£5.50 per adult to enter, then another two lots of 50p for feed for the animals, which came in two seperate containers for different animals. They also said something about claiming Gift Aid on our admission – which would be fair enough, except they charged another £1 on the entry fee to do so. I’ve no idea how that works. I’ve no idea where the money goes, because it doesn’t appear to be on the animals or the upkeep of the farm. Their on-site conference centre appeared to be thriving though….

A far cry from the likes of Cannon Hall (£4 entry) and even Heeley City Farm (FREE!, but please do make a donation!) in Sheffield – both of which had many, many more animals and a lot more going on besides.

Nevertheless, Aimee really enjoyed it, what little animals there were.

UPDATED: with some snaps from today.

“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenly and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson, 19th Century American Philosopher

Eat more vegetables. Get more exercise. Spend less time sitting in front of computers. Watch more movies. Go to more gigs.

Leave the car at home and walk. Clean up more often. Don’t procrastinate. Cycle. Be happier. Be less pessimistic. Grow up.

Be social. Talk to people. Lose weight. Recycle. Swear less, talk more.

Drink less alcohol. Drink more water. Avoid energy drinks. Reduce sugar intake. Increase wholewheat intake. Just say no. Just say yes. Be more prolific. Not just in words, but in thinking, doing and being. Write more, even if it is awful. Blog, but, just a bit. Tweet. Reduce Facebook consumption. Gamble less. Lose less. Win more. Invest. Save.

Spend more time with Aimee. As often as possible. Close the ridiculous distance between us. Teach her how to write, spell, count, ride a bike, swim, read and play. Take photos. Shoot videos. Publish. Sell old stuff. Make some cash. Dream. Sleep. Well.

“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans”
John Lennon, ‘Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)’, Double Fantasy, 1980.

Phew! This has got to be the most protracted house move in history! I’ve been in the flat since the 21st of July, yet most of my furniture is still in Sheffield. Most of my more prized possessions are here, as well as 90% of my clothes, but there’s still a shedload (a houseload?) back in Sheffield – not to mention a load of stuff, including my TV, at my mum’s house. Arrrgh!

Anyhow, I hope to rectify this situation this weekend. Will hire a Transit van and get some of the big items down here. If you know me, and are in Sheffield on Saturday (or Reading on Sunday) and can spare an hour or two to lug stuff about then please let me know!

I also decided when I moved that I’d pick up some cheap sofas, as I was going to leave the old ones in Sheffield for a tenant to use (basically because I hate the damn things!) – I figured Argos or IKEA would have something, but before I even managed to look a mis-price came up on the Tesco Direct website, which offered you a £1000 leather sofa on a buy-one-get-one-free basis, plus you’d get 50% off – making it £500. Except, this 50% discount was being applied twice, so the sofas came to £250. I hurriedly ordered a pair and put the order through, fully expecting an email from Tescos a day or so later telling me that it’d all been some big mistake. Not so. They were delivered last Saturday, which was great – except I’d planned to spend the weekend with Aimee at my Mum’s house. Tesco did at least get some revenge on me – they made me wait in until 3pm before they bloody turned up, so I only got half a weekend with Aimee, which was very annoying indeed.

We made the best of it though – and the good weather meant we got the paddling pool out for Aimee to splash and swim in. She had a great time, and I enjoyed a few precious hours being a dad again, something I absolutely cherish.

Other than the lack of furniture – and, by association, the lack of storage – I’m settling in quite well into my little bachelor pad. It is very quiet, the pub’s just round the corner and the train station is 5 minutes walk. Got my shiny new ADSL2+ installed the other day – no real complaints, only that my Cisco 877 only syncs at 14Mb down, whereas I’m led to believe the O2-provided box o’shit (some re-branded Alcatel box, I think) will do closer to 20Mb. This is apparantly down to some interleaving settings that the ISP could tweak (and indeed, O2′s network provider – Be Unlimited allow users to set themselves) but O2 aren’t interested – I can’t really complain for £4.89 a month, can I?

Reading I find strange. The town that is. It’s a fairly large town, trying desperately hard to be a city. It certainly has the traffic of a city – it’s miles and miles and miles worse than Sheffield ever has been. Someone at work told me that they actively make driving around the town difficult in order to promote public transport and I can well believe it. It isn’t right that a town of Reading’s size should struggle so much with traffic – come 5pm on a weekday, and it really can take 45minutes to an hour to drive the 5 miles from the centre to Twyford. I’m trying to not drive to work wherever possible, and am taking the train – but – sometimes you just get up that little bit too late, and instinctively go for the car keys as you figure it’ll be quicker…

Friends are trying to get me to cycle into work – despite the fact I don’t own a bicycle, and that I’d likely arrive at work hours late, sweating like Gary Glitter at a girl scout meeting and in need of an oxygen mask. Though, I do admit I think I’d enjoy it eventually, and it would of course improve my health no end. We’ll see.