Register with Dealgrabba

Another weekend has passed and weather was horrid. We are getting closer to the summer now, here's hoping we get one this year. Not long and the kids have another week off school, hope the weather is nice then, or my daughter will sloth around in her bedroom rotting like a dead corpse for the week, just like most teenagers I suppose.

People are still registering with Dealgrabba which is great, still a slow process, but Rome wasn't built in a day. I'm sure when registrations are in there thousands dad will be happy, until then he still remains he charming self. Lol

Work for me and the website has slowed down for the present moment. I have done all I can for now, so I can take timeout for a bit. I have watched a few movies, Inkheart, a little boring and predictable, Bedtime stories, very funny made me laugh hard. Yes man, for a change a movie with Jim Carey that was watchable and Harley and me, which made me laugh and cry. Does it show I have children?

I have also managed to fit in a few books, Hannah, sad story about a little girl who dies of cancer by the age of four, Paul O'Grady & Dear fatty, both not as good as I thought they would be and a book about killers who got away with murder.

I have also had time to spend with my niece who is four. She is the type of child you would think butter wouldn't melt, however there are times when I'm sure if I looked on the nape of her neck I would find the devils mark, 666. Of course I still work full-time, so it's not like I have gained lots of time back, but enough to enjoy "my time" for a while.

Nothing else to report, thanks for the new support, checkout the link above or on the links to the left if you want to register with dealgrabba.

New members

Good evening, haven't really got anything to say, other than thank you for joining dealgrabba yesterday and a few more today!

We haven't got round to going large with advertisement yet, as we want to wait until the main dealgrabba website is close to launching. At present we are relying on word of mouth, people stumbling across us on the big wide interweb, my blogs and facebook.

A slow process we knew, but the response so far has been very positive, so thank you again.

Should you want a quick link to dealgrabba, you can use the toolbar links on the side, or click here

My SEO is working well so far, the reason we aren't on the top page is due to not having any AdWords set up yet and we are only a pre launch website. Hopefully once the main website is in place we should start to jump up the ladder. I have a few links with other websites which helps, but again nothing more now until later.

I have also learnt how to make changes to the website and emails. I don't think I could or ever would want to be a web developer, however I can read some of the coding now and understand most of it, which is a great help to some degree.

Dealgrabba.co.uk goes live!

Yes I know, It's been a while, about a week I believe, since I have posted on my blog. I haven't written as there hasn't been anything exciting to put until now and yes Dealgrabba has now gone live.

As of today you can register and refer friends to gain further free bids, which you can use once the full dealgrabba website goes live. We are still not sure at this stage when this is likely to be, but hopefully very soon.

I have pasted a link to the website above and also in the links to dealgrabba section, should you wish to go and check it out. It would also be lovely to hear any feedback you have regarding the dealgrabba website, good or bad.

Crash course

Well it's the bank holiday Monday, and surprise, surprise, no sunshine! My weekend away was lovely, we had a really nice steak cooked on some steak stones, which I've never had before, did some shopping (in the lego car), watched movies, drank plenty of wine and or course the company was fab.

Part of my weekend also included a crash course in coding. By no means am I now a coding geek, or will I ever be, however I have a much better understanding on how all things work and for this I am truly grateful, I really don't know what I would do without you guys, you are my saving grace!

Anyhow, tomorrow is another working day, back to the grindstone of life. Tra for now.

I'm going away!

This weekend I'm off to see friends. I know the company will be great, the food will be fab and the drinks will be flowing all weekend, Can't wait!

I think we might rock out over the weekend, maybe do a little shopping and if we are really lucky the sun will shine upon us and we shall turn into beautiful glowing ladies, however my friend may well take on a more lobster type appearance.lol

I would like to think that come Tuesday all the website problems will be sorted and we shall start the next mission of many. I could win the lottery this weekend, should this be the case, I think I shall take myself, kids, partner and my winning to a remote Island, wifi free and live a peaceful and happy life, like the Robinson's. I know this would mean no more blogs from me update people on my new life, but at least you would know I was happy.........

Why are emails such a pain sometimes?

We are still going bonkers over the emails, not bonkers at the website developers, but bonkers/Gaga because some search engines like Yahoo mail, BT and a few others don't seem to like us for some reason. You get a mail, but it will go into your spam, or you get an email but no logo. Things haven't changed. This isn't down to the website developer, he's working hard to try and sort the problem, it's just the servers, why isn't life ever simple?

I've worked all day today, giving up a windy, wet, and cold Saturday to work on SEO, what a socially exciting life I have. Tomorrow being Sunday, a day of rest, I think that's just what I shall be doing, before another busy week begins.

I plan to visit my parents tomorrow, they don't know it yet, but I'm sure they will love the experience. Dad has already been complaining about his ears bleeding through all the phone calls from me today, but in defence, There was a time when he was doing it to me, great how role reversal comes around and bites us on the bottom! I have been keeping him informed of my progress today, and making demands for money, to which I'm still waiting for!

I'm hoping by Tuesday if not sooner I shall be able to give a link to the website and you can have a look, register and even refer a friend or two. Or you might hate it, and never go there again.

Mails

We are nearly there; dealgrabba pre launch website will soon go live. The only reason we are being held up is due to our emails. We are currently having problems with the header and footer, the layout and a delay in receiving them. This however only seems to be a problem with certain providers. Outlook and outlook express seem to be fine; however BT and Yahoo really seem to want to P us around!

I'm sure the website developer now has indentation marks on his forehead, due to hitting the PC monitor with frustration. I know I would be, if I were in his shoes. We plan to do more testing tonight, and if all else fails, some emails won't have headers on them. Not something we want to do, but we would rather people got a mail, than nothing at all.

Not much else to report, I'm still going through Meta Data, which is oh so much fun. Will let you know more tomorrow, tra for now.

A new look

As you can see the blog layout has changed. After sorting out the logo, I didn't think the green went well, so I changed the template. I'm going to stay with this look now, to follow suit of dealgrabba.co.uk. What do you think, love to hear your thoughts, please feel free to leave a comment below.

I've been a busy bee today. The web developer has given me access to the server so I can do my thing. I've set up Google Webmaster tool and the developer has sorted out the analytics coding for me.

Also I've improved dealgrabba's internal and external links and I've increased dealgrabba's Alexa rating. Dealgrabba's SEO ranking can still be improved upon, but this will come in time with tweaking. Rome wasn't built in a day, neither was I educated in one, so hopefully time will tell in my progress.

I got given the clocks to play with this afternoon. I managed to have 6 on the go all at once, all with different times, all changing when hit and I won on everything. Very impressed! With this in mind the hard part is now out of the way. The rest of it should all be quite plain sailing from here on in.

I think the dealgrabba pre launch website will go live this week and then I can get on and do other things that need to be done all in the name of SEO and website marketing!

Technical problems

As you can see I currently have a rather large header running across the top of my blog. This is due to me trying to change my blog to the new logo to match the website, but it went wrong. There isn't anything I can do to rectify this until tomorrow. I need the developer to upload a new image to the server and then it should work, I hope.

All very technical, but basically I'm pointing my blogger HTML code header to the header for the website. Unfortunately the website header is bigger than what I need for the blog, hence the over stretched header! I feel like heading my head into the heading table!

I'm also going to put a facebook group together, for dealgrabba.co.uk to tell all about the new site and how to register.I hope to do this in the next few days, all being well. At some point we may start running promotional codes for you to gain further benefits at the dealgrabba website. Feel free to join the group and become a follower to dealgrabba and show your support.

In the meantime we are still waiting for the amendments to finalise and then we should go live, all being well, this Friday.

On a funny note, Dad had to have a tooth pulled out today. The female dentists asked dad what he had planned this afternoon. "Why are you asking me out for lunch" he replied. "No" replied the dentists. "Well, I'm going home to mow the garden" replied dad, why? Well after having a tooth extraction you must not over do it. So on that note dad went home and done nothing. However he didn't follow the not drinking hot drinks or not smoking rule, Men!

A beautiful day

I've spent a wonderful relaxing weekend chilling out. Saturday I went shopping with daughter of darkness. I brought pink curtains for my bedroom to go with the rest of the bedding set, I also brought a picture for my bedroom, some seat pads for the dining chairs and some new cushions for the sofa. Daughter of darkness has got herself a webcam; let's hope she not doing naughties with it!

Sunday has been even better, the weather has been wonderful and I've done as little as possible. Once I got my domestic goddess chorus out the way, I spent the afternoon in the garden reading a book "greatest unsolved crimes" and listening to the birds singing. I think I even saw a pair of birds at it. My boyfriends worries himself that once day he too could be a murder statics, due to the amount of criminal things I watch and read.

Anyhow on a more serious note, me and dad did some testing over the weekend, a few errors still outstanding, plus we have made some further amendments. Unsure how long it will take for this to be sorted out, but I think dealgrabba.co.uk pre launch site will go live next week.

Once this happens my life will turn busy again for a while. I've so much ahead of me, which needs to be done once we go live. I want to improve the dealgrabba ranking and of course increase traffic to the pre launch site. I also have lots of other SEO related stuff to do, which is oh so exciting. As for dad, well again, I wonder what is he doing........

Not today

The weekend is here again already, really where does the time go. I remember when I was young time dragged, now I'm wishing it to slow down a little. God knows how I shall feel when I'm my dad's age! lol

As you know the website developer has a list of things to fix, change, amend and adjust. We are still awaiting for these changes to take place. I thought they may have done them all by today, but it isn't the case, so maybe Monday of next week instead. We shall still need to do a re test before it goes live, all being well we might go live next Friday.

Nothing planned for the weekend, just hoping the weather is good and maybe I a can sit in the garden for a few hours and get some rays.

Testing

We got the dealgrabba pre launch website today to test on this afternoon and this evening. They have given dad a tool so we can delete ourselves afterwards and can start a re test of registration, should we need too.

I sent the link to a friend who then tested it herself and let her 12 year old daughter have a go too. They came back with quite a few points, which was all positive feedback. Kim I have spoken to dad about your request and the answer is no, there won't be any dates with Jensen Button with all the trimmings available!

I then went on to test the site myself. I noticed more errors than they would, as they didn't know what was missing etc. Unfortunately, I came up with quite a page full. Most of them are little errors that should be easy to rectify. Some of the information within the emails was incorrect, but that was down to me, not them. Dad and I have gone over everything with a fine toothcomb and feel we have made a full list of problems and errors. Dad will get these over to him tonight or early tomorrow morning.

I'm not sure how long this will take to put right, all being well I would like to think we shall go live Friday if not Monday. We shall just have to wait and see. I'm finding the whole experience very draining and painstaking at the moment. Due to me feeling like I know the website inside out now and find it hard to properly put my point across sometimes, as I expect them to be able to see what I see in my head, which is just not the case.

Anyway I hope we shall all soon being singing from the same hymn book, tra for now.

Dealgrabba pre launch coming soon!

The long weekend break has flown by and yet again it's back to the grindstone. Dad is back around again to take on the workload he did before, however I think he's taking his time in slipping back in. The web developer has been informed dad is back, but still he chooses to email me rather than dad, the only conclusion I can come too, is that the web developer knows who's the boss!

I think there's a good chance we will see the finished pre launch dealgrabba website by the end of this week. I would like to think we can test over the weekend and then go live Monday of next, week all being well. The only problem we have is not having any access to the management system yet, so we can't delete the registration and start again.

I'm also hoping that maybe next week the dealgrabba logo will be on my blog. I shall also have a link on my blog for all my readers to checkout should you wish too and I hope you do, even if it's just for a peek if nothing else.

Easter weekend

Firstly I would like to wish everyone a happy Easter and hope all my readers have a lovely sunny day and enjoy their eggs without feeling too sick.

Nothing much to report on the website, haven't heard anything from them since Friday afternoon, so I guess they have either run into some problems or they are enjoying the Easter weekend too. I shall report on more news as and when it comes in.

Yesterday was my friend's birthday. Kim turned the ripe old age of 40! We had a lovely day out, first we went shopping then went for a spot of lunch in a lovely pub overlooking a canal. When we arrived back at her, the house was fully decorated with balloons, banners, her age in years, months, weeks, hours and minutes jotted everywhere along with some really cute baby pictures.

OMG was her reaction when we pulled up, mine was tummy rumbling laughter. The party started at 7pm with plenty of food including a hog roast. Yum yum. Kim looked lovely in her dress and rather high shoes, drinks were flowing and the music was great in places.lol

Once night came round fireworks were lit and no I'm not talking about the birthday cake, lol. Kim's mum put a lovely "this is your life" album together with pictures of Kim from birth to 40. Laughter could be heard as people viewed the crazy haircuts, silly costumes and of course the mad world of fashion in the 80's.

I'm sure Kim is suffering today with a hangover and sore feet, but it was all worth it!

Dealgrabba pre launch is nearly here!

I've been busy the last few days as dad has been away, so I have taken on his work load too, which I must say isn't a lot!

Emails have been bouncing back and forth between the website developer and me regarding SEO, coding, reports, timescales and the pre launch design. We have even had a 40 minute telephone conversation. So lovely to work with people so responsive and helpful.

All being well the pre launch page will be ready tomorrow and we can view it over the weekend. The clocks are coming along nicely. The developer currently has 10 running on a page and all running correctly. We should be able to see this for ourselves either over the weekend or Monday of next week.

Should we be happy with the pre launch site, then we will go live either Monday or Tuesday of next week and Phase one of our missions will be completed, only four more to go. The full website should be up and running in about 60 days. We were going to go with a .com address but because we are UK based we have decided to go with the .co.uk address instead.

The developer and I had a great chat this afternoon about SEO, Geeky stuff and general life. When we started working with these guys, for some reason dad thought they were from Brighton. Due to the fact both were men and from Brighton dad decided to come to the stereotypical way of thinking, they must be gay to live in Brighton. How wrong could dad be....

For a start they don't come from Brighton so who knows were dad got that idea from and secondly he is not someone to look at and even have those thoughts. Turns out he is a Goth, married and with a son, he is also a boy/girl scout leader in his spare time. Because I felt the conversation was going well between us, I choose to tell him of my dad's thought. He couldn't stop laughing and said he was far from gay, but he couldn't speak for his mate. Anyhow, He sent me a link tonight to his Myspace profile. OMG. he makes Marilyn Manson look like Bambi!

We post tomorrow with more updates. tra for now.....

My 100th posting!

Nothing much to report today, apart from the fact this is my 100th post. One hundred posts of me rambling on about a site called dealgrabba that is still nowhere to be seen!

I've been busy working out what I would like the website developers to do for me regarding my SEO and have emailed some details to them. I've not heard anything back from them, so hopefully I will tomorrow. Most of the work I require them to do, isn't urgent, but thought I would get it to them for a later date.

Some sad news to report today. My friend Shelly was looking forward to a Holiday in Canada this year for three long glorious weeks. Staying in her dad's place and visiting the local area. I say local, most of the drives are 4-8 hours long, but that's local out there. Anyhow, she called me today to say, the house her dad has out there caught on fire last night. It would seem that the tenant came home from work with friends, lit the fire and then went out onto the decking to drink beer.

While chatting away with friends they soon noticed sparks and flames coming from the chimney, so got a ladder to take a look, they could see a hole in the chimney pipe and that there was a fire between the roof and the lower timber. After chucking a few buckets of water down, they soon realised it wasn't going to go out, so the fire brigade was called. One very long hour later the fire was put out.

No one can now enter the property, the tenant is homeless and everything within the property is buggered. To top it off they have a basement, so currently all the water that was pumped into the house to put the fire out, is now resting there. That's not all, nothing is now supporting the main timbers, so in effect the property could still collapsed. The fire inspector will be going round to find out the cause of the fire, then the insurance company to deal with the claim. In the meantime if they get any snow or rain that too will be entering the house until something can be done to cover what is left of the roof!

Shelly was hoping to go away in August, but they will be lucky if anything is dry by then, let alone fixed and live able. Never mind Shell, we can always go away for a holiday instead!

Week three

I've not posted for a few days as I haven't had anything to write about. We're now entering week three with the new website developers and things are going along slowly. The developer has made a start on the registration page but not sure about the other pages as yet, as I have only seen this one.

The pre launch site always had three pages, main, registration and the confirmation page. I do believe this has now change to a main page, registration page and a confirmation page combined with a refer friends section. I'm assuming that while he is doing this the other developer is working on the back end.

We received the new logo today from the illustrator. The first one we received was horrendous. The colour had changed for some reason to a sickly orange and his facial expression was hideous. Anyhow dad got back to her and clarified what he wanted and she came back to him within a few hours with amendments. So I think the logo is now completed and should soon be added to the pre launch page. The illustrator still needs to do all of the other images we need, I'm not sure when we shall get to view these as she hasn't given us any idea of timescale.

Easter will be upon us this weekend, which means this and next week will be a short working one. I'm unsure if anything more is going to happen this week while the developer is working on the pre launch page, but if I get any exciting news I shall post it on my blog.

Logo

Today has been sorting out the logo day. As you know we are starting from scratch, which is driving me bonkers.

The web developer started it off with his idea this morning, to which dad's opinion was it looks utter shit! Reminds me of the books kids have when they first learn to read. Blocks with letters in A,B,C, type of thing. So that was the web developer's idea out the window.

Then came dad's turn, who doesn't really know what he wants and is just clutching at new ideas, He managed to put one to paper and email it to me, which I didn't like, the rest of his brain storming ideas were given to me over the phone, all of which I believed to be utterly shit!

My turn. I have a very creative mind once in the right mood and I just so happened I was in that place. I have asked for the font to be bubbled, and for the little man to be squeezing/grabbing the logo. I feel the little man then fit together nicely and it all makes perfect sense. The web developer thought yet again this was a good idea. Once again daddy's little genius comes to the rescue to save two idiots from any further distress. I should have put pen to paper with my ideas before he tries to pass them off as his own, but I don't have the time to being do this when I have more than enough things to be doing already. What is my dad doing I hear you ask, I still don't know, is the answer!

Regarding work, I linked my blog to other blog rolls yesterday and got a very positive result, over 60 hits yesterday. I'm not stupid, I know not everyone has visited my blog and found it to be what they are looking for, however hopefully if nothing else, maybe soon the name dealgrabba will start to stick in peoples head due to it being catchy, if nothing else.

Plagiarism

I've received several emails today, all from dad; either directly to me, copied in, or forwarded emails from the website developers. After looking through the emails I note that all of my wonderful ideas, have now become his wonderful ideas, plagiarism I tell ya!

Considering this factor, it only leads me to believe more upon my thoughts yesterday and that is I'm a total female genius for him to be stealing all my ideas. With this in mind, I shall in future write all my ideas down, rather than telling him over the phone and have them copyrighted to me.

Men, really, where do they get off ever thinking they can surpass the female mind?

Anyway back to work, we have received the illustrated drawings today, so far, only two out of three have come through, so unless number three appears and blows our socks off, we shall be going with the slightly amended illustration...... number one.

Dad has given the web developers the details of what we want our new mascot to do and how we are going to incorporate it within the website, now it's down to them to get it sorted out. Can't wait to see something soon, just not sure at this stage how soon, soon is. I have a feeling things are moving along faster than we think. We are into the second week now, but I'm not really sure when or if things with the development has started, or if the developers are just sorting out the logo, layout and mascot at this stage. Although this work is being out sourced, so they could be doing other things. Plus we are having a domain issue at the moment, but that is currently being sorted out by the developers for us.

Dad is still stating the new incorporated look is all down to him, but I beg to differ. Should dad continue with this attitude, I shall have to tell him I quit and then we shall see how good the ideas keep flowing then.

Mother will be of no help to him what so ever. She doesn't understand anything beyond the use of the TV remote, the microwave or the telephone. This does not include a mobile phone as she never has this switched on, how she thinks people can contact her, I shall never no. Dad's other dependants/my siblings aren't as intelligent as me so again no help will be gained from asking them anything. He could ask my brother's girlfriend but she comes from up north so not point talking to her as dad can't understand a word she says. As for friends, he doesnt have any. So far as I know he can't find anyone to like him.

Talking of which you will all be pleased to know his neighbour has passed her exam. She should be able to get her warrant card in June. This will enable her to section people under the mental health act. What a day that will be. Balloons, drinks, foods, festive music and celebrations will be heard throughout the village as dad is carted off to the local looney bin!

Don't worry, this wont jeopardise anything to do with dealgrabba as I shall have total control over the website, management system and bank accounts by then.........

I'm a genius!

That's right I'm a genius. There are various reasons why I have come to this conclusion, mainly just because of the fact I'm female, however the following will explain more.

I have finally got my head round all the stuff dad sent me over the last few days. Now I have a better understanding of how linking works against your website ranking among other things. I rang dad with the amazing news only for him to tell me, to get on with it and write all the links out and send it to him to view. More work for me, so that's what I have been doing today, writing out all the links, keywords and meta tag stuff, so exciting it nearly made me want to pee myself!

The next reason I'm a total genius is because we have to come up with new ideas on how the website is to look and what logo and mascot we are now going to use, as the old ones have been scrapped!

Dad has been pondering for days, so too has the web developer. Once I got a few minutes spare on Friday afternoon I decided to put my brain cells into action to solve this problem. Within seconds my brain was filled with lots of inspirational thoughts, which led me to sort out yet another one of dad's problems.

Again I rang dad with my wonderful ideas and gave him my detailed thoughts on it all. I truly believe he is so proud to have such a wonderful, intelligent, dedicated and brilliant daughter, that as soon as the website is bringing in money, I shall receive a rather large pay cheque! He doesn't know how lucky he is. Anyhow, dad passed all this information onto the website developer and he too thinks my ideas are excellent.

In light of this situation instead of being Customer service as dad keeps implying, I shall now only be referred to as Managing Director SEO Genius!

Should he not wish to call me by this title, then I shall have no alternative but to cease use of all fingertips and computers and resume to my normal way of life, before I took this workload on.......

Not sure what the web developer is doing today, come to think about it, not sure what dad is doing either, probably another day where I seem to be the only one doing any work!

A weekend of R & R

I feel this week has been incredibly long. Not sure if it's all the early mornings in a row I've had to tolerate, or all the extra working hours I've put in this week, whatever the case, I'm knackered and so glad it's the weekend.

The other half is working this weekend and I know he will be up and out early. We have a spare room and I asked him, would he like to sleep in there tonight so not to wake me in the morning, to which he replied no, but he's more than happy for me too. I'm not going to give up my half of the bed for anyone, so looks like I'm going to be woken up at silly O'clock again!

Oh and the clocks change this weekend, so not only do I suffer from lack of zzz's, but now I'm going to lose a valuable hour too.

Dad has sorted out the hosting today for the website. Although the colour scheme is now in place, a decision has yet to be made on the mascot, logo and layout. Dad and I had a brief chat about it today, but still no outcome has been reached. As to what, if any development has taken place so far, we are unsure.

Probably going bring joy to my dad's life this weekend and visit him and mother. Firstly I shall disappoint him with the presents I brought back from Amsterdam, he wanted duty free fags, instead he's got a pair of clogs and a fridge magnet. Then I shall going on to delight him with my holiday snaps all 60 of them. We will then move onto website discussion, which could go on for hours, thank the lord my mother has a good wine selection.

Let's hope we have some nice weather and I get chance to get out in the sun for a bit over the weekend, would be nice to do something with the garden, even if it's only to tidy it up a bit. I'd like to get my hanging baskets and pots done, but it's too early in the year for that yet, we have the April showers to come before any glimmer or hope of sunshine.

Dad has finally got his money back from the skater boys, god knows what took them so long, but at least our business with them is finally ceased. Next time you see a skater boy going down the road, don't be tempted to think they could be the next Bill Gates like I so foolishly did, instead throw a stick under their wheels and take delight instead.

Back to the blank page

The site is having a total re vamp. After some emails bouncing back and forth today, it has been agreed to change the colours to orange, black, green and white, rather than, black, green and white. I think we may also have a bit of grey in there somewhere. We are also getting rid of the mascot, logo and cards. He has convinced dad that it looks too much like a gambling website, so we are going to make it look more of a gaming website.

So we're back to the drawing board on ideas for the mascot and logo, no doubt the overall look of the site layout will also change.

Obviously the cost of this is now going to go up, as he now has to get an illustrator to do the logo and mascot, and the site itself has to be designed too. Not sure how much if any, this will delay things as I imagine they will still be able to get on with what they need to do in the mean time, while these things are being formed.

How the logo or mascot is going to look is anyone guess, but they seem extremely helpful and are full of ideas, which is more than what could be said for the previous company.

I have been going through the stuff dad sent me, very helpful in parts, very confusing in other. I have now joined up with wordpress so I can blog on there too, not everyone is going to use blogspot, and it's worth trying to reach as many people as possible, or as my dad says, I can bore more people to death. Should you already be a member of word press and wish to use this instead, then go to www.dealgrabba.wordpress.com

Still unsure what dad is doing within is little world, but I'm now having to put lists together and yet again do more researching. How exciting my life is, I used to spend any spare time I had watching soaps, films, reading or spend time chatting with friends or relaxing at home with family, now I spend what little time I have, staring at a computer screen reading stuff I barely understand and then having to read it again to get my head round it.

I love the way some people out there talk or write about subjects you have no idea about what so ever, use all this fancy terminology and live you more confused and dumbfounded than ever. Why can't they talk or write about subjects in a way non computer geeks or SEO expects can understand in plain English, this would make my life so much easier and pose less stress on the few little brain cells I have left...

Colours

The guys who are doing the website for us are making a start on the layout of the site and colour scheme. We told them we weren't happy with the website's previous layout or colours and they agreed it needed to change, so today we've been presented with colour schemes again......

The logo and mascot are also being re done, but I don't think much, if anything is going to change about them.

I haven't spoken to the web guys about the website as dad has dealt with them so far. However I have now be told I'm to be included in all further mails, which means we shall be back to arguing again over colours when we see the first draft. However in saying this, dad and I did agree today on a colour scheme we both preferred, which made a refreshing change!

I think they could also be doing something with the pre-launch page, or holding page as they call it, as well as looking into the clock functionality. They seem very focused on getting this right, so let's hope they do.

They have been more than helpful so far and they like to communicate a lot which I really hope is their working ethos. They seem to take the time to explain things even if dad doesn't really understand what they are talking about. Not only do emails go back and forth, but also calls. We never had this from the previous company.

I'm going through some of the information that dad sent me the other day. Trying to work through it as I'm doing it, that way I shall have a much better understanding of it all, rather than reading through a load of pages all at once and overloading my poor brain. The information supplied actually means I am learning something new, which makes a change. So much stuff on SEO repeats itself; this is giving me more information and tools to help me along the way, which could potentially make my life a little easier in the long run.

The lovely girl from Key 103 (Manchester) is still in contact with me over the marketing we could potentially do with them. Really good at her job, gives a friendly call without the feeling of being hounded. Shame there aren't more people in this line of business like her.

Nothing else to report at this stage, Not sure what dad is doing, probably sat on his arse in front on the computer looking busy, doing nothing as my mother would say!

Colours

I'm back

I have returned from my lovely weekend away with the girls in Amsterdam, oh what a weekend!

Looking over the two days my dad wrote the blog for me, I see he has nothing but lovely, kind, caring and good words to say about his hard working dedicated daughter, something never change!

Being a dam virgin, I only had other people's word on the place, which in turn created images in my head of what I thought it was going to be like.

We arrived at night and once we had dumped our belongings in the hotel, which was right next to the train station, it was off out for the evening. First to the grasshopper for a drinky poo's then a stroll around the red light district.

As soon as I entered the grasshopper, a young lad stumbled out and past out on the floor. He had come from the downstairs coffee shop, "the weed must be good if it has that effect on you, I joked with a friend"

The red light district wasn't like I expected, for a start it was a lot smaller than I thought it would be. The girls in the windows were much prettier than I thought, nothing like the old hags you see over here! Turns out though, not all is what it seems, and most of the girls are really men that have had a sex change. Explains at lot!

The cobbled streets, bridges and canals take on a much different feel at night, much like walking round Glastonbury festival. Anyone who has ever been to the festival knows you can walk all night and never get bored of what to see or do.

Plenty of sex shops, seed shops, sex shows, strip shows, bars and souvenir shops to be had, along with black men hanging around whispering out drugs on offer. Plus of course the drunken men eyeing up the window girls and shouting at them, how the women don't go out and deck them one, I'll never know.

By day Amsterdam took on a different feel. Complete madness! We walked miles on the Saturday, went to a park, couple of bars, a coffee shop or two, had a lovely pizza for dinner and had wonderful weather to top it off. Dam square is great to people watching, I spotted Darth Vader, Batman and Death roaming around.

Referring to the madness Amsterdam takes on by day is the traffic. Trying to cross the road in Amsterdam is like playing frogger, bikes, trams, cars, bikes, trams, people, and that was just one road of many, which we had to do on several occasions. I couldn't believe my eyes when I seen a multi storey car park just for push bikes, unreal the amount that you see everywhere. They don't care where they ride, happy to go on the pavements and then expect you to get out of the way. Pedestrians are second class citizen over there.

We seen so much is such little time, that I plan to go back again sometime soon for another mini adventure. There were three of us this time around; however other friends are coming for the ride next time!

I have posted some pictures below for all to see, however should you feel you would only be wasting valuable life time then click away at the end of the text.

In the mean time, dad has emailed me some info that I have to look through, he wanted me to take work with me to the Dam, however I politely said no, it will have to wait. Not much else work wise for me to do at the moment as I need the site to start before I can do a thing.

Sunday morning. About to be evicted from Dutch soil!

The writer of this blog will arrive back into the UK today after her extravagant weekend jaunt to Amsterdam where no doubt she will subject you to reading what a wonderful time was had by all.

Meantime, an issue more important than weekend breaks...the website.

Discussions at this stage suggest its development at being around 4 weeks. (Raises an eyebrow with some dis-belief). Following on from this will be a further two weeks worth of testing in an attempt to ensure whatever glitches are in the system are extracted. So in theory, Six weeks from now the website could be in place and running...... I wonder what the world's record is for holding one's breath??? Anyone know???

With hindsight (thanks to the previous escapades) and putting my doubts aside, the guys who have now taken this on do at least project an air of knowledge in both what it is the site demands as well as a level of expertise which to-date has been sadly missing.

Now with the best will in the world things could still go wrong, there are probably still going to be areas which spring up to cause concern but for the moment it's a time of entrusting the development to these guys whilst keeping fingers crossed things run smoothly. (Is there a world's record for fingers crossing???)

The first port of call for them (so they advise) is to work on the clock counter, followed quickly by the bidding system. The problems with both these aspects are the users method of internet connection. It would seem (much to my surprise) that dial up Modems are still prolific and it's this method is going to present the site with its biggest problem.

Put simply, a page refreshing via a broadband connection occurs in a split second whereas Dial-up is painfully slow. Their idea is to try and allow users with Dial up connections to actively take part. Me.....ever the cynic believes this is highly unlikely but for now will go along with whatever suggestions they have in this area.

I am also unsure at this stage if it's their plan to allow people to take part using hand helds such as PDM's and of course relevant mobiles. I guess it would be nice to think so but if not, at least the automatic bid function will be in place for times when individuals can't be at their pc....

Hopefully over the next few weeks and using this blog, we will be able to inform everyone of the progress being made....(again I begin to wonder about that world's holding one's breath record!).

Thankfully, if not today then at least tomorrow, normal service will be resumed on the blog though I suspect you will at first be bored to death having to read about her latest escapades in Amsterdam......What can I say? I guess it will be a little like those times you're invited round to a friends for what you think is a dinner party, only to find out the 8mm projector is all set up on the dining room table and you're there to suffer two hours of "Wish you were here" Holiday snaps..... Good luck is all I can say.

Left in the lurch

If I already didn't have enough to do I now find myself having to take over my daughter's blog for a few days while she takes time out to wander around the City of Amsterdam.

I use the daughter term loosely as the blood tests I've recently had done, have yet to be proved conclusive.

Quite what the poor Dutch population have done to merit her arrival in their midst over a quiet, exceptionally sun filled few days, is beyond me!! I guess it's a bit like inflicting the Ebola virus over a weekend and expecting them to survive. But hey! I am sure given this short, sharp lesson the dutch will in future, treat her like British Beef by never again allowing her to darken their doorstep. In fact I suspect the next time she ever tries to enter the country, Bells will ring, Sirens will screech and laser beams of light will fill the heavens warding off all manner of evil spirits.

Yes, I am certain her passport will be microchipped accordingly in that never again will she be allowed back onto Dutch soil.......Not even to view Tulips.....

Of course on a more serious note, I am left asking myself, what possible reason is there for me to take over this blog?

Now my daughter may not be the brightest light bulb in Woolworth's (Yes, before you comment, I am aware Woolworth no longer exists) surely even she is aware, technology as it is today, stretches far and wide, certainly wide enough that if broadband has reached Manchester then it is sure to have reached the flat, mountainless terrains of Holland. Hence, given she has a laptop, is it not therefore reasonable for me to assume she could have taken this with her?

Would you, her followers not have enjoyed a few snapshots of Amsterdam's better known district or maybe a pic or two taken while she hung off the side of a canal boat? Yes, though she may not agree I feel this is an opportunity missed for her followers and all because of this selfish need to enjoy herself.

I know for a fact she will frequent the occasional cafe over there and I am sure said cafes, among other things will have wi-fi hotspots, so again, what possible excuse can she have for not taking a few minutes out of her busy schedule of relaxing in order to write a few well versed lines of her blog?

But of course it's the female species we are dealing with here and just who could possibly know how their minds operate? Definitely in no logical manner that's for sure.

Well whatever the case let's just hope she comes back refreshed (Errrr Like she was ever exhausted) when at least then I might then reasonably expect her to provide a little more input and effort.....and of course let us also hope she is not remiss enough to have forgotten MY duty free!!!!

Ah yes....The blog and the website......Yes well...as you can see...writing is not really my forte and it seems already I have run out of time. I will try to update you some more tomorrow and can only hope my efforts do not lose my daughter too many of her followers. Then again, with that attitude of hers she has only herself to blame.

Not from the south but the north!

We now have a web developer in place. Yippeee! We have decided to go with the guys from the North, yes that's right, north, not south!

I'm really starting to wonder if my dad is losing the plot. He thought for some reason, these guys were from the south, Brighton, how wrong could he be, when he found out today they are from the north, Yorkshire! Couldn't be much further apart really. How could he get it so wrong?

Tomorrow we should get the breakdown of timescales, costing, tests and research undertaken. After that, it will be go, go, go again, let's just hope we have a better time and experience with these guys, otherwise I think dad and I will lose the will to live!

We decided to go with the guys rather than the female as we didn't like the terms of contract and we felt unsure if she would be able to do the clock counter, where as these guys seem to convince us that they are more capable.

As you know, I'm off tomorrow for the weekend, so father will be blogging instead. Looking forward to the break away, no kids, men, cooking or cleaning, just lots of shopping, drinking, sightseeing and walking!

When I return, no doubt it will be back to the grindstone. A woman's work is never done, no rest for the wicked........

Waiting......

Still no news! The south west guy is not going to do it, It only took him a week to come to this conclusion though, why it took him this long, I don't no. Makes you wonder how he copes with a decision over his tea each night, mind boggles, so we are now down to two.

The female with a brain, has a horrid terms of business contract, which we would want changed if we were to go with her. If she wasn't prepared to do this, then it would end there.

The guy from the south seems to think we should say if we are going with him first, before he can give us a quote and a time scale. Really, what person in their right mind would say they would give them the job, without first finding out the costs involved? It could rack up to god knows what figure, really, stupid man!

We have put this to him and are now waiting for him to reply. I don't understand why he can't just give us a quote and then we can move forward to the next stage. This whole process seems to be dragging along at the pace of a stoned snail, I wish said snail would slowly move over a trail of amfets and then get things zooming along to the point the ball can start rolling again so to speak on the build of the site.

I'm jetting off in a few days time, so I'm going to leave you in the hands of my father for the weekend. God only knows what madness and lies he will unleash upon you, but may the force be with you, of course you can always choose to ignore him, like we all do and not tune in until Monday when I shall be back!

Females are wonderful species!

We are still awaiting quotes to come back. The guy in the south came back with some questions and a chat about a few things, mentioned he would be building the front end and his colleague would be doing the back end, but still no quote has come, so we are unsure when that will arrive.

The guy from the south west hasn't come back at all, not sure what is taking him so long, but if he doesn't pull his finger out soon, we won't be bothering with him.

We have however heard back from a female developer. She has the ability to read, be prompt with emails, logical and has done more than the two guys so far.

She came back with her spec of requirements for the site, a timescale, price and let us know what each part will be programmed in. Came to a 27 page spec, so was impressed. More than what we ever got from the skater boys.

We have found that the female developer does seem to have a different opinion to the guy in the south, regarding certain aspects of the site. Dad has emailed her some further questions and some points that she has missed out, nothing to important and probably easy to over look after reading through 87 pages!

So we are still waiting, waiting for how long, I'm unsure, just hope it isn't much longer.......

Wide berth!

Friday the 13th. I'm sure if we were still dealing with the skater boys we would be in for a day of hell!

However we don't and everything has been hunky dory in my little world. Shame the same can't be said for dad. His heating has packed up on him and is having a funny five minutes. Sometimes it works other times it doesn't, plus this affects the hot water, or should I say lack of it. lol

He also has the pleasure of the grandchildren this weekend. He will love every minute of the screams, shouting, crying and of course the temper tantrums and paddies. Dad will see this as some form of bad deed in a former life and will wonder what indeed, he did, to have to endure three days of what he will only see as torture on the ears!

Dad has finally finished updating the spec, he sent the updated version to both potentials and both will get back to us on Monday. Dad also sent it to me to read, what a joy that was! All 87 pages of it!

The other company who came back with the stupid quote and the non ability to read, are still trying their best, bless them. We are unaware if they too are skater boys & girls; however they are acting like them, so we're giving them a wide berth!

Not much more to report really. Going to watch comic relief tonight and of course corrie, will they or won't they make it to the altar, that's the big question!

Quote, quotes and more quotes

We are starting to get the quotes come back, from people we have emailed our spec too over the last few days. The two we have received already, lead me to believe they too, could be like the skater boys!

They haven't gone through the spec properly, so they don't have any understanding of the full website requirements or the functionality and just come back with a stupidly priced quote and a PDF file full of crap.

We do however have two people who could turn out to be suitable. Both can read both are taking their time to go through it, so that's a bonus if nothing else. One is based in the southwest, the other in the south. Both are freelance and claim to have years of experience, so we shall have to wait until tomorrow afternoon, to get their quotes and see.

We have decided to change the colours of the site now. We are going to go with a space blue as I call it on the outer rim and a different blue as the main body. We plan to change the text colour and the logo text too. The rest will stay as it is, well at least for now anyway.....

Our contract is finished!

It's over; we no longer do business with the skater boys!

After dad sent his email to them Friday, he got an email back today, saying they will end the contract with us, reimbursing all monies paid out to them so far. Dad can walk away with all his money, but will have to start all over again.

Skater boys keep all the work they have done so far, but we of cause still keep the domain names and all the rights. We are unsure why they have been so easy, could it be they know their in the wrong for messing us around, they no they can't do they work asked of them, or dad is so much of a pain in the arse, they wanted rid? Whatever their reasons it's fine with us.

Yes it is a pain in the arse to start all over again, but hopefully second time around things will be a little easier for us. We have more of an insight into how things work now, not loads, but more than we had before.

Although we we're happy with the website design before, we are thinking of making some changes and hopefully with a good web designer we can have a better graphically produced website. Chrome showed the colours up to be nice and bright, however explorer and Firefox were a little too dull.

Dad has already thought of changing the colour scheme, I would really like to change the logo font, I hate it, hopefully with a new designer we can convince dad to change it.

In the meantime it's back to the drawing board. Dad is making changes to the spec, making sure everything is up to date and includes every last detail we can possibly think of. We know there will be things forgotten, but I doubt it will be much.

Dad has been in touch with a few website companies who deal with design and development via email today and is awaiting a response. I have contacted a few but only heard back from one, saying his workload is to high at the moment to take anymore work on at present. Most of them don't seem to both at all.

If any of my readers happen to be looking for more work in this area, or no of someone that is, please feel free to contact me!

Very frustrating when you are back to square one all over again. However it isn't a total loss. We have everything in place now, which we didn't have before. Emails, terms of conditions, registration of the company, VAT, All the text information, products, marketing info, Google, Paypal and analytics, the list is endless. All we have to do now is find the right person to do the job well and correctly and hopefully everything will run smoothly second time around.

I will make sure that I attend every meeting with dad this time to make sure they aren't the sister company to the skater boys.lol!

In the meantime, I doubt I shall be blogging as much as before as I think thinks will be a little slow to begin with, but I shall endevour to keep you informed every step of the way........

Relaxing weekend

I haven't got up to much this weekend. Mainly shopping, eating and drinking lots of wine. Skating on ice is on later, so I will have a nice hot bath, bit of a pampering and then cosy up on the sofa probably with a nice glass of vino!

Dad tried to contact skater boy on Friday afternoon, but to no avail. He rang to speak to the director, but again to no avail. He isn't happy with the fact he hasn't had any updates, nor can he see anything done on the website.

He has emailed skater boy again, informing him of the breach of contract, so let's see if he does anything about it on Monday, or will just get the normal response of being ignored. I can't see them getting it done by the time they have estimated.

Oh well, nothing more to report until Monday, until then........

Threatened with a pre launch page!

Dad got an email this morning from skater boy No2, saying the pre launch page will be ready to go live on Monday of next week.

We checked the pre launch page to see what changes, if any had been made and low and behold, things had changed. You register as normal, but instead of being able to refer a friend, you have to complete the registration process by click the link in the new email set up first. Once clicked, registration is successfully and then you can go on to refer friend/friends.

We still need them to move the refer a friend button to the right page, as its currently on the wrong one, reset the numbers and sort out the new emails. Once that is done we are ready to go live. Friday is the day I have in mine though, not Monday!

Nothing has changed on the website and we haven't had any updates, could mean one of two things, one they haven't done anything, or two they are working on something that's going to take a few days, once it's done, it will go onto the website for us to see.

So glad the weekend is here, been a long one.........

Catch up for new readers

Building a website is no easy task. We started the project back in late September. The thoughts went into motion and a 65 page spec was created. Research was then undertaken to find a suitable web developer and designer. Time was taken until we thought we had found the right company.

With a 65 page spec, yes, you may feel this is long, however it is very detailed, allowing anyone to understand each page, it features and functionality. I have spoken to other people, who also have specs this long, if not longer to deal with. A real must for a developer to do their job well!

In December 2008, we handed the project over to the company, who told us that after looking over the spec, they knew they could do it. They informed us after Christmas (about 3 weeks) we would get the pre launch page and 3 months later we would get the finished website and management system.

January, February and now we're in March. We have no pre launch page and are still a long way off from a website.

We have supported them all the way, done updates for them, emailed them info when required, but still they haven't produced a thing. We have smashed our heads against walls, dented tables, bitten finger nails and are now going slightly bald in places.

Frustration is an understatement as to how we feel. We email, they ignore us, we give them detailed instructions, they screw it up, we draw pretty pictures of how we want things to look and they screw it up. They give us completion dates, then change them, they set up our emails address and sort our domain out, then ask us, do we have any email address and what is our domain. Are they stupid, do they less of a memory than a goldfish?

We don't know what to do for the best anymore. Take up Valium or go website developer hunting and I'm not going to use paint balls!

I have never dealt with a company who don't care about their clients, the quality of work they produce, or the service they provide. Even the Director couldn't give a dam about the reputation of his company. They don't seem to care that within the last 20 days theyhave only manage 2 days work and even then it is incorrect. Never have they produced anything that worked first time, nor have they been consistent with anything.

Should any of my readers decide that one day, a website could be for them, think wisely before you do. Web developers in my eyes are no better than cowboy builders. Now I'm not saying all web developers, nor am I saying all builders are cowboys. With all the best research in the world, you never know what you could be letting yourself in for, until the project is finished. Could be heaven or it could be hell......

Pre launch page is ready

Dad received an email today, saying the pre launch page is ready. I then got a call from dad, saying it was ready. Ready my arse......

Nothing has changed, nor has it for the past two weeks, so why could they possibly think it was ready. They know what is outstanding, so have they not tested to make sure it is ready, or just passed it on to us for the sheer hell of it?

Then there's the website. A new feature has been added today. Why we don't know, has it been asked for? Yes, but for it to be in the database, not on the website. They have taken a day to do this wonderful feature. What a waste of a day, when they could have done what was asked in the same time. More delays now!

Why, why, why oh why can't they read the spec and work it out for themselves what they should be doing, check their work when they think they have finished, reply to updates rather than forwarding them to us claiming work has been done, when it clearly hasn't.

Dad will not get his pre launch page tomorrow as requested and I'm dam sure he won't get his website on the 31st of March either.

Breach of contract

Still no news from the skater boys confirming when we see the finished pre launch page, or confirmation on it being 28 days or 32 days, for the website completion.

Dad has come to the end of his tether!

He has sort legal advice and this afternoon they came back to him. It would seem skater boys have breached their contract and are being unreasonable about time scales. To be quoted an estimated 3 weeks for a pre launch page and to still be waiting some 11 weeks later is ridiculous, but then we didn't need the Legal people to tell us that.

Dad has emailed skater boys and requested the pre launch page to be completed by the 4th of March and for the website to be completed by the 31st of March 2009. He has also had to write to the skater boys, with the same information and send it recorded delivery.

Once this has been received we have to wait for them to reply, should they choose not to, further steps will then be taken. Dad has been informed, should it get to court procedures then he will get all of his money back, plus all his cost paid for.

This isn't something dad wants to do, but it has got to the point, if he doesn't do something, we may never get a website, or lose every penny put into this project.

As we knew dad isn't the only person to suffer this experience with web design companies. It would seem this has been happening a lot and web companies aren't getting away with it so lightly anymore. The justice system is working in favour of the client for a change and not the company!

As of yet, we have heard nothing from the skater boys. We may hear something tomorrow; then again we may not, who knows.

A relaxing sunday

Today, I've done nothing, got up, went to the Tesco early, car park was empty, so I could park as close as I could, without having to walk too far. Got inside, lovely and peaceful, got what I needed and headed to the checkout. They couldn't serve me until 10am, so I had to stand at the checkout for two minutes waiting for the clock to chime.

Once 10am came, beeps could be heard up and down; children appeared from nowhere, screaming and shouting, parents seemed oblivious, too busy catching up with friends, and blocking anyone from passing as their trolleys took up all the space available to pass. I paid and hurried to the safety of the car and headed home.

Grumpy came for dinner today, as mum is away visiting he mother/my nan. No sooner had he turned up but so too, did my two good friends. They popped in on their way home for a quick coffee and chat. One of my friends made the fatal mistake of asking my dad how the site was going. An hour later, I think he wished he never came round, let alone asked! lol

We have done a few tests on the site over the weekend. Something's are working, something's still don't and somehow, something's work worse now, than they ever did before!

Dad has written an update to the web developer letting him know the list of problems found; hopefully these will get rectified before he moves onto something else. Monday tomorrow, weekends go too quickly and before you know it, your back to the grind stone again.....

Stick a tail on the calendar

The weekend is finally here, time to relax, chill out, enjoy the rugby, eat chocolate and drink wine!

Nothing to report on the website, they have been working on it all day, not sure what they are doing as we can't see any of it, but they are doing something and still on it now.

Dad had an email regarding schedules again, this time it will be completed April 7th. Skater boy No1 didn't mention the year, but let's hope its 2009 hey!

Twenty days ago it was eighteen days to completion, now its over a month away. In saying that though, the days he has said doesn't match up with his finally figure, so who really knows what date his has in mind, could have closed his eyes and stick a tail on a calendar and that was the day he thought he would go with for now....

No explanation has been given as to what has happened to the last 20 days, did they just do nothing? Why has it taken them so long to complete nothing?

Nothing has be explained about the launch page, this hasn't been included in the schedule, so am I to take it we are no longer having one? Bloody good job it wasn't finished back in January, people would have registered and died of waiting for the website!

Well I could go on moaning about them, but then I would sound like my dad and I can't have that.

I hear my wine calling me, wanting to be poured by me, drunk by me, enjoyed by me.

Slight improvement!

Further checks have been made on the website today, regarding the auction/bidding part. Dad managed to put one auction on, only the idiot set it for March the 26th not February 26th. His old age is really starting to show now!

Once again, he put the auction on, this time with the correct info. The clock started five minutes before it should have, and even started counting down before one of us, had even hit the bid now button. When the clock counter did start counting down, not only did it go, 53,52,49,48,45,44,43,41, but it also went, 53,52,55,51,50,48,48,46, just great, they have managed to make it worse than it was yesterday.

I won that auction, so we decided to set up another one. This time it was a camera. Auction started again, five minutes sooner than it should have, only this time, the clock started, but we couldn't bid. So it counted down to 0 and no one won it!

All closed auctions go onto the winners page in the right place now, rather than anywhere, however even if they haven't been won, they still go there, taking the name and price won from the last auction using a camera. Dad has won 13 cameras now!

I did a check on the pre launch page, registration still work, however I cant refer a friend anymore, this could mean one of two things. One they are putting the email in place to confirm, before registration, or, two, they have screwed somethings up. Let's up it's number one for my own sanity!

Nothing more to report, other than, skater boy No 1 has predicted completion in 19 days time, yer right, I don't think so.

Dad is missing his neighbour, She has been studying hard again for her exam, which she is due to take soon. Let's hope this time she passes, I have more than enough proof, that he now needs locking up!

Because of this, she hasn't been seen all week, My mum has seen her, which leads me to believe, she is just hiding from dad, after all, she is suffering enough with studying, why would anyone want to darken their day further by spending anytime with grumpy, unless he has wine to ease the pain of it all! lol

Friday tomorrow, we are hoping auction errors are rectified, so we can run further tests, we hope to run two or more auctions tomorrow and have three people bidding. Mum will want to have a go, however, she hasn't wanted to help with the hard parts, so she isn't going to work with the fun part either. No pain, no gain!

I have won!

Today, I have won, 500 free bids, 25 free bids, could have won a laptop, £1000 cash, £200 cash and a camera, but the auctions went on then finished just like that for some god forsaken reason!

Grumpy and I did some testing on what they said was done with the website so far. Obviously this is the auction part, due to my wonderful winning spree. When you start an auction in the database, due to the fact no auction has an ID number, once; an auction of a canon camera has been on once, it will never be able to be on again. So, thus being, as soon as you input the information, and set it to go live, the auction will go live and then jump to the ended auction page on the winner's site.

If only this was the only problem. When we have managed to get an auction to go live and start without ending straight away, we incur a different problem. An auction has a time and date in which to start. He shouldn't start until the date and time match and then someone places a bid and then the auction time should start to countdown.

Not in our case. Our auctions start at the right time and date, however, instead of waiting for someone to bid, the timer starts counting down, not from the time state at three minutes, but from 10 seconds instead!

Once the auction has been won, the auction should move to the winner's page, at the top, on the left. Again not in our case, we get to the winners page, only instead of being at the top, on the left; we are two lines down and at the end. People shouldn't have to hunt to find the latest winner.

Is it all doom and gloom I hear you ask?

No some aspects work. You can wait for the last second before hitting bid and it is counted. Order of bids and bidders are correct, the countdown timer seems to work better for me, than for dad. Mine countdown, was a bit sticky in places, dad however found it to miss numbers and jump, although we stayed within the same time span.

Mum hasn't taken any interest in the website up until now, mainly due to the fact, she doesn't understand how these things work, Mum like simple things and things simple. She will now be pleased as punch when she finds out she can now hit buttons. She will be begging for bid credits, and bidding away, competing against herself, till her little heart's content. Very simple like that, doesn't take much to please the old woman!

Pre launch page, is still a long way off in the distance, I think it has launched into the Atlantic and set sail, probably never to be seen again. By their calculations, and my crappy predictions, I think it could be mid June before we see the finished website, and the pre launch would have sunk somewhere in the Pacific!

Have I been to kind with my predictions?

Another Monday over, I believe I may have been to kind in my predictions, they are worse than I predicted!

I thought dad would get his updates and maybe the skater boys would email dad with something. Well he did get his updates, which were expected Thursday and they didn't tell him anything at all, well they did, but nothing that made any sense to our website and considering he was working on it Thursday, Friday and Saturday, we were expecting quite a lot, however it looked about an hour's worth of work, if that!

I don't wish to undermine him as I'm no web developer, but I thought he would have achieved more than that. OK, he could be working behind the scenes on things we can't see, but there isn't any truth in that either.

He has informed us; he will continue working on option one auction and now start two and three as well. Wouldn't it be better to get option one finished first, before screwing up the second two?

I have come up with a list of Meta tags for keywords and description, let's hope at some point when I send it; they have no problems understanding where it's meant to go. If I know, then so should he!

Skater boys emailed at 5.23pm, not far out, saying things have been delayed due to the launch page, however, nothing has been done with the launch page, so, what have they been doing?

Website is still many moons away and as for the pre launch page, I shall move my predicted pre launch date of next week, to Friday of the following, even then I'm unsure if I'm being optimistic!

On a bright note, the weather was good today and I managed to get my washing dry, which was lovely. I have already pre stocked fridge with wine, as dad started moaning this afternoon, earlier than predicted. May have to book an appointment with the doc for some Valium.

Oh well, there is always tomorrow.

Predictions

Weekly predictions, I have been pondering for a few minutes and my predictions are as follows:

Monday, dad will finally receive the updates he's been waiting for, since Thursday of last week. He may also receive an email from skater boy No1 & No2, probably telling him nothing at all, or something he already knows.

Tuesday. website will not be half way to completion, let along completed today. Neither will the launch page be ready to go. Dad will email to ask about the website and the pre launch page, but will hear nothing.

Wednesday at midday, we will receive an email saying, pre launch page is ready and they need the other emails. These will be sorted out on Wednesday and sent back ASAP.

Thursday, Skater boy No2 will get the emails sorted, by now I will have gone and got wine, to cope with the calls from grumpy!

Friday, Pre launch page will be ready, but we won't get email until 5.53pm, delaying launch until at least 5.26pm Monday. Dad and I will run tests to make sure everything is right with the site, None will be found for a change.

I'm sure throughout the week, I may well pick up more predictions, but for now that's it.

Glass of wine anyone?

Woke up at 9.30am today nice to do that, rather than 7am. I did a bit of retail therapy, lunch, then a trip to see grumpy.  

Grumpy wasn't a happy bunny today, as the work he had done last night has gone. He reckons, he saved it as he went along, only to find this morning it's no longer on his PC, not anywhere!

Now I reckon, He kept hitting the save button, but didn't at any point save the file anywhere. In doing this, some how, he wasn't prompted to save it and shut down, thus losing everything. He says otherwise, but he would, wouldn't he!

He now has a long road ahead of him again.lol

I checked my google analytics late last night, only to find it now works. Me and dad did a test on the pre launch page to make sure it was working and my eyes weren't deceiving me and yes, my analytics picked up two visitors. Only the map overlay tells me the visits came from two places, two places we don't live anywhere near. When I say near, these places were over 100 miles away.

As much as google is great and it's free, I know the information it's giving me, isn't completely correct. Bit of a bummer from a marketing point of view, as I'm unsure if the popularity of my visits are really where people are coming from.

I have mentioned this to dad, so he's going to look into an analytic package for us. Well for me, not something we shall rush out and get, but shall do at some point. If anyone has any recommendations please let me know, always good to have some comparisons.

I shall be doing my predictions for the week that lay ahead, tomorrow. Be interesting to see if I'm as spot on as this week. 

Dad hasn't received any updates since Thursday, shall have to wait until Monday now. Nothing seems to have changed about the website or pre launch page since Tuesday, although they could be working behind the site, at things we can't see.

Not a lot planned for this evening. Have a large glass of vino in hand, plus some chocolate brownies that are to die for, when heated and served with ice cream and chocolate sauce. Yum, yum think I might have to have two pieces!

 

I love it when I'm right

Well it is the weekend and as predicted, the launch page is still in sleep mode and isn't going anywhere!

Skater boy No1 has requested some information about my google analytics, I don't know why, I sent the information they required for tracking January the 8th and even then I did it twice. Any how, they should now have the information they require, so I will need to change my passwords again.

They are sorting out the tracking code for the website too, so I shall have everything track able under the same account. Lets just hope it doesn't take them that long to sort it out. I want it to work first time, not 31st time.

Website is meant to be live and ready to go on the 24th, which is next Tuesday. Did I forget to mentioned I saw a pig and her piglets flying over my house this afternoon!

Not a lot planned for the weekend. Saturday, lay in till 9am, bit of pampering, before a trip out for lunch, a drink, then a movie, will have to check the guide first. Tonight I think a large glass of vino is in order, not sure what is for tea, really not in the mood for cooking.

Haven't had a rock out night in a while, so might have a play with world tour. Just hope my eyes can take the pain, I know my ears can!

Grumpy is sorting out products for the website. I gave him a nice long list, which he informed me, will take three days to sort out, that will keep him nice and busy for a while. Hopefully my phone wont ring, my dads neighbour will have a lovely and peaceful weekend, mum is away till Saturday afternoon, so all in all, harmony will bless us for a short period, until his presences is known again by all.

If the weather is good this weekend, maybe the skater boys will be out playing hard, before working hard again on Monday morning, if only I knew this theory to be true!

Sore fingertips

As expected, the over uses of fingertip movement from the skater boys yesterday, has proven too be to much for them. They now have their full list of what we see needs to be done, in order of completion. Could well be the case, that we have missed something out, but we aren't here to do it all for them.

Have been out and about in my car today, but unlike yesterday, I'm no longer driving around like puff the magic dragon. Hopefully, my car was just having an off day and needed to clear some cobwebs!

We have booked the tickets, hotel, parking, and arranged travel insurance. The weekend is confirmed, a girly weekend away, can't wait, just need to save some spending money (dad this is a hint if your reading)!

One more day until the weekend. Launch page, might go live on Monday, then my predictions will be correct. I will have to start calling myself mystic and give my weekly predictions on the progression of the site. If it comes true, I shall have to consider a career change in business predictions, could make myself a small fortune. Oh is life was so easy.......

Could it of been the magpie?

I set out on my journey this morning and along the way spotted a magpie, I looked for a second, but could only see the one. I'm quite a superstitious, person and would normally salute the magpie, however due to the fact I was smoking and going round a roundabout, I couldn't.

Oh how I wished I had.......

On my way home this afternoon, I looked at the rear view mirror, only not to be able to see out the back window. At first I thought, god its foggy back there, then thought, don't be daft, must be coming from the car behind, but it was soon clear, it was in fact coming from my car through the exhaust pipe!

The smoke soon cleared and I kept checking the rear view mirror, for further signs of smoke. Within a mile, like puff the magic dragon, there was more, it wasn't continuous, just puffs of smoke every now and then. 3 times, in 6 miles until I got home. It was like my car was having a fag!

I have since taken the car to the garage to get checked over, only to be told, yes there is smoke coming out the car, but they will need to run some tests to see what the problem is. Next week, it's booked in to have pipes cleaned and an engine flush. This could fix the problem; however, it could be something far worse, which could involve loads of work and loads of money. Just great. I really feel like shooting the magpie, I know this is all down to him!

When the garage owner said leave it with me for a while, I will have a look at it. I thought that's what they would do, not tell me something I already knew, hence why I went to them. Men, do they really think all women drivers are stupid, why did he have to confirm there really was smoke coming out of my car?

My gimmicks are now finished and should get put on the pre launch page asap. I have seen them on a mock launch page and I'm pleased with the overall look.

My predictions could be coming true now after all. The pre launch page has encountered more problems, which will probably delay the launch until Monday now. Let's stick with the seeing is believing method!

Something that is a shocking fact today, dad has received 13 emails from the Skater boys. Nine have come from Skater boy No2 & four from skater boy No2. All this before 4.30pm, may even be time for one more before they go home.

Could they blow my predictions?

Dad has received three emails today from the website company! Are they finally pulling their fingers out, could they want to hurry up and get rid of dad as a client, or could it be, they follow my blog and want to blow my predictions of the schedule for this week?

The emails that have gone back and forth today, claim the pre launch page will go live on Thursday of this week, yes that right, this week!

Seem that the list of errors dad put to them, are being fixed and not only that, but tested too. I just hope all this work and effort on their part, hasn't killed them and require them to take the day off tomorrow!

My gimmicks are now finished and I should be able to see them on the pre launch page before it goes live, just not sure when that will be though.

I want to get excited and think the end could soon be here, but I think that would be getting carried away, The 24th is only a week away, would be lovely to think, it could be done and we can move onto other things, I have so much in place to do, but cant do anything until at least the pre launch site is live. So until then I shall have to continue with the seeing is believing method instead of excitement, as this only leads to a depressed mood of state and a sore head!

There is some sanity in this world though. In a few weeks time, a friend and I are jetting away for a weekend of girly fun. I cant wait. No computer, no dad, no work, no daughter of darkness and hopefully not a lot of phone reception, unless my other half wishes to contact me, telling me to go wild in the shops and spend, spend spend.lol

Maybe, as director of the company, I should just inform dad, I need to do this weekend away as part of business research, insuring him that at the end of the day, I want to do all I can to make this business work. The weekend will then be approved , I shall have a wicked weekend, then claim it all back as expenses. In the really world, dad will say, get stuffed!

My head hurts and there is a hole in the wall!

If you are keen followers, who like being bored to death by my blog, then you will know, Monday was claimed to be pre launch day. Claimed because Skater boy No1 & No2 thought they had done all the bug testing and it was ready to go. But of course dad and I knew otherwise.

Time has ticked away today, seconds, minutes, hours, morning past, afternoon came and slowly we drifted into the 5pm zone. At 5.40pm, going home time, we got an a email from skater boy N01.

He basically said, that dad's email on Friday didn't shed any light on what errors, bugs etc dad had found, but was only interested in what they (No1 & No2) had done. Can my dad as a client not ask these questions, when clearly he knows they're are bugs still awaiting to be fixed?

He also went on to say, that if dad was to be more helpful and inform him of what errors or bugs he had found, it would get things moving faster. If dad chooses not to, then he will only have himself to blame for the delay. (dad has told them of these errors weeks ago)

What a joke, it was only five minutes ago, he said, it wasn't down to us to do bug testing. Now he is telling us, he can't be arsed to do his job properly, so can we do it for him.

I'm not stupid, I know when you build a site, before it launches, it gets tested. Not by one or two people, but many. Each person may do something different to someone else, different errors/bugs will be found by different people. Plus the more people testing, helps to see if the site can work a little under pressure so to speak.

However what I cant get my head around, is that clearly they haven't done any testing at all. Sorry I take that back, they did register themselves. Surely if this is the sort of thing they do for a living, they should know how to run tests.

Dad has replied with this list of errors, which skater boy No1 will get tomorrow. Tuesday afternoon he will look at the mail, 5.30 he will reply, with " I will get on with it"

Wednesday morning he will pass the mail to the web developer to sort out. Thursday, the web developer will look at the mail. Friday, he might make a start on it. Friday at 5.30pm, we shall get an email, saying. Launch page should be ready to go on Monday.

I know I shouldn't presume like this, but I feel I have gotten to know them so well, that I can read them like a book. This will yet be another unproductive week behind us.

Just in case you had forgotten, next Tuesday, is website launch day. Can you see it, no neither can I. More chance of winning the lottery or seeing a pig flying.

Valentine' s & Rugby Day!

Happy valentines day, hope you all got something nice and have enjoyed your day!

I have spent the day with friends, followed by England v Wales six nations rugby. I knew we weren't going to win, I just hoped we didn't get pulverised by them. In case you didn't see the game, we did lose 15/25. Was a good game, we scored two tries, one of which, was when we had someone in the sin bin. Wales only manged one.

We played a good game, made some silly mistake, which got two of our players in the sin bin and gave away to many penalties. Wales played well and had we not given away all the penalties that we did, then we would have won for sure. But no point dwelling, I shall await victory when we meet again next year!

Scotland lost against France today, looks like Scotland will be receiving the wooden spoon this year.lol

News flash!

Important news update. Just over twenty minutes ago, dad received an email from the website company stating:

ALL TESTING AND BUG CHECKING HAS BEEN FULLY LOOKED INTO AND THE PRE LAUNCH SITE IS READY TO GO ON MONDAY!

Should I be excited, has something happened since the tests dad did this morning, which failed?

Simple answer no. Nothing has changed since this morning, other than the fact, skater boy No1 & No2, have registered themselves. Worked out they have registered and thought, yep, it works.

Did they check the database, no, did they refer properly, no, did they work their arses off this afternoon fully checking and testing, no, no, no, no and NO!

They have asked dad for any feedback he may have and if anything important arises to contact the web developer, so he can sort out errors. Lol. I laugh because, he has been informed of these errors and has known of these for weeks now. How many more times does he need to be told?

Secondly, should they in fact believe they have fully tested the site then surely they should no it doesn't work. They are the project managers, not us, it is their job to check, not ours. Why should we have to run checks after them, to make sure they have tested properly?

Dad has mailed them back, asking what tests have been taken, what bugs have been fixed and why have they only registered and not gone further by referring and checking the database?

So another Monday will soon be here and gone again, maybe another week will pass before we hear from them again with more false information, who knows...........

Another week over

Yet again Friday has come around and still no sign of a launch page, come to think about it, no sign of a email, informing us one way or another either!

We know we wont get a mail saying "its ready to go", as we have done some checks this morning and still the same things aren't working. Links take you somewhere to outer space, rather than where they're meant too. At the moment, you can get more points for referring, than Obama got in votes, plus the emails aren't correct.

If you think that's a joke, you can start an auction back in 1927, but after 2010, you will never be able to do another auction again! Looks like that's when the business is meant to end, that's of course if it ever gets going! But of course the main problem we have here at present, is the fact, that as soon as an auction is put on, it has ended, but still awaiting bidders, work that one out.

If I were to write a list of everything I know is wrong with the site so far, plus everything that is incomplete, it would take me till the 24th of February (same day the website is meant to be completed) to finish it. I also thing blogger would put a ban on my blog, for the length of time to make the posting and for boring my readers to death.lol

I used to be a happy, out going, bubbly person before I started working for dad. But since all the problems we've had, I'm turning into a negative, grumpy old bag who is starting to moan and become like Victor. I think I shall have to reconsider my position as director of the company, or demand a vacation to the Maldives for a few weeks, so I can return to my cheery normal self again.

My gimmicks are due to be finally completed on Monday. Not that we can do anything with them, until the pre launch page is ready.

Valentines day tomorrow, I'm spending the day watching rugby with friends, so romantic, hope you guys have a lovely valentines day too!

Not in the mood

I don't really have anything to say today. I feel tired after a hard days work and a crap nights sleep! 

I went to bed last night dreaming of the website, every time I opened a link, I'm convinced I woke up and was trying to roll over. Must have been trying to help the pages turn! 

Guitar hero also has this effect on me. I go to sleep dreaming of buttons coming towards me at the speed of knots and I cant seem to play a note. I had to ban myself from playing after 7pm, or I would have a terrible nights sleep.

My plans for this evening are as follows, dinner, vino, nice hot bath, more vino, Dexter then bed, hopefully with a better nights sleep than last!