WoodClan

End of an Era

Well it's the 31st December 2008, 2009 is only a few hours away and it's all change in the Wood household.

Today is officially my last day at Yahoo! a company I have worked for since the beginning of 2000. Admittedly Ihave been on holiday since the 12 December, bu it didn't really hit me that I was leaving until I got my final pay slip and P45 though.

In the 8 years and 10 months I have worked for Yahoo! I have seen the boom and bust of the Internet, launched numerous products across Yahoo! Europe and have closed down a fair few as well. I have played snooker with Filo and Zod in the wee hours while a little bit worse for drink (they won). Gone to Grenoble, Milan, Munich, Madrid, Paris, Ibiza and Teneriffe - all on business i might add, although some times it was a little more than the odd meeting. 

I'm going to miss Yahoo! I have enjoyed the large part of my life I spent there, I joined as one of the youngest engineers in Europe and left as one of the oldest and longest serving. When I joined I was young, free and single. I am now married with two little boys and no longer free, just quite cheap ;-)

I've grown up and so has Yahoo! It's time for me to leave and continue my journey, I will watch Yahoo! continue to grow as I do, and I wish all my friends i've left behind all the best for 2009 and that I will see them for a pint very soon.

As for tonight and the year to come, Oskar has Chicken Pox (got his first spot yesterday) - we are hoping that Tomas gets them soon!  and I start my new role as Head of Technology for Hearst Digital on the 5th January. It's all change here, but nothing lasts forever and change is good.

All the best for 2009.

Recovering from the holiday [Part 1]

The story of our holiday to the South of France. Taken from emails to the family.

After 35 hours, 1 hotel, 2 supermarkets and 1 breakdown 300km from argeles we are now here (Argeles Plage, near Perpignan).

[July 28]
We left Sunningdale at 10am and got on the EuroTunnel at 2pm, with the time difference we left the Terminal at 4pm. We then Drove to just outside Rouen where we stopped for dinner. After a couple hours we left and the boys promptly fell asleep, it also started to rain. At midnight  we were at Bouges and decided to stop.

[July 29]
At 9am and a nice sleep, we left and drove for about 3 hours and the battery light came on while Oskar was having a paddy, so we stopped at the nearest airre.

It turned out after opening the bonnet that the engine was not really in working order to say the least. Even with my limited knowledge of car mechanics, power steering liquid pouring over everything and a shaft thingy hanging off and a belt haning lose is not a normal working. After phoning the AA, we had to call the police to get a tow truck.

We got to a garage about 30 mins from Millau. After looking at the car, speaking to the AA and confirming it would take longer than 8 hours the AA agreed to get us a hire car. At 4:30 we were picked up and at 5:30 we left Millau car hire. We arrived at the van at 20:50. The boys are up and having fun, we are drinking and all is at peace with the world!

I sure am glad of two things one that we got AA cover and two that we got the car serviced last monday to avoid this sort of thing happening!

Total pre-emptive spend on holiday

AA Cover: £69 for 15 days

Total cost for all that the AA Provided:

• Cost of Car Hire (4 days)
  
• 2 taxi rides (Marvejols to Millau and Millau to Marvejols - 140km total distance)
• Cost of recovery from Motorway Airre

All of above: £750 approx

Money well spent I say!

The holiday is coming

Bentley Copse: campsite 9
Originally uploaded by jaywood_uk

I spent last weekend away with the scouts at Bentley Copse where we spent time in all types of weather. It was great and the scouts seemed to have a good time doing many activities including Archery and Shooting.

I always enjoy camping out, I must say that I prefer it sunny, but you cannot have everything!

It has taken me until today to really recover from the weekend, it was strange that I was the first one up each day and had to set the fire myself and not one of the scouts. But at least they did the cooking!

Next weekend however, Linda, the boys and I are all off to France for a few weeks. I can already tell that I am going to need a week to recover from this as well.

We are driving down to the South of France, to a place called Argeles. Linda and I are being brave (or maybe stupid) by deciding to drive down in one day. Thats close to 12 hours of driving, hopefully the boys will sleep most of it, but i have learnt that they do not always do what we would like or expect!

The planning is going well, we have a route of sorts going down the middle of France and we have booked the EuroTunnel. The car is having a service on Monday and hopefully that will not throw up any unexpected issues.

All we need to do really is pack and I need to go and buy a roof box :-( they might look bloody stupid, but we cannot fit everything in otherwise... we could always leave the kids behind with the cats, but I doubt they would enjoy it that much.

Well back to planning and stuff. 11 days to go and counting

Bad luck comes in three's

Well this week has been interesting, what with the credit crunch, petrol prices and Gordon Brown telling us that we should stop buying food, the last thing i needed before our holiday is extra expenses.

No such luck for me; First our washing machine's control board blew up. Luckily, it did not burn down the house and I was able to find a replacement part online at a 50% discount on what was quoted by the manufacturers.

Secondly, Our computer decided to not recognize the keyboard, mouse or monitor - typical... well another expense as it's needed for work.

Today however our front door no longer opens. Now I agree that is better than not closing, however it really is a bit much!

I feel like I should just smack my head against a brick wall. This week Gordon Brown, the PM and ex-chancellor said that we should cut back on the amount of food we throw away in an attempt to combat spiraling energy and food costs.

Well Thanks Gordo, I didn't notice that my food bills have increased by close to 10% in the last month or two - I must have also missed the fact that my petrol costs are going up daily. He suggesting that i should cut back on the luxuries in life like food and water is a bit much when its his government that got us in this situation in the first place.

Don't worry Gordo, the rate things are going, i wont have any food wastage soon, due to the fact i wont be able to afford any food in the first place.

MPs have voted to keep their £24,000 second home - well thats more than a lot of people have to live on in total and they have the balls to say we should stop wasting food. How about stop taxing us into the stone age and start running the country.

A great day out for boys of all ages

Waiting for the off...
Originally uploaded by jaywood_uk

Three generations of Wood's went on Sunday to Great Cockcrow Railway in Chertsey, Surrey.

Oskar loves trains and anything mechanical really, so on Sunday we went to have a look at the miniature railway and have a couple of journeys. GCR was originally established at Greywood House in Walton-on-Thames in 1946. In 1968 they re-opened in Hardwick Lane, Chertsey.

Compared to other days/afternoons out, it is cheap as chips. £4.50 for a double journey for adults and £4 for kids. This gives you two journeys on different routes (red & green) and it takes about an hour and a half.

Some photos of the day can be found here: Great Cockcrow Railway

For any kids old and young I can recommend it! I bought Oskar a DVD about Cockcrow which cost £12.50 (more than I would normally pay, even for a Hollywood film, but then again I am a cheapskate) which he has already watched 6 or 7 times. Linda I'm sure is getting bored with it already!