new pictures of Iona and Eden at the hospital added below...

posted by Neill 10:16 AM

Friday, March 23, 2007

posted by Neill 8:59 AM

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Born 08:45 - 22/03/07 - 8lb 11oz

posted by Neill 3:40 PM

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Train a child in the way it should go, and when

it is old it will not turn from it.
Proverbs 22:5-7

posted by Neill 9:10 PM

Saturday, March 18, 2006

here is a new desktop background for all of my daughters fans, friends and family both at home and abroad.

download and enjoy.

Photo Credit to David McNeill

posted by Neill 10:12 AM

Saturday, March 11, 2006

lorna's quote of the day:

"but i was thinking that i was a little bit clever!?"

posted by Neill 7:43 PM

Thursday, March 09, 2006

i don't know how long this will be funny for but you have to check out this link.
ITV Photo mixup

somehow i don't think that the picture of "senior officers back shoot to kill policy" is correct.

what do you think?

posted by Neill 9:20 AM

Monday, January 09, 2006

well after many months of waiting, we are now running our trusty skoda tdi on bio diesel. not 100% due to the cold weather, but 50% is a big step in the right direction. i am fascinated by the fact that you can run a diesel car off of nothing other than old frying fat and have wanted to change over to it for some time.

sadly this will not be that time. this is more of a bio diesel experiment. while i have been going on about it for months, i have never run some in my own vehicle. the bio diesel that i am running at the moment was collected by the good miss steph chambers while on her way home from her parents house in north wales. i gave her two 25l containers and she was nice enough to fill them up for me.

but the car is running fine, no loss of power or fuel economy. now i just need to fine a local reseller for bio diesel, or perhaps a source of cat cadavers.

dead cat diesel

posted by Neill 6:58 PM

Thursday, December 22, 2005
2 comments

merry Christmas everyone, the cards are still to be sent so i thought i would put up our letter for download.

enjoy!

Birchenalls Not Dead As Feared

UPDATE: link above repaired, please do comment to say hello.

posted by Neill 11:19 AM

Monday, November 21, 2005

this video was one of the best ways i have ever found to waste 3 mintues of my life.

download it HERE and watch 3 minutes and 32,826 kilowatts go by.

posted by Neill 10:06 PM

Wednesday, September 28, 2005
1 comments

i often feel like blogging about current events that i feel strongly about; here is what may be the first of many.

Jean Charles de Menezes. i now see that this man's family have arrived in the UK "demanding justice for his death and seeking information on the circumstances". i am shocked to hear that they have come at the expense of the London Metropolitan Police department! And somehow i doubt they were flown over in the cheap seats either.

the police have admitted that they can find no links between mr Menezes and any kind of suicide attacks on the London underground. that is a fact. another fact is that the family have turned down a generous gift from the Met of £15,000. i can only assume that is because they feel they deserve more. a lot of people think they do and they have a right to feel that way, but i just don't see it. this man was an illegal immigrant. he even had a forged visa in his Brazilian passport.

these are incredibly serious charges that the media are just not talking about. they just want to name and shame the hard working police department. as i see it they suspected a man of being a suicide bomber and approached him. it is very likely that they approached him quickly and with guns drawn. in circumstances like this, if you were a criminal, as mr Menezes most certainly was, you would have a look of "i have been caught" in your eyes. now when you are dealing with a suicide bomber, this look, i suspect, is often followed by the detonation of their explosives. the metropolitan police did not wish for this to happen and were forced to shoot him in a manor such as to prevent him from detonating any device he may be carrying.

this is a sad story that has ended in the death of a man who should have only been fined and put into prison. but at the end of the day he was a criminal and that is just something that is not being said enough. the Menezes family need to break their ties with radical left-wing politicians like mr. george galloway (i use the term politician very loosely there) and get on with their lives. they are being used by people like mr. galloway to further his own sick agenda. this is a sad story, but one that really needs to come to an end. i hope that the Menezez family can find it in themselves to accept the appology from Mr. Ian Blair, a good man whom they have so far refused to even meet.

And if the Brazilian family really want to critisize a police force, maybe they should have a look at what some of their boys at home are doing. According to Amnesty International the Brazilian Police force think that torture is a good way to get someone to admit to a crime. read more about that here

posted by Neill 2:31 PM

Friday, July 29, 2005

with my birthday looming and little room in this busy birthday weekend for many more events, lorna and i have decided to indulge in some american capitalist coffee bliss at the new starbucks next to children's hospital. we will be there on saturday morning (tomorrow) for around ten, but may be a few minutes late so get yourself a muffin and we will see you when we see you.

posted by Neill 11:56 PM

Thursday, July 07, 2005

i may just be a proud dad, showing off a cute picture of his kid, but hey, if the shoe fits.

the reason for this particular picture is because i have it as the background on my computer, and i nearly jump out of my seat every time i minimize a window!



go on...
set it as your wall paper and see what i mean.

posted by Neill 11:37 PM

to all of our friends and family in the US who are waking up to reports of explosions in london, we are fine.

and for the last time we live in sheffield, not london.

posted by Neill 1:00 PM

Daddy's American girl!

posted by Neill 1:59 AM

Sunday, July 03, 2005

Party Time!

Apologies for the short notice, but tomorrow we will be having a full American Style 4th of July Barbecue from 4 o'clock onwards!

Bring your favorite American style food or drink to share.

If you feel that you need to brush up on exactly what this is all about, here are some useful links.

all the best and see you tomorrow!

Growth of the American Revolution: 1766–1775

The Declaration of Independence: 1776

posted by Neill 1:41 PM

Wednesday, April 06, 2005

well i finally have something worth breaking my blog silence for, a website called Invisible Red Thread. this website is the blog of my uncle peter and his wife patty, telling the story of how the newest birchenall came to join the family. in some ways it is sad to see iona loose her top spot, but we could not be happier to welcome Zhi into the family. check out the site and see one of the cutest kids ever.

oh yeah, and iona is still doing great. a little angel.

posted by Neill 6:26 PM

Sunday, January 23, 2005

today we set out to have sunday lunch with our small group. for one reason or another no one from small group could actually make it in the end. (this is nothing against them, it was all up in the air who was coming from the beginning!)

anyway, there we were with two birds roasting in the oven and nobody to feed them to. so we invited chris and vicky round and then steph. then, a bit earlier than expected and with two more people tha previously thought, lorna's brothers were on their way. so the birds that were enough for around ten, all of the sudden had ten to feed! it was a fantastic afternoon and their was just the right amount of food.

funny how things can turn out so completely different than you thought they would.

posted by Neill 7:43 PM

Tuesday, January 18, 2005

well all got sorted in the end and we now have our Bosch WTA 4408 GB tumble dryer. it is great. now i know that some of you eco freaks may look down on tumble dryers, but hear us out. it is a fact that small babies produce large amounts of laundry. we had been using the "dryer" feature of our washer/dryer but it took hours (literally) to get clothes anything close to dry. now this new and efficient machine, gets clothes dry in minutes. and it also has the latest in eco friendly dryer technology, sensor drying. this means that it keeps going till your clothes are as dry as you want them, and then stop. the alternative is a dryer the uses timed programs that could leave you unknowingly drying dry clothes at the end of your timed cycle. so there ya go. my little bit on tumble dryer tech. i hope you found it useful.

posted by Neill 4:04 PM

Thursday, January 13, 2005

one of my new clients gave me some positive feedback today, and it was fantastic to hear.

the end to my non stop week is in sight. now i just need to hit the taxes full steam on monday morning.

posted by Neill 1:29 PM