Dan Rooke’s Blog

Well I have been working on a new template for my blog, but it is taking a little time. Life has been busy otherwise with me currently considering my career options. I have been customising the Blix theme, however I now think that I will most likely go with a bespoke template. Hopefully I’ll get some time to get started on this soon.

On another note, it’s been interesting to see the response to the petition to scrap the planned roadpricing scheme. It appears that a lowly online petition is actually generating some real response from the government which, in my opinion, can only be a good thing. I have signed the petition myself as I feel taxes on motorists are just getting out of hand. I don’t have any figures, but I don’t believe that even a third of what the treasury takes from motoring taxes is pumped back into the road network or even better the public transport network. I think that to curb the use of the private motor vehicle (read car), there needs to be a usable and practical alternative. Why not use some of the money taken from motorists to fund more reliable and cheaper public transport?

I have also signed the petition to increase the number of traffic Police. This again is a very worthy cause but has not generated anywhere near the level of interest as road pricing. Living in West Yorkshire and commuting daily by car, I see many things which contravene the law. The majority of which are faults with vehicles, mainly lights out, but a large proportion is speeding motorists in residential areas. In contrast to this, I would estimate that I see maybe two traffic Police cars in a month. Even when I do see them, they do not respond to drivers breaking the law right before their very eyes, as I witnessed last week on Huddersfield’s ring road. Bring back the traffic cops - it’s scary out there!

Just a quick one to say that I’ve just upgraded to Wordpress 2.1. Thanks for the tip off Jess

I hope to do a little bit of sprucing up on the blog shortly, including looking at why links aren’t displaying with my template in 2.1. Hopefully I will be a bit more active too - stranger things have happened!

I’m a little slow off the mark with this one, but Happy New Year everybody! I hope that all of my readers had a great Christmas period, or “festive season” if I’m being politically correct, and a fantastic New Year’s Eve.

I don’t really do New Year’s resolutions, however I have thought about what I’d like to achieve this year. My main focus will be to buy a house with my wife Becca - quite a big one I know! I would also like to see an increase in pace of my career progression and professional development. I’m sure these things will keep me plenty busy!

This year we have potentially four weddings to attend. Two definites and two maybes. So it will be a busy year in that respect as well!

I hope that you have all set some similar “goals”, resolutions or whatever you do at New Year and that you all have a great 2007.

Just a quick post to let you know that we now have the official photos of our wedding and that they are available on the wedding gallery for your viewing pleasure!

If you would like any prints arranging, get in touch and we’ll be able to give you the high resolution version of the photo(s) you’d like to print.

Last weekend we had a long weekend away staying in Studley Castle just south of Birmingham. The Castle was something quite different and we really enjoyed our stay.

We visited my Auntie and Uncle, Norma and Alan, and my two cousins Rob and Pete, Pete’s girlfriend Sadie and daughter Mollie. We had a great time catching up, eating copious amounts of Chinese take away food and lots of alcohol was drunk! It was a really good evening and went on into the small hours.

On Saturday, we visited Stratford Upon Avon where we had a walk around and managed to get a sizeable chunk of our Christmas shopping done. We then visited Rugby where we used to live in Bilton and the town centre itself. It was surprising how quickly things change! In the evening we met up with Adam and another friend from College, Matt, who have just moved into a flat together in Dunchurch. Adam and Matt are currently working on a business idea of their’s so we got up to speed on their plans while having an excellent meal at the Dun Cow pub.

On the Sunday morning, we headed back up north to sunny Huddersfield. To our surprise though, the clocks had changed in the night and we had forgotten! So we were robbed of our extra hour lie in! We had a great weekend though, we’ll have to do it more often!