jasonrumney.net

My brother Adrian has just had his 15 minutes of fame, after a $12.2M cock up by his bank which they couldn't seem to put right for three days. I'm still fighting my own bank over a £20 penalty they charged me a few months ago because I paid my credit card off before they sent the bill out so I wouldn't get stung with late charges while I was away. Thats the £20 penalty for late payment that OFT ruled as excessive last July and gave the banks three months to change, then finally followed up on last month after the EU competition commision came to the same conclusion.

Arata now has his own website for his photo albums and videos, so instead of disappearing down the list of posts on Chizuko's weblog, or crawling down the page on mine, there will be a permanent home for them. So if you are a proud grandparent, or just interested, bookmark arata.jasonrumney.net now.

To start with, there are links to the first album of photos that Chizuko posted soon after his birth, the video from my previous post, and a new album of my pick of the best photos so far. Let me know in the comments or an email if there's anything else you'd like to see there.

These last six weeks have been busy for both Chizuko and me, as we get used to having Arata around to look after. With what little time I have left over, I've been piecing together some of the snippets of video we have of Arata into something that at least close family will find interesting, if noone else. If you click on the image to the left, you'll download a draft of what I've managed so far. Its a bit low quality (especially noticable when there's carpet in shot), but I wanted to keep it small for those of you still on dial-up. Even so, it weighs in at 6.1Mb, so will probably take 20-30 minutes to download over a modem, or around 3 minutes on broadband (which should be fast enough to watch as you download). If you haven't already found it, take a look at Chiko's site for a more detailed history of Arata's life, and some photos.

Having not been to Australia since I was 8, I thought I should stop-over in Sydney on my way back to London from Wellington since the plane went that way anyway. I had a great time with cousin David (plus wife Karen and son Ben), and ex-flatmate Jayne.

Over two years since I last went back to New Zealand, this time it's for Eddie and Claire's wedding. As well as the wedding itself, I caught up with brother Adrian for the first time in two years, now conveniently living in Thorndon, and surprised Mum by turning up to dinner unannounced a couple of months after I saw her off from London. Lots of good weather, good cafes and a Lord of the Rings exhibition at Te Papa kept me busy for the week and a half I was there. A few photos were taken, it feels strange being a tourist in your own country.

Some more photos from the Christmas Mum and I spent in Norway with the Jünge family. Multiple pages again, use the arrows at the top of the page.

These photos have been floating around for a while. Note: multiple pages, use the arrows at the top of the page to go to the next/previous pages or back here (up).