On holiday!
Thanks for all the requests for assistance, support queries and emails – I’ll get to them at the weekend or next week, but as for now I’m on holiday (vacation) with my 5 year old daughter with very basic web browsing access (They have firewalled all ports except http and still then prevent me accessing some sites – but hey, its free!)
Next week (w.c 20th Feb) I’ll be working part time, and then from the 28th Feb back to Full time.
Butlins Minehead
(Official Site) Well this place is a whole lot better than the picture the Trip Advisor reviews paint! I’m impressed by it all and will probably post a whole page review later this month. This place has so much for a 5 year old to do during half term break that her poor daddy is exhausted!
My Root Tootin Cowgirl!
Today Lela and I went to see Disney On Ice at the O2 Arena – My Cowgirl Jessie appeared, and was YeeHa-ing all the day…
There was even someone there I had not seen for years…
“Lord High Keeper of the Knowledge of Right and Wrong, Counselor in Moments of Temptation, and Guide along the Straight and Narrow Path,” – Jiminy Cricket!
The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated
It appears that some computers in Googles Datacenter think I’m dead 
haha
I’m NOT dead – but very very busy on new projects, which are taking a lot of my time
A Christmas Message From Phil Taylor
Merry Christmas!
Sorry if you dont celebrate Christmas Well
2009 has brought a lot of changes this side of the monitor, and I’m hoping and praying
for a much better 2010 both in business and personally, I hope you all have a great
festive time – I know many of you are already enjoying the snow (USA and UK!) If you
get hacked over Christmas – I’ll be here! – so just contact me through our website and
the go back to your party!
Special reduced Download Price On EVERYTHING
From now until the end of the year
you can now purchase ANY of our Joomla Extensions for only
GBP£ 9.99 each!
- thats a whopping (approx) 60% saving on each
purchase! There are no special coupon codes, or anything silly like that – just go to
our website and click the regular download buttons to get this very special price
http://www.phil-taylor.com/
Other Joomla Extension Offers
Steve from alledia has blogged about other offers
around the Joomlasphere – please visit his blog post for the links: http://www.alledia.com/blog/open-questions/joomla-holiday-coupons-for-2009/
ARGH – Main Hard drive corrupt – lost almost everything
Opps…
Today I tried to upgrade my Ubuntu version to the latest, fearing I would be left behind with the new version about to be released. I still dont know what happened but my main data hard drive became corrupt and unrecoverable – only a lost+found folder!!!
So my last full backup was on the 30th June (I know I know, just had more on my mind with moving house, separation etc…)
I have lost all my new PHP code, all my Financial Accounts data (Over twelve months inputting done on monday – all lost!), all my invoices SINCE JUNE! and ALL MY EMAILS SINCE Monday (As I had a backup of my emails on my laptop as I was travelling!)
So please forgive me if I dont email you a reply – I have no idea who or what emails I have lost from my mailbox.
If you dont have a backup – MAKE ONE TODAY!
ironically I dreamed last night about my laptop being stolen and losing all that data – so I backed up the laptop this morning, but not the desktop 
Please excuse the mess around here
Thanks for stopping by, you might notice that I’m slowly rebranding my sites, blog, forms and tools – slowly.
So please excuse the mess, and if something doesnt work or you really hate it then please let me know – the contact button at the top does work – promise – and I do read the emails.
I have almost-unsurmountable personal issues to deal with presently, which have taken a hell of a lot of my time, however maybe from today things will start looking up – a new site template, some new code to write, a new place to live, a new found freedom, and a new business plan to execute. More to come…
But for now, please dont lean up against the wet paint, this is just an undercoat – the gloss is yet to come! Watch this space.
Is it a bird, is it superman, NO its just Phil FLYING SOLO
Thats right, while you were all working hard today, I was undertaking my first ever SOLO flight over the island of Jersey.
After a false start in the morning where we canceled due to fog, the weather dramatically improved to give clear skys and light winds. At 4pm my instructor and I took off for dual circuit training (which is basically take off, fly a big rectangle circuit and then land). After 4 of these circuits my instructor called the ATC and requested their permission for me to fly a solo circuit – my first! They agreed after the instructor assured them
So my instructor got out of the plane…
… and closed the door…
… and then it was just Me in .
After my power checks I was given clearance to take off, so I took a deep breath, and another, and another, checked all the instruments and applied full power…. wow.
Took off, turned left, turned left again and headed downwind, following another aircraft ahead, when the ATC came on the radio to say I was number 2 in line to land and had to give way to a commercial jumbo jet!!! so I circled in orbit for a few revolutions before being able to proceed to final and to land…. engine rpm reduced, flaps down, so far so good… line up with runway, received clearance to land – great!
I was a little low and so applied a little too much power and bounced on my landing, a little blast of more power to comfort the next landing and I was down… phew, I did it.
I cant say I was not a little nervous, cause I was, but the feeling was AMAZING knowing that I just flew my first 20mins solo in a plane. The circuits here in Jersey are over 10 miles long unlike a normal circuit you can do in 7mins! this is because we track the coast of the island rather than flying over land…
So now, I have done my first solo flight, I get told that here in Jersey the next 3 hours training are ALL SOLO’s which is different to the training scheme I had in 2001 in the UK so I was taken aback, my next lesson is for tomorrow, so I guess that will be 1 hour of solo circuits, on my own, patting the seat next to me to prove I’m on my own, gasping for air as I land…
All good fun – really
On Holiday 2-10 March 2009
Just a quick note to inform that I’ll be on annual leave from 2-10 March 2009 as I take my wife and daughter to New York (our first long haul trip since our daughter was born!).
You can still purchase products while I am away and have automatic, instant fulfillment of your order. I’ll also be working a few hours a day to mop up any issues, so just contact me if needed please.
If you are in New York and you want to buy me a coffee then let me know!…
The things we do when we are not PHP coding
You can see a news report of my RNLI Activites at the ChannelTV Website - Here is a still shot pointing out me, I appear in other places in the video, well my legs and back do, I tried to stay out of the shots
Snow and Ice – stuck at home…
Well the weather has finally hit Jersey as well as the mainland UK. I cannot get to the office, I cannot get to my daughters school, I cannot take the wife to work. We tried, and the car slipped all over the roads which are covered in snow and Ice.
So stuck at home, on a 512Kbps internet connection, with a roaring log/coal fire here in the front room.
I dont have all my code and tools at home so replying to emails will be even slower today…
More snow is forcast…