And so another New Year dawns, and once again I forgot the FTP login details for SimeWorld ! It took me half the morning to change the logo (and background) and upload it, which is ironically about how long I've spent on the entire site in the last 3 months :-)

Anyway, may 2009 bring you everything you wish for, and more. Life's not a rehearsal folks, and time is whizzing past, so live your life to the full and enjoy every moment.

P.S. Here's that ball game again ;-)

I was very saddened to hear that Oliver Postgate has passed away today at the age of 83. Oliver brought many things to the world, my personal favourite being Bagpuss. His voice had a wonderful quality, and I could listen to it all day.

Thank you Oliver for so many happy childhood memories. Rest In Peace.

Bagpuss gave a big yawn, and settled down to sleep
And of course when Bagpuss goes to sleep, all his friends go to sleep too
The mice were ornaments on the mouse-organ
Gabriel and Madeleine were just dolls
And Professor Yaffle was a carved wooden bookend in the shape of a woodpecker
Even Bagpuss himself once he was asleep was just an old, saggy cloth cat
Baggy, and a bit loose at the seams
But Emily loved him

...to SimeWorld !
I imagine the party is going to be a fairly low-key affair - possibly just me with a party hat and blower - but nevertheless I thought I would mark the occassion in a small way !

Here's to the next 7 years !

My great uncle, on my Dad's side, was a man called Joe Sime. He was a jockey in the 50s and 60s, but I hadn't realised just how good he actualy was.

There is some footage here of him winning a race, and I have quoted below some more information I was able to find.

Joe Sime Memorial Handicap, Doncaster
Traditionally run over one mile and six furlongs at Doncaster's May Bank Holiday meeting, the Joe Sime Memorial Handicap is staged this season on 1 May at Windsor, while Town Moor is undergoing major refurbishment. Last year the race was won by Mark Johnston's Hiddensee, ridden by Kevin Darley.

In his day, Joe Sime was one of the leading Flat jockeys in the north. Born in Liverpool in 1923, he was apprenticed to Dawson Waugh and rode his first winner on Firle at Newmarket in 1941. He was champion apprentice in 1943, '44 and '46, when his 40 winners included the Portland Handicap on The Shah.

Sime was always able to ride at around 7st 8lb and was noted as an excellent judge of pace. He became something of a big handicap specialist, teaming up on many occasions with Sam Hall, Yorkshire's shrewdest trainer of good handicappers.

For Hall, he won the 1950 Manchester November Handicap on Coltbridge, the 1957 Ebor Handicap and the following year's Cesarewitch Handicap on Morecambe, and the 1960 Wokingham Stakes aboard Silver King.

He also landed the Ebor on Procne (1947), Donino (1948) and Partholon (1963), the Wokingham on Light Harvest (1956) and the Cesarewitch on both Utrillo (1963) and Mintmaster (1965). He won three Lincolns and a Royal Hunt Cup, but his career highlight came with success in the 1964 Great Metropolitan Handicap, aboard Her Majesty The Queen's Gold Aura.

One of the few jockeys to smoke a pipe, the highly popular Sime enjoyed his best season when registering a total of 108 winners. He retired at the end of the 1968 campaign and the first running of the race that honours him took place in May 1999.

There are times when I would LOVE to fill you all in (assuming anybody ever comes here these days!) on various aspects of my life, but unfortunately people know that I am the author, and that can be massively restricting.

Many parts of my life are private, save for a few select people, or perhaps even one special person depending on the topic ! I might want to rant about a work colleague, or whinge about a relative - but none of these things are possible, unless I want an awkward conversation soon after.

So my friends, I will just have to restrict my bi-annual postings to updating you about my family. Matthew is sitting an exam for the Liverpool Blue Coat School on Saturday, but the exam looks VERY hard, so we're not pinning our hopes on that. Heather gets cheekier and funnier every day, but she still has a beautiful smile as a Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free card.

Joanne and I actually went out for a meal on our own. You know - without the kids - and we drank wine (well, Jo did - I was driving) and had adult conversation and everthing ! It made a lovely change, and we're going to make more of an effort to do this a little more often.

Well that will do for now - Facebook is calling me :-)

Matthew, over at Lego Art, has updated his site recently. The most notable addition is a new gallery for Lego Mosaics, containing some of his more recent creations. Why not go and check it out, and leave a comment in the Guestbook if you like the new gallery.

Since it's been such a long time since I posted some links, I thought I would put the record straight with a varied collection of Internet content.

- Horse Quartet

- Teddy Bear Tower

- Design A Flower

- Destroy The Internet

- Interactive Periodic Table

- 5 Million Piece Lego Boulder

- Desktop Wallpapers

- Convert images to vector images

- Production Line Made From Lego

- People Make Perfect Pixels

- 3D Missile Game

- 80's Arcade Games

Watch this space for more before Christmas 2008 (probably) !