Just to say Mum lost the battle with an infection in hospital.

The last chapter of an epic life story was completed at approximately 04:00 on Thursday 27th November 2008 at the age of 84.

A wonderful person and a perfect mother in so many ways. She had a big heart always putting others first.

Mum, I miss you so much already – it may not always show on the outside, but my heart is sad, and you're never far from my thoughts -thanks for everything, love Martin.

I’m sorry that posts have been a bit far and few between lately; at least for my personal blog. for the past three weeks I’ve been busy at work costing and ordering for the next project I’m working on a wopping £660k’s worth! And guess what! Christmas is cancelled – I’ll be working at the data centre for most of December.

Mum is still in hospital, while her condition improves, she seems to be weaker every time I see or talk with her. Her medication always seems to be a balancing trick, I only hope they are still tweaking the many combinations, a we will see an improvement soon. Dad is soldiering on, although he caught the cold that’s floating around at the moment.

I was proud to have another guest post published at http//www.wearejustcreative.com and hope to write some more very soon.

You know when Christmas is on the horizon – Starbucks rolls out the red cups

Been a while since my last post and quite a few things have happened;

It’s not until an unfortunate event happens that you realize close a community is and I don’t just mean the physical but also the virtual community. A couple of days ago my Mum was taken ill again, with a temp of 40.3 and with the severe shakes she was unable to speak and breathing was difficult. After calling the 999, the ambulance and doctor were at the door within 10mins, they went straight to business checking her vital signs and reassuring us.

I quickly tweeted the situation and within minutes Graham (imjustcreative.com) was on the phone checking I was ok. Moments later I was getting tweets from across the globe expressing their concerns and sending prays, it was a reassuring feeling and welcomed.

We rushed to St. Georges and Mum was taken directly to resusitation where here temp was reduced to 38 degrees. Two hours later she was moves to A&E, I popped out to update the world via Twitter only to find another batch of well wishes. I tweeted the updates and returned.

By 10:00 I thought we were in the clear, but fate had other ideas. With Mum still on the bed it was time for my Dad. The has this reoccuring problem that the doctors haven’t identified yet; almost like a fainting/seizure episode. With the colour draining from his face by the second I called the nurse as his eyes dilated and he “switched off” with a vacant stare. It only lasts for a couple of minutes but it’s a scarey thing to see and within seconds doctors were surrounding him, and putting my Dad onto a stretcher and taking home to the cubical next door. He recovered in about 10 mins but they kept the monitors on checking his ECG etc.

I spent most of the night & early morning going between the two small rooms checking and talking with the both of them. About 1am Mum was taken to a ward and I spent about 20 mind sorting out the paperwork before returning to Dad. We sat there for another 2 hours waiting for the blood test results and the doctors. At 3am we spoke with them and they said that they couldn’t find any problems and to book an appointment with the GP to arrange a 24hr monitor.

We got home about 3:30 and after a quick update I got some sleep. The next morning there were more messages and well wishes.

It’s amazing how such a community can come together in times of need, it’s proven to me that strength doesn’t only come from within but from those around you near and far, far away.

I would like to dedicate this post to all the people that sent their well wishes and prays to my family – it made such a difference knowing I wasn’t alone through that difficult time.

Appologies for any typo’s this was written from the heart and I won’t be editing it.

Thanks again.

Just a quick post from Starbucks in a very sunny Croydon.

Got a busy weekend, need to write pt2 of the "Google Reader and TwitterFeed" guest post on http://styl.eti.me also prep read my assignment for my 1st week on my UNI course; and there’s more, update a clients website with new content. Blimey!

First of all I’d say thanks to a couple of good friends; Graham (www.imjustcreative.com) and Roger (sty.leti.me) for inspiring me, and encouraging me into writing some posts and guides – keep your eyes open.

Secondly my search for a Mac flatbed scanner continues, I need a new one as my old canon one “just didn’t work” when I plugged it into my Mac – sort it out Steve! What do you mean you’re trying fix a pile of cr@p called MobileMe? Ok give your guys a call at the Kingston shop and tell them I’m coming down and I want answers.

Damn, why is it so called “assistants” in shops such as Currys, PC World think we are stupid? I ask them for information on; in this instance a camera and they read out the paper ticket – “yes, I can read. Any other information?” I typically get a blank look back, and the answer “no”, why bother?

My drink is melting and it’s time to venture forth into the masses again; the throng of fools and idiots that apparently can’t read! I you ask your typical shop assistant.

Well haven’t done this for a while, weekly life-dump. Hi to all the new readers from www.twitter.com

It’s been busy at work spent a couple of days at the datacentre performing general audits of hardware. A number of projects are ending and a new one is starting.

I’ve been tasked to design the hardware and assist in the network development for a large client in the UK. Involves a number of web and db servers for the primary site and the remote DR site. It will take a couple of weeks for the design, then a break while the suppliers pull their fingers out and finally the build.

Family are doing well, mum’s going back into hospital at the end of the month for a couple of weeks for her heart, so we hope all goes well with that.

I’m happy to say I’m a student (again) I start a couple of Open University courses in October and they count towards a BA/Bsc if I hang in for the full 4 years.