Today my Dad passed away.

Everything I am, good or bad, I owe to the man who’s life ended today, he was my biggest hero and my fiercest foe.

My Dad was not an easy man to deal with on his younger days, he was extremely stern and constantly working (and making sure I worked just as hard), this is a man who made me work on his restaurant washing dishes at the age of 6, so I could earn my movie ticket for Sunday .. nothing was a free pass when it came to him, if you want something in life .. you have to earn it!

The lessons I learn from him have been the biggest gift anybody has ever given me, he taught me to be ruthless in business, while being kind to even your most hated competitor, a contradiction it took me 30 years to understand, he was indeed the iron fist with the heart of gold, a pot of contradictions, who where summarized by one of the most loved people I ever known ..

I always found amazing, how someone who irritated me so much at times, was never the subject of a bad comment, everybody loved Joao .. he was a man’s man, and woman’s subject of affection.

I was always the subject of his focus, he pushed me harder than anybody else, of course it was not until adulthood I understood why he did it, and how much I meant to him, but the good thing is, I am a lucky person, I got to admire my father and even become good friends with him later in life, he in return got to see his son grow to everything he ever wanted (even so I think even if I ended up a deadbeat con, he would have still been proud of me).

There are no missing words between me and my dad, I just wish that there had been more time for him to enjoy life, 59 is too young for one to go, he will be missed by many, especially me.

Rest in peace Dad .. hopefully you are in a better place now.

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Toilet paper .. yes, thats where all my money goes.

I went to the Liquor store today (Bargain Booze), got a coke, a snack, and since i was there, I grabbed a couple rolls of Toilet paper .. as I was paying for it, I though “toilet paper ?, why did I grab that ?“

It’s simple, I have two daughters.. and any man out there with daughters knows, you can never buy enough of this stuff, I cant begin to imagine how many times a week I am asked to grab more on my way home.. when I was young and childless, used to be beer .. now .. the humble TP roll.

Yep, I’m an old man.

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I cant believe I just paid £500+ for an old couch

My wife has been begging (bitching) me to get a new couch and chair for one of our living rooms (we have 2), she wanted a style couch called “Chesterfield” .. basically looks like a gentlemen’s club couch.

But every time I went to look at one on the shops, they all looked .. well .. like crap really, the leather looked like plastic, and the “aged” effect was painted on, really looked fake.

So yesterday we finally found the style she was looking, but with the good leather and proper age effect I wanted .. just a problem, it was 20 years old !!!

She actually is telling me this was cheap … but somehow paying that kind of money for an old couch .. just feels weird.

But hey .. you cant fake proper leather aging …

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As I mentioned here, I have bought a Holiday Home in Blackpool

Well, it’s a week now since the wife and the kids went there for the weekend … and never returned
And for the looks of it, they wont be returning for another 2 or 3 weeks !!!

I did spent the weekend there, but got back Sunday night .. I’m about to go back there tonight and once again return on Sunday .. but the wife and the kids .. they wont have none of it, they loving it so much they dont want to come back home.

So it’s just me and the cat these days .. yeah, one might think “Cool” … but it kind of sucks, one misses the family after a few days, and to be alone on a big empty house, with nothing but a cat for company can be quite lonely, plus the cat is a bad poker player, he cheats too much.

Well, at least they are enjoying it .. the kids love it because there is a huge play area right outside the doorstep and the clubhouse new pool will open this coming Sunday.

As for me ? .. well, that God for take-out.

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For a while now, me and my wife have been thinking of buying a holiday home, we usually go to Seton Sands in Scotland for Holiday, and they have these very nice homes (we call them mobile/manufactured homes back in florida) .. and we did considered buying there, but it’s a 4 hour drive, so it means we would only use it a few times a year.

Instead we decided to look at Blackpool .. it’s considered by many to the the Orlando of England (?), and when i visited, I did got the feeling it’s a Holiday town, lots of different parks and attractions .. maybe a mini-orlando is more precise
Blackpool is a mere 70 miles to us, and of those 60 are all Motorway miles (M6) .. so in less than one hour and fifteen minutes, we are there, it’s a very easy drive too.

Anyway, we looked at a few Holiday Parks, and some of the were just a bit busy for our taste, they where more targeted to people on a week or weekend holiday, vs holiday home owners .. therefore, it was very busy, but luck had it, we found one that was just what we wanted, not a “rental” focused park, but instead one that caters to owners .. therefore, it was extremely quiet and tidy.

Plus it’s in walking distance to the tram and the beaches
We bought this Place, it’s a 1997 model, it has 3 bedrooms, luxury interior (proper recliner couches, actual dining tables, etc .. not the “fitted” crap that these houses are usually associated with), the previous owners kept it immaculate, as it is right now it’s perfect, but we wish to do some work on the outside (the grounds) and put a nice big deck for some outdoor entertaining and a “skirt” all around it to loose that “mobile home” look, it is also currently missing the steps & rail to climb up to the doors, they will be in Monday.

Here are some pictures … we will be going there next Friday to spend the weekend .. the bonus for me is that the NNRC racetrack is just a couple miles down the road, so I’ll be racing there on their Summer & Winter series
It is great to have a second place to call home, it is also double nice to have a place to go if the wife ever gets mad at me and sends me to the dog house.

Technorati Tags: Holiday

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I was browsing thru our latest picture batch, and I saw these ones we took of Kojack not long ago, he is sporting some shirts the wife bought him :).

Love the pictures, he is a great cat, but sometimes I wonder if he thinks he is a dog … most cats shy away from people hugging them, this one just wants to be cuddled and hugged by the wife and kids al the time, except my youngest daughter, he runs when he sees her, she is a little “rough” with him, hehe

Im too sexy for my Hair

Technorati Tags: Cat, Kojack, Sphynx

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Ok, so what does a 33 year old Managing Director (Thats Chief Executive for the US folks) of 2 very tech companies gets for XMAS ?

A nice briefcase ? a laptop ? a silk tie ?, one of those “how to become a better manager” over priced books ?

Naah .. Santa (AKA the wife) got me not what I needed, but exactly what I wanted this year .. a Nitro Powered, 1/10th dual gear automatic RC Car

Look at that engine .. cant wait to power it up this weekend and go play…

I was impressed .. every year she tries to impress me with tech gizmos, the kind of stuff the Executive in me should have, this year she decided it was the inner-child on myself that really loved XMAS and it was time to please that child instead .. and pleased I am
So now it’s time to buy some nice alloy’s for it…

Technorati Tags: Nitro, Present, RC, XMAS

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Today my youngest daughter (Sierra) was hospitalized for a scheduled operation to replace the tubes on her ears.

The operation was no big deal, and she did brilliant, she had had it already once before, and it’s a procedure very common on young children who tend to get allot of ear infections at that age (Sierra is 3).

A few months back, my 4 years old daughter Savannah had also had the same operation in that same hospital, so today the staff there had a surprise for the wife, one of the pictures they took of Savannah and a clown a few months back, was on the main page of their Autumn Magazine.

What can I say, they have good taste.

So of course, being the proud parents we always are, we had to scan it and send it out to everybody in the family

Technorati Tags: Manchester, Family, The Regos

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Today I started a new chapter on what I hope to be a healthier lifestyle.

Since I got married for the second time in 2000, and shortly after gave up smoking, that I started to put on weight, eventually I stopped “enlarging” around 2003, but now that my kids are growing, I don’t want them to see me as a fat blob and think it’s ok, so I decided to get on a routine, more healthy eating habits and to bike the 1.7 miles to work and back every day.

Now, of course this is England, so it means .. I got a short window of time of when I can do it, but hopefully I can make the most of it.

Amazingly enough, it took me just 13 minutes this morning to bike the distance to work, I arrived with my legs feeling like bricks and my lungs were feeling as if I had smoke a pack of cigarettes one one go, but still, it was quite easier than I tough.

The bike I bought is called a “Skedaddle Montana Cruiser” .. funny story there also, I had seen a bike like this for sale used on ebay, but was missing the rear rack, so I decided to look who the manufacturer was and try to get a new one, after searching for a week and calling every major bike shop in the UK I finally found out the manufacturer of these bikes was called “Cycle Citi” and their warehouse and offices went up in flames last year.

yeah, it’s funky looking, thats why I love it

Decided to dig a bit more and eventually I was able to find their new site and phone, after a bit of sweet talking on the phone, I managed to convince them to sell me one of the bikes they had salvage from the fire (they put some of their stock that didn’t burn on a warehouse in Wales).

I drove tot he warehouse and was quite shocked, allot of the boxes were pitch black from the ashes of the fire, but luckily the bike I wanted was on a separate section that was undamaged.

So long story short, I now no longer need to drive 45-60 minutes to Manchester every day, I can just take a leisurely stroll on a fairly flat route to work, and try t get a little bit in shape in the process .. I dont know what I will do in the winter, I will try a raincoat .. see how it works

Technorati Tags: biking, cruiser, diet, skedaddle, Work

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It’s official, starting today I am in debt up to my ears, but I am also a homeowner in the UK.

We got the keys to our new home in Sandbach at 5:00 PM EST, we then took a drive to the property to check how the old owners left it, we were pleased, they removed everything they had to and didn’t left a mess to clean up.

My Co-Workers are actually amazed a the speed and efficiency of our purchase experience, 2 other people in the office bought properties the past month, and their experience was allot worst than mine, actually, I cant fault mine at all, I kept bugging the solicitors to get moving, and they did .. so it pays to be a pain i guess
We wont be moving until the 1st of April, we decided to install new carpets and paint some of the rooms in the house first, this way when we move in, we dont have to mess around with furniture in order to pain and re-carpet.

This is the second house we own, the first was a pre-fab in Florida, which was 1/13th of the price of this one (yeah .. split this house price by 13 .. thats what we paid for our Florida one), house prices in the UK are insane .. but what can you do, one needs a place to cal home.

And the amazing thing is, this is the North of england, where housing is actually cheaper .. this place down South and you can double the price… ouch.

But hey, we are ecstatic, we have a place of our own, on a great and safe community, were we can raise our kids and hopefully, just be happy

Technorati Tags: Cheshire, Family, House, SandBach

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