McAWilliams Photoblog

Jaysus forgot about this in all the building works, James and Harry from Menwithpens decided to drop by today and analyze my site with the option to blow it too smithereens after they had finished.

Well after the excitement of yesterdays birthday party, imagine what it was like to have 2 burly american dudes (well one fo them is Canadian but sure its all the same except for how they say about and out etc) look over me with grimaces on their faces. I think they fell in love with my banner cause the grin disappeared quickly, thank god.

Ok what the heck am I on about Menwithpens are 2 bloggers/writers/web designers who go and look over sites and give their critique of them. The one thing I love about these guys is that they dont hold back, they say exactly what they feel and sometimes can hurt the hardest of us.

So I offered a photoblog to the dynamic duo, to see what they can come up with and I think they liked what they saw. I also love getting critques on the webdesign because its something I have been self teaching myself over the years, and was thrilled to see at last I am doing something right.

I agree yearly archives, fewer categories, change my page titles. In relation to the screen size issue, this was a big problem for me. Since its a photoblog, I have always attempted to put up as big an image as possible, 800px is the norm for me, so having the side bars would be an issue for a webpage 960 across, well would look more cluttered, also the decider for me was to look at the google analytics stats and 1024px was the norm for the visitor here.

Please go have a read of what they had to say because there is a lot of very useful stuff to be found for photoblogs. Also thanks you so much to James and Harry for not wrecking the place to much, it was a pleasure having you over.

Technorati Tags: men with pens, the drive by shooting

So all our hard work got unveiled yesterday for Rebeccas second birthday, and what a rush to finish it was.

We had it all planned out, Rebeccas birthday was last Monday and we decided to have her party yesterday this gave us time to finish off the flooring, the 2 tonnes of soil moving, the carpeting, painting, etc etc. We also had a bright idea to take our holidays the week of her birthday and a week after.

With Rebecca in creche it meant we could easily get the 63 square meters of flooring done in time for the party and go for a trip to Wexford the week after, yep thats right since the builders left myself and Paula have been doing the rest.

So last Saturday the 19th we got all the wood to the house and were about to sit down and take a breather when the phone started ringing. It was my work colleague ringing to tell me he had broken his foot and would not be able to work, could I cover him for a week. Of course I obliged, and both he and work owe me now big time, but what this meant was that the flooring had to be done when I got home, so last week both myself and Paula stayed up till 2.30 every night getting the work done, so as you can imagine I am like a zombie.

But we got there! and the party began in earnest and everyone was amazed at how well we had done. Tomorrow we head for Wexford and I will return on Wednesday with shit loads of pictures since the camera has been away for 2 months now, I need to relearn a thing or 2.

Technorati Tags: 2nd birthday, rebecca williams, second birthday

So here it is, this is what has caused me much pain over the past few weeks, this image was taken when they had finally closed off the building. Much has happened since then, and is taking its toll on us, painting, flooring, carpeting, new ovens and hobs, and of course my favourite the garden. All of this is in the process of been done by Paula and I and we hope to have the guts of it all done by the end of next week.

I have taken a load of other pictures of the sunroom but to be honest I think I will leave them on the hard drive, and put up some shots when all work is completed.

Technorati Tags: sunroom

As many of you know blogging has been light here for the past few weeks, but the building works got the better of me and now I hope to get the camera out again and get some pictures, if I can remember how to use the camera.

In other news the site went through a bit of an overhaul behind the scenes, hopefully the pages should load a lot quicker now, and run smoothly across all platforms. A few of the pages will change also over the next day or so, so keep your eyes peeled for that, also the I am going to reduce the categories to the side to a more manageable list.

In Iphone news, will I, wont I?

Who knows, I know I want one, but once again O2 are playing silly buggers, the tariffs have not changed at all (still 1gig data cap) and the 3g Phone will only be available to existing bill pay customers if they are eligible for an upgrade. Speakeasy customers and people switching networks don’t have this clause, they can just walk in and pick one up straight away.

I am eligible for an upgrade, only after asking customer care to push it forward for me, and I assumed a discount depending on upgrade would happen, nope, even though I am due a gold upgrade all it will enable me to do is actually walk in and get an Iphone for the same price as every other Tom, Dick and Harry. This as you can imagine for someone who joined them when Esat launched way back when, and have stuck with them since, is a disgrace, customer loyalty counts for nothing and as such is another reason to put me off getting the most wanted phone on the planet.

Pat Phelan from Cubic Telecom has asked why is there no irish interest in new 3g iphone, some of the comments coming back are very interesting but I will say tariffs once again are the main bugbear.

So anyhow Photos will return very very soon and I appreciate you coming back to check in on me.

Technorati Tags: builders, iphone, o2, webpage design

So the sunroom is complete and the rain is bucketing down, typical. The build went according to plan, took 21 working days and looks fantastic.

I just wanted to write an entry here because the blog has been the last thing on my mind the past few weeks, also the computer was to put to sleep while walls were knocked down due to dust etc.

Philip Monaghan and his crew at Park Avenue Conservatories cannot be recommended enough, his pricing is competitive and his team work relentlessly through rain or shine. For us to be able to sit in this room already is quite astounding considering other quotes we got were telling us it would be an 8 week build. The finishing should also be mentioned, the wooden ceiling looks amazing and seeing Philips plasterer at work was incredible to watch.

Now they are gone and the garden was tidied up as best they could and now the work begins for both myself and Paula, painting need doing, floors need to go down and furniture rearranged.

But many many thanks to Park Avenue Conservatories for making this build, our first, a very pleasant experience and so much better then we could have imagined. I shall attempt to put up some shots of it over the next day or two.

Technorati Tags: park avenue conservatories, philip monaghan, sunroom