Adam Bird - My Personal Blog

I had heard about the Tour de France coming to London and Kent this year for a little while, and when I first heard the news I speculated that the route may go pass the flat. We live on the main road from Dartford and into Gravesend, and it made perfect sense to me that this is where the route would go. In the past few weeks, with the build up and official announcements on the Tour de France website being made and confirmation by the council , we really will see the Tour de France racing along the Overcliffe and past Pioneer Court! I am not a cyclist, or a cycling fan per se, but it is great news for Gravesend that the world's largest annual sporting event is passing through! Even better for Steph, Oliver and I, is that we can watch all the action live and uninterrupted from the comfort of our front room! It is strange how when you see the Tour de France on the TV how they appear to be cycling through idyllic French hamlets, or high in the hills somewhere providing breathtaking v...

The Coca Cola promotion allowing you to win a player for your club is back! Just in case you have not seen it, or are reading this whilst drinking a special promotion packet, please please peel off the label and insert the code here ! FAQ's Why the desperation? Well Gillingham are in dire straits financially, so cannot afford to be competitive in the transfer market. If they win a prize like this it could help them improve there squad. If there squad improves they could improve there league position! If they improve there league position I am more happier! If I am happier I am nicer to you! I don't support Gillingham? That's fine with me, I do! If you are a Manchester Utd, Chelsea or Liverpool fan does your club really need to win anymore players? The answer really is no, so help another club instead, and seeing as I asked so nicely, enter under the Gills! What else is in it for me? Well apart from being my friend for eternity you get a chance to win £25,000 for entering. Y...

David Beckham announced today that he will be leaving Real Madrid and signing for LA Galaxy at the end of the season ( see BBC Site ). What has this got to do with me? Nothing really, but in the interest of blogging and the abillity to randomly discuss news events I thought I would give my views on this as a) I am a supporter of football and b) David Beckham is probably the iconic footballer of my generation. Since before Oliver was born I have thought about things that happened to me when I grew up, things that I enjoyed that Oliver will miss. It came about really by reading The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson . I won't write a review now, but it's basically a look back at Brysons life growing up in the 50's and the things that he remembers. After a lengthly thought process about things from when I was growing up I arrived at a mental list of footballers whom I remember standing out from all the rest, just like when my Dad grew up with Dalgleish, S...

Having been off work now since December 18th, tomorrow brings the first step of creating a new normality for us when I go back to work The past three weeks have gone in a blink of an eye, and it is going to be strange tomorrow not seeing Oliver or Steph all day! In Steph's case she probably cannot wait to get rid of me! In pre baby times a normal week would be Steph and I at work during the week, in which she would have one day off, I would be home between 7.30 and 9.30 depending on how busy my day has been, or if I have popped downstairs for a quick beer before home! An average weekend would see Steph at work on Saturday whilst I went to football and Sundays we spent the day together doing household chores, shopping, or if we were particularly lazy nothing at all. Since Oliver arrived and I have been home we have been all over the place in terms of our sleep, our day to day roles and our meal times. There is no going back to the pre Oliver routine, so we can only find a new one! T...

I wasn't really going to write this blog at one stage because I didn't really want to tempt fate, afterall if this year has been so great, who is to say that by celebrating it next year is going to go the other way. But I figured each year brings different things and hopefully next year I will be able to write about how well 2007 has gone too. Even if it does bring the unexpected. But for Steph and I the year 2006 felt like our year. I got the new job which I had craved for so long, which has since gone like a dream for me. I have really settled in, learnt a huge amount from some talented, intelligent people and earnt a reputation based on hard work and a willingness to help out whenever possible. Steph, whose broodiness was exposed the day Jessica announced her third pregnancy managed to fulfil her dreams by getting pregnant herself and spent the year nuturing an eventual baby boy, culminating in Oliver's birth on the 21st of December. A big highlight's for both of us...