A Quick Word From Yours Truly


Hi, welcome to PJ's blog.

If you've checked out the "About Me" bit you'll see I'm a keen amateur photographer who enjoys all things digital. I mostly like photographing plants and landscapes as they are easy targets ;-) I used to work in Software which sounds more exciting than it is but am now officially a Snr. Project Planner having changed jobs after almost 25yrs in Software. I sometimes wish I could work in photography but that would probably become boring if I did it day in and day out. I used to sponsor a wolf called Luna until she sadly passed away, and love all things "wolfy". Anyhow enjoy the blog and hopefully I'll manage to keep it up to date with what I've been doing and my favourite things!

PJ

Monday, 4 October 2010

Julia's 19th Birthday


Yesterday was Julia's 19th birthday! Can't believe where the years have gone, seems like only yesterday she was a tiny baby or a little girl and now she's all grown up and at Uni!

We had a good I think anyway, she had some presents (always a good idea) and money from friends and family, then we had a nice Sunday lunch at a local pub with her Nan, Grandad and James.

At this rate she'll be 21 before I know it - better start planning the party soon :-)

Sunday, 26 September 2010

Julia off to Uni

Here's my gawgus daughter Julia with two of new best mates from Writtle College, Kirsty on the far left, and Alex in the middle.

Julia drove up to Writtle College last weekend to start her BA(Hons) Interior Design course and has happily settled in to student life.

Fresher's week has been one long round of parties with a few lessons thrown in for good measure, now the real work begins...

Still I know Julia will do her best as she always does and I'm so very proud that she has gained her place at Writtle to do the thing she loves most.

Sunday, 22 August 2010

Eye Test

Went for an eye test yesterday at Vision Express for the first time in almost 6yrs! Cant believe I've left it this long between tests, a side effect of the fact that my company no longer provides in-house eye tests but vouchers instead and lack of funds, knowing that I'd probably need an update. Anyhow booked myself into Vision Express as I've been impressed with their service when Julia had her eyes tested, and went for the whole nine yards, including a digital photo of the inside of my eyes so they can monitor any changes. The upshot is that my eyesight has deteriorated since my last check, no surprise there, and I'm going to try out my first pair of varifocal glasses having reached that "certain" age whereby my arms are no longer long enough to hold my reading material at a sufficient distance so I can read it :-) However I also have a squint, something I've suffered with since the dawn of time and so have to get top quality varifocal lenses in order to have some degree of success in getting my eyes to work together. I'm too embarrassed to admit online what these glasses are gonna be costing me but they have a 60-day money back guarantee so if all else fails I'll have to have two pairs :-( Hopefully they'll be ready sooner rather than later, the lens are being tailor made to fit my new frames and how said frames fit my face so fingers crossed I manage to get used to them. It will be such a boon if I can as I have to keep taking my glasses off for reading and computer work which is a pain and I'd rather not have to carry two pairs around all the time as you always seem to be wearing the wrong pair at the wrong time!

Friday, 23 July 2010

Shaun Ellis

This chap standing here with yours truly is none other than Shaun Ellis, the wolf man who at one point lived with a pack of wolves at Combe Martin Wildlife and Dinosaur Park in North Devon.

We visited the park this summer and I was made up to catch him there being a keen wolf fan myself.

Julia took the photo for me and plucked up courage to ask for his autograph too so I am one happy bunny :-)

Sunday, 16 May 2010

A Good Quotation...

Found this quotation in a recent copy of My Weekly and thought it quite apt given the current trend to be "perfect", its by E.E. Cummings :-

"To be nobody but yourself in a world that's doing its best to make you somebody else, is to fight the hardest battle you are ever going to fight; never stop fighting."

My daughter, like most young women her age, has a vivid interest in body image. In fact it has formed the basis of a couple of college projects for her. The various women's publications bombard us constantly with images of the "perfect" woman, all achieved with copious amounts of airbrushing until the model is beyond human and becomes almost plastic. And that's not including the body part models used in adverts to provide, say hands or whatever, along with someone else's face. You just cant believe what you see in the mags and to persuade young, impressionable women that this is somehow achievable and desirable is pretty irresponsible if you ask me. Its high time we saw real women in the magazines modelling real size clothes so that our young girls have a chance to grow up without being fixated about their size and shape, so that they realise we are all unique and should be proud of that simple human trait.