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Since being made redundant from Comet Group Ltd., on 12th of this month, I have been offered the position of Sales Consultant with a local branch of Bensons for Beds. I start tomorrow

I went over to Humber Woodland of Remembrance this afternoon and placed a memorial plaque under Mum’s tree. The plaque, carved from a piece of solid oak, was commissioned from Dr. Peter Linnell of Lifespacedesign.

Store keys handed over to GA Europe consultant at 15:30 today, and my redundancy letter from Deloitte LLP was on the doormat when I got home. So now I’m officially out of work and seeking new employment.

I’ve just voted for my chosen local police and crime commissioner (PCC). For further info on PCC elections, see http://www.choosemypcc.org.uk/ the website provided by The Secretary of State for the Home Department.

I don’t think the turnout at the polling stations has been very high. The people I’ve spoken to today about it, didn’t understand what the elections were all about or who their candidates were.

It was dad’s birthday yesterday, and to celebrate I took him over to Louise & Vernon’s house in Bromsgrove today, and Vernon drove us down to Jonathan’s house in Milton Keynes for the day.

We had a nice lunch at The Inn on the Lake on the edge of Mount Farm Lake.

I got my fire extinguishers serviced today at Herefordshire Fire Protection Services Ltd. They’re supposed to be done once a year and I bought them in 2007 – oops!

Official advice is to not try tackling a fire, but to call 999 and await the fire brigaide. However I feel safer having a foam and a CO2 extinguisher by the front door and a fire blanket in the kitchen. Let’s hope I never have to use them.

It was 9 years today that I moved into my flat. Doesn’t time fly?

My car passed its MOT today without any issues.
Thanks to Ned Potter Ltd for checking it over without a prior appointment.

I got my fibre broadband service installed today. It was supposed to happen on Monday morning, but an Openreach installer didn’t turn up for that appointment.

I have never lived in a cabled area of the country and so have had relatively slow internet access over the years, so it’s nice to have 63Mbps downloads and 15Mbps uploads all of a sudden.

The service is called FTTC (Fibre To The Cabinet), which means instead of using copper (or aluminium) cable from my premises all the way back to the telephone exchange, it now only goes from my premises to the green cabinet at the end of the road, and from there the phone calls and data go along a fibre optic cable back to the exchange.

Plusnet provided me with a Technicolor TG582n router as part of the upgrade. Openreach provided a Huawei EchoLife HG612 VDSL2 Modem and installed a replacement NTE5A Master Socket and VDSL Service Specific Faceplate.

As my Master Socket is in the hall and I wanted the modem in the spare bedroom, I had opted for the Data Extension Kit with my Plusnet order. This comprised of a length (30m max) of CAT5e cable that was connected onto the IDC slots behind the new faceplate and was then tacked along the skirting boards and through an internal wall and terminated at a new backbox and faceplate on the bedroom wall. Openreach usually want the modem screwed to a wall so that the ventilation holes don’t get blocked with carpet etc., but the installer agreed that in my case he would leave it free standing on the desk as there was plenty of space around it.

The Plusnet version of the router has four ethernet connections on the back, one of which is configured as a WAN port and connects to the modem. I’ve got more than three network enabled devices (TV, PVR, PS3, Laptop, Desktop, Print Server) and as wireless connections are inherently slower than wired ones, I decided to run CAT6 patch cables into a Newlink 8 port Gigabit Switch and then connect the switch into one of the three available LAN ports on the router.

Mum passed away peacefully at home on September 2nd 2012, aged 85 years, after a courageous battle with cancer.

The funeral service was carried out at Hereford Crematorium on September 12th with interment of the ashes beneath a Rowan tree the following day.

Sincere thanks to all relatives, friends and neighbours for their kind messages of sympathy, attendance at the service and for donations received in memory of mum, for Cancer Research UK.

Thanks also to R W Mann & Son for all that they arranged; Karen @ Graphic Services for the Order of Service printing; Stems Flowers for the family floral arrangement; The Bay Horse Inn for light refreshments after the service; and Diane at Humber Woodland of Remembrance.

God looked around his garden
and found an empty place.
He then looked down upon the earth,
and saw your tired face.

He put His arms around you,
and lifted you to rest.
God’s garden must be beautiful,
He always takes the best.

He knew you were suffering,
He knew you were tired.
He knew that you would never,
get well on earth again.

He saw the road was getting rough,
and the hills were hard to climb,
so He closed your weary eyelids,
and whispered, “Peace be thine.”

When we saw you sleeping,
so calm and free of pain,
we could not wish you back to earth
to suffer once again.

You’ve left us precious memories,
your love will be our guide,
you live on through your children,
you’re always by our side.

It broke our hearts to lose you,
But you didn’t go alone.
For part of us went with you,
the day God called you home.