It seems that we see this everywhere nowadays and not just in text messages which is what it was presumably meant for.  Enough is enough people, lets start writing in English again.

As a teacher I see so many younger people that are using text language in their everyday lives.  Text language, for those who have been asleep for the last decade, is a method used when sending an SMS message to someone else.  It shortens the words so that you can say more in one text message and thus costing you less and meaning you can write it quicker.  Below are some of the common shortened words that are used:

• be = b
• see = c
• you = u
• why = y
• in = n
• ate = 8
• activate = activ8
• mate = ma8
• for = 4
• therfore = ther4

And the list goes on but I think that you get the idea.  Looking at the list above it first appears to make sense, as all the words that are shortened are fairly self explanatory.  However start to put them into a sentence and it can get very confusing, and take longer to write than plain English!  Take a look at this example:

hi m8 u k? sry 4gt 2 cal lst nyt. Y dnt we go c flm 2moz?

Can you work out what it is supposed to be saying.  Answer below.  It took me a hell of a lot longer than the actual English.  Isn’t his text language supposed to speed things up?

It is also worrying that it is creeping into life outside of the SMS world.  The amount of young people that are completing work using this language is terrible.  What worries me is that some of these young people don’t actually know that they are wrong or they don’t know the correct way of writing something.

So cumon all u yungis, giv us oldis a chance an mak sur u r8 in proper english wen u shud!

-
Wikipedia - SMS Language

Answer: Hi mate. Are you okay? I am sorry that I forgot to call you last night. Why don’t we go and see a film tomorrow?

Yesterday I got my first look at Microsofts latest operating system, Vista. I have to say that it certainly reminds me of another operating system, used by Microsoft chief rivals Apple. The seem to have used rather a lot of ideas from Mac OS X.

The interface is more modern than in XP which is good. They have used to better quality graphics and buttons throughout all the menus and screens which do make it feel a bit more 21st century. This was somewhere that XP let itself down in my opinion.

They have also gone for the Apple way of thinking with many of the applications. Most of them now have some sort of side bar in which you use to navigate etc. Take Windows Media Player which comes with Vista. It looks remarkably like iTunes to me. Down the left you can choose your songs from artists, songs or playlist and they appear in the right panel. The controls for play etc. are at the bottom of the screen.

Having used it for a while I am not that impressed I have to say. Microsoft seem to have basically looked at what is good in Mac OS X and then they have taken these ideas and brought them into Vista. The problem that Microsoft have now got is that Panther is coming along soon and the functions of that are going to far outweigh Vistas capabilities.

What Microsoft have still not removed which has really annoyed me, and continues to annoy me about most of the Microsoft programs that are available, particularly Internet Explorer, is all the pop up messages that are constantly appearing. They constantly have pop up messages that are asking you “are you sure you want to do XYZ?” and these really annoy me. That was the main reason that I made the move to Firefox before moving across to Mac.

The final frustrating thing that I have come across is that I cannot get Vista to connect to shared drives on my iMac. Research on the net has led me to believe that it won’t happen which is very annoying. If anyone can help me here then I would love to now.

In conclusion I think that Vista will probably be OK in terms of it succeeding XP. Most of the things that I don’t like are probably because I don’t know how to use them. However I still don’t think it gets near Mac OS X.

The the last 6 weeks the pain of our lives when selling our house was the question “does you conservatory need planning permission?”  This was one question that prevented a sale and was really getting on out nerves.  Well finally we have the answer.

As you can see from the image above the answer is indeed a yes.  This is such a weight off our minds and means that hopefully sales can proceed without any problems.

Well today was the real (if not the true) beginning of our IVF journey to child birth. Why? Well today was our first trip to Manchester to the IVF clinic where we met the doctor and got lots of information.

It has been difficult over the last 20 months or so as we have not be able to conceive as yet, which has been stressful for both myself and my wife, however we both feel a little more at ease now as we are on the list and have a reasonable estimate as to the time when we will be able to undergo the treatment in order to (hopefully) have a child together.

I can’t really describe what it feels like to think about going through IVF. You have so many mixed emotions which are very different for myself and my wife. First of all you are immensely disappointed about the situation. You want kids and there is a real possibility that this will not happen in the natural course of events. For a woman this is probably the worse feeling of all. I think that they are far more maternal than men and the feelings of disappointment are so much more real. I suppose you also feel angry in that why is it us that can’t have children? All sorts of couples manage to have children who are perhaps less well equipped in life to deal with them than we are (or think we are!).

Anyway today’s trip to Manchester was the first of many over the next few years no doubt. When we first got the letter we suddenly thought, maybe, just maybe they are going to start treatment soon, but that was not the case. Having discussed all sorts of medical history and confirming this and that we found that there was a wait of 2 years on the waiting list. However as our application went through in March we have already waited 6 months. So that means 18 months to go.

I think in many ways we are the lucky ones. Firstly we could still conceive naturally, yet the chances of this are reduced. Secondly we are entitled at this point in time (it could change) to 3 cycles of IVF. We assumed this was 3 implantations of an embryo, however the good news is that this is not the case. It means that there will be (if necessary) 3 harvests of eggs. If they harvest 10 eggs for example and 6 of them fertilize and turn into an embryo then that means there could be a possibility of 3 implantations in one cycle (they implant two at a time and therefore if the first couple fail they implant the next two). I suppose on the other hand they may take 10 eggs and non fertilize and therefore that is one cycle wasted, but lets not think about that too much.

So we are back to just waiting again. 18 months to go, maybe a little more and maybe a little less, but we will have to see. The next stage is a big seminar with other couples to find out exactly what happens.

–
St. Mary’s Hospital Manchester

Today was a different day as I was travelling on a train. I say I am a train virgin although this is not quite true. I can only remember 3 train journey’s. Once when I was very young to Scotland, the second about 4 years ago from Hamilton to Glasgow and the thirds today.

The journey was from Leyland to Manchester. The journey to Manchester was very civilised. We managed to get a seat and it was relaxing not to be at the wheel for a change. However the journey back was a bit stressed. There was not a seat on the train and we had to stand for three quarters of the way home. This got me thinking about public transport.

People are always saying that we should all be using public transport. I have to say that I support this. However I have to say that both trains were very full and especially the one home. The return journey train was only 3 carriages long, and for a peak time train I thought that wasn’t very many. For people like me who do not travel on trains that much this puts me off a bit in that I can’t get a seat.

That said using the train is not as bad as I perhaps thought, which subconsciously is perhaps the reason why I haven’t used then all that much.

Today saw one of the best racing weekends on the calendar. Why? Well the party went to Spa, in my view the greatest of all racing circuits in the world, and home to the breath taking Eau Rouge corner.

There is nothing like a good racing track to make Formula one worth watching and this weekend Formula one was back at Spa in Belgium after a years absence due to improvements (?) to the circuit. I put a question mark next to this for one main reason. Have they improved it or has it lost its character?

Well with the high standards of safety and media attention that surround Formula One these days it was clear that Spa had to evolve to keep pace with the other, new hi-tech circuits that have emerged over the last few years. I think they have actually done it very well. They have managed to keep the circuit with the same corners, although they have had to modify some of them slightly.

The main changes are with the start finish straight. This was lengthened slightly as well as been widened to create more room for manoeuvre at the start of the race. There will be no more getting onto the grass to get round the someone at the first corner like we have seen in previous years. The La Source hairpin has also changed slightly with a wider exit. Perhaps the biggest change has been with the “Bus Stop” chicane at the end of the lap. This is been revered as it is now a right left corner rather than a left right corner. This is the one corner on the circuit that I think has lost its character.

Anyway I write this article with one corner at the forefront of my mind. Its name is Eau Rouge and it is what makes watching, and I am sure driving in Formula One worth while. Eau Rouge is a fast left, right, left, right combination that is taken flat out in top gear. Something breaks around here and you know about it. But it is not just the sweeping change of direction that is the key to this corner. It is the change in slope. At the start of the corner the cars are going down hill from the La Source hairpin. Just as they enter the Eau Rouge set of turns the cars go up hill and at nearly 200mph this creates a compression effect with the cars, due to the down force that they create. This means that the cars are 25mm closer to the tarmac than when travelling normally. Before cars were fitted with wooden planks to control the ride height you used to see many a car bottoming out here a sparks would fly. Take a look at this McClaren sweeping through Eau Rouge. It can’t help but bring a smile to your face.

It is not all glory through there though. With such high forces going through the car and the body mistakes or mechanical failure often happen, as many a driver including Alex Zinardi have found out. I am just glad that they have kept the corner true to the old Eau Rouge in the new circuit rather than changing it to make it too safe. Part of the thrill of the bend is knowing its danger.

We have started getting George and Jeremy to eat out of our hands recently and it is ever so cute.

Helen was feeding them yesterday evening.  It was carrot out of the hand, however they really like Apples also.  They are becoming more and more friendly since getting them to feed from the hand.  Every feeding time they come running up to you expecting food.  They are always ready and waiting to be fed.

Yesterday evening we spent about one and a half hours in the company of a journalist and photographer from a local newspaper.  No, we haven’t reached celebrity status or have we had some crime committed against us, but we were wanted for a feature to be published in a magazine about new house developments.

As we have lived in our new house for around 2 years now and recommended others to do the same on our estate the PR company for the house builder suggested that we take part in a feature that was going to be in a magazine.  We thought that it looked like fun and so we gave it a shot.

The photographer arrived and took lots of photos of the property including all the rooms and external photographs too.  He also wanted some shots of myself and Helen in various places.  I was taken in the kitchen, Helen in a rather unusual shot looking down on the stairs and then us both at the front of the house.

We all can’t wait for the magazine to come out in November.  It is called Locations and should be out around the North West area of England.

Looking at the numbers in the title at first they seem to be any old set of random numbers that we see every day on various things in our lives. However as many of you will undoubtedly be aware of today, this set of numbers, although shorted by most to 9/11 will go down in the history books forever.

For me the day started as any other day would have. At the time I had just started my PGCE year in order to train to become a teacher. We had lectures all morning and then after lunch, for some reason or other we finished early. I got into the car to drive home and as usual turned on the radio - Rock FM on 97.4FM. As soon as I started listening I could tell that something devastating had happened. However throughout my journey home the radio DJ at the time never actually said what had occurred. He only talked about how tragic the event was.

The journey home from Lancaster took around 30 minutes and I arrived back home unusually early at around 1530. Intrigued at what the commotion was about on the radio I quickly put the TV on and suddenly realised what had happened. Every channel I turned to had footage of the towering inferno that so many New Yorkers witnessed.  As I tuned in the footage of the collapse of the South Tower was being re-run.  This tower had just collapsed.  I remember literally thinking “oh my god”.   I was struck with a sense of fear about what had caused this.  Could it really have been terrorists?  I suppose that question sort of remains unanswered and maybe will always remain like that.

When the North Tower collapsed I was watching the TV at around 1515.  My fear was raised even more.  I suppose half of it was about the suffering of the people in the New York and the other half was thinking “what is happening?” and “what could be next, somewhere in the UK?”.

I remember struggling to get to sleep that night and the day after working in college was difficult.  Our tutors were giving us advice all the time about what to say and do should pupils bring up the topic in a lesson.  That was advice that everyone was listening to and all found it very welcome.

What I have always thought about the fall of the World Trade Centre towers, is why the 1th September 2001?  What was it about that particular day that made it right for whoever it was that instigated these attacks?  I suppose it is ironic that the number nine eleven (911) would have been used an awful lot that morning in New York.  Off course 911 is the emergency services in the USA.

–
Chronology of 9/11
Wikipedia - September 11th
[Video] The 9/11 Attacks

I have been watching the cricket all summer, first the West Indies Series and then later in the summer the Indians.  What has stuck me  is the support for the Indian team in this country.

Now with there being a large Asian population in many areas of the country, for example Birmingham, you would expect that there would be many Indian supporters.  I would have thought that these supporters would be of more advanced years, as they would have come over from India back in the 60s and 70s as immigrants.  Therefore they were born in India and rightly so are supporting their own country.

However what I have noticed is that there are a number of younger Asian people that are going to cricket games (which is good as more support at cricket matches is what is needed), yet they are supporting India.  These people, I would think are born in England.  Therefore why are they supporting India?

If I suddenly moved abroad, there would be no way that I would start supporting some other country.  Also if I had been born in another nation and lived there for a long time then I wouldn’t support the nation of my parents.  Not having been in this situation it is difficult to comment fairly but I cannot understand how someone born in this country would be supporting another nation.  Any ideas are welcome!