If you are going to leave a negative comment please try and be brave enough to put your name against it.

So a nice ntl man came to my house on Thursday and replaced the trusty five year old Motorola Suftboard 4100 with an ntl 250 cable modem which is only about a quarter of the size, and he also replaced the overly large cable I had roped around the back of desk with a much shorter one.

Which means my home internet works again. Hurrah!

Forgive me my Internet friends if I don’t get in contact with you over the next week, unfortunately my home Internet connection is not functioning. This ntl problem, coupled with working away means I will not have access to the internet outside of work until the weekend which limits me greatly. I was hoping to get the ObscureInternet.com main site updated with some new stories as it desperately needs some.

Oh Well, speak to you soon.

So what do think of the new look?

Link: Forum Discussion

While I was staying in Blackpool last week there was a few other people staying there from Peterlee, So we decided to have a night on the town on Thursday, this was the night of one Boro’s biggest games in their history, the UEFA cup quarter final second leg against Basel at the Riverside stadium in Middlesbrough.

The night started for a couple of work colleagues and myself in the Hotel bar. The bar staff were kind enough to put the Football on the Plasma Televisions so we could watch, Basel would the first match 2-0 mean Boro had to score three goals without let Basel scoring another to win. This I felt was a very difficult task I one we would probably not be able to complete.

We started will and on 14 minutes, and should have had a penalty, however nine minutes later the task was made much more difficult as Eduardo’s tapped-in a goal for Basle which left us needing four goals to win.

Before the second half ended we headed into Blackpool town and more specifically to the Australian style bar Walkabout, in which we meet we our other colleagues for this night out. When I arrived at the pub I found that Mark Viduka had pulled one back before half-time with a powerful run and shot. So my eyes were glues to the huge projection screen for the second half

Basle’s defence again succumbed on 57 minutes when Yakubu slid the ball through for Viduka to sidestep Zuberuehler and shoot home from a difficult angle. Then Our hopes were lifted again when Majstorovic, who had been Basle’s dominant force in defence, was sent off. At this point all the play was one way with Boro constantly attacking Basle’s goal. A stunning shot from Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink made it 3-3.

As this point someone tried to introduce some important colleagues to me, but unfortunately I could take my eyes of that large screen.

And as the minutes ticked down, Fabio Rochemback’s had a shot which was only parried by Zuberuehler and Maccarone squeezed home the rebound to send the myself and many other disbelieving Boro fans at the Riverside into ecstacy.

I am scream and shouted, and at the final whistle I had to smoked a cigarette to help me calm down, I could not believe what just saw (I still cannot to a degree) and after a short period during which many people shock my hand I went outside and phoned the wife.

Sometime after we left the Walkabout and for another pub, final ending up in a decent Nightclub and a good night was had by almost everybody including the large party of the Women dress as school girls (one of whom drew on my face) and myself as I manage to stay reasonably sober.

I make no excuses about not updating for a while, as I have reprioritised by time so I can spend more of it with my family. Anyway I’ll bring you up to date with what has been happening in my so called life.

We’ve all been good and well over the last few weeks except for last weekend, when Conor was sick on Saturday and then Suzanne and I became sick on Sunday. I used this as an excuse for Conor and myself to sit on the sofa and watch DVD’s all morning. One of these was the excellent Transformers the Movie which I still believe is a great movie despite how poor the TV series looks and feels now.

I started my new job this week, almost four years after starting my job in Peterlee I have taken a new (temporary) role within the company which means I will now be spending my time working from home and Lytham St Annes (near blackpool). The first part of the week will be spent working from home and the second part from Lytham which is a long way from home so I must spend my nights in a hotel away from the family which is not ideal.

I’ve not been working from home as yet, as I don’t have my company laptop yet (I do have my Company mobile) so last week was working in Peterlee, as I will have to do this week again. I did travel down to Lytham this week as travelling down on Wednesday morning and coming back on Friday afternoon, but not before going out on the tiles in Blackpool (which I will cover in great detail in the next update)

My mother was in England for a quick visit at the end of the week, unfortunately I missed some of it with being away, but I did get to see her Friday night and when we dropped her back at Newcastle airport yesterday. On the way back in the sunny weather gave in to snow, yes it was snowing in April so badly that the football match at Sunderland had to be called off twenty minutes into play.

When I find the time the plans for the websites are as follows – Slight Redesign to ObscureInternet (I’m planning on moving to a more modular design so maybe I can add future technologies such as Ajax) and adding some new stories. This blog is going to be redesigned to it fits in with the feel of the main OI site. Surprisingly I’m still undecided what to do with the Zoë Salmon and Konnie Huq Sites, I’m torn between completely removing them or integrating them further with the main site.