.: Xiphi’s Website :.

I’ve been having a look at my website stats to get an idea of how many hits I get a day, where the hits come from etc. It’s really interesting to see where people have navigated to and from to get to my site. However, I have come across some information that I’m wondering if any of you could answer for me …..

1. Who found my site by searching for ‘marmite+tankers’ ?
2. Who found my site by searching for ‘mars+bar+incident’ ?
3. Who found my site by searching for ’swap clothes’ ?
4. Who found my site by searching for ‘paper+round+jobs+in+margate’ ?
5. Who found my site by searching for ‘local+poker+nights+woking’ ?
6. Who found my site by searching for ‘liz+monument’ ?
7. Who found my site by searching for ‘karaoke+queens’?

Answers in comments please …… I’m intrigued ;o)

This week’s first is a cross between an educational first and a culinary first. We decided to have a huge fruit salad for pud for a couple of days, and bought loads of fruit to cut up. I’ve eaten mango before, but I’ve never cut one up, so Si showed me how to :o)

This week’s first was a team outing to Eurodisney in Paris. I’ve been to Eurodisney before, but that was a few years ago, and they only had the main Disney park and the entertainments bit. They’ve since built a Disney Studios bit, which I can only describe as Universal Studios but not as good. They’ve got a few rides and shows, and a lot of ‘how-to’ demonstrations of animation etc, and a back lot tour very similar to Universal’s, but I think the main difference is that you know that no films have ever been shown there.

That said, it was good fun. Best of all I think was the ‘make your own rollercoaster’ simulator, where you could put together any twists and turns you wanted, with loops and bumps etc, then get in a simulator and be strapped in and ride what you’ve just created. The simulator travels in all directions, so a loop spins the thing round, and a corkscrew spins you sideways.

Sport related first this week. Being as Si is an ever-so-slightly-obsessed Reading fan, he’s quite keen on going to see as many games as he can. Now they’ve made it into the Premiership, it means that tickets are harder to get hold of than they were before, but this week we managed to get tickets to see Reading v Manchester City at the Madejski Stadium in Reading. It’s a bit weird going to see such a big game, especially as attendance at Margate or Ramsgate rarely gets much more than 700 or so, and this was a 26,000 sellout. It’s also a bit strange going to see a team that I don’t really support, but all the time they’re not playing Margate or Liverpool, I think I can cheer for them - my theory of ‘anyone but Man United’ comes into play I think ;o)

So, this week’s first was my first Premiership match at the Madejski - and Reading won 1-0 :o)

This week’s first was rather a shock to me. I won’t tell you *exactly* what it was (although some of you already know, so keep it schtum!) but let’s just say that this week’s first is partially the fact that I got an email from someone saying that they’d found my site via google, and nobody has ever said that before!

What they wanted, on the other hand, I’m going to keep quiet for a bit longer ;o)

A culinary first this week (although it’s not something I cooked ;o) ) This week saw a visit to Shakeaway in Southampton. Usually, I’ll have an oreo one or a mars bars one, but I decided to try a new flavour - I tried a strawberry cheesecake milkshake, and it was yummy!

This week’s first was a travel related one. A few years ago they had a ‘50 places you must see before you die’ article in the sunday paper, and I was amused to see that I’d hardly been to any of them. Living in the States for my industrial placement year of uni managed to get me to a few of them. However, there was one that I’d always wanted to go to, but had never managed to see.

Until now. I won’t go into the ins and outs of how I got there (that’s in the holiday write up), but this week’s first was visiting the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. It was amazing!

Another work related first this week …… this week I presented at SHARE in Baltimore. I gave 4 presentations during the week, all related to the testing I do on IBM WebSphere Application Server. I think they all went well (I haven’t had the feedback from them yet, I’m expecting an email sometime soon :o) ) and I really enjoyed it. So, this week’s first was giving customer presentations for IBM at SHARE.

This week’s first was an educational first. I attended a 3 day team leading course up at IBM in Warbrook(about an hour’s drive from me). I’m not sure if team leading is a role I’d like to carry on/take up in the future, but the course was definitely useful. We learned lots of techniques that we could use from day to day in our work, and took part in loads of activities where we got to act as leader, observer, and team member - all very educational ;o)

This week’s first was rather an odd one. I started at IBM in August 2003, and joined a functional test team. The team was quite close, and we all got on really well. Obviously, time went on and people moved to different teams etc, but we still met regularly for tea and outside of work as well.

This week, one of this original team finished working at IBM to join a different company. I’ve been to leaving parties before, but it’s usually been for people I don’t know too well or didn’t work with very closely. But this one was different. So, this week’s first was giving Carl a good send off to wish him well in his new job.