"I've been driving in my car, it's not quite a jaguar"

Here are some more pictures of my new car - I'm soooooo excited!

"Who's gonna to drive you home tonight?"

Well, it is an exciting time for me at the moment - I passed my driving test last Monday (23rd) after weeks of worry!

Not only that, but today I have also purchased my first car. A Vauxhall Zafira 7 seater from 2005. Secondhand of course (theres no way I could afford a new one), but comes with only 47,000 miles on the clock, road tax for 6 months AND a full 12 month MOT and service.

To be honest, I never dreamt that I would pass first time. The problem is I now have to wait until next Friday before I can collect it!

(Yep, thats me behind the wheel!)

He's Dead Jim...

Today was my last driving lesson before the big practical test next Monday (and fingers crossed, my last test ever, though I doubt that). Anyway, I don't know if it is some sort of sign or not, but I had my first road kill today - a suicidal pidgeon who obviously had had enough of life and decided to end it all by going under the wheels of a car.

Still... I feel pretty upset about it! I get upset if I stand on an ant, or accidently crunch a snail beneath my feet in the dark.

What am I like!

Work and no play....

And so ends a fun-filled week. Infact, as I posted on Facebook earlier during the week, "I lead such an exciting life, full of wonder and an unmeasurable amount of awesomeness".

Who am I trying to kid... I need a change.

Work hasn't been too bad to be honest. The summer holidays are great because I get to actually do work and get things finished without the usual interuptions from teachers and students. Infact, what I managed to do this week, it would probably take me several weeks to do! Notable jobs include updating and migrating the schools MIS SQL database from 2005 express to 2008 Standard, and moving over 1000 shared user areas from one server to a new server running MS Server 2008. Inbetween that I've also managed to re-image an entire classroom

Oh... if you ever find yourself in the position of having to migrate 'shared' folders from one server to another (we're not talking about copying files and folders while keeping the ACL settings here.... no-siree!!!), you could use the Microsoft File Server Migration Tool Kit. You could write a batch file that reads a list of folder names and shared names and let it create them for you via a loop, or you can simply export the following registry key from the source server:-

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSer\
Services\LanmanServer\Shares

... and import it on to the new server! Of course, the folder locations must be the same (in our case, in a folder called Users on the D Drive), but it worked fine, and was a lot quicker to do that any of the 'recommended' ways.

I still think I need a new job though...

This week will involve lots of phonecalls to Frogtrade - the developer of our new Virtual Learning Platform. For the price we paid for it, their technical support has a lot to be desired.

The Return...

Well... I keep saying I'm going to start blogging again, and everytime I fail miserably, Here is my latest attempt. Hopefully I will not lose interest and keep it going.

At the moment, I am writing this whilst visiting my parents in Essex. Tomorrow will be Sophie's and Kayleigh's first birthday! My gosh, where has the time gone? We've got balloons, a cake, and I think we may all be going for a walk along the seafront from Westcliff to Leigh-On-Sea... a ritual that we always do when we come here, just like walking Southend Pier (like we did yesterday).

After spending the past week in Laindon, we will be heading back home on Monday to Evesham. Long gone are the days when I looked forward to returning to Evesham - I really want to move... Not even my job at the High School makes me want to stay anymore. 8 years down the line, and I am still homesick.

Thinking of work is getting me down a bit at the moment. Not sure why though, as it's not much different than most years. We've got quite a few projects going on during the summer holidays, and I'm stressing a little bit because they all need to be finished and/or up and running by the start of the new school term. To be honest though, lately I've been letting a lot of things get on top of me, along with the stressing and worrying - it's amazing I still have my hair! I'm sure I've knocked a few years of my ticker!

New Song - "Popcorn"

I've been writing music again, and here is my latest creation - A cover of "Popcorn" (written in less than 2 hours on Friday 14th May 2010). Did you know the song is over 40 years old already!! I know it has been covered many times before, but I like it, so here is my take on the the song. I might record a music video to go alongside it oneday, but in the meantime you'll just have to settle with this.

I hope you like it. Comments welcome.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD/LISTEN TO THE SONG - POPCORN BY STU .WILSON