Author: Olly

  • Snow in Mansfield, and lots of it!

    I have lived in and around Mansfield all my life, and its only really snowed (properly snowed) a handful of times. I remember it snowing more when i was very young, and most of my teenage years i cant really remember it snowing at all.

    The last few years have seen a return of the snow and two years ago we had record snowfall, lots to play in – but it went after a day or so! Boo!

    At the beginning of this week/end of last week the snow started falling and it ground teh whole country to a halt. People didnt know what to do, couldnt get in to work and just generally shit themselves.

    It was the first time that bonnie had really seen snow too, and she totally loved it! One of the funniest things in the world is watching dogs trying to catch snowballs!

    It was also the first time we had to drive gems car with its new wheels in the snow, uh oh. We have hit stuff twice wh9ch has marked one of the wheels – ill have to get someone to look at it when i get chance 🙁

    All in all, its been pretty hectic! And just as i thought today was the start of the end of the snow, its started snowing AGAIN!

    Oh well, it could be worse – it could be raining!

  • Training Regime

    Most people start the new year with a resolution, and dont stick to it (mostly) I made one to go to the gym a lot and get fit – as i was out of shape, overweight and feeling pretty bummed out becasue of it.

    A friend of mine mentioned he went to the same gym and said he would come with me and dave lunch time every day and help us train. 

    Well its now febuary and i have been at least 5 days a week every week since the new year, sometimes 6 and even sometimes 7 days! I actually enjoy going as it gives me a chance to push myself and sweat and use my body, instead of just letting it rot away.

    I was getting very worried about the state of my health as i got out of breath very quickly and i just basically felt very unfit and unwell. Since starting at the gym my stamina and overall fitness has improved immensly. I can run pretty fast for 10 mins on the running machine and not really be out of breath – before i was totally nackered after 5 minutes.

    Im also doing some weight training which im improving in very quickly. I seem to be moving up a weight every time i go.

    As well as working my ass off at the gym im also eating a lot better – home cooked food, nothing fried, healthy breakfast and good healthy meals later on in the day. Im also drinking protien shakes to help repair my muscles after training. I cant have them during meals i have to use them as a kind of meal replacement else ill put too much muscle mass on and it wont seem like im losing weight at all.

    Anyway, i feel much better in myself – much stronger and much, much healthier. Gemma has been going too and she has commented on how much better she feels now.

    Its crazy how much better you feel about yourself when you know you are doing something to keep yourself healthy.

  • Time slows for no man

    I think most people have the same problem as me, in that they dont have enough time in the day to do the things they want (or need) to do.

    My days are currently structured a bit dodgy as i cant leave the house till about 10am, as we dont like to leave ms bon chops by her self for too long. This means i dont arrive into work until about 10:30/10:45, which is fairly late in the day to be starting work!

    Since the start of the new year dave and I have started going to the gym every day, around 2pm – but this means that i get to work about 10:45, and im leaving again at 2! Thats only 3 hours! The original plan was to come back to work about 4 then carry on working till about 7 or 8.

    Unfortunately due to transport and stuff i haven’t been staying till 7 or 8, ive been going home earlier with the intention of starting work again when i get home, but this hasn’t always been the case.

    As of monday i am properly structuring my days, and im gonna start work at9:00am every morning at home, then leave at 10 like normal.

    The extra hour in the morning means i can reply to any emails that ive received overnight, and then when i eventually get in the office i can crack on with the work i need to do, and dont have to spend the time replying to emails etc.

    We have a lot of work in the pipeline, which is good – but im never gonna be able to achieve my targets if i dont start managing my time better!

  • Links from relative websites for SEO

    Dave and i have been spending a lot of time reading up about SEO and how to build effective links campaigns. We read stuff all the time, many of the things you see on the internet conflict with other things you read, but once you’ve read enough and tried and tested some of the ideas you get a good idea what to do.

    Anyway, the point of this blog post is talk about how google knows if a website you have a link on is in fact a relevant site or not. The reason im talking about this is because we have a “Top Sites” website for the cruise scene  (the modified car cruising scene) and it links to some of the top sites in the scene, and they link back. You all know the ones im talking about! The site has been running for ages, and it has built up a PR2 and as it stands its a pretty decent site to stick a couple of links on to one of our automotive SEO clients.

    As i was adding the link, i noticed the google ads displayed pretty much nothing about cars, and just stuff about caribbean cruises. The domain name and the majority of the content relates to something called cruising and the adwords filter and picked out ads for boat cruises. I guess in a lot of ways its right, but then in the actual sense of the word its not. So does google think its relevant, or not?

    I guess there aren’t many “cruise sites” that would advertise using google, and i dont suppose that many of the car related ads on there have been set to trigger when the word cruise is picked up. If there were some then i guess they would get picked up and used on this particular site, but surely the google filters could figure its relevant content anyway and still display relevant ads?

    I guess much of what google knows is down to what people search for on google its self. So if a word takes on a new meaning then people will be blogging and searching for it so google learns about it and hey presto.

    Im still unsure as to wether or not a link off there will benefit or not, but i guess like publicity – any links a good link (unless iton a site about pr0n or vhagrah. 🙂