It's been a while...

... almost two years, in fact. Where has the time gone?

Well, this is my attempt at a come-back. Things in my life have changed, lots, and after a two-year hiatus this blog is, I imagine, going to change along with them.

Firstly, I'm not back to writing PALS, and don't imagine that I will be for some time.

However, we do still go on holiday, still love taking photos, and I still want to share them. For the past two years most photos have made it onto Facebook, but not onto our website. This is partly down to the fact that in 2013 we only had "real" one holiday, and only made it as far as North Devon. But we've done our best to rectify this in 2014, and have already had two holidays.

If you've looked at our website in the past two years you'll have noted that it's basically been static since June 2012 (when we went to Spain for a week) as well. In an attempt to fix this, I've now uploaded photos from our holiday to the Isles of Scilly in May 2014. I'm also planning on replacing the photos from Southern Spain and Eastern Canada with photos from two more recent holidays - one to North Devon in May 2013, and one to Geneva, Chamonix and Annecy in January 2014. I haven't quite got that far yet - I've still got a photo hunt, some re-sizing and uploading to do, so it make take a few weeks.

I have no intention of updating the rest of our website though - and that includes my poetry section, my page or Dan's page. They've all been static for some time and will remain that way. There's a particular reason for not updating my page. It links through to Yahoo! Avatars that I used to create. Quite apart from the fact that I'd never find the time (or incentive) to update an Avatar these days, the Yahoo! Avatar system still seems to be broken (two years on) and I've got neither the time nor willpower to come up with a fix. So my sidebar now just shows a recent profile-type picture; currently it's the same as my Facebook one, sometimes it might be the same as my Twitter one. Sometimes all three might even match!

Finally, I've updated the links on this blogs homepage - they were so old that some were out-of-date, some don't exist, and some just weren't that relevant anymore. Oh, and I've also re-written the blurb at the top of the blog so it's more accurate.

Back to work

Phew!

I've been a bit busy over the past few days with updating this blog, the website and my newsletter. It's all due to giving myself a week off of work after returning from Rome before beginning my dissertation - and discovering how much I haven't done in the past 12 months!

So, where do I begin? I guess the first thing you will notice (perhaps) are the changes on the blog itself. I was getting very frustrated with the fact that my Archive section listed every month since 2004, so I finally bit the bullet and changed to a "new" way of editing the template - essentially using Blogger's easy drop down menus instead of having to constantly find and learn new HTML code! You can still use HTML in places, but mostly it was a case of using drop down boxes to change things.

I've also added tags to some of my posts - that took a while too. Tags (or labels) have been used on posts that include links to new photos, updated poetry, new issues of PALS and other important features like my wedding. Clicking on any tag takes you to all the posts associated with that tag. I've also tagged posts with photos named on them that have been removed from our website, and posts with broken links (and named the broken link). This means I don't have to re-write posts every time I break a photo link - which unfortunately started to become necessary when we used up all our storage space on our website by adding too many pics!

Finally, I've added an additional link to the blog. After playing with Google Reader and adding some of the blogs I'm interested in (finally sat down and figured out it worked properly) I decided that Profmike's blog was worth adding as a link here. It has info on all the books he's read, and is a good complement to our book club site!

So, that's it for changes to the blog. I've also been updating our website - firstly with new poetry on my poetry site. Additonally I've added photos of our Rome holiday to our Photos webpage, and a press release to the website front page. I'll post the Press Release as a separate blog article too, above this one (something I used to that I think was a good idea and will start doing again).

Finally, I've made a start on Issue 24 of PALS. I'd already added a couple of articles I'd received a while ago, but I've begun to chase people for additonal articles and hope to have enough to fill the issue by the end of June - hence the press release above! On top of that, I've even managed to write some letters - a good way for me to remember why I started all this in the first place, and getting back to doing the thing I enjoy most - simply writing letters and keeping in touch with my pals! I have to admit I've been horrendous at that lately, and I'm going to make a massive effort to be a better pal in the future.

Bedtime?

Phew!

I've been working really quite hard this evening...first off, I corrected a few mistakes that I'd noticed I'd made on Issue 18 of PALS. The issue got released a week before I got married, so I think it's kind of fair I made a couple of little errors! I've now added page 8 (which you couldn't see before - not a huge deal as it was only the standard back page, but looked a bit odd without it) and changed the Issue number on the front page to 18 - before it said 16. Oops!

Secondly, I continued writing up some of the Food and Drink Special, due to be released in late Oct - I was focussing on the Beer page this evening!

Thirdly, I've now changed the way past issues of PALS are accessed slightly (with a bit of Dan's help). Instead of each issue being separately linked on the home page, there is now a link to an All Past Issues page, where there is a full list of every issue and what it's about/ it's date. Links from here take you to the relevant issue. You can still access the most recent PALS newsletters from the side bar on the home page though, just for ease of access.

Fourthly, and (I think), finally, I've uploaded a few more pics to the Aberdeenshire and Scotland photo pages. This time they are from Braemar and Inverness, 2 of the places I've visited in the past couple of weeks. Talking of that, I still need to write pieces on Dundee and Inverness, and have a go at the "Adventure Special" pieces too. Something for another day I think!

Wedding Photos!

At last, after a weeek and a half, I've finally got around to uploading some of our favourite wedding photos to our website. Of course, there are plenty to be found on flickr, and you can even add your own (see our website for more info on how to use flickr), but a sample of our faves are finally up for those people that don't want to wade through (at present) 300+ pics!

Foolishly, I thought there would be far less to organise after the wedding, but no...there's my name to change (everywhere - honestly, you do not know how many places have your name), money to sort, Thank You cards to make - and just to make life even more complicated, job interviews to prepare for and funding issues to sort for when I start my MSc in Sept. I guess it's not surprising I was feeling a bit overwhelmed at the beginning of the week!

Anyway, have a look at our Wedding Photos for now, and I may even get round to making a start on Issue 19 of PALS at some point in the next few days.

Finally, activity - Issue 15 is Online

After -finally - having a day at home, I have done useful things towards PALS and our website!

Firstly, Issue 15 is now online and available for you all to see. This time, there's a range of issue from the Creature Feature to more updates on the questionnaire many of you filled in months ago now. I've also decided what Issue 16 will cover, and will start work on that in early Jan.

Secondly, our Photos Website has now been updated with pictures from our weekend in Madrid a couple of weeks ago, and a couple more pictures of Garthdee in Scotland -see roughly where our house is; the icy field is right next door to where we will (hopefully) be living!

Thirdly, "Anna's Page" has been updated with a couple more Avatars - see how my avatar celebrated Xmas and New Years!

And I still haven't finished as I need to write up a bit about my time in Madrid for a future PALS (before I forget what we did!), and I have a whole bunch of wedding things to update and look into - we can finally start planning our honeymoon as we have no more holidays booked (currently) until then! And I am studiously ignoring the fact that the whole house is a mess and needs cleaning before people come over for New Years tomorrow....

But I have at least done plenty today! Have an excellent New Years Eve and as I'm unlikely to update this tomorrow, see you all in the New Year! Perhaps in Scotland...

Updates

Just a quick post because I'm trying to have an on-line book chat, read my e-mails and update my blog all at once as I want to go and watch Planet Earth in 45 mins!

Anyway, although I've not done anymore to the newsletter today (busy applying for jobs and writing letters - I did plenty of that), but I haven't created a new page on my website. I wanted a place to have a type of "Avatar Diary" where I could keep all my old Avatars, so that's what Anna's Page now is. There's only one Avatar on there currently as I hadn't saved the old ones, but the page will (hopefully) get updated each time my Avatar changes!

New additions

If you've looked at the site recently you may notice a couple of changes I've made in the past couple of days. Firstly, there is now a link to Dan's web page in case any of you wonder what he gets up to!

There is also now a direct link to my poetry site under the Links section. It's actually part of the tiscali website that also houses the newsletter, but on a separate link. I have recently updated the poetry website, so even if you've looked at it before hopefully there will be something new in there for you to see. I'm likely to write about it in a future issue of a newsletter too.

Finally, I've now added my Yahoo avatar - if you scroll down the sidebar my Links are on you'll see it there. I think it's cool! If you have a Yahoo account you can create an 'Avatar' (basically you get the frame of a person and you get to dress them and choose their hairstyle etc - it's a bit like creating a new Sim, if you've ever played it). Yahoo then lets you export the Avatar, so every time I change it in Yahoo it will also change on my blog. I hope you like it - I have fun messing around with it every so often!

The Website's Front Page

Dan has now sorted out the front page of our website, so that there will be links to each issue of PALS that is created. He has also added a link to a poetry site he created for me ages ago, so you can read some of my poetry if you want to. The front page is just a short introduction to what's on the website, but it makes the whole thing look a bit more professional. Hopefully it will be easier to find what you're looking for too now.