Chris and Janet's home page.

19 May 2005

Not long back from a weeks holiday in the UK.

The week started with a couple of days in Glastonbury, mainly recovering from jet lag. The McCourtey's came up from Dorchester for the day - which helped motivate me out of the house and up the Tor. Fran and Clare drove down from Bristol to see us, nice!

Then we set off for Wales where we had a hectic schedule. First day was spent driving seeing family, mainly aunties - Hilary, Teresa and Vicki (plus Rachel). The next day we went for a 10 mile hike with Ian (Bryant) and John (Hiddlestone) in the Brecon Beacons - the weather was great (for Wales) with great views of Llyn y Fan Fach. Although the start of the day was marred by an irrate farmer pissed off that we had inadvertantly wandered onto his private property! Dick.

Next, we had a day with my parents, driving to Carmarthen on our way to Pembrokeshire. Went for a walk around Bosherston with its beautiful lakes and coastline.

The week ended with a drive back to London. Stopped off to see Theo, Dawn and their new arrival Oliver. Then it was off to see Helen and Ben for Freya's naming ceremony in Greenwich park. The weather managed to behave, despite the forecast, with some sun thrown in there as the afternoon progressed. Spent the afternoon eating, drinking, taking photos, and talking to old friends - lovely.

Spent the last night with Ian and Steph in their (new'ish) home in Knockholt. Very nice too, tempted to move to the country myself now!

Finally, a mad rush to Heathrow, which included dropping bags off at Steve and Amy's (and little'un), a spot of lunch at Rumella, Rahul's and Rishy's (hope I've got the spelling right) and saying goodbye to Janet as she was staying on for an extra week. It was a shame I hadn't more time, I felt so bad rushing around like that.

The flight back was uneventful. US immigration was dismal - plane touched down at 7pm (ish) I didn't get home until 10:30! Anyway, I'll leave the ranting for another time.

I've finally got my act together and have started the long process of converting hard copies of 'The Camarthenshire Historian' to an electronic format. My Grandfather was the Hitorian's editor for many years. Thanks Auntie Hilary for digging out those precious TCH copies.

6 May 2005

Baby cooking nicely. Janet feels less sickly now, and so is slightly less stroppy - much to everyone's relief.

I read in Cycling Weekly that London has seen a large increase in the numbers cycling. Hurray. Apparently it's all due to the introduction of the congestion charge. I imagine people must feel encouraged to cycle in the City due to the reduction in motor traffic?

Anyway, if a significant number of people are getting on bicycles because of the friendlier environment surely this should send a signal to the government? Apparently not. An extra five million pounds, over the next three years, has been set aside for Cycling England by the Department of Transport. Five million? Five million doesn't build many cycle paths, parking areas, or better access to public transport. I don't know the cost of a decent national marketing campaign these days, but would 5 million cover the cost of a concerted effort to persuade people to leave their car in the garage in exchange for a healthy two wheeled mode of conveyance? With such a pitiful increase in funding I'm left wondering how much budget each of the major political parties assigned to their month long General Election campaigns; I wonder how they compare, pro-rata, to 5 million over 3 years?

Maybe I should have voted for the Green Party.

I did my first bike race in three years last night, and finished 6th! Before the race I kept telling myself not to do anything silly, first race an'all; what did I do? Got in a two man break after the first lap - needless to say I got dropped within half a lap and spent the next three laps hanging onto the peleton. I hung on though, for dear life, and managed to wind it up for the sprint, and surprisingly found myself passing quite a few riders before hitting the finishing line. Pleasantly surprised.

The race was held at Floyd Bennett Field an old disused runway, organised by Kissena Cycling Club. Credit must go to the organisers for a very well run event. I arrived 45 minutes before race start and found sign-in well under way; racing started promptly at 7pm; and each of the three races had a lead vehicle. Not bad for a mid week event. Oh yes, and a copious amount of safety pins to attach race numbers. Bravo.

The circuit consists of a 2.3 mile loop with wide roads (or should I say runways?). The road surface isn't smooth, so I'm hoping not to crash; the riders seemed a sensible bunch though, so I have high expectations, although I don't want to tempt fate!

I was doing research on the name Iadicicco, my grandfather was Simmaco Iadicicco, and in doing so came across the Ellis Island web site. I found some very interesting immigrant documentation regarding possible distant relatives that travelled to New York from Naples around the turn of the century. What an amazing site! They have the original ship manifest, which includes details of how much money they were carrying, their final address in New York, what skills (calling) they had, and strangely, if they were an Anarchist (isn't everyone?). There are even pictures of the boats they journeyed in.

Closer to home, I found some of our relatives listed on Ancestry's website. Rachael, Sarah and my grandfather Simmaco are all listed. Also, there appears to be some people looking for other Iadiciccos on the message boards.

20 April 2005

So it's official, we're expecting a baby! Janet is already getting fat and has started whinging. As a loving and supportive husband I've given up watching Premiership football on TV.

At the moment, the current due date is Novemeber 3rd - I've got a book running (don't tell the wife), so if you want in, drop me a line ;-).

Just arrived back from Florida, here are the photos.

The UK's 2005 General Election is coming up. I've applied for a proxy vote, so my mum is going to vote for me (as I'm currently working in the States). I took a test and found that I should vote Liberal Democrat. I've never voted LibDem, always Labour. What should I do?
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