plans – T E Shepherd https://shepline.com author | illustrator | digital designer Mon, 28 Oct 2013 11:41:23 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.4 https://shepline.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/cropped-shepline-white-on-green-square_512-32x32.jpg plans – T E Shepherd https://shepline.com 32 32 Super-productive Friday https://shepline.com/2013/10/25/super-productive-friday/ https://shepline.com/2013/10/25/super-productive-friday/#respond Fri, 25 Oct 2013 20:48:43 +0000 http://journal.shepline.com/?p=5698 I’ve had quite a productive week this week, working on a new version of one of our departmental websites. Whilst I’ve not been building it in the new content management system, I have been attempting to build it in such a way as it looks like its built in the new system, and also trying to replicate how it will be when it is, eventually, in the new CMS.

Today, was an unscheduled (or at least unscheduled until yesterday) half-day. I left work at lunch time to head home, stopping in Launton for the butchers, and then again in town for veg from the market, in order that I could clean out the animals and get started on much of the house-cleaning before my parents came up for the weekend.

They’ve only been back in the country for a few days but were heading up to my brother’s in Cambridgeshire to see them Sunday-Tuesday and I suggested that they might like to come up to us en-route so that they would finally get a chance to see the brilliant Magical Books exhibition at The Bodleian before it closes on Sunday.

I had a nice time in the garden in the autumn sunshine, and cleaned the bathrooms too, and processed some more washing through the system, and I still got time to read some of my book too! A good day… 🙂

]]> https://shepline.com/2013/10/25/super-productive-friday/feed/ 0 Sunday afternoons in January were made for browsing holiday brochures https://shepline.com/2012/01/15/sunday-afternoons-in-january-were-made-for-browsing-holiday-brochures/ https://shepline.com/2012/01/15/sunday-afternoons-in-january-were-made-for-browsing-holiday-brochures/#respond Sun, 15 Jan 2012 22:47:00 +0000 http://journal.shepline.com/?p=1982 It has always been the case that Sunday afternoons in January were made for researching holidays. We have been considering a trip to Greenland this year, but we’ve decided that we can’t really afford to do it justice. There are no roads on Greenland and so whilst we could afford to go one location, you really need to fly (by plane or helicopter) or take boats to get about more widely. Iceland however would be a suitable alternative, and we get the opportunity to spend a bit longer in Reykjavik and see more of my family whilst over there.

By chance, lured in by a picture of the traditional turf-roofed farm houses, I stumpled upon Ferðaþjónusta bænda, a tour company that run self-drive tours staying in farmhouses or farm guesthouses, and it looks brilliant – a full tour around the Icelandic route 1 ring-road. I will see more things that I have not seen before, and be able to show Emma some of the things I have done before.

The only question that remains is when? From 16 September their winter season starts and its cheaper, but August might be a better time for the road trip. The pre-maid tour looks good, but I wonder whether what options (and prices?) there might be to a custom one to stay in less places and stay for longer, but less time in the overall trip (the last two days and the first day) focus on bits that are quite close to Reykjavik and might be doable from there. Oh the fun of investigating these things… 😀

Before we can go anywhere we both need knew passports. We tried to pick up forms yesterday at the post office, but they appeared to be strangely missing. Discovered today that you can actually fill out the form online and they’ll post it to you complete the declarations etc. So I did, but what, the website was soooo slow, and then when I did finally get to submit (they warn you not to press submit more than once, but I’m not sure how you could considering after you’ve pressed it it disappears?!?) it took an age and then returned me to a completely different Home Office site without so much as a confirmation so I assume they received it. I shall wait and see what comes in the post…

For my own reference

]]> https://shepline.com/2012/01/15/sunday-afternoons-in-january-were-made-for-browsing-holiday-brochures/feed/ 0 On the third day of advent: festive frollicks https://shepline.com/2010/12/03/on-the-third-day-of-advent-festive-frollicks/ https://shepline.com/2010/12/03/on-the-third-day-of-advent-festive-frollicks/#respond Fri, 03 Dec 2010 15:34:00 +0000 http://journal.shepline.com/on-the-third-day-of-advent-festive-frollicks/ It is of course, now advent, and so completely forgivable to be thinking ahead to the time of Christmastide. With this in mind, this weekend I would like to:

~ put the Christmas tree up, and make the house nice. Although just what Blini will make of a Christmas tree I’m not sure… *shudders* She’ll probably try and climb it. :-

~ to make the Christmas cake. This should really have been done last weekend, but we were away, so…

~ to make the marmalade I’ve been meaning to make for, umm, way to long.

~ not a plan, but I note that our honeymoon album has been dispatched with the estimated delivery date of 8 December. Looks like its been dispatched with FedEx though, so I’m hoping it might arrive sooner.

]]> https://shepline.com/2010/12/03/on-the-third-day-of-advent-festive-frollicks/feed/ 0 On the fourteenth day of advent: the memory of the holiday https://shepline.com/2009/12/14/on-the-fourteenth-day-of-advent-the-memory-of-the-holiday/ https://shepline.com/2009/12/14/on-the-fourteenth-day-of-advent-the-memory-of-the-holiday/#respond Mon, 14 Dec 2009 10:24:00 +0000 http://journal.shepline.com/on-the-fourteenth-day-of-advent-the-memory-of-the-holiday/ I’ve had a lovely mini-holiday these past four days. Emma and I have done some lovely thing, and of course that makes it all the harder to go back to work, even if, for me, work is something that is rather cool and which I’m enjoying. Still, just one more five day week, then two and a half days and that’s me for work for this year. Next year, I’ll be looking to hopefully *hastily crosses a dozen fingers and touches numerous blocks of wood* be a tad more settled work-wise.

Currently I’m plotting finding some quality time to devote to Mr Tumnal and his story over the Christmas break.

]]> https://shepline.com/2009/12/14/on-the-fourteenth-day-of-advent-the-memory-of-the-holiday/feed/ 0 F@*!%&$ Bankers! https://shepline.com/2009/02/12/f-bankers/ https://shepline.com/2009/02/12/f-bankers/#respond Thu, 12 Feb 2009 11:00:00 +0000 http://journal.shepline.com/f-bankers/ So, it seems that the global economic meltdown is hitting my wedding (in just 100 days time!) hard, and again – or at least our (depleting) guest list. Now it seems, that not content with taking out my Icelandic cousins, its also taking out my US‐contingent lock, stock, and fully smoking barrels.

I’m going to get myself some clay, make myself some models of a load of bankers and start stabbing pins violently in the f**king b**st**ds. And if I happen to meet one of the greedy [insert synonym] its not going to be pretty.

]]> https://shepline.com/2009/02/12/f-bankers/feed/ 0 Popcorn and Television https://shepline.com/2009/01/29/popcorn-and-television/ https://shepline.com/2009/01/29/popcorn-and-television/#respond Thu, 29 Jan 2009 10:34:00 +0000 http://journal.shepline.com/popcorn-and-television/ Emma is off out tonight with the girls from work and so I will be left home alone — or be it with five cats, two fish (and two chickens in the garden) for company.

I’m thinking that tonight will be a perfect opportunity to snuggle down with a bowl of popcorn and catch up with the marathon run of Battlestar Galactica Season 4 (or first half of season 4 – last year’s one – whatever…).

Hrmm, sounds like a plan!

]]> https://shepline.com/2009/01/29/popcorn-and-television/feed/ 0 Proactive Step https://shepline.com/2008/05/11/proactive-step/ https://shepline.com/2008/05/11/proactive-step/#respond Sun, 11 May 2008 21:08:00 +0000 http://journal.shepline.com/proactive-step/ This weekend has been a quiet one; a not unwelcome change after the action of the last. We had a nice walk in Stoke Wood amongst the new season’s leaves and bluebells before retiring to the garden (if mostly under shade) for a sit, a write, a doze, and a barbeque. I have possibly the oddest bbq in the world, with a rusted base that you can see though where the charcoal goes and wobbily-unstable legs. The food tasted good, and even the insides of the baked potatoes once we’d cracked the charcoal shell that their skins had become.

~

Emma’s applied for a job at a Bicester vets tonight. Which is all a bit scary. We kind of figured that with the housing market somewhat as stuffed as luxury fig, someone had to take a proactive step. Whilst Em took an afternoon snooze, I sat in the garden and drew out a plan of my own house and rearranged a reduced set of both our furniture in the house, and then later, as the charcoal got itself going we figured it out. If were to make use of my parents lovely new garage, we could store the rest of our furniture and stuff until such time as we were able to put it all back together again.

~

It feels good to have a plan, but its also dead scary for all concerned. And quite what its going to be like living with five cats in a one-bedroom house is going to be like, I don’t know.

]]> https://shepline.com/2008/05/11/proactive-step/feed/ 0 Norfolk Aborted https://shepline.com/2007/07/22/norfolk-aborted-2/ https://shepline.com/2007/07/22/norfolk-aborted-2/#respond Sun, 22 Jul 2007 20:33:00 +0000 http://journal.shepline.com/norfolk-aborted-2/ I woke reasonably early yesterday to pack for my long weekend in Norfolk and to finish reading my book in preparation for reading *that* book. Then after a quick bite to eat, I headed out onto the roads and the hour and a half drive to Bluntisham in Cambridgeshire. There I met Jonas, my new nephew, and started to read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

This where things started to not go as planned. Basically to cut a long story short, with a three year old and a baby in the house, it was not going to possible for Mum and Dad and I to head off to Burnham Market as planned for our long weekend, and my parents might be called on for assistance during that time anyway, so I hightailed it back down the A1(M) – not a nice road – round the M25 and out onto the M4 towards a very black cloud over Oxfordshire to visit Emma.

Then today, in gorgeous sunshine, we read more HP, and went for a walk by (an incredibly fast flowing) Thames, saw Emma’s parents, before I returned two days early to my home and to the welcoming paws and claws of my pusscats (and boy was Arthur ‘welcoming’ with his claws…).

]]> https://shepline.com/2007/07/22/norfolk-aborted-2/feed/ 0 I have a plan… https://shepline.com/2004/01/25/i-have-a-plan/ https://shepline.com/2004/01/25/i-have-a-plan/#respond Sun, 25 Jan 2004 22:27:00 +0000 http://journal.shepline.com/?p=369 …but you’ll have to wait a wee while longer… *grins*

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