Simon the Spook

Last night I got home late from work - just in time to watch spooks.

As soon as spooks finished I went to bed for a well earned early night.

during the night I had a vivid dream which involved some friends of mine.

So picture the scene - I am one of mi5's top agents, I have recently infiltrated a drugs smuggling gang under the alias of "Richard" a high flying businessman making his riches from supporting the drugs industry into England.

one evening after a hard days work at HQ, Jo and I went out for a meal with some friends (Lloyd, Becky, Steve and Jo) as we arrived at the local harvester I spotted across the car park one of the top drug smugglers in the gang I had recently been associated with. So quick as a flash I got the guys in a bit of a huddle and told them that if that guy came anywhere near us they needed to refer to me as Richard or in the very least not act surprised if this guy called me Richard.

so as we entered the restaurant the gang member bumped into us - we both (the gang member and I) pretended we hadn't spotted each other and greeted each other.
At which point Steve who was obviously not dealing with the situation all that well blurted out a greeting saying "hello I'm one of Si's... I mean ricky's friends"
the gang member look suspiciously at Steve and then at me and back at Steve again. Lloyd gave Steve a glare and the three girls just held their breath! The gang member made a sharp exit...

I then woke up so I have no idea what happened to my undercover standing in the gang, I guess I will have to see if the dream continues tonight!

weird dream I know - and strange that Lloyd had a dream that involved me and Steve too....

"I'll have a fillet of Photoshop and a shoulder of After Effects please!"

Today I started work on a project for a client which involves creating a couple of adverts for upcoming events.

the adverts are in addition to some great publicity that has already been produced by Barry and Tim (designers at Elucid8).
so what I have done is to base the adverts on the existing publicity and hopefully create something that's nice to look at.

So after butchering the artwork from Tim and Barry I can then fiddle with the elements and add video clips and music etc a generally make things fly about the place and look cool.

but while working on this project (and all my projects) I do however spend most of my time thinking that the work I am producing has the potential to look good, it has the potential to communicate the message that the client is after and has the small potential of amazing the client (although I hardly ever get to that level) but the sad truth is that it also has the very real potential to be absolutely Poo Poo! Even though I'm often starting with some really nice looking artwork (thankyou design team) I can quite easily make it look like a mad mans dribble!

I very much hope (and pray) that this project will turn out alright, otherwise its P45 time!

Ticket to Ride

As most of you will be aware, Jo and I recently moved out of the city to leafy New Haw (near Woking). There have been load of benefits for us living out here, getting to know the locals - enjoying the fresh air (next to the M25) and the quieter nights (next door to an Indian restaurant).

One drawback that we had to wrestle with when deciding to move was that my daily commute to work will significantly increase. When we lived in Mitcham my round trip from home to work and back was all of 2 miles whereas now is more like 35 miles!

So after a few months of settling into our new home and getting used to the commute I can now say that the commute isn't a drawback at all!

now that it takes 40 or so minutes to get into work I have the time to wake up properly and prepare myself for the working day - whereas before I would rush into work, still wet from the shower not having a clue what I was doing or what I had to look forward to during the day. I now can listen to some music think through the stuff I have to do and generally get my head straight!

the time I spend in the car each day also gives me space to think and allow my mind to wonder and ponder all the stuff that I'm involved in. I've also got back into spending time with God - praying and worshipping in the traffic, this may sound a weird thing to do but its really not I don't close my eyes or anything!

The car also runs better now too - before it was only being used for a mile journey often in the cold and in traffic, many times the car wouldn't start because the battery wasn't getting charged. Now its running quite well (considering it is a bit of a rust bucket) it always starts first time.

so all in all I am quite enjoying the extra commute. Although its made my day longer and is costing an arm and a leg, the commute is doing me good!

cue the 100 best driving tracks - open up the windows, crank the tunes and feel the wind rushing through your hair!

SGH Mission Impossible

Cart-Wheels and La Cookeracha!

Jo and I, along with the Taylors, Kinsleys and Chris Hickford have recently got back from a week away in North Devon with 36 young people from Fullbrook School.
It was a fantastic week of outdoor activities and indoor games and some sessions looking at various issues affecting young people and Looking at them from a Christian point of view; things like money, Image, Stereotypes, Health and wellbeing etc.

It was really cool to get to know some more people from our community and to see these young achieve great things through the activities they took part in and in some cases concurring fears and achieving things that beforehand they may not have thought that they could achieve.

For me, the overwhelming lessons I learnt over the week were two fold: the first being that I am not just a techie - I don't need to box myself into such a narrow area of my abilities. I'm not saying I am Wonder Woman or anything, just that I managed to connect with the youths and had a good time doing it!
The second thing I learnt about myself is that I am completely and totally unfit!
this may have something to do with the fact that I haven't done any exercise for a number of years and it showed from day one! The first activity I took part in was a mountain biking trip with four of the boys and Chris Hickford along with the super-fit SGH staff member Ben. I was at the back of this small convoy for the whole bike ride, the muscles were willing but my heart was doing cart-wheels in my chest! It was not a pretty sight and I suffered for a few days afterwards because of it.
I managed the other activities quite well even though my heart was pretty much always doing its own version of 'La cookeracha!'

When we got home we had a nice long chill out on the sofa, watched an episode or two of Alias and checked the emails and surfed the net a little - it was a nice relaxing couple of hours.
However, as I lounged there with my beautiful wife enjoying some quality time with each other (and Sydney Bristow) I realised that this is all we do! Sit in front of the telly and go on the internet! (the sharp minded amongst you will have worked out that this sitting in front of the telly for a number of years accounted for the prolonged "La cookeracha" sensations in my chest)

And so my new challenge is to get active!
I will get on the exercise bike we bought and do the 8 miles we covered on our mountain bike trip on a weekly basis.
To also go out with Steve walking and climbing (he's the outdoor guru amongst us....)
and of course get out and about on the bike I have just acquired!
finally we want to get some of the photos from SGH on our wall to remind us of our week and keep us motivated to get fit and stay fit!

So I say to you, faithful Blog readers, please keep me accountable to the above statements - I will need to be badgered to keep me doing this (otherwise it will all finish in about a week)

Right that's me done, putting the laptop away - turning the telly off and I'm out of here!
Keep healthy out there!