Life Trove

19 January 2005

Favourite movies watched (2005)

Sin City (2005)
Batman Begins (2005)
Crash (2004)
Million Dollar Baby (2004)
Borat (2006)
War of the Worlds (2005)
Saw (2004)
Old Boy (2003)
Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter... and Spring (2003)
Amores perros (2000)
The Thing (1982)
All the President's Men (1976)
The Hustler (1961)
Double Indemnity (1944)
Miller's Crossing (1990)
Dogville (2003)
Twelve Monkeys (1995)
Brazil (1985)
Scarface (1983)
The Conversation (1974)
In the Heat of the Night (1967)
Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
Bringing Up Baby (1938)
Band of Brothers (2001)
24 (TV series) (2001)

The joys of using Mindmanager for mind mapping

I completely and utterly love this software. Since I was at school, I have loved mind mapping and Mindmanager makes creating maps so easy. I'm using it all the time for brainstorming and also for managing my life.

Mind mapping

17 January 2005

Nicola's 21st

Saturday, we drove out to Kenilworth to celebrate Nicolas's 21st.

We stayed in an interesting B&B - it was a wendy house down the end of ramshackled garden that you could only get to through a direlect and messy house. Our first impressions weren't to favourable but the actual wendy house turned out to be comfortable enough.

We went to a local restuarant for the party and had a lovely time. Nicola's hair is ultra short after an experiment gone wrong a few weeks ago - but actually really suits her so she was looking sexy.

Dave had to contend with his fiesty T-Shirt Asterix for his food (see above photo) but won in the end. We got to bed after 1 am. Drove home today for a two hour game of tennis with Martin (lots of fun.)

Tonight we've got Amanda and Johnathon coming over for dinner and then off to see Million Dollar Baby which we hear is very good. Clintwood is on top form as ever.

9 January 2005

Matthew turns two

Matthew celebrated his second birthday. What a cutie he is. Looks like the trampoline was a big win at the party. Great cake too! Thanks for the photos Jo.

Ally's birthday

It's Ally's birthday tomorrow and Colleen's next week so we all got together for lunch in Cambridge to celebate. It's been a stormy day with ferocious gusts but we had a lovely day indoors. Before lunch, Ally and I did our tennis lessons and we're making good progress - though not quite Wimbledon standard yet.

3 January 2005

Happy 2005

Well, we've had a wonderful 10 day break - just what we needed to rejuvenate the batteries. We've been extremely lazy and done almost nothing and it's been wonderful. Watched many hours of DVD's including most of the first series of 24 (brilliant), The Thornbirds (remember that!), the extended version of Return of the King and the making of it (4 DVD's in itself!) and various others. Kerry was here for Xmas which was great - she also got to chill out. New Year's eve we were fuddy duddies and stayed in and watched the London fireworks on TV (so spectacular we actually wished we'd been there thought the commute home would have been pretty grim). We've joined a local gym so getting lots of exercise - it's got great facilities including tennis, squash and badminton courts. Ally and I had an introductory, complimentary tennis session with a guy called Nick who turned out to be British champion's coach who beat Goran Ivanisevic at Wimbledon a few years ago. Ally and I are virtual beginners who have trouble getting a ball over the net so it was a bit embarrassing - but motivating enought to inspire us to do some lessons and join the tennis club. I return to work on Tuesday - all things must come to an end. Never mind, lots to look forward to in 2005.