Charity

Support Bluebell Wood Children’s hospice
http://www.justgiving.com/Matt-Gaunt1

A great artist – recommend you follow!

Yawn.

Yawn..

Technology – what lies ahead?

My daughter turned 3 recently, and it got me thinking about all the technology she takes for granted – things that were never even thought of when I was a kid. I also started to think about what we will be using as day to day gadgets by the time she reaches 40. When I think how things have developed since I used to play on my Grandstand games machine. So, I wrote a poem! Never written one in my life before, but seemed like a good idea at the time!

Today my little girl turned three
And I wonder what things in her life she will see
When I was that age, in ’75
There wasn’t the things we now need in our lives

A digital watch, cars on a track,
A Hornby train set
And the famous “Big-Trak”
Apart from these few electronic games
Technology was not really there in the frame

As I grew up I witnessed things start to progress
As a child I was hooked – you may well have guessed
Kodak cameras, that could print their own snaps
A video game with square ball and stick bats

I remember when the first video recorder came out
All the family came to see what the fuss was about
Top loader, front load, Betamax or VHS
For a time came the laser disc, without much success

7 inch records and tapes became discs
As was the film for my camera – loved this!
Computers had started to appear in schools
BBC or Archemedees were the two you could choose

Then computers appeared in homes like never before
The ZX Spectrum, the Amstrad and the C64
Cassette tapes first and then floppy disks
Then CD Roms and the Windows OS

Jet Set Willy, Pac man and Tron
Raid over Moscow, and of course Donkey Kong
Exploding Fist, and Olympics in winter
That Christmas I got my first dot matrix printer

Then along came machines used solely for gaming
Nintendos and Segas were there for the taking
Sonic the Hedgehog, and Mario Brothers
Altered Beast and various others

The last few years technology has grown
Gadgets and gizmos we simply must own
iPod, iPhone, ipad mini
With Wifi and Bluetooth, there are just so many

Wireless printing, now in 3D
Skype conversations far across the sea
X-Box, Vita, Play Station 3
I stood in amazement when I first played the Wii

Androids and Apples, tablets and Macs
Blackberries, Windows, touch screens with apps
Computers that take no time at all to re-boot
I remember when Orange and Apples were fruit!

How things have developed so fast is a mystery
This technological revolution will be part of our history
My little girl has all these things at age three
I wonder what things in her life she will see

Cask Ales

Just a quick list of my favourite cask ales (real ale) which you should try if you haven’t already
(Most of these are from Derbyshire/ South Yorkshire)

Please add a comment with any recommendations you suggest are worth trying

1. Peak Ales – Bakewell Best
2. Peak Ales – Chatsworth Gold
3. Thornbridge – Jai Pur
4. Castle Rock – Harvest Pale
5. Blue Monkey – BG Sips (very good!)
6. Harvistoun – Bitter and Twisted
7. Brampton Brewery – Golden Bud
8. Acorn – Barnsley Bitter
9. Acorn – Barnsley Blonde
10. Timothy Taylor – Landlord
11. Leeds Brewery – Leeds Pale
12. Ossett – Silver King

Insignificance – get some perspective

Makes you feel insignificant doesn’t it……

Dads taxi

I’ve heard people joke about “Dads taxi” before, but I’ve only just really understood what they meant. I do feel like a taxi driver this evening.

After work I have done my first “pick up”, a trip to drop one child off at his swimming lesson. A quick turn around to next drop off the older one in another town for football training; getting there just in time to pop back to collect number one son from swimming, and then returning to pick the other one up from football, and finally taking them both home.

All that’s missing is an over-powering tree shaped air freshener, and a radio with some women speaking incoherently at full volume, shouting out random street names.

Dads taxi. Being parked up for another night. Back on shift again 7am.

Spireites Away

Just got to the New York stadium in Rotherham to watch the Spireites beat the Millers (with a bit of luck!). Great new stadium.

Support your local butcher

Support your local butcher. They are a dying breed. Supermarkets have a lot to answer for.
Your proper local butcher (not these rogues who sell out of the back of lorries in car parks and at car boot sales), will supply better quality meat with full traceability
Local butchers have to jump through more hoops and provide more due diligence than you could possibly imagine.
And the supermarkets? Well they can sell you sick Romanian horses, doped up on carcinogenic anti-biotics, passed off as beef.

Want to visit the best butcher in Britain? Visit Jeff Gaunts Butchers, 152 High Street, Eckington, near Sheffield. S21 5RH. Tel 01246 453667

He also sells, Kangaroo, Ostrich, Wild Board ….. but at least you know you’re buying it!

Chesterfield v Rotherham

Wow, my first ever blog. Following one person and 2 feeds. No one following me!
Well, got to start somewhere.

Looking forward to this afternoon. Taking my eldest son to watch a Chesterfield FC game away at Rotherham’s new stadium. Hoping we thrash them (local rivals), but remarkably they seem on better form than us as the moment.

Going to try to attach a photo – just to see if I can do it!