Daz Digs (Mint Edition)
Sat Jul 04 2026
Sunrise time : 04:51
Sunset time : 21:22
Pic of the Day 13th January 2001
Cara's Birthday Party
Cara had a quiet birthday this year. Just her best friend Zoe and two of the children from next door came over. However the house still looked like a tornado had hit it after the party had finished.
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This update was written by Darren Wall
on Saturday 13th Jan 2001 06:54:58pm.
Moon Glow
On 9th January 2001 the Earth cast it's shadow across the moon. From 6:42pm the shadow started to cover the bright surface. Luckily, although there were clouds there were also plenty of breaks.
I set up my video camera, by adjusting the aperture I was able to get clear pictures when the sky was clear and by using the infra red vision I was able to track the moon when it was cloudy.
Though the moon did glow red it was not that obvious since the street lighting normally makes the sky a similar colour over London.
Events like this and the solar eclipse in 1999 have certainly got me more interested in the skies above us. I'd like a better camera for taking pictures of the moon and stars. Any pictures would of course end up on this page.
Watch this space. (space, get it?)
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This update was written by Darren Wall
on Tuesday 9th Jan 2001 06:14:30pm.
Picture Of The Day Jan 1 2001
2K1
Happy new year one and all. The Christmas decorations come down for another year. Since it's been cold and very wet for the past few weeks I don't have any new pictures to show. However there are almost 30 years of pictures to catch up on.
Since this site kicked in to second gear with almost weekly updates several people have pointed out how I don't write much about my wife or show many pictures of her. Well now I'm going to put this right.
Barbara and I met on the Internet in a chat room just before Christmas of 1997. We would meet up at the same place every day and talk. Eventually I started calling her and ran up very high phone bills. After talking and mailing Barbara for six months I went out to the USA to meet with her.
We got on like a house on fire. We took walks by the Mississippi, went to a fireworks display on the forth of July, went for picnics and generally had a great holiday. It was good to go out to America and not visit Disney or some tourist trap resort. I did not want to leave Barbara at the end of the two weeks.
The phone bill went even higher for the next six months. I was loosing sleep staying up to early hours of the morning to talk to Barbara. In the Autumn of 1998 we arranged for Barbara to come visit London.
So rather than sitting at our computers on opposite sides of the world Barbara and I sat side by side at my keyboard browsing and chatting with our regular friends. (As captured on this web cam picture)
Since Barbara enjoyed herself here in London, she got on well with my family and friends and I could not bare to be without her any more, on the bow of HMS Belfast, moored just by Tower Bridge, I proposed to her. She said yes :).
Barbara and I were married in the USA in the summer of 1999.
OK so that was a short recount of 1997-1999. I'll fill in some more details in future pages.
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This update was written by Darren Wall
on Monday 1st Jan 2001 01:56:41pm.
Pic Of the Day 31st December 2000
I had the web cam pointing out of my window towards Canada Tower on the River Thames. On new years eve the camera caught the firework display over Canary Wharf when the Dome was closed. There were no fireworks in this small patch of sky at the stroke of midnight though the rest of the sky was full of them.
I hope you had a great Christmas and have/had happy and safe new year celebration.
On Thursday 28th December 2000 it snowed. The betting shops were glad that the snow had not fallen three days earlier since a lot of people had put money on snow falling in London on Christmas day.
There was barely enough snow to make a snow ball. I cleaned the snow of the car and threw it at the kids who were sat cozy and warm behind the safety of the living room window.
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This update was written by Darren Wall
on Sunday 31st Dec 2000 07:54:03am.
Pic Of the Day 26th December 2000
My parents gave me a Star Trek pocket watch. The watch has the federation emblem on the front and inside has pictures and schematics of the original Enterprise.
This is the second pocket watch I have gotten. The first is a watch from my grandfather. Apparently the Trek watch is one of a set. This may be the start of a collection.
Barbara bought me Star Trek Elite Force. Since I've been playing a lot of games recently and saw my brother play this just before Christmas I'd been dropping a lot of hints. The game is very good, using the Quake III 3D engine you have to solve maps as well as blasting your favorite Star Trek baddies.
There's even a section where you are walking around the old sixties style federation craft, complete with "woosh beep" doors and female crew in skimpy uniforms and thigh boots.
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This update was written by Darren Wall
on Tuesday 26th Dec 2000 11:09:23pm.
PIC OF THE DAY 24th December 2000
A traditional meal for Christmas eve, steak and lobster? Despite it being a Sunday and Christmas eve the stores were still open until 4pm this afternoon. We went for a trip out to Sainsburys on the Greenwich Peninsular. One of the days special offers was lobster, how could we resist. This was the first time that Barbara had cooked lobster and the first time the Cara had eaten it. The meal was messy but delicious. We didn't have any nut crackers to break the shells but the handles of a can opener proved suffice. I'm hoping that this is the start of a tradition.
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This update was written by Darren Wall
on Sunday 24th Dec 2000 11:06:19pm.
PIC OF THE DAY 17th December 2000
This picture was originally intended to be on the front of some personalised Christmas cards but the printer didn't want to play. Does anyone want to by forty blank cards?
Cara and Barbara put the Christmas tree up on December 1st and the pictures that make up this image were taken the next morning. Neither Seth or Cara knew what I was doing with the pictures and both loved the results. Barbara made the angel dress and glow since in the original picture of Cara she was simply wearing a t-shirt and jeans.
By December 17th we have almost all the Christmas shopping done, I have still to get Barbara's presents and to take Cara shopping to get presents for the people she wants to buy for, this may mean a trip to Blue Water one evening.
Just in case I don't update this page in the next week (and going by my recent track record this is highly possible) have a good Christmas and I hope to talk/mail/ICQ/see you all in the new year...
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This update was written by Darren Wall
on Sunday 17th Dec 2000 10:53:20pm.
PIC OF THE DAY 2nd December 2000
Cara wearing her gi. Both Cara and Seth now have their gi and have continued to go to Karate classes each week. I generally watch them for the first few minutes of each session. Cara is now starting to concentrate more on what she should be doing rather than what the others around her are doing. Seth is realising how to use the defencive blocking moves that they are being taught.
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This update was written by Darren Wall
on Saturday 2nd Dec 2000 07:54:13pm.
PIC OF THE DAY 12th November 2000
Cara and Seth have both been going to Karate for the past three months. Today was the first time that Barbara and I had stayed to watch the whole hour and a half long session. After six lessons both Seth and Cara get a white belt with yellow tip. Since they are enjoying Karate and will be keeping it up I've placed an order for a couple of the proper uniforms (gi).
Some of the children in this group are even smaller than Cara and there are adults in the group too. All are treated equally, It's a good friendly atmosphere with discipline and exercise, If only they would feed the kids too I'd leave them there all weekend!
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This update was written by Darren Wall
on Sunday 12th Nov 2000 07:41:43am.
PIC OF THE DAY 4th November 2000
We were supposed to be going up to Black Heath tonight to watch the fireworks with a freind of mine and his family, unfortunately they could not come at the last minute. Rather than standing in a cold muddy field having burning embers from fireworks fall in our faces (as happened last year) we decided to go for a meal.
At TGI Fridays in BlueWater they had a magician. He performed a couple of card tricks and entertained us for quite some time. For one trick Cara had to write her name on a card and he made it appear in a wallet which had been in the middle of the table through the whole trick. Cara tried to spoil each of his tricks but this guy was on the ball. Seth was just amazed. Barbara and I were laughing at the expressions on the kids faces.
I always enjoy going to TGI, the staff are always friendly and the food is good too.
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This update was written by Darren Wall
on Saturday 4th Nov 2000 06:45:45am.
PIC OF THE DAY 31st October 2000
Since Halloween is not something that us British go nuts over I have never before carved a pumpkin. After a quick briefing from Barbara I was left with a sharp knife, three pumpkins, three candles, some markers and two kids.
As Barbara ran out of the kitchen saying "Have fun" I was wondering why she didn't want to play?
First, pumpkin inards are yucky ! Next year I'm letting Cara empty my pumpkin.
Second though they are great artists the kids drew tiny faces that you'd have to use a scalple to cut out and it took them several attempts before drawing big enough faces to cut out.
Third, pumpkin inards are yucky !
Forth, sharp knives, candles and kids who's bright idea was that?
"Daddy can I cut the face out of the pumpkin?"
"No"
"Daddy can I light the candle?"
"No"
"Daddy can I..."
"No, no, no, no, no !!!"
Seth and Cara were both happy in the end with their designs.
Seth's pumpkin is the first one that I've seen with false teeth.
I like the way that Cara's pumpkin has a lop sided mouth.
My pumpkin is apparently "traditional", not bad for a Brit.
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This update was written by Darren Wall
on Tuesday 31st Oct 2000 08:53:59am.
PIC OF THE DAY 24th October 2000
Seth, Cara and I went for a walk around Willingham near Cambridge. Unfortunately the batteries on the camera were low so I was only able to take a few pictures out on the green by the house we were staying in.
Though we took a two hour walk in the cold morning air neither of the kids were the least bit tired when we got back. However both did go to sleep at about eight o'clock that night which is early for them during the school break.
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This update was written by Darren Wall
on Tuesday 24th Oct 2000 11:22:30pm.
PIC OF THE DAY 22nd October 2000
It was a wet day in St. Albans. A few freinds and I went to play "paint ball". Running around, diving in to muddy puddles, getting shot at, scrambling through thorn bushes. It was a brilliant day.
Quite often when the battles got to a stale mate with no one advancing and no one shooting I would simply stand up in the middle of the battle field to draw enemy fire and get things going again. This picture shows the hazard of such a manouver, I was hit at the top of my face mask.
I took my minidisc recorder with me and recorded the first couple of hours of the day. The recording here is taken from the second game. Each game was around 15 minutes long or until one team had captured the flag and got it in to the correct base. In this game the teams were fifty yards appart with the flag in the middle of the two teams, in this game you had to get the flag from the middle and put it into the "enemy" base.
The game lasted four minutes and thirty seconds. The recording starts just before the game and is cut about twenty seconds short. (512k about 2minutes loading on a 28k modem)
Your browser does not support the audio tag.
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This update was written by Darren Wall
on Sunday 22nd Oct 2000 04:57:12am.
PIC OF THE DAY 22nd SEPTEMBER 2000
Something I've come to learn since becoming a father is that kids break things, if you ask then it was always the other kid that broke it, if you loose something you blame it on the kids, things become less important.
Through trying to dance while on the phone Cara pulled the phone off of the table. Here you see me cursing under my breath while fixing the phone. I sometimes wonder if so many things would get broken if I stopped fixing them.
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This update was written by Darren Wall
on Friday 22nd Sep 2000 05:12:16am.
PIC OF THE DAY 16th SEPTEMBER 2000
Not quite Notting Hill. The children from the local schools made masks and costumes for a prossesion through our local area. Barbara and I took Caras friend Zoe, Cara and Seth. All the kids had whistles and some had shakers, most had flags. How the whole thing didn't turn into a riot is a mystery to me.
We didn't know the route in advance so followed blindly. Luckily the rain held off and we all had a good day.
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This update was written by Darren Wall
on Monday 18th Sep 2000 06:36:49am.
PIC OF THE DAY 12th SEPTEMBER 2000
The tax on fuel has caused truck drivers to block the main fuel depots. Because of this, fuel stations are all solid with cars desperate to fill up before all the stations run dry. There are queues around the night at those stations that have any fuel left. Personally I'm taking the train to work and hoping this all blows over soon.
P.S (added 2021) this blew over in about a week. Remember, this was many years before the popularity of the Internet and social media. Similar panic buying in 2021 lasted about a month.
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This update was written by Darren Wall
on Tuesday 12th Sep 2000 06:07:09am.
PIC OF THE DAY 9th SEPTEMBER 2000
This picture was taken in Trafalgar Square in London the same day that we took the boat and bus rides. There was some form of rally in the square which meant we could not get the traditional pictures of the lion statues or Nelsons' column without getting banners in them. Maybe we'll have better luck next time.
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This update was written by Darren Wall
on Saturday 9th Sep 2000 07:59:26am.
PIC OF THE DAY 5th SEPTEMBER 2000
When I woke this morning I kissed my beautiful wife and, as she does every morning, she smiled. Seth had stayed over at his friends house so his room was the bomb site which he'd left it in. I looked in on Cara and to my surprise she was laying in a perfectly straight line. The toys taking up the top quarter of her bed she'd moved down and found, like her dad, that to make the most of a little bed space, it is best to sleep diagonally across the bed.
Cara and Seth are both starting school tomorrow after their six week summer break.
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This update was written by Darren Wall
on Tuesday 5th Sep 2000 06:39:41am.
PIC OF THE DAY 4th SEPTEMBER 2000
Of the three new roses we planted in our back yard this year this is the only one that has produced good flowers. Hopefully it will continue to bloom through the rest of the year.
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This update was written by Darren Wall
on Monday 4th Sep 2000 04:28:16am.
PIC OF THE DAY 1st SEPTEMBER 2000
One of the guys at work pointed out that the picture I've been using on the top of my page was out of date. Here's the new hairless me, see how long it takes to grow to my shoulders again.
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This update was written by Darren Wall
on Friday 1st Sep 2000 04:54:47am.