As you've already gathered some time ago, I gave up updating SimeWorld regularly a long time ago, but I can never quite seem to find it in me to let it go. So, here's my annual 'State of the Nation' address from the world of Sime.
Since my last update, my world has changed considerably. I was eventually made redundant from the job which I had ben in since Heather was born. Luckily I was only out of work for a month or so, and I've found myself a new role within IT Support for a local firm.
Joanne's job has stabilised over the last 12 months, although you can't take anything for granted these days - even with local government roles. Fingers crossed that things will start to pick up for her soon though, but in the current climate we're both just grateful that we have jobs.
We got to France for the first time in Summer 2011, and we stayed at a KeyCamp near Paris. Managed to get us all up the Eiffel Tower, and had a great day at Euro Disney. Who knew that the so-called 'kids rides' could scramble your brains quite so effectively!
We've still got 2 rabbits as our family pets, but they don't like being picked up (or even stroked) so that has become a bit of a problem. We're spending our time and money to keep pets that we get nothing back from, so we may take the difficult choice to let them go this year. The kids want a dog, and I would love one too, but I'm not convinced that our house and lifestyle would be suitable.
Last, but not least, 2011 was the year I finally found fame on BBC1, as I appeared on Pointless with my brother. I was just made up to get an expenses-paid trip to the BBC Television Centre, never mind get on TV! Anyway, check out this link to see my cool calculated TV appearance in action!
If you would join me once again in raising your glasses, I propose a toast to the website that has taught me so much, put me in touch with so many people, and has become a popular stopping point for fans of my famous jockey Great Uncle Joe Sime!
Well it's that time of year when I post my annual 'diary entry' and bring both of my readers (one of whom is me) up to speed with the events in my world.
So 9 years on from starting SimeWorld, what's changed ?
Well, quite a lot actually. I'm still clinging onto a job which I effectively started around the time that SimeWorld began. My kids are growing up too quickly, as I am sure most parents will agree is a quite common problem! Matthew is about to become a teenager, and Heather is 8 and not long started Brownies (which she is loving). My wife, Joanne, is still in a job which she has had for a LONG time now - and what a roller-coaster ride that has been for her - especially on the salary front. That's a story for another time though.
I haven't been karting for a couple of years now - it's hard to get everybody together, and it's not cheap. I took Matthew to Three Sisters for some practice laps this year though, and he loved it. Maybe he's going to follow in my footsteps and win himself some trophies !
This is the year that I reached the big Four-Oh so I guess I am officially 'old' now - at least in the eyes of my cheeky children. Still, I'm striving to be a young-at-heart postive-outlook kinda person, so keep your fingers crossed for me :-)
So, join me in a toast, by raising your glasses.... *** Happy 9th Birthday SimeWorld ***
It was Matthew's 12th birthday this week - where has the time gone ! It only seems like 5 minutes ago he was starting school, and he's already into secondary school. We treated him to a family meal at What's Cooking in the Albert Dock, which I can highly recommend by the way. As you can imagine, I couldn't resist the toffee ice-cream with fudge pieces, toffee sauce, and whipped cream - hence the photo.
Speaking of spending money, we had to buy Heather a new mattress this week. Her old one came with her bed when we bought it, but it has quickly deteriorated, and you could easily feel the springs through the mattress. So, a new one was purchased and I picked it up today.
That left me with the problem of getting rid of the old one, so I bundled it into the back of Joanne's car and took it to the tip. You can imagine my surprise when somebody there asked me "Is your name Sime by any chance ?".
When I said it was, he explained that his name was Sime as well, and that he recognised me from my website ! It took over 7 years, but I'm finally famous ;-)
So...hello fellow Sime people - why not leave a comment and say Hi. Perhaps you're related to myself and/or the famous jockey Joe Sime (my Dad's uncle).
Who would have thought way back in 2001 that I would still have this website, along with it's throng of dedicated visitors. Well, OK, maybe not the visitors, but at least the website is still here.
I mainly keep the domain for the e-mail addresses that go with it to be honest, but I associate SimeWorld with simpler times and a lot of happy memories, so I can't imagine ever letting it disappear.
In these days of free content management systems like the one provided by WordPress, my manual method of posting to SimeWorld seems very dated now - I have to manually code the HTML to cater for formatting for instance. The thing is though, I made SimeWorld - coded by hand. It's nothing fantastic, but I was very proud of it at the time, and I still am to some extent.
Will SimeWorld be here 8 years from now ?
Seems unlikely - 8 years is a long time - but who knows. Watch this space to find out. I might even get round to a complete facelift one day :-)
Well SimeWorld is pretty much abandoned as a website now, but I thought I might as well drop a quick update on, just in case anybody stopped by !
Matthew is now 11 and has started secondary school. We managed to avoid the local rubbish feeder school, and managed to get him into a much better one - the one we adored when we attended the open night. Heather is now 7 and full of energy, cheekiness, and cuddles. They're both getting bigger and older by the day, and we try and treasure our time with them whilst they're still young.
I'm still working as an IT Manager, and Joanne is still working with children who have hearing impairments, to help them integrate into mainstream schools. I don't think such a public forum is the right place to discuss details, but suffice to say that due to some work-related financial issues, we're going to sharing a single cracker at Christmas - but at least we'll all be together :-)
Finally, an update after such a long absence wouldn't be worthwhile if it didn't contain some useless links. So, here you go...
And so another New Year dawns, and once again I forgot the FTP login details for SimeWorld ! It took me half the morning to change the logo (and background) and upload it, which is ironically about how long I've spent on the entire site in the last 3 months :-)
Anyway, may 2009 bring you everything you wish for, and more. Life's not a rehearsal folks, and time is whizzing past, so live your life to the full and enjoy every moment.
I was very saddened to hear that Oliver Postgate has passed away today at the age of 83. Oliver brought many things to the world, my personal favourite being Bagpuss. His voice had a wonderful quality, and I could listen to it all day.
Thank you Oliver for so many happy childhood memories. Rest In Peace.
Bagpuss gave a big yawn, and settled down to sleep
And of course when Bagpuss goes to sleep, all his friends go to sleep too
The mice were ornaments on the mouse-organ
Gabriel and Madeleine were just dolls
And Professor Yaffle was a carved wooden bookend in the shape of a woodpecker
Even Bagpuss himself once he was asleep was just an old, saggy cloth cat
Baggy, and a bit loose at the seams
But Emily loved him
It was Matthew's 12th birthday this week - where has the time gone ! It only seems like 5 minutes ago he was starting school, and he's already into secondary school. We treated him to a family meal at What's Cooking in the Albert Dock, which I can highly recommend by the way. As you can imagine, I couldn't resist the toffee ice-cream with fudge pieces, toffee sauce, and whipped cream - hence the photo.
