Matt Walkden

Catch up

Matt Walkden — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 10:20:00 +0000

I haven't been writing on this blog for a while, just too many other things on the go! We've finished the kitchen in our house and paid the builder, gotto sort out some spare cash for Christmas now, not as easy as it sounds!

I managed to annoy a load of friends with a facebook post about the public sector workers who went on strike, as you can imagine being self employed and totally responsible for my current and future finances I have little sympathy with council/gov workers who get 5 weeks paid holidays a year, paid sick leave and a guaranteed pension of any sort, non of that happens for me! My choice but still not sympathetic.

Had a couple of cousins visiting this year which is really nice and quite a change cos we live in the back of beyond, first Jane came down and we had a blast then Netty & Nick which was a quieter weekend but great funa dn really good to see them with enough time to chat & socialise.

As always, I'm a boring old git, just working all the time, eJurassic is ticking over nicely, down a little on last year but still bringing in a wage.

Our website www.wills.org.uk is gearing up for a really good year next year, we've sort of re-invested in the site, we tried to get an automated system working but it was slow and clunky so we've reverted to me writing all the wills from the online form and for the time being, that's working well. If anyone reading this wants discount off the wills on that site there's a discount code you can type in to get 10% off - FR33H1T - feel free to tell anyone you know about that code as I'm happy to get clients cheaply rather than paying affiliates and/or advertising.

Cats are being a pain in the arse, for some reason they're peeing everywhere inside the house, some sort of teritorial stuff going down, I looked up reasons for this on the web and found that a typical reason for this behaviour is having a kitchen fitted out and we've just done that so brought it upon ourselves, hey ho!

Got Anya and co coming down next weekend for an early christmas family dinner, Anya's cooking at our house, new kitchen etc. so we're really lookign forward to that. Then we've got christmas proper at home, Mum & Dad coming around after watching the harbour swim and the obligatory hour in the Kings Arms!

That's about everything as far as catch up goes, Merry Christmas to anyone who reads this (which is quite possibly only my best mate Ger in Houston, Texas) friends are what life's all about!

My little niece Emma wins Vodafone comp!

Matt Walkden — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 13:15:00 +0100

Mad family wedding

Matt Walkden — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 15:45:00 +0100

Just come back from a big weekend up near Manchester, big family wedding and it was one to remember, loads of fun.

Pretty little country church to start off with, ceremony started as usual, then the rings were flown into the church by an Owl! rest of the ceremony was pretty much as usual but at the end they had a gospel band just like in "Love Actually" singing "All you need is love!" with a guitarist and a sax player popping up just like the movie!

The reception was at Lyme Park which was the setting for the famous Mr Darcy coming out of the lake all wet in the BBC version of Pride & Prejudice, what a beautiful setting for a wedding. During the meal we had a wedding singer keeping everyone entertained, 2 close quarter magicians and dancing between the tables between the courses! Apart from the food being of top restaurant standard, it was simply the best Lamb I've ever tasted.

Joe Hart was there, the England keeper, he's a mate of my cousins so like a fool I had my photo taken with him. We danced the night away with family having a great laugh then at 10.30 there was half an hour solid of fireworks, not one going off and an oooh, aaah, but 5 in the air literally all the time for half an hour, it didn't seem to end! Even better than Weymouth beach during the summer (council pays for that one!)

That's it now, back in Dorset feeling a little better about our situation, up there we were definately the poor relatives! Think about the quality of life Matt!!!!!

busy time

Matt Walkden — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 06:59:00 +0100

Crikey! Plenty going on, new kitchen - you've read about the chaos now see the pic;

And I played golf yesterday and went round in 81 which i was pleased with. Tonight I'm off to Simon's boat to meet up with some mates, have a laugh tonight then do some fishing tomorrow. Also booked a holiday for Mary & Liam in Majorca for August, I can't go, some poor schmuk has to stay at home and work!

New Kitchen Aaaargh

Matt Walkden — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 09:17:00 +0100

So we couldn't sell our houses at the right price and then we went and bought our holiday let Kearney Cottage on Portland. Immediately after getting that place ready Mary was in the mood for change and that involves builders and that involves money which we've run out of!

The builders been in and blocked up a door, moved it to a new place in the hall, he's blocked up an internal arch so the lounge is now back to how it was 50 years ago, a smaller room on it's own, better for shutting yourself away and watching tv i, that's for sure!

Then the builder starts on the kitchen and knocks down the wall between the kitchen and the dining room so the whole back of the hous is now the kitchen, the plumbers are here today fitting the last radiator and their job is over once they supply and fit Mary's new Stoves range cooker, I'm going to expect a roast dinner every day from then on! Downside is that once that arrives the plumbers are going to be after their money then too, empty all the accounts!

Meanwhile, we've got all the kitchen units off the walls and out on the decking along with the kitchen table, all the utensils and all the plates, pots, pans etc. it's like camping in your own house. We haven't been able to do anything inside except microwave things which we hate and the weather hasn't been good enough to BBQ every night which was our original plan. We've been inviting ourselves to neighbours houses, friends houses and my mum & dads for tea on a regular basis and no sign of that stopping for a week or two!

So if you read this, invite us round, we'll bring wine I promise!

Chelsea Girl

Matt Walkden — Thu, 19 May 2011 08:51:00 +0100

Went out on Simon's new boat yesterday whilst poor Mary was working on the Cottage on Portland and we were lucky enough to see this below:

Kraken time

Matt Walkden — Thu, 05 May 2011 09:52:00 +0100

just spoken to Nick Williams from Lyme Regis who runs a mackerel fishing boat there called Kraken, he's got a page on one of our sites www.lymeregis.com/kraken and is trying to get loads of holiday makers on there using us rather than Lyme Regis Tourist Information site.

Forget Wills & Kate....

Matt Walkden — Wed, 04 May 2011 19:07:00 +0100

cos here's Prince Matt of Weymouth and his wife Princess Mary.

Just another day out in Weymouth.

147lb - Target weight achieved

Matt Walkden — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 06:39:00 +0100

Yes that's ten and a hlf stone, just what I was aiming at. Lost 10lb in 12 days, not bad really, for health & diet advice give me a call, I'm an expert!

148lb - one pound off my target!

Matt Walkden — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 07:28:00 +0100

Surprisingly I managed to lose another pound yesterday, I did the diet ok but had no excersize at all, just a busy day in the office and running round weymouth. Last horrid bland teatime tonight, because Friday we'll be at Anya's eating like royalty!

149lb - diet beginning to drag now

Matt Walkden — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 08:52:00 +0100

last few days only lost fractions of a pound but down to 10st 9.2lb which I've cleverly rounded down.

Only a pound ost in 3 days even after cycling about 15 miles, walking more and only drinking 2 smoothies a day and a salad at night, life's just not fair.

2 days to go then I'm going to let Anya fatten me up!

150lb which is 10st 10lb cool

Matt Walkden — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 09:01:00 +0100

still on my diet, 8lb in 6 days which is not bad. Cycled another 6 miles this morning with Mary, went over to Portland and back.

151lb - slowly slowly

Matt Walkden — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 09:10:00 +0100

And started the day with a 6 mile bike ride, Mary came with me too and it was a fabulous morning!

152lb - 10St 12lb

Matt Walkden — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 08:05:00 +0100

Only losta pound yesterday but it's ok because after I weighed myself this morning I did a bit of excersize that should speed the metabolism up for today. Starving hungry now though!

153lb - under 11 stone!

Matt Walkden — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 07:28:00 +0100

Yes that's right after a second tough day I'm under 11 stone, had headaches all day yesterday which I'm putting down to the no coffee de-tox.

155 lb worked hard

Matt Walkden — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 06:36:00 +0100

uyesterday I ate smoothy for breakfast, smoothy for lunch and a big salad, no meat, for tea and all I'm allowed to drink is water in between! Seems to do the trick, damn Jason Vale!

Big test this morning, off to a Chamber of Commerce breakfast meeting and will have to refuse food, that's not me is it?

Getting our new holiday let house website going, www.chesilbeach.org.uk

Watch this space.

158lb - Mr Lardy

Matt Walkden — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 06:54:00 +0100

Yes that's 11 stone 4 pounds!

Rugby weekend

Matt Walkden — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 07:56:00 +0100

It's been fun watching England beat all comers in Rugby right up until the moment when we let Ireland ruin the Grand Slam for us! Still, not put off I had a mad sporting weekend just gone.

Friday night when Liam came home from school we drove to Bridport, picked up some friends and went on to Yeovil Town FC ground where we watched a good display of football from some rising talents in an under 18 match between England & Wales, England won 1-0 so all happy on the night. I dropped Liam off in Bridport on the way back and went straight to be when I got home ready for a big day on Sat.

Saturday morning we woke early and got ourselves into town for an early morning breakfast and then into our local pub by 9am for a Guiness! (Mad I know but it was a belated Paddy's day celebration). By 10am we were on the bus and heading for Reading where we were going to the Majedski (is that how you spell it?) Stadium to watch London Irish (our team) beat Exeter Cheifs by a decent margin with great live Irish bands both before & after. All in all a cracking day out.

Sunday I woke up with a bit of a bad head but ran into town, a little late as the clocks going forward in the night had caught me out a bit! I was taken out to sea on the press RIB to watch the start of the RBIC Round Britain & Ireland Challenge yacht Race. In all honesty it wasn't that exciting as there was hardly any wind but a great sight and a fun day out on the water.

Back in work now and off to Lyme Regis today to do the last bit of clearing out of Mary's dad's house before the sale completes. When I get back I've got to do some work on our www.Divorce.org.uk website and the www.willregister.org.uk website.

Busy times as ever

Matt Walkden — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 15:08:00 +0000

I know, it's been ages since I wrote something, over a month I beleive but hey, ho, these things happen. Had a few good weekends, Simon & Pam over for a meal, had a good laugh, Pam didn't realise it cost about £800 to fill up their boat with deisel so I think I landed Simon in it with that revelation! Also met up with Kay, Theresa & Martin over in Uplyme for a weekend of more clearing out, John's house is looking better now and we're over there to stay again soon with Dean & Jane (& Georgia the dog! Don't tell Theresa!). Reminds me to add a couple of things to www.Lymeregis.net before I go.

Talking of Dean, we played golf this week as it was his brother's birthday, only 39, youngster! I was particularly bad but it was a fabulous day to be out, bright sunshine again on the south coast!

Had a reasonable offer that Julz & I are still considering fro www.Divorce.org.uk so I'll let you all know when we make a decision on that.

Expecting an offer over the weekend for stepaside and we've got a couple of people interested via the website so fingers crossed one of those will be worth writing about too. Back to the grind now, have a good weekend everyone!

Gatehouses Sold at last

Matt Walkden — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 15:29:00 +0000

Well, despite a bad start to the day with Mary & I feeling pretty fed up with the recession etc. I've had a good bit of news from the Solicitor, I've finally sold the two Gatehouses at Southwell to the new Hotel that they've opened there. I always thought they looked more like toilet blocks!

Anyway, champagne tonight I think!

January health kick!

Matt Walkden — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 09:08:00 +0000

Yes, I'm trying to get rid of the usual christmas excesses and the excersize regigm has taken off well.

Pic of me cycling below;

Other bike belongs to Dean, I'm monitoring my progress using MiCoach which aparently you can share with others but no idea how so not sharing!

Busy with work, never earning enough, love to earn more and have a found a way to do so, anyone who wants to earn more and knows me should get in touch. Have a great 2011!

Kings Arms Weymouth on Christmas Day

Matt Walkden — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 15:58:00 +0000

After pressie openning and then watching the usual nutters do the harbour swim in the below freezing temperatures, we wandered off to the Kings Arms, one of our locals and the venue for our after Wedding Reception dancing, for a couple of Guinesses in memory of a beloved John, Mary's father, as he would normally have been with us for this regular Christmas Day diversion. This excellent photo was taken by my mum and we love her for it, it's brilliant.

After this we headed home to put the Turkey on and toast some more with Champers and other such stuff, another great day.

The cat gets a dip!

Matt Walkden — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 16:07:00 +0000

Only a short one this one, as predicted in my last entry, the ice started getting thinner and the cats remained as confident as ever chasing the fish under the ice and so jumped on it and ran around for a while, then.....

You guessed it, the ice broke and one of them, clever Bondie, fell in, she got out faster than you could blink but went running into the house like a kitten possessed!

All good fun, same thing is going to happen again, the pond went solid but after the rain over the last 4 hours is starting to thaw, almost all of the snow is gone now, just the ice on the pond getting thinner, and 3 stupid cats not realising it, waiting for their chance for a swim with the goldfish!

Christmas is upon us, too quickly again!

Matt Walkden — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 10:03:00 +0000

Good greif, it's been over a month since I wrote on my blog, sorry about that to those regular readers out there, sorry to say not much to report, business is always slow at this time of year as everyone is thingking of spending their hard earned cash on christmas, not wills or websites, so I tend to be a little bit lazy in December.

We had our Mattwalk Limited Christmas party on Tuesday afternoon, I ended up going home with my Assistant again, same old same old! We combined the do with the Sharp Events do which worked out very well, splitting the bill exactly in half! Dean & Jane are fine if anyone is asking!

Got Mary one pressie so far and have to go get her another this weekend. She's very difficult to buy for as she has everything a girl could want (me of course)!

Some good news from Sardinia this week, our friend John is coming over for a few days between Christmas and New Year so he's taking one night off from visiting family etc. and coming to Weymouth to stay with us, 28th I think, and Liam will be at his dads in Bridport so we're all very happy about that and looking forward to a good night in town with him.

Not missing Hockey one bit, only thing that's anoying me at the moment is the cold weather means I haven't been able to take the boat out which I'm looking forward to, I really want to be able to do so before Christmas but that's looking more and more unlikely, just have to hold on for milder days in the new year. All the DIY repairs on the boat and rtrailor are done, just need to step the mast and rig the sails then I'm away!

Cold weather has also reduced my fish population in the pond, my big goldie has snuffed it and as a reminder, the body is lying on it's side beneath the 4 inches of solid ice that's been on top of the pond for about a month now, I can't believe tht it hasn't thawed at all for so long, we have 1 or 2 milder days but the ice gets no thinner, I've seen the cats walking across it loads, they're getting so used to doing it now that when it does eventually thaw they'll try it again and be in the pond for a quick swim!

That's about all my thoughts for a while, as always, working on the websites every day, latest pics I've taken are on the uplyme site, have a butchers!

Visiting Lyme Regis

Matt Walkden — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 14:31:00 +0000

Managed to get Mary's Dad's funeral out the way this week, all very sad, you can have a look at a web page I made up for him years ago, had to change it last week, he loved it and used call Bantry Bay his website http://www.bantrybay.co.uk/Content/john_kearney.asp

All back to work now and trying to get things back into a routine, I like routines and haven't had one for what seems like ages.

Been trying to varnish the wooden bits of our new boat but without much luck, everytime we get it all out and ready to go the rain comes down. After a summer of not a drop, buy a boat and get rained on solid for 2 weeks! Sods law I think it's called!

Chaos tonight, Liam's mate, Ashley, is meant to be staying over so another night with no sleep and a tired kid all weekend as a result. Lucky me.

Still, happy to be off to the Smugglers in Osmington for lunch tomorrow, trying to get some fresh air and a bit of walking done, that is after all, the reason I gave up hockey!

Heard from Ger this week, good to get a communication from him, see pics of us in our youth on this site!

Sad days I'm afraid

Matt Walkden — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 16:56:00 +0000

Bad news last week, Wednesday morning we had a phone call telling us that Mary's Dad, John, had died in his sleep, he was in a care home in Charmouth and fighting against cancer in many parts of his body, we were sort of expecting it but it came a lot sooner than we'd thought and was quite a shock.

We've been over to Lyme Regis quite a bit in the last week sorting out funeral arrangments etc. if anyone's reading htis and wants to come it's Tuesday morning at Lyme Catholic Church then after at the Mariners Hotel, we'll be there and would love to see you.

On the brighter side, I've been working on Honeybun, our little boat, and she's seaworthy now and on a launching trolley that is in full working order. I've taken all the wooden seats etc. off the boat and brought them home, when we've got John's funeral behind us we're going to varnish all the wooden parts, rig her up completely and take her out on the water! Looking forward to that momentous moment! is that a phrase I can use? who knows?

Watch this space for more news, or click on the album on the side fro some pics of the boat!

Bought a boat!

Matt Walkden — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 07:03:00 +0100

Yes I have, it's an old GP14 but not that old, it's a fibreglass one with an aluminium mast and boom, not bad for just £150. Going to keep it at the Weymouth & Portland National Sailing Academy so I can go sailing whilst Mary's rowing on the weekends.

Been busy on loads of website's too, beefing up the www.mwlegalservices.co.uk website and all the associated sites that belong to Freehit because we've now got a deal with a Solicitor who's going to do all the work I can't do sort of under licence for us.

Off to Burton Bradstock today to meet Julz and discuss where we're going next, I wish I was feeling better, I'm dieing of ManFlu at the moment, that's why I'm in the office so early, it's 0645 but if I stayed in bed I'd only be wide awake, coughing and keeping Mary awake too. She's getting over this cold she's given me so I told her to have a good lie in!

Late work tonight too, it's going to be a 14 hour day cos I've got an appointment with clients in Bournemouth tonight at half six....think of the moeny, gotta pay for the boat somehow!

Ignore this link, just got to get it in there somewhere cos we need our divorce site higher up on the natural rankings!

Liam's Birthday

Matt Walkden — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 08:58:00 +0100

Watched those Chilean miners coming out the depths of the earth most of yesterday and very pleased to see the last of them out this morning and the amazing 6 man rescue team who volunterily went down there to help them out, brave or nuts, dunno but they deserve a hero's welcome too!

Liam's birthday today (& Cliff Richards aparently according to the news this morning) so he was downstairs about an hour earlier than usual on a school day. We got him a PS3 and a few games, he had some clothes and chockies too. Sent him off to school and I had to set up the PS3 on our downstairs TV because the one in his room is old and rubbish, that's the next big expense for me to spend on him! Set the thing up and stuck Prince of Pursia in and had a little go, it's just like a cool version of the old Tomb Raider, excellent fun and might get a bit addictive so the sooner it moves upstairs the better, I hate video games, they can take over your life if you're not careful so I steer clear of them.

Off along the coast to Charmouth today, Mary's Dad's been ill in hospital, Exeter first which was a long trek, then Bridport which was loads easier for us and a very nicelittle hospital but now he's in a nursing home in Charmouth which we've got to go look at, hope he gets home to Lyme Regis pretty soon.

Might come back via Dorchester, got a few places there I want to take a look at for WOL.

September 2010

Matt Walkden — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 08:00:00 +0100

It's been a long month, business has been slow, I blame the BBC as usual but there's a silver lining to every cloud, it's given me time to get out cycling regularly and I'm hoping that my pal, Dean, is awake this morning because we're meant to be having a game of golf!

I haven't played golf for years but I used to enjoy it and it's excersize and it's fresh air and it's competative and you dont get injuries like hockey so here we go! Wake up Dean.

Website business is the other way at the moment, that's very busy, plenty on and lots to do so I'll be on the case with that later on this afternoon, and all day tomorrow if the truth be told. Latest thing we've come up with to make a bit of dosh is selling tees and hoodies via our online shop www.JurassicShop.co.uk

I'll let you know how that's going soon.

Abbotsbury Gardens

Matt Walkden — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 16:04:00 +0100

What a busy weekend?

Mary, Liam and I took an hour and a half trip on a Mackerel fishing boat on Sauturday morning, the boat was called Joint Venture and we had a great time, haven't been ona fishing trip like that for about 30 years! We let Liam be in control of our line (shared of course) and he managed to catch 5 fish in the time, we didn't bring any home because we were sick of being covered in fish blood by the end of the trip, our place on the boat was right by the basket they got chucked in and they flip about with broken necks for a while before they stop and blood flies everywhere! Clothes straight in the wash afterwards.

On the walk home from the harbour Liam spotted a few mates so arranged a big football match with them, Mary & I had previously decided to go to Abbotsbury Tropical Gardens and Liam was keen to join in until the offer of a footy match and who were we to argue?

We still went over there and bought a SuperSaver family 12 month ticket, 2 adults and up to 3 kids in 3 attractions (gardens, Swannery & Farm) all for just £55, was quite happy with that!

Walking around the Tropical Gardens in Abbotsbury I was taken back to my youth and Cefn Onn Parc near Lisvane in Cardiff, they're very similar and I could just see me with friends running about in the place in my memory, not always being good but in those days if the Parky told you off you listened and were worried, lord knows what kids would say to them now.

Sunday was another active one, we cycled over to the Boat that Rocks on Portland and had a coffee, met up with Mary's rowing friend, Alison and her son Noah cycling, they couldn't stop but we arranged that they would come back to our house after their ride and join us for coffee there, they did so along with her husband and my friend Rob. Really good to catch up and chat as I hadn't seen them socially for quite a while. We talked about our business plans and we both seem to be heading in the same, more local, direction.

In the afternoon we watched liam win 6-1 so even ha a happy son, once roast pork dinner was eaten up we settled down for our X Factor evening, bring on the cold nights eh?