Reflections

All articles categorised as Reflections.

Touring Fasthosts' new Worcester data centre

If I had a bucket list, this would be on it.

Last week I had the privilege of being invited to tour the new Fasthosts / IONOS data centre here in the Midlands (Worcester) and I jumped at the chance.

I got to see “back stage” of the purpose-built facility where Fasthosts build and host the 10,000+ servers that power the company’s web and email hosting, CloudNX and virtual server platforms, and dedicated/bare metal servers.

DevOps , Reflections Read more


Disney Parks to close for Hurricane Ian

In the worsening weather conditions reminiscent of Hurricane Matthew, back in October 2016, Disney Parks in Florida are closing again.

This time, they are closing the Disney theme parks and water parks two days for Hurricane Ian, starting tomorrow, September 28th.

Disney , Reflections Read more


The official photograph of Queen Elizabeth II released by The Royal Family

God bless, Your Majesty

It is with great sadness the Royal Family today announced the passing of Queen Elizabeth II.

She died peacefully this afternoon at her beloved holiday home in Balmoral.

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Happy New Year! Welcome, 2022...

2021 started with much hope of vaccines to bring an end to the COVID-19 pandemic, alas it wasn’t enough.

A year – and three vaccines later – and there is no end yet in sight. Although hospitalisations are steady, despite the rising number of cases of the Omicron variant, so maybe there is a glimmer of hope for 2022.

As I reflect on the last year, I’ve made some achievements I’m proud of – both personal and professional.

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Please don’t let my kids and I cross the road

For my first blog post of 2020, I thought I’d share one of my challenges of being a parent to the boys and a 5-year old Labrador called Mickey: crossing the road.

Our local estate is generally quiet for traffic, so crossing the road is usually uneventful. As you’d expect, there are times we have to wait for a passing car before we can cross. I’m constantly re-enforcing to the boys that they must wait until the road is clear of cars before they cross.

Which means when someone stops and waves us across the road in front of them, whilst it is a kind act, it does irritate me.

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Top 10 things to do in Florida

Florida is my go-to destination for a holiday. I’ve been several times since our honeymoon in 2012 and yet I still manage to find something new to see or do each time. When I fly into MCO airport and walk through the stunning atrium, I know I’m back in my happy place!

Whether you’ve never been before, or are going for the 20th time, this is a list of the top 10 things to do in Florida that I think will make your visit that little bit more memorable.

(Spoiler alert: Disney features a lot!)

Disney , Reflections Read more


Brexit forced me to change my identity

A year to the day before the UK leaves the EU, the European Commission announced that all .eu domains registered to a UK address would be dropped.

Horrified at the thought of losing my andys.eu domain name (and with it, my primary email address of 8 years) I tweeted out to EURid – the organisation that manages .eu domain names.

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Daughtry performs Demons in The Passion

Earlier this week, I couldn’t sleep. So I did what I normally do when I can’t sleep – I watch music videos on YouTube.

The first video in my “here’s what YouTube wants you to watch” list caught my eye. I immediately thought I had missed a piece of new music from one of my favourite artists of the last 10 years: Chris Daughtry.

Entertainment , Reflections Read more


My journey to parenthood – part 2

My second post in a series of articles about James and my adoption journey is our experience of the first day of “prep group training.”

A few days ago we turned up at the Halesowen Barnardo’s office for day 1 of three days of prep group training – a course that’s designed to provide the information, explanation and tools we will need as adoptive parents – not just to get through the adoption journey, but for the life of our future children.

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My journey to parenthood – part 1

This series of posts is an insight into the world of adoption from the viewpoint of a same-sex, male couple. I decided to publish our story for a number of reasons: 1) because I’m a private individual and rather than talk to people, sometimes it’s easier to put it into writing. 2) to help others who are thinking about going through the process, and 3) so we have something written down to show our future children how they came into our lives.

This is the first in hopefully a number of posts charting our journey.

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