Adam Bird - My Personal Blog

Having been back from Mexico now for 10 days, posted Oliver's blog and three photo albums, I am still managing to find enthusiasm to write more words about our two week stay in Cozumel. As I mentioned previously in Oliver's blog, we couldn't have wished for a better behaved baby, and as a result Steph and I were able to enjoy our holiday without stress or strain, really making the holiday what it was, along with the fantastic friends and family whom we travelled with! We stayed at the Iberostar Cozumel, which is the best hotel I have ever stayed at on a package holiday. The vast hotel grounds and beautiful beach side setting gave it the 'paradise' ambiance that John and Nadine wanted for the perfect location for their perfect wedding. However, one negative, certainly for us, but not for those who are not keen to explore was the hotels location geographically. Cozumel itself is a fairly small island, with one road that circumnavigates it, and would take you an h...

I saw this article on the SPAOTP football blog detailing the top 20 searches resulting in people visiting their site. Having done a little research, here is the top 20 searches in which resulted in people finding this small part of the internet world! 1. adam bird 2. adambird 3. adambird.co.uk 4. www.adambird.co.uk 5. adam bird"" 6. adam bird music 7. ebsfleet 8. first hatrick at the new wembley 9. adam bird football 10. adam's birds 11. adam+bird 12. charles w . chesnutt photos 13. diagram of wembley stadium 14. ebsfleet united fc 15. efe sodje and baby pictures 16. frannie collin legend 17. fueturventura 18. gillingham fc photos 19. how much does derek stillie united goalkeeper earn 20. is my unborn baby likely to be a boy or a girl

Mummy and Daddy wanted to say a big thank you for being such a good boy on your very first holiday! Daddy decided that he would write all about it so that you would be able to know exactly what you did and all of the things that you done. For out very first family holiday Mummy, Daddy and you flew to Mexico along with Nanny Pat, Grandad Colin, Auntie Carly, and your cousin Joshua. We were going to Mexico especially to see Uncle John get married to Auntie Nadine, so lots of other people came along too, including Bethany, Sue, Steve, Ken and his son Richard and millions and millions of John and Nadine's friends. Mummy and I were really worried about you and how you would handle spending ten hours on an aeroplane, but in the end we had nothing to worry about as you were a really good boy. We think that it must have all the excitement at flying for the very first time! We were really lucky with the plane, as it wasn't full so there were plenty of seats around for you to sit down an...

Last year Stephanie and I went to Fuerteventura for a week and I managed to write the longest blog in the world. I don't think that I will make the same mistake this year and instead will write some smaller ones retrospectively. The nine hour overnight flight from Mexico has hit the three of us for six! Poor Oliver has not made things any easier for either of us by waking up at midnight and wanting to play for two and a half hours! Despite our impassioned pleas we were unable to convice him otherwise, and so had to spend the time blowing raspberries and allsorts - rather halfheartedly it must be said! Now writing this at 3pm feels like midnight and that I really ought to go to bed. With so many photos to add and some stories to tell, it will probably be a little while until I feel a little less tired! The last time I was affected by jetlag was on my return from Las Vegas. I was in bed everynight for a week by 9pm, but doubt whether I will be able to afford that luxury this time aro...

Some girls have dreams of big white weddings, whilst some dream of big weddings in pink. Others have different dreams, of sun, of sea and a romantic union on a white sanded beach. 2007, year of the wedding sees Stephanie, Oliver and I attend our third wedding of the year, a completion of catalogue of weddings that will see all three girls having their dreams fulfilled. After Nicola's wonderful white wedding and my sister's amazing pink parade we are packing our suitcases and leaving for Mexico on a two week trip to paradise where we will witness Steph's brother John and his fiance Nadine become husband and wife. John and Nadine, long time partners are two peas in a pod. Both have a love for the exotic and are both sporty inclined. Enter John and Nadine's house and you will be sat petrified in the corner as two lizardy/iguanary creature type things sit looking at you licking their chops in anticipation of perhaps eating you for lunch or chewing upon a limb as a snack. Jo...

Stephanie and I are delighted to officially announce that we are selling up and moving! For those who don't know, we have very fortunately been offered the opportunity to buy my Mum and Dad's house, whom themselves are moving on to pastures new. As a result of this domestic upheaval, our flat for the past three years (nearly) is now up for sale. Our current property is part of a Part Rent/Part buy scheme, whereby we own part of our property whilst the other part is owned by a housing agency. We then pay a rent amount on the outstanding share. This scheme proved invaluable to Stephanie and I, as it gave us an affordable step onto the housing ladder, one which again we are entirely grateful for. Both Stephanie and I highly recommend this method of entering the housing market and are glad to be able to offer someone else a route to the aforementioned housing ladder. Property Details: - Lounge - Kitchen - fitted with beech effect wall and base units and cooker, spaces for fridge f...

They say a week is a long time in football, but 94 days (at time of writing) since Gillinghams last league game has felt like an eternity. Every other year we have England's hype and failure to tide us over, but this year has been dull, absolutely nothing to keep us football fans remotely occupied. OK there was the Copa America, but the competition is so badly organised and matches repeated it hardly becomes watchable. In those 94 days we have seen some wholesale changes at the Gills, with Danny Spiller, Matty Jarvis, Michael Flynn, Frannie Collin, Brent Sancho, Danny Jackman , Leon Johnson, Luke Howell, Clint Easton and Ben Chorley all leaving the club. With so many player departures , including arguably our two best players (Jarvis and Flynn), I was slightly concerned that we would be struggling to field a starting XI this season, let alone a competitive one! Gillingham chairman Paul Scally came out and said that failure this season would not be an option and that the c...

Wow! What a day Jessica and James's wedding turned out to be! I knew that it was going to be a great day, but I never realised just how good it was going to be! First off, I owe my sister an apology. From her description of things, I had visions of Jessica and James's wedding being a dodgy version of Peter Andre and Jordan's! I will hold my hands firmly up in the air and say how wrong I was! The reality is, that all the things I raised my (rather excessive) eyebrows at all turned out to be really nice touches! For example love heart sweeties on all the tables, which added an air of romance to the proceedings (if there wasn't enough already)! Passing "I love you" messages and "email me" to the girl on the next table made pulling for single fellas a little bit easier! It must actually be said, the wedding very well nearly never happened! Jessica met Stephanie at the flat and together they walked into town to have their hair done. When they came back,...

Steadily creeping up on us, and here before we know it are the two 'weddings of the year'. The first one, this Saturday, will see our good friends Mark and Nicola become Mr and Mrs Pattision , followed by Jessica and James the following week. Mark and Nicola having been together for nearly as long as Stephanie and I have, and it is going to be a real pleasure watching them become husband and wife. I said it about Will and Olivia when they got engaged and it applies too with Mark and Nicola, some things are pre -destined and meant to be. For Jessica, she will be marrying James, her true knight in shining armour, who came along when she least expected it and has become a model husband in waiting and a father the girls can be proud to call Daddy. Mark and Nicola's wedding will offer Stephanie and I the first opportunity to see first hand one couple in our circle of friends get married, and over the next 18 months will be joined in holy matrimony by Mr and Mrs Buckby and Mr a...

After last weeks story about new footballing sensation Oliveria Birdinho, certain rumours have been flying around linking Oliveria with Arsenal FC. These rumours allegedly pertaining from both Grandma's whom claim to be Arsenal fans and are constantly attempting dirty tactics in an effort to wind up the male contingent of the Bird Family, in particular Oliveria's father Adam. Oliveria said (if he could) "to link me with Arsenal is a disgrace, I love my grandmothers dearly, they look after me, feed me, change me, but to suggest I would don the red shirts of Arsenal is nothing short of blasphemy". In an attempt to silence his mother, and mother in law and protect Oliveria's integrity, Adam today is releasing a computer generated image along with the following statement "please take a look at this picture, download it, print it and put it in your purse, because it is the first and last time Oliveria will ever appear in an Arsenal shirt!". Oliveria's gr...

At only six months old, footballing sensation Oliveria Birdinho has already turned out scintillating performances for three major football clubs. Oliveria, making his league debut for Gillingham (pictured below) at only four months old would have said, (if he could) "playing for Gillingham is something special, I am a third generation Gillingham fan and both my father and grandfather burst into tears when I walked out at Priestfield for the first time". After several barnstorming performances in Gillingham colours, it wasn't long before Oliveria was catching the eye of bigger clubs. Oliveria said, (if he could) "Swapping the Gills for Barcelona was a wrench, it tore my heart in two. My uncle Reaso is still not talking to me, but my agents, Buckby and Williamson engineered the move and the opportunity was too good to turn down". Oliveria found the going tough in the Catalan sunshine and explained to us (if he could) why the move went sour "My mum is really w...

As we enjoy the longest day of the year, Steph and I will be having a minor celebration as Oliver reaches six months old. We won't obviously be popping any champagne corks, but we will be taking a look back at the past six months, how our journey has gone by so quickly, how Oliver has brought so much fun into our lives and how we cannot remember our lives before he arrived! Towards the end of Stephanie's pregnancy I thought about the idea of taking a photograph of Oliver each day and posting it on the web, so that we could capture his changes each day. Steph wasn't initially keen on the idea, thinking that I was mad, or just jesting! It wasn't really until Oliver was a week old, Christmas had passed and I had realised we had photos each day for Oliver's first week. This was then that my idea resurfaced and I decided to carry on with it. Six months down the line, and we still have a photograph of Oliver each and every day. It hasn't been easy though, we have had ...

Poor Oliver is suffering at the moment with a terrible cold, or baby hayfever , we are not too sure. I am hoping it is just a cold as to be struck down by hayfever at such a young age is a bit harsh and not very fair! He has been ok during the day, despite his sneezing fits, which are actually quite funny, and he doesn't seem to mind too much. It is at night when he is sleeping that we have been having problems the past few days. His nose is blocked up, so he is forced to breathe through his mouth. For a baby this can be a little confusing at first, especially if your sucking on a tummy for all your might! Next week sees his first little landmark when he becomes six months old! I can hardly believe it myself, but as usual time has flown by and six months really will have passed. I am planning a little half way stage blog next week when I will talk about his photo gallery, but seeing how he is suffering a little at the moment prompted this spur of the moment blog. Even thou...

One of the great uses of the web is the way in which you can keep track of your family tree. There are hundreds of sites dedicated to the art of ancestory, including Ancestry.co.uk and Genes Reunited . There is now a (fairly) new site to add to your Genealogy favourites - Geni. Once registered, unlike some sites, free of charge you will be able to quickly and very easily start compiling your family tree and seeing just what relationship a distant relative is to you. Not only can you quickly compile a very complicated tree you can invite your relatives to join and add to your tree using their email address in the hope that someone can help out with that missing family link, you can add photographs and personal history about that person and all sorts of other information that you may not think necessary. I have only really used the site for a couple of hours and already I have 118 people added to my tree, and I have only gone as far as my grand-parents (on both sides)! Granted, the Bir...

Growing up as a Gillingham supporter often caused me some ridicule and as a way of combating the abuse thrown my way it often became easier to say that I was also a Liverpool fan. Liverpool being the "fashionable" side of the mid-late 80's when I was growing up. Dad was also a Liverpool fan, often going to see Liverpool in cup finals at Wembley including the 85 final at Wembley stadium. Last night, with Liverpool playing AC Milan in Athens I was keen to get back to Gravesend and head to Gareth's house and watch it on his newly installed cinema screen. I am not going to use the word television as the monster situated in his lounge is not a TV by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, if I was to look out the back window of my flat I would be able to watch the game quite comfortably without having to make the two mile journey to his new gaff. Not only were the gods against Steven Gerrard and the millions of scousers whom travelled to Athens, they were well and tru...

Having allowed Stephanie access to my blog and her excellent account of her weekend away it is now back to me and my random ramblings of nothing in particular. OK , maybe not nothing, but one thing I wanted to get of my chest. The FA Cup final... the pinnacle of the football season, the countries best two teams fighting blood, guts and tears to win the greatest cup competition in the world, all in front of the largest TV audience of the year and in the case of this years final, back at Wembley with 90,000 people watching from a brand new stadium. With Stephanie off out practicing her sign language with her tutors, the boys out in Prague for Mark's stag weekend, and my Dad sunning himself in Antigua my choice of viewing partners were few and far between. As it was, Oliver and I sat in readiness for our first FA Cup final together. As we sat an enjoyed our pre-match refreshments of a bottle of beer (me) and a bottle of formula (Oliver), the BBC did there best to hype up the game,...

Adam has told me many times that I should write my own blog. I have always enjoyed reading Adam's - his thoughts and feelings have always put a smile on my face. Waiting for the right topic/subject, the time has now come for me to write my own blog titled - Birdy's Bognor Hen Do May 2007 - The Official Story When Adam's sister, Jessica, announced that she was getting married, she asked me to be her Maid of Honour. I was shocked, honoured, privileged to name a few feelings. I felt like I owed her something and the only way I could see was to arrange the best Hen Weekend that she would remember forever. Jessica decided that an adult only, 70's weekend at Butlins in Bognor Regis was the place to be. So after a few weeks of working out who was coming it was booked. It wasn't until the middle of April that my sister, Carly, said to me "Have you started to sort out the itinerary?" I didn't even know what that meant. I had to arrange rules, forfeits, games an...

I was planning on writing a blog today, celebrating the joyous occasion at Anfield last night, as Liverpool reached their seventh European Cup final, their second in three years. The fact that it was a hard fault battle against the likes of the unlikeable Robben, Drogba and the "cannot make my mind up about him" Mourinho made it all the sweeter. Poor Oliver whom was attempting a peaceful nights sleep was probably wondering what the hell his Daddy was doing two inches away from the TV trying to scream quietly and jumping up and down like a rabid banshee. However, my pre thought blog entry was instantly scrapped when I read this article on the BBC website. "Gravesend announce change of name" my Google homepage told me. Naturally I was intrigued as to what this meant, I thought maybe they had dropped the Northfleet part, as in some media circle the Northfleet is never displayed (possibly because Gravesend and Northfleet is too long or something). Instead, it turns ou...