All is OK and we are enjoying being a bigger family. As mentioned it does seem easier the 2nd time round.

I love the fact that we had a little girl and my mate said that we now have a Gentlemens family of a Boy and Girl. Not heard that saying but I like it.

I have been sipping Honey Dew by Fullers this week and if you like a beer I really recommend it. I get it from Waitrose and not bad value at £1.85 or something.

Take care and I will post some pictures over the weekend,

Back to the guitar

My Gibson SG
Recently I have been getting nearly all my blogging fixes from the Croydon Chronicles written by the very funny Istvanski , whilst on his site I got listening to a youtube video of a couple of quite talented girls (although I did think the older one was a boy for a while) playing guitar and singing. I then surfed round youtube at guitar videos and it got me thinking wouldn't it be good to play guitar and then I thought.... You know what I am meant to be able to play a couple of chords and spent a shed load of money a few years ago on a SG so I dusted it off, still needs a good clean !, tuned it up by plugging it into a tuner as I'm tone deaf and banged out a couple of chords and I mean only a few. Think it was Em, D, C, C that I used in my little "play". Still not plugged in the amp though ! I might run it through my laptop later as the amp is in the bedroom and there is a baby Skye in there so cant get it.

I also went out and bought Total Guitar in my new found eagerness to learn the guitar and will have a read through that and see if there is anything easy I can try. They do have Feeders Forget about tomorrow tabbed and Feeder are a real favorite of mine so I might have a look at that.

Skye one week on

Skye Lilly at one week

Well here we are over a week into having Skye with us and all is good !

Faye is feeding her lots and lots as she always wants feeding, Faye is a bit shattered by all the feeding but all in all we are coping loads better then with Max.

Skye's weight is already back to her birth weight and that is a great sign.

So why is it all so much easier this time? Well I think there are a few reasons:
1) Fayes labour was a lot shorter.
2) We have had more time to establish our lives with her.
3) We have a bigger house.
4) Been there and done it !!

1 - Rather then starting at lunchtime on the 29th and Max arriving just before midnight on the 30th involving a couple of trips to the hospital and lots of stress and no sleep, Faye had a twinge in the morning and 4pm felt strong contractions and when we arrived at the hospital, about 17.30, she was already 9cm dilated ! Skye Lilly arrived into the world at 20.20.

2 - rather then having everyone round straight away we have basically set our own times and not had anyone round until we was ready for people.

3 - a 2 up and 2 down full of people is no fun whereas a 3 bed house with lounge and diner has enough space for everyone.

4 - Yeah a strange one but simple things like dressing her is quicker, with Max we was both so worried about hurting him we would hardly bend his arms and it would take ages to get ready whereas with Skye we just get on with it and it is done really quick.

She had her first bath today and even that was quite easy :-) I sat there with the new camcorder so was a breeze for me :-)

We have decided that she will be Skye Lilly and no middle name but known as Skye for day to day. Thanks everyone.

On the camcorder front I bought the JVC GZ-MG175 and it is a HDD model and well after a bit more research it is not as Mac friendly as I hoped as the USB is not seen by iMovie HD but is by iMovie 08. iMovie 08 is slated and a reason why I have not bothered with iLife08. To get round it I had to use mpeg streamclip with a Quicktime add in then save as DV format BUT have since worked out that I can just connect the DV cable / firewire from my older DV camcorder to the dock and play it and to see the clip in iMovie and import it. I'm still playing and getting there with it now so will hopefully have something to show you soon. It seems as though JVC sorted it by adding a DV output to the dock on my model.

The Simmonds' PART 2

Max has been really really good with Skye and as you can see from the following shot he loves Baby Skye very much.



What do you think we should do with Skye's name, Skye Lilly as a first name OR Skye and Lilly as a second name?

Thanks for the messages,
James, Faye, Max and Skye Lilly

Just off to collect...

Image "borrowed" from www.krittercards.com

A camcorder and a BABY GIRL, hooray Faye gave birth last night to a daughter and we have names her Skye Lilly. She was born without any complications at 20.20 last night and weighed in at 7lb 15 and a bit. She is shorter then Max so a bit chubbier. As births go she was a lot easier then Max and Faye did really really well and had no pain relief.

The camcorder has also arrived so I will collect that just before I collect the "girls"

I will post up a photo a bit later.
James

Still Waiting...

Well today is the day that our 2nd baby is due. Faye has gone out for a walk with Max and her mum to try and hurry things along while I popped out to the greatest electrical shop there is... Comet, Yeah I work for them but they do have some great deals and the layout of the shop in Hemel is so much better then the Currys on the same site. I went in Currys and it was terrible for a new refitted shop.

We have puchased a new camcorder because the one we have, a Sony DCR TRV20E, a great camcorder and the spec is still really good but it is a bit "Large" nowadays.

We have had to wait for the price to drop on the smaller ones to get a mega pixel camcorder for the sort of price we wanted to pay. They have always been over £300 but Comet have the JVC GZ-MG175EK at a great price of £249.99 can not argue with that and once I added my discount (I get a couple of 20% voucher once a year) I ended up paying £199. Collect it Wednesday although it might be in on Monday so I will have to wait before using.

Hopefully will be filming the new baby for you all to see.........

Unicorn

Image "borrowed" off a google search....

Well it's only a week and a bit to go now so starting to get a bit nervy when the phone rings and I see 'home' or 'Faye Mobile', we do have a good system though where Faye calls and hangs up if it is just a chat and then I can call her back when I'm free. This works great until it keeps ringing and the reason is she forgot to hang up !


Max's speech is just getting better and better at the moment, I called home and spoke to him yesterday. He normally just says "How are you" "bye bye" and "love you" plus a few other words in there when coached on what he has been doing BUT yesterday we had a proper conversation where he told me everything he had been up to and that he was playing football and blowing his whistle when I called ! Amazing.

Faye saw a picture of a unicorn today and Max called it a Rhino Horse. Pretty clever we thought.

Snoring Ring, Sleep Knight

The ring has gone back to boots, never worked very well to be honest. Didnt think it would but anything is worth trying.

Warnock's red and blue army are still marching and it's now unbeaten in 15 matches !

Max has started playing footy on a Saturday morning now with Little Kickers and hopefully he will get signed up :-) Faye and I need to retire as this working stuff is no good, saying that though, a guy at work's son was signed by Chelsea and he was happy for a bit but then was released after just a year. It turns out that almost the whole of the team that he played in was signed and then released. What the clubs do is sign up almost the whole of a good team that are winning everything and out of, say, 200 boys about 5 get kept whilst the other 195 get released with their hearts broken. As it turns out though the guy at works son is now signed up by Reading so we will see.... and his age is 12 !

The baby is due in just 2 weeks today :-0

Balachaung

Balachaung

What the hell is that I hear you say well... For those that dont know me or might know me but not know the following (Hope that makes sense !) I am half Burmese, the good half my Mum would say and you must of guessed that to be a Palace Fan then my Dad and Grandad must of "made" me. Same as we will do to Max. Balachaung is a Burmese condiment that goes very well with Rice and can be dry or wet, I used to get it from Mum who got it from a place in South London (Just up the road from the Palace) but the person that makes it died. Now whilst I am sad about someone dying I never knew them and it does mean that I can not get any Balachaung anymore so I did a few searches on the web last night and managed to get a recipe and have recreated it this afternoon after going to a Chinese supermarket for some bits. Turned out all right even if I say so myself so I will be getting my mum to taste and see if it compares.

The picture above is taken on the built in isight so not great quality.
The receipe I based mine on is here in full but I used the following:

100g dried shrimp
10 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
1 cup crisp-fried sliced shallots
1/2 cup peanut oil
1/2 cup sesame oil
1 Tbs ground dried chillies
2 teaspoons salt
2 cm/1 in square of dried shrimp paste
1/2 cup vinegar (I used Rice)
"chunk" of ginger blended in the processor or grated will do.

Put the dried shrimp into a food processor and process, I gave them a good "cutting" down.
Fried the fresh garlic,until golden and drained on a kitchen towel. It then starts to crisp up. Dont over do them as they will go black and horrible. I tested a couple before placing them all in. I used a wok and wire drainer.

Pour off 1 cup of oil.

Reheat remaining oil and fry the dried prawn for 5 minutes, stirring constantly, goes a bit frothy but keep stiring. Add the Ginger, Add chillies mixed with the vinegar, salt and shrimp paste. Fry until crisp, stirring constantly. Allow to cool completely before mixing in the fried onion and garlic, stirring to distribute evenly.

I then gave it another blitz in the processor to cut it down a bit more.

It stunk the kitchen out but was worth it.

Silent Knight, Not great to be honest it just does not seem to work so will take it back this week after 2 nights.

Palace - Come on, Now in the playoffs. Thats it for me though for a month or so :-( so I will be sending my season ticket to my brother. Have already bought my ticket for next year though :-)

Not so Silent Knight 2 and 3

BOSTOCK

It does not seem to be working at the moment, the benefit of doubt is that I am having bad sinus pains so that might a problem BUT I'm not sure if this snoring ring is working or indeed will work. It does say to stick at it for a bit so I will.

Wanted to go to the Watford V Palace FA Cup game today but Watford have only given Palace 2500 tickets and they sold out last week. Would of been good to see some of our prospects playing. I might be able to get in the home end but we will see if I fancy it later, Have done it a couple of times before and it is no real fun watching in the home end. Although being in the home end in Germany when England won 1-5 was very good !

I am only about 15-20 mins from Watford on the train rather then my usual 2 hours to Palace so would be a nice trip.

Have also bought my season ticket for next year so don't really have the money for todays game anyway.

Good luck Palace.

Istvanski the ring thing was bought from Boots for more money then it is worth, £30, would of been cheaper then all the potions that i am currently trying though.

Silent Knight Night 1

Well... Faye who most of you know is due next month is not sleeping great, we guess it is natures way of preparing you for the sleepless nights ! was up quite early, 5am, and said that I did not snore even while on my back and that is unheard of !

I did some google searches last night and could not find anyone that had "honestly" tried the ring but lots of people knocking it so we will see in a few days. I'm a bit s unsure of it all and it might be a fluke that it worked so i will try again tonight and let you know.

Snoring

I snore and have done for quite a while, I have tried everything and last night used a nasal spray, breath right strip and snoreeze throat strip and still snored. I have been to see a private doctor you said that an operation to tighten the throat would cost £3500 be painful and still not guaranteed to work, he put it down to allergies.

Tonight I am going to try a Silent Knight ring. It is a small silver ring that goes on your little finger and according to the website, and I quote,

Silent Knight Ring uses acupressure - tried and tested over the past 3,500 years!

The raised part on the inside of Silent Knight Ring acts, when correctly positioned, on one of the meridian lines in the little finger of the snorer. It uses age-old principle of Accupressure, specifically the principle of Tuina (pronounced 'twee nah') which is a form of Oriental bodywork used in China. It's a combination of massage, acupressure, and other forms of body manipulation.

You might have heard of Reflexology, where pressure is applied to the hands, feet, and even ears to treat a variety of conditions. Tuina is a form of reflexology that has a history pre-dating ANY conventional western medicine by thousands of years.

To make Silent Knight Ring work for you all you have to do is put it on about an hour before you go to bed, correctly position the Accupressure Stimulator (full instructions are included) and give the ring one gentle squeeze to apply pressure - that's it! Tuina and Silent Knight Ring are working together for you to cut out your problem snoring completely!

have a good night's sleep at last! Order your own Silent Knight Ring NOW

will let you know how it goes.....

Merry Xmas

As usual I'm late posting but I hope that everyone that reads this had a great Xmas. This year was really good because Max has the hang of opening the presents and understands that Father Christmas brings them. Great day. The photo above is Max opening his "big" present.


Only 5 weeks to go before No.2 comes along.... blimey it's coming quick.
Faye has sorted most of the nursery out but we still need to buy a new stroller and cot bed. Best get buying...

At the car wash baby....

There are some great things you should do as a dad:
Go to the park, play in the castle, play hide and seek. You get the picture.

One thing you shouldn't do is take him to the car wash. When your son starts crying and saying I'm sorry daddy, I'm sorry, thats the moment your heart breaks and you think it was a bad time to get the car washed.

I Passed, I'm now fully PRINCE2

Hooray.. I chased up today and I have passed the exam so I am now Prince2 Practitioner. Got a strange email back saying that it is still not official but I had passed and I will know for def in a couple of days. Thats good enough for me.

Yes I am very happy but I knew I would pass :-)

As mentioned though it was hard, if you find me through a search then let me know and I will give you my foundation study guides from the web plus links and I might be able to sort out the latest mock exams for you.

Will be good for the CV if nothing else ;-0

Faye got me a nice red that was drunk in a rather fast manor but I had a project to drink and lets hope it's not the only project I finish early.........

Xmas is coming

Max helped decorate the tree yesterday. Looks just like Marc Bolan !



Last week was Max's birthday and a great day was had by all. Spinning round until you fall, running through bubbles and lots of dancing...... was done by me, the kids enjoyed pass the parcel.



Above is Max, me and the fat controller along with Thomas. If you look closely I am doing my best Thomas impression. Was a very wet day but Max loved it. Best bit was when Father Christmas came into our carriage and said to the little kid opposite "Whats your name?"
"Samuel" says said kid then adds "but why didnt you remember as I told you that last year."

Still no exam result so I am still keeping my fingers crossed.

Palace are doing really well at the moment and it's unbeaten in 8 for us now. We seem to be playing with a bit more hunger and not sitting back. Warnock is making a difference and it's good to see the players really trying. The difference in Morrison is just amazing, he really runs for the whole game and looks like he is going to score all the time. I laughed when my dad said he was going to put some money on us to go up but he went ahead and did it and got 250-1 so fingers crossed for him, me, Palace and Faye who is still pregnant !

Latest news

Kitchen

Hooray, done a bit more on the kitchen. Collected the splashback yesterday so fitted that and the extractor fan yesterday along with almost finishing the tile splashback behind the sink, still need to "finish" that off. Last week I connected up the new spotlight and clock. Slowly getting there.



I do like the red star knob, we got that to get over the problem of the handles catching on that side, plus it adds some colour.

Fish

We now have 4 baby catfish ! Not sure why but since we got the new fish tank, that Biube one, they have started mating.

Exams

I have been taking the PRINCE2 exams. Was on a course for 4 days last week that ended with the foundation exam, managed to pass that one. Today I had the 3 hour Practitioner exam, blimey it was hard. I have been studying to pass and the mocks that I had I thought were fine and not really a problem BUT todays was bloody hard. Not sure if it was because of the exam conditions but it was tricky. I hope that I managed to "read" the questions correctly and get the right answers. It was the new style objective testing rather then the "old" essay style one. The examiner also did the exam as it so new and she wants to get an understanding of them, and she said it was a lot harder then the ones she has done in the past ! Apparently since changing the exam the pass mark was around 85% compared to around 75% on the old style SO they was going to make it harder, well it looks like they did !

The old way you used be able to explain the reasons for your answers but now it is YES or NO and nothing in the middle. Personally I think it is harder ;-)

I will let you know if I pass, if it goes quiet then you know I failed :-)

Used to take at least 12 weeks for the marking but it is 2-4 weeks now that a computer sorts them out.

Max and Faye went to a birthday party today. Faye managed to get a some new maternity clothes. She looks fab. Will get some of us all on here soon.

Got Max's 2nd birthday in a couple of weeks time, man how time flies ! He is now in a "real" bed and touch wood he seems fine and is staying in there ! We did have to change his sleep wear though from a sleeping bag to a sleeping suit. Oh and a major that I should of said ages ago was he is now toilet trained, Faye got him trained up a couple of months ago!

Talk soon,
James

Oi Santa, Make some toys

Todays date is the 3rd of November so why oh why have I have been listening to bloody Mariah Carey singing that she wants me for christmas and get this I only saw a Santa out on the high street in Berkhamsted. We have not even had firework night yet !

It's wrong I tell you wrong.

Oh and why is there a Superman in the photo !

Bostock

All hail the new kid has arrived.

OK so the result was not want we wanted but it was great to see young John Bostock make his debut and become the youngest Palace player in history. Some touches and he looked very comfortable for a 15 year old, I'm 20 years older then him :-( Man I feel old.

Victor Moses should be due back soon and watch this space because if you thought Rooney was something special at a young age, wait for Victor.

The futures bright our chairman is orangeImages taken from the Palace site.