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You know, the weather is starting to improve and it’s really funny how a spot of sunshine changes everything. It lifts the mood, it makes you feel great and it gets you thinking about holidays. Well, it got me thinking about summer holidays anyway; it might have had a different effect on you.

So, where to go  .. where to ? There are a million and one options, and we certainly have family to visit in Malta. But then there are other places that the kids would enjoy too. I’ve heard some great things about Mallorca from a friend of ours who stayed in one of those Pollensa villas. They had a great holiday there and one of the things they enjoyed was the fact that they had a self-catering arrangement. I quite like staying in a hotel and having all the comfort of someone else doing the beds, tidying up and doing the cooking and cleaning. But there’s something to be said about having the freedom to come and go as you please. And that’s a particularly good thing when you still have young babies who may wake up crying in the night and disturb other holiday makers.

Of course, there are other holidays that are just as attractive. Going skiing for example. Not that the babies are going to be skiing, but I can just imagine the twins would have a whale of a time. I know Arthur would really enjoy it. But really Summer is more about sun and sea for me, so maybe one of those Puerto Pollensa villas might be a better option.

So, here’s a question for you. What are you planning for this summer? Are you heading to the sea or are you heading to the mountains? Is it going to be surfing or skiing? I’d love to hear what you’re up to.

Here’s what I had to eat:

Here’s what I had

yaki soba, teppan-fried soba noodles with egg, chicken, shrimps, onions, green and red peppers, beansprouts and spring onions. garnished with mixed sesame seeds, fried shallots and pickled ginger; with a side order of Duck Gyoza, five deep-fried duck and leek dumplings, served with a spicy cherry hoi sin sauce

One of the yummiest things ever. I’m looking forward to trying more in the future. Here’s their menu.

Don’t get me wrong, we had our fair share of good nights out. And the great thing about them is that they tend to stick in your mind and you draw on those memories. Like a couple of years ago, when we went to Finland for Christmas. We had a great time, though Arthur was a bit too young to remember too much of it. Then there was the time we went to Paris, visited the Eiffel tower and went to EuroDisney. That was only last summer, so it’s still quite fresh in our memory. But before Arthur was even around, we spent some time living outside London and we do have some great memories from that period too.

The great thing about living in Staines was that we were only one train ride away from London. One particular evening that sticks in my mind was just the two of us heading into London; we went to Chinatown and stopped at a Chinese buffet. We then found an arcade in the corner called Quicksilver Games and spent the whole evening playing on slot machines. It was a great evening, and I don’t think we’ve ever hit the slots again in the same way; but it’s the sort of thing you carry around with you. It was an evening to remember and I’d recommend a visit to anyone looking for a good night out; … in the meantime .. there’s a baby crying upstairs …

We’re off to Malta for Christmas, but one can’t help but think about what we’re going to do this summer. The truth is that with a 4 year old and 2 babies, our options are a little limited. Flights are a bit of a drag, I’m sure we’ll learn all about that on our forthcoming trip to Malta.

But we do have another option. When we knew we had twins on the way, we did invest in a 7 seater, which means we can go on a driving holiday, and thanks to sea transport, well, all of Europe is really still an option for us. I’ve never actually crossed the English Channel on a ferry, but there are a number of ferries to france available to choose from, and with websites like www.ferry-to-france.co.uk its easy to have a look around and find the best deal. And crossing the channel is only the first part of the equation. Once you get to France, you can drive to Germany, Austria, Italy and a selection of other countries. I’ve been to a couple of European countries, but it would be quite fun to visit some others.

So, doesn’t look like I’ll be collecting many Airmiles in the near future, but my driving is going to get lots of practice.

Twins and mum are all doing fine; and Arthur and I are over the moon. I’m not going to say they’re not hard work (my lack of online time will probably attest to that); but we’re enjoying each sleep-deprived minute and are looking forward to what the future has in store.

Just wanted to drop a line to everyone who sent us best wishes whether it was via blog comment, email, Twitter or Facebook. I’d love to reply to each and every of the hundreds of messages individually, but I can’t promise I’ll have the bandwidth to do it. Just keep watching the usual channels and I’ll keep you posted with any developments.

I don’t know if you’re anything like me but I feel that a personal touch can make all the difference. You know, instead of receiving email or mail from a faceless organisation, it’s nice to receive personal correspondence from someone who’s trying to get a message across to you. It’s also the case when you’re speaking to someone on the phone. Some companies have a policy whereby the person you’re dealing with introduces themselves first, and I find it makes all the difference.

You can try being more personal too. For example, when you’re sending an email, it’s nice to try and be as personal as possible. And the same also applies when you send a letter to someone. You can have your own custom stationary and you can also get yourself personalised return address labels, just like the ones down at 123 Print.com. They have a huge range of templates to choose from and you can even add your own artwork. Prices start at $4.95 for 150 labels, so they’re not even expensive; and it helps give your correspondence a personal touch. Check them out.

One thing that’s we really need to start thinking about are names; even though we’re not quite sure about the gender of the babies yet. One of the scans seem to indicate that one of them was going to be a baby girl, but nothing’s been confirmed yet. Luckily, there are tons of baby sites with name ideas; including this one at BabyConnect.

Heh .. I just discovered that Akira is Japanese for “Intelligent” .. never knew that

Anyway, today we found out that both of them are doing well and we came back home with this photo:

To our amazement and joy, both embryos have implanted and seem to be doing extremely well. One of them was a bit shy, so you can’t actually see him here, but you can clearly see the other one on the left, waving his hand.

They’re 6 weeks old and only 6mm in size, so still really, really tiny and the first trimester is fraught with risk, but we have high hopes for them and if everything goes to plan we’ll have twins sometime late in September.

I’ll keep you posted with further news!

I had an interesting experience today. I organised a talk for the BCS about development techniques, specifically unit testing, TDD and BDD. Granted, it’s a bit of a geeky subject, but hey, it is the British Computer Society, and a technical event was well overdue. We had a great turnout, but if I had access to something like live video streaming services we might have shared it with more people. Maybe it’s something I should look into.

I got immense satisfaction from organising the event, but what was interesting wasn’t the fact that I learnt something new. Yes, that was a bonus, but I got more out of the fact that I had organised something which the 40 or so people in the room had benefited from. The speaker was quite passionate about his subject, and I felt that his enthusiasm was well communicated to the audience; and that made me feel great. The funny thing was that I had expected myself to enjoy the talk for the technical elements, not for the fact that I had be instrumental in setting it up.

Does this means I’m turning no longer a geek and turning into a “people person”?

Update: If you’re after some technical detail, read Nathan’s post

Well almost. It’s the night before the night before Christmas and our house is full of wrapping paper, the turkey is sitting in the fridge and the tree is sparkling in the corner. I’m finally getting into the spirit, but I’m working tomorrow, so I’m not quite there yet. We also have family over (Camille’s parents and sister are over to celebrate Christmas with us), so it’s going to be pretty much a home/family thing this year.

We’ll be spending New Year’s Eve in too, but we tend to turn it into a great party. There are loads New Years Eve party ideas that one can implement, and I got some great ideas from the New Years Eve ideas page on Celebrations.com. We normally have lots of finger foods in, champagne and even party games, but the website has loads of other suggestions too. Ideas range from Family Friendly New Year’s Eve Parties all the way through to a New Year’s Eve 80s Retro Party. We’ll take some ideas from there but we have a pretty good formula we use.

This year Arthur is 2, well almost 3, so Christmas is a really big thing for him. He’s all eager waiting for Santa to come, has his stocking and keeps asking whether it’s Christmas yet. It promises to be great fun! Can’t wait!