_068-769672.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;What a great weekend! It started off with a dash back from work to make sure I was home in time for Tim &amp; Debs Yau to arrive for our first BBQ of the year… and what a BBQ!  Having a Rayburn in the kitchen is great in the winter where it keeps the house warm and cooks some great meals, its just not practical in the warmer months and we leave it off for most of the day and only turn it on when we need to cook… waiting over an hour for it to warm up to a sensible temperature. Because of this, Ang and I thought we’d invest in a sooper dooper gas BBQ which would allow us to cook outside during the warm summery months and we thought that it was only right to try it out on friends Tim &amp;amp; Debs!!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We had a lovely evening with the Yau’s, eating yummy sweetcorn, beef kebabs, salmon kebabs, grilled vegetables and some lovely grilled pineapple with ice cream!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Saturday started off with a trip to Chesterton Rec for a game of football with the guys from church before heading back to Linton for a lazy afternoon in the sun. Again, we had some sweetcorn on the BBQ before we decided to go on a walk up to Linton water tower where we were given fantastic views of the countryside – fields of gold everywhere! Finishing off the day we did some boring chores – shopping at Sainsburys, washing the car and then chilling out to a number of reality TV programs and cooking chicken on the BBQ!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The day finished on a slight downer when one of our cats, Toby didn’t come home… where could he be?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Sunday was a good day too. We woke up and Toby was still nowhere to be seen so we did a short walk around the neighbourhood to see if we could hear him trapped in a garage… No. We then headed to church where Ang and I were leading Youth Church all about what it means to be a witness. The service went well and we had time to catch up with friends afterwards.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;For lunch we invited friends Helen, Graeme, John and Jane for… you guessed it… another BBQ! We cooked sweetcorn, Japanese beef, burgers, sausages, grilled veggies and finished it off with grilled pineapple with icecream… we were getting the hang of BBQing! It was a great afternoon of chilling out with friends.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The day finished with a trip to church to do some training with one of the youth on the PA desk, before heading back home to see TOBY!! He had finally come home – who knows where he has been, but at least he is back safely now!&lt;div style='clear:both; text-align:CENTER'&gt;&lt;a href='http://picasa.google.com/blogger/' target='ext'&gt;&lt;img src='http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif' alt='Posted by Picasa' style='border: 0px none ; padding: 0px; background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial;' align='middle' border='0' /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://www.alandang.com/al/2007/04/what-great-weekend.html</link><author>Alistair</author></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5259854.post-2594018271545414234</guid><pubDate>Sun, 22 Apr 2007 18:37:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2007-04-22T19:37:20.857+01:00</atom:updated><title>The Day the Fire Engine Came to ESco</title><description>&lt;div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"&gt;I've just been looking through the photos I took on my phone's camera and came across this one which brought a smile to my face. Back in February, on a typical afternoon at work the fire alarm suddenly went off. As a firewarden, I grabbed my light saber (torch) and day glow jacket and made my way upstairs to make sure that everyone had evacuated from the top floor. Meeting Room 1 - check, Meeting Room 2 - check, Kitchen - check... it looked like all was clear, just one more room to check... Shower Room... um, there is someone in there. I knocked on the door... "&lt;strong&gt;Come on, get out, the fire alarm is going off&lt;/strong&gt;" I shouted.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;"I think its because of me!" the voice shouted back. "Sam!?" - oh my goodness... a few seconds later the door flew open with a rush of steam and through the midst out popped Sam... "I think I had the water too hot and the steam has set the alarm off". Oh dear. What an embarassment. So basically, Sam's hot shower had set the fire alarm off and caused the office to be evacuated with an automated call to the fire brigade. Only minutes later the firemen arrived, the females of the office were at the window having a nosey and not much work got done. Well done Sam!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/IMAGE_00078-737060.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_" alt="" src="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/IMAGE_00078-737054.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style='clear:both; text-align:CENTER'&gt;&lt;a href='http://picasa.google.com/blogger/' target='ext'&gt;&lt;img src='http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif' alt='Posted by Picasa' style='border: 0px none ; padding: 0px; background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial;' align='middle' border='0' /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://www.alandang.com/al/2007/04/day-fire-engine-came-to-esco.html</link><author>Alistair</author></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5259854.post-8347807072257711296</guid><pubDate>Wed, 28 Mar 2007 21:52:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2007-03-28T23:05:27.155+01:00</atom:updated><title>Holiday in Wales and the NW</title><description>&lt;p align="left"&gt;Ang and I have just got back from a lovely holiday travelling across England and Wales, relaxing in a cottage and spending quality time with friends and family. Our trip started with a visit to Rob and Clare Humphreys in Oxford, Tim Harding in Chippenham and Dan Jones in Bristol before making the final journey across Wales to the Pembrokeshire coast.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We stayed in a lovely converted barn near St Davids and despite the wintry weather we managed to get out everyday to enjoy the surrounding beaches and cliffs – the scenery was pretty stunning but it was so COLD! Because of the poor weather we spent most of the days just sleeping, reading, watching DVDs – generally chilling out after a busy few months at work – it was lovely!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Moving on from Wales we travelled up to the Lake District where we attended a wedding about 10 minutes away from Ambleside. We saw our friend Sarah Hall tie the knott with Rob Gilber at a quaint little church on top of a mountain near the Langdales before heading to a posh country club where we had the best wedding grub ever! We stayed the night at Ang’s sister in Lancaster on the Saturday night before meeting up with old friends at church and afterwards for lunch.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;On the way back to Cambridge we spent a day with Ang’s brother and parents in Kirkham and my Grandmother and sister in Manchester. We also managed to squeeze in some window shopping at the Trafford Centre, although surprisingly, Ang was bored after a couple of hours!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Highlights of the week included eating yummy food, seeing old friends, playing crazy golf and air hockey, watching bouncing lambs playing with each other, seeing the sun set over Lake Windermere and sleeping lots and lots!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/lakessunset-719180.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;p align="center"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Click on the links below for some pics:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div align="center"&gt;&lt;table style="WIDTH: 194px" align="center"&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style="BACKGROUND: url(http://picasaweb.google.com/f/img/transparent_album_background.gif) no-repeat left 50%; HEIGHT: 194px" align="middle"&gt;&lt;p align="center"&gt;&lt;a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/alistair.wood/WalesHoliday"&gt;&lt;img style="MARGIN: 1px 0px 0px 4px" height="160" src="http://lh4.google.com/image/alistair.wood/Rghi-w49siE/AAAAAAAADwg/n446EpS4wh4/s160-c/WalesHoliday.jpg" width="160" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style="FONT-SIZE: 11px; FONT-FAMILY: arial,sans-serif; TEXT-ALIGN: center"&gt;&lt;p align="center"&gt;&lt;a style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; COLOR: #4d4d4d; TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://picasaweb.google.com/alistair.wood/WalesHoliday"&gt;Wales Holiday&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align="center"&gt;&lt;table style="WIDTH: 194px" align="center"&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style="BACKGROUND: url(http://picasaweb.google.com/f/img/transparent_album_background.gif) no-repeat left 50%; HEIGHT: 194px" align="middle"&gt;&lt;a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/alistair.wood/LakeDistrictOnSarahSWedding"&gt;&lt;img style="MARGIN: 1px 0px 0px 4px" height="160" src="http://lh3.google.com/image/alistair.wood/Rghc4g49sPE/AAAAAAAADwk/EootjX-ZXQc/s160-c/LakeDistrictOnSarahSWedding.jpg" width="160" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style="FONT-SIZE: 11px; FONT-FAMILY: arial,sans-serif; TEXT-ALIGN: center"&gt;&lt;a style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; COLOR: #4d4d4d; TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://picasaweb.google.com/alistair.wood/LakeDistrictOnSarahSWedding"&gt;Lake District on Sarah's Wedding&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align="center"&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align="center"&gt;&lt;table style="WIDTH: 194px" align="center"&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style="BACKGROUND: url(http://picasaweb.google.com/f/img/transparent_album_background.gif) no-repeat left 50%; HEIGHT: 194px" align="middle"&gt;&lt;a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/alistair.wood/SarahRobSWedding"&gt;&lt;img style="MARGIN: 1px 0px 0px 4px" height="160" src="http://lh6.google.com/image/alistair.wood/Rgl3DA49tXE/AAAAAAAADzA/BCdTW3Avub8/s160-c/SarahRobSWedding.jpg" width="160" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style="FONT-SIZE: 11px; FONT-FAMILY: arial,sans-serif; TEXT-ALIGN: center"&gt;&lt;a style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; COLOR: #4d4d4d; TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://picasaweb.google.com/alistair.wood/SarahRobSWedding"&gt;Sarah &amp;amp; Rob's Wedding&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://www.alandang.com/al/2007/03/holiday-in-wales-and-nw.html</link><author>Alistair</author></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5259854.post-12561129580385141</guid><pubDate>Tue, 27 Feb 2007 21:06:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2007-02-27T21:11:52.298Z</atom:updated><title>You’ve Got to Try It – Once!</title><description>Just thought I’d share with you a very special website which I have found both encouraging and enlightening over the past few years. Its run by an American organisation called 7:22 and was set up for the young adult population of Atlanta – every they week upload a video of their meeting where 3,000 attend to worship God and learn more about him.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/722-1-753700.jpg" border="0" /&gt;The bands are fantastic – fresh, energetic and full of passion. The talks are relevant for today’s young people (and they still talk to me too!!) and are full of wisdom and insight. What stands out is the level of professionalism in the music and production – for something that is run by students its amazing (no offence to students!). &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/722-2-779434.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If you are not a Christian and want to see what all the fuss is about from the safety of your computer it’s a great place to go. If you are a Christian I hope you will find it as inspiring as I have. So I encourage you try it – even if its just once!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.722.org/video/currentseries.html"&gt;Want to see the videos? Click Here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.722.org/flash/722.html"&gt;Want to see the website to find out more? Click Here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description><link>http://www.alandang.com/al/2007/02/youve-got-to-try-it-once.html</link><author>Alistair</author></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5259854.post-2689931925223683303</guid><pubDate>Sun, 11 Feb 2007 22:17:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2007-02-11T22:17:03.566Z</atom:updated><title>Weed on By A Lion</title><description>&lt;div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" align="left"&gt;Thats what happened to Ang and her sister Helen while walking around Linton Zoo today. There were some little kids winding up the lion from the safety of behind a fence, the lion turned around, paused... then sprayed everyone! What a claim to fame, &lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ff0000;"&gt;weed on by a lion&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;! How many people can say that?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The weekend has been quite busy, Ang got back from her short trip to Florida and then her sister and husband (Helen &amp; Brian) arrived mid-afternoon - we've been entertaining since! Lastnight we played a great game of &lt;em&gt;The Really Nasty Horse Racing Game &lt;/em&gt;before going on a pub crawl through Linton. Today we popped to the zoo, went to church and enjoyed some great cooking from Ang. Its been a good weekend though a little exhausting! &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" align="left"&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" align="left"&gt;I didn't get any pics of the lion, but here are some other ones from our visit to the zoo.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"&gt;&lt;a href="http://localhost:2729/d0c7f8508771038070f8e74de2924cdd/image17449.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_" alt="" src="http://localhost:2729/d0c7f8508771038070f8e74de2924cdd/image17449.jpg?size=400" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"&gt;&lt;a href="http://localhost:2729/d0c7f8508771038070f8e74de2924cdd/image17454.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_" alt="" src="http://localhost:2729/d0c7f8508771038070f8e74de2924cdd/image17454.jpg?size=400" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://www.alandang.com/al/2007/02/weed-on-by-lion.html</link><author>Alistair</author></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5259854.post-6014832192201275778</guid><pubDate>Fri, 09 Feb 2007 22:55:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2007-02-09T22:55:23.146Z</atom:updated><title>Samson the Satsuma</title><description>&lt;div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" align="left"&gt;Here is a picture of Samson the Satsuma before I ate him. He tasted good.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/IMAGE_00068-723656.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_" alt="" src="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/IMAGE_00068-723509.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="CLEAR: both; TEXT-ALIGN: center"&gt;&lt;a href="http://picasa.google.com/blogger/" target="ext"&gt;&lt;img style="BORDER-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; BORDER-TOP: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; BACKGROUND: 0% 50%; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; -moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial" alt="Posted by Picasa" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif" align="middle" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://www.alandang.com/al/2007/02/samson-satsuma.html</link><author>Alistair</author></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5259854.post-9074387497894905131</guid><pubDate>Wed, 07 Feb 2007 08:03:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2007-02-07T08:08:24.886Z</atom:updated><title>So, it does go below zero!</title><description>In November &lt;span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0" onclick="BLOG_clickHandler(this)"&gt;Ang&lt;/span&gt; and I bought a new car, a lovely sporty Mazda 6 complete with &lt;em&gt;gangsta&lt;/em&gt; windows and a rear spoiler... well, since then I have never been sure whether our temperature display in the car showed negative numbers, it always seemed to hover around zero, but never went below. I suppose that just reinforces how warm the winter had been SO FAR. Well, this week I have &lt;span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1"&gt;definitely&lt;/span&gt; seen negative numbers on the display - it has gradually crept below zero and this morning it was showing a whopping MINUS 8C! That is just a little chilly! Poor me had to fill the car with petrol this morning - I'm sure my hand nearly froze to the petrol pump. Apparently snow is on the way - BRING IT ON!</description><link>http://www.alandang.com/al/2007/02/so-it-does-go-below-zero.html</link><author>Alistair</author></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5259854.post-5836259204895555753</guid><pubDate>Mon, 05 Feb 2007 18:13:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2007-02-05T21:44:46.505Z</atom:updated><title>Weekend in Norfolk</title><description>This weekend we travelled up to Thornham in Norfolk for what Ang thought would be a &lt;span style="color:#ff0000;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;romantinc weekend away&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt; for two to celebrate her birthday. We arrived safely, unpacked our bags and pre-heated the oven for a pizza when there was a knock at the door...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;div align="center"&gt;KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align="center"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align="center"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align="center"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align="center"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:130%;"&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ff0000;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#000066;"&gt;SURPRISE!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align="center"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:130%;color:#ff0000;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align="center"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:130%;color:#ff0000;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align="center"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:130%;color:#ff0000;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align="center"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:130%;color:#ff0000;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align="center"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:130%;"&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ff0000;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div align="left"&gt;Tim &amp; Debs Yau were standing on the porch with sparklers in hand - and Ang, with a huge smile on her face just couldn't believe it! I'd arranged Tim and Debs to join us for the weekend and they'd managed to arrive early and hide while we were getting ourselves into the cottage. Ang was so pleased that they were there to join us and we quickly lit the fire, had our pizza and chilled in front of the open fire.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div align="left"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align="left"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Saturday morning saw us get up lazily, have a cooked breakfast and then head to the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ff0000;"&gt;beach for a walk&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; to Holme. It was a good walk, with the sunshing and the the tide all the way out. Tim and Debs managed to try out their wellies for what they decided was only the 8th time in the past year (despite travelling the world). Tim started feeling ill so we stopped off for drinks and chips before Ang and I walked back to the cottage to jump in the car and pick them up. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align="left"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/beach400-707977.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div align="left"&gt;In the evening we had another meal, watched a film and played &lt;span style="color:#ff0000;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;frisbee in the dark &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;with a special frisbee that had lights on! &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align="left"&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align="left"&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align="left"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align="left"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align="left"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/frisbee400-783883.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div align="left"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align="left"&gt;Tim &amp; Debs left us on Sunday so we had a lazy morning before heading out to Wells on Sea where we went for a &lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ff0000;"&gt;walk along the beach again&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;. We spent most of the afternoon on top of a sand dune watching the world go by - people walking dogs, families playing cricket, and kids jumping off sandy cliffs(!!) - before heading back to the car through the pine forest. Fish and chips were consumed on the way back to the cottage and we were lucky enough to watch the sunset behind a windmill. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/windmill400-725306.jpg" border="0" /&gt; &lt;div align="left"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align="left"&gt;It was a really fantastic weekend - one that Ang and I will remember for a while!&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div align="center"&gt;&lt;div style="FONT-SIZE: 83%; WIDTH: 194px; FONT-FAMILY: arial,sans-serif; TEXT-ALIGN: center"&gt;&lt;div style="BACKGROUND: url(http://picasaweb.google.com/f/img/transparent_album_background.gif) no-repeat left 50%; HEIGHT: 194px"&gt;&lt;a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/alistair.wood/EscapeToNorfolk"&gt;&lt;img style="BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; BORDER-TOP: medium none; MARGIN-TOP: 16px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none" height="160" src="http://lh4.google.com/image/alistair.wood/RcZ-0NiONOE/AAAAAAAADH8/xS2huu2Xfqw/s160-c/EscapeToNorfolk.jpg" width="160" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/alistair.wood/EscapeToNorfolk"&gt;&lt;div style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; COLOR: #4d4d4d; TEXT-DECORATION: none"&gt;Escape to Norfolk&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div style="COLOR: #808080"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align="center"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align="center"&gt;&lt;div style="FONT-SIZE: 83%; WIDTH: 194px; FONT-FAMILY: arial,sans-serif; TEXT-ALIGN: center"&gt;&lt;div style="BACKGROUND: url(http://picasaweb.google.com/f/img/transparent_album_background.gif) no-repeat left 50%; HEIGHT: 194px"&gt;&lt;a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/alistair.wood/FrisbeeInTheDark"&gt;&lt;img style="BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; BORDER-TOP: medium none; MARGIN-TOP: 16px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none" height="160" src="http://lh4.google.com/image/alistair.wood/RcaN-NiON5E/AAAAAAAADH4/KE2s8qcC07Q/s160-c/FrisbeeInTheDark.jpg" width="160" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/alistair.wood/FrisbeeInTheDark"&gt;&lt;div style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; COLOR: #4d4d4d; TEXT-DECORATION: none"&gt;Frisbee in the Dark&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div style="COLOR: #808080"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align="center"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align="center"&gt;&lt;div style="FONT-SIZE: 83%; WIDTH: 194px; FONT-FAMILY: arial,sans-serif; TEXT-ALIGN: center"&gt;&lt;div style="BACKGROUND: url(http://picasaweb.google.com/f/img/transparent_album_background.gif) no-repeat left 50%; HEIGHT: 194px"&gt;&lt;a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/alistair.wood/NamesInTheDark"&gt;&lt;img style="BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; BORDER-TOP: medium none; MARGIN-TOP: 16px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none" height="160" src="http://lh3.google.com/image/alistair.wood/RcaRV9iOOHE/AAAAAAAADH0/ZJpNCtdQChg/s160-c/NamesInTheDark.jpg" width="160" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/alistair.wood/NamesInTheDark"&gt;&lt;div style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; COLOR: #4d4d4d; TEXT-DECORATION: none"&gt;Names in the Dark&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div style="COLOR: #808080"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align="center"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align="center"&gt;&lt;div style="FONT-SIZE: 83%; WIDTH: 194px; FONT-FAMILY: arial,sans-serif; TEXT-ALIGN: center"&gt;&lt;div style="BACKGROUND: url(http://picasaweb.google.com/f/img/transparent_album_background.gif) no-repeat left 50%; HEIGHT: 194px"&gt;&lt;a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/alistair.wood/WellsOnSeaWalk"&gt;&lt;img style="BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; BORDER-TOP: medium none; MARGIN-TOP: 16px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none" height="160" src="http://lh5.google.com/image/alistair.wood/RcaUkdiOOME/AAAAAAAADHw/GDYS8CMcXVg/s160-c/WellsOnSeaWalk.jpg" width="160" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/alistair.wood/WellsOnSeaWalk"&gt;&lt;div style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; COLOR: #4d4d4d; TEXT-DECORATION: none"&gt;Wells on Sea - Walk&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div style="COLOR: #808080"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://www.alandang.com/al/2007/02/weekend-in-norfolk.html</link><author>Alistair</author></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5259854.post-1491631564148086164</guid><pubDate>Mon, 05 Feb 2007 18:05:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2007-02-06T09:10:40.044Z</atom:updated><title>Angela's 30th Birthday Celebrations</title><description>&lt;p align="left"&gt;Over the last week Angela has celebrated her 30th birthday - I say the last &lt;strong&gt;week &lt;/strong&gt;because she has made sure that its lasted as long as possible. Last Saturday (the 27th of Jan) her &lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ff0000;"&gt;birthday party&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; started at 4pm when we had a family hour for friends with kids. Dom &amp; Heidi Dumville turned up with their little two, and Ben and Becs Rexworthy joined without kids - but still enjoyed themselves anyway! The main party kicked off at 8pm and we had a house full of nearly 45 guests! I was in charge of keeping the glasses topped up and making sure there was enough food on the table while Ang enjoyed herself chatting with all the guests.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align="left"&gt;&lt;img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/bdaycake400-793006.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;On Tuesday we went to a &lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ff0000;"&gt;Chinese restraunt&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; to celebrate Ang again, but this time she had to share the honour with 3 other friends - all with birthdays this week. Helen turned 29, Ang 30, Miriam 31 and Rowena 32 - it was a great evening with great food.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;On Wednesday was Angela's real birthday and we spent the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ff0000;"&gt;day in London&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;. We started off going to the National Gallery before heading off to the Tate Britain - unfortunately there was a strike of gallery workers so we weren't able to see everything we wanted, but we still saw enough to keep us interested and happy! We then took the tube to Oxford Street where Ang was in heaven as she looked around all the clothes shops -keeping an eye out for the bargains. The highlight of the day was a trip to the theatre where we saw the &lt;span style="color:#ff0000;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sound of Music &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="color:#000000;"&gt;with the recent winner of BBC's &lt;em&gt;How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? &lt;/em&gt;Connie Fisher the main lady. It was the first West End musical that Ang and I had gone to and it was thoroughly enjoyable. We finished the day with a bit more shopping on Oxford Street before heading back to Cambridge in the car.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.alandang.com/al/uploaded_images/london400-751863.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Finally, we spent this &lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ff0000;"&gt;weekend in a cottage in Norfolk&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, with surprise (to Ang) visitors Tim and Debs Yau turning up to help celebrate. It was a fantastic weekend... pictures of the weekend will follow in a seperate blogg entry.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Here are links to the photo albums described in this blogg:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div align="center"&gt;&lt;div style="FONT-SIZE: 83%; WIDTH: 194px; FONT-FAMILY: arial,sans-serif; TEXT-ALIGN: center"&gt;&lt;div style="BACKGROUND: url(http://picasaweb.google.com/f/img/transparent_album_background.gif) no-repeat left 50%; HEIGHT: 194px"&gt;&lt;a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/alistair.wood/AngS30thBirthdayParty"&gt;&lt;img style="BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; BORDER-TOP: medium none; MARGIN-TOP: 16px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none" height="160" src="http://lh5.google.com/image/alistair.wood/RbxpM9iOLtE/AAAAAAAAC5c/uxN6v3ygcQQ/s160-c/AngS30thBirthdayParty.jpg" width="160" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/alistair.wood/AngS30thBirthdayParty"&gt;&lt;div style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; COLOR: #4d4d4d; TEXT-DECORATION: none"&gt;Ang's 30th Birthday Party&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div style="COLOR: #808080"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div align="center"&gt;&lt;div style="FONT-SIZE: 83%; WIDTH: 194px; FONT-FAMILY: arial,sans-serif; TEXT-ALIGN: center"&gt;&lt;div style="BACKGROUND: url(http://picasaweb.google.com/f/img/transparent_album_background.gif) no-repeat left 50%; HEIGHT: 194px"&gt;&lt;a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/alistair.wood/AngelaSBirthdayDayInLondon"&gt;&lt;img style="BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; BORDER-TOP: medium none; MARGIN-TOP: 16px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none" height="160" src="http://lh3.google.com/image/alistair.wood/RcZ729iONAE/AAAAAAAAC8Y/BJ9ROuGL2U0/s160-c/AngelaSBirthdayDayInLondon.jpg" width="160" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/alistair.wood/AngelaSBirthdayDayInLondon"&gt;&lt;div style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; COLOR: #4d4d4d; TEXT-DECORATION: none"&gt;Angela's Birthday Day in London&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div style="COLOR: #808080"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://www.alandang.com/al/2007/02/angelas-30th-birthday-celebrations.html</link><author>Alistair</author></item></channel></rss>