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Thirsday was my Thirtieth birthday. Rather predictably I celebrated with liberal helpings of beer and curry. Rather unpredictably a colleague turned up half way through my night out and presented yours truly with a chocolate birthday cake with the numbers three and zero depicted in candles. It has been a long time since anyone went to so much trouble for my birthday, and for a moment there I was lost for words!

On Saturday I took the train via Reading and Guilford to Epsom. Out of curiosity on Sunday we took lunch at the newly reopened Rising Sun now part of the ever expanding Wells and Young empire. The new incumbents have a tough task ahead of them if they are hoping to win over any of the former regulars. And in spite of the excellent food, whatever Youngs do, for some of us who recall the old Riser, the new Rising Sun is simply n “ordinary” pub, run by ordinary people selling ordinary beer.

I have just polished off a mixed grill while waiting to board my flight from Heathrow to Vienna where I will be spending the next week or so visiting my father. Looking forward to relaxing, reading, and maybe the odd game of chess.

Today is the last day of my twenties. I had dinner with a couple of colleagues this evening. And yay I managed to make it back in time for the Tesco delivery van who were bringing cakes for my birthday tomorrow. Also Liverpool managed to win away against Bordeaux this evening in the European Champions League! Bordeaux has a special resonance for me as I attended the Scotland v Norway fixture during the 1998 World cup with my then girlfriend and family. Oh and Preston are now ten games unbeaten, and there’s a miserable Leeds fan from the West Midlands on the radio. So all is right with the world.

Ten years ago I was being bored at College and pretty much hating it. Today I have a flat, job, more prospects etc. Since becoming twenty in 1996 I have: met the leader of a political party, been to a soccer world cup, witnessed a total solar eclipse, been to Proms concerts at the royal Albert Hall, celebrated a millennium on the banks of the river Thames in London, been engaged, won an award for voluntary work, got stranded on a boat in the middle of the night, jumped out of a plane, stood on the top of Table Mountain in South Africa, played roulette in Vegas, circumnavigated the globe, been to the Edinburgh Fringe, well you get the idea … These were the highlights.

Not sure how I feel about being on the eve of 30. In the great scheme of things 30 is still relatively young. But at the same time I have to recognise that it may be about time I grew up, started saving, drink less, quit smoking, exercise more. Ah well I am going on holiday next week to Austria, so I will probably defer these resolutions until I return.

In the next ten years who knows what will happen. I would like to think that my thirties will be as stimulating as my twenties. And you never know I may find love? Whatever
that is? And would it not be marvellous to buy a house? Read and travel more? So still plenty to do.

Anyway, I have been very lucky thus far. Sincere thanks to the people who make me smile, you know who you are.

I am in Surrey at the weekend with a probable expedition into London, and I fly to Austria on Monday. Hope to do a bit of Podcasting next week, not done any of that in a while.

I wrote about the Ouch Podcast several months ago. It would seem that the trial period has come to an end. But fans of the show would like it to continue. And why the hell not?

October is already shaping up to be a pretty busy month. I returned from my mammoth trip around the United States last week, and finally made it back to Worcester on Sunday. We have new projects to keep me busy at work, and I am away next weekend doing the Preston thing. Toward the end of the month I will be taking some holiday, and I fly to Vienna Austria on the 23rd to spend some time with my father. Somewhere amongst all of that, I guess I should celebrate my 30th birthday.

It feels like a long time since I spent any time in my flat. With lots of washing and reading to catch up on, this weekend I intend spending some time home alone for a change.

I was browsing this weekend’s TV listings and came across Escape from Alcatraz on BBC One on Saturday evening. I have obviously seen this Clint Eastwood classic several times. Although now that I have actually visited the rock in person, I will be interested to see if the 1979 thriller is any more powerful.

On balance it is good to be back to the land of rain and flat beer and Michael Parkinson. Well at least for a week or two!

Throughout September I will be pretty busy with the Dolphin Pocket Hal Tour. If you have not already, be sure to visit the Pocket Hal Tour mini site, where you can follow the journey and learn more about Pocket Hal.

Until Rock Tober, bye for now.

Hi All,

I have been pretty quiet on the blog for a little while as we have been
preparing a substantial project at work, and all my energy has been taken up
with that. However, now is the time for some announcements.

To follow my adventures over the next month or so, and find out what I do
when I am not ranting on davewilliams.co.uk. Please visit the Dolphin
Pocket Hal Tour mini site which can be found at www.phtour.yourdolphin.com
and subscribe to the Dolphin Pocket Hal Tour blog and podcast. See you
there!

Pipity pop pop…

The period from the start of July until the end of August is generally known by the UK media as the silly season. This is because there are usually very few newsworthy stories into which the press and 24-hour rolling TV news channels can sink their teeth. The Summer recess of the UK parliament is the main reason why the newspapers and broadcast news is rammed with the sort of zany trivia which does not get so much as a look in throughout the rest of the year.

Perversely the biggest UK news story of 2005 was in July, and the escalating chrysies in the Middle East and the current heightened terror alert in the UK look set to be strong contenders for that unenviable title in 2006. Although this year is only two thirds over, perhaps it is unwise to provoke providence. If you believe in that sort of thing, which I general do not.

On a brighter note my recreation time this month has been extremely frivolous. Last weekend, Mr MPRoberts.co.uk and I squandered considerable resources in attempting to drink Worcester dry. We are doing the same to Epsom this weekend in honour of the setting of the much blogged about Rising Sun pub. Next weekend sees the annual Worcester beer festival. The final weekend in August is a Bank Holiday which means we all get an extra day off work, and I get to spend time with friends in Preston.

We gave one of my colleagues from work a bit of a send off on Thursday evening. He is taking up a job with Sipco Systems. We also celebrated the birthday of our European Sales Manager who has just turned … well something’s are best left on a night out! Needless to say this being a Dolphin night out, everyone had a tremendous time.

The Plough, Cardinals Hat, Swan with two Necks can all go on my list of recommended pubs in Worcester. The Pheasant and Bushwhackers can both safely be avoided. I am still undecided about Drummonds and a few others which have not made enough of an impression on me to be able to say one way or the other

I am writing this on the train to London, and will probably post when I arrive in Epsom.

Um, 11 hours later!

As only 5 percent of published matter makes it into an accessible format, inflight magazines are hardly a priority. So this piece in the Indie was fascinating to someone who does not carry an OCR system in his hand luggage every time he flies.

No one wants to see an error message, especially when going to read your RSS subscriptions. I have not encountered a Bloglines error message in over a year of using the service. Although today I hit the following. And whoever came up with this got it spot on as far as I was concerned. Usually I feel frustration at error messages, but this one … hmmm … well I thought I will just come back later, no probs. I am going soft!

“Hi,
I’m the Bloglines Plumber. Bloglines is down for a little fixer upper. We will be back shortly. Bloglines will be all better when I’m done with it.
Thanks,
The Bloglines Plumber!”

And at least my live RSS subscriptions BlogRole which you usually see below the archives over to the right of the page simply isn’t there, and the JavaScript hasn’t spewed error messages all over my web site. If you have to be down for any period, then do it gracefully. Good on ya Bloglines.