Two Boys Two Years On

It’s been over two years now since Jodyne’s brave fight against bowel cancer came to a quiet and peaceful end. My beautiful, loving young wife was 27 when she left us, in the same way she had lived her short life, calm and dignified.  So what do you do when the most important part of your life is torn from you? I suppose you do what anyone else would do, you fall apart. But what do you do when you are left with a two year old boy who has no concept of love or loss, well you can do what I did, you fall apart inside, cry when you are alone and spend every moment together sharing the love, the joy and memories left to us; in short, you just get by.  My blog is not meant to be a memorial to my wife that already exists in my heart, in my memories, in my home, and in the eyes of my little boy.  My love, my passion and my life with Jodyne was, and is extremely private, and now, well now it is eternal.

So I ask myself why I would want to create a blog site when I’ve never been the sort of person who openly discusses my private life or my feelings, well I suppose I want to use this blog to share with my close friends and family the progress of two boys making the most of life after Jodyne, and at the same time have a record of what Leon and I get up to so we can both look back over the year and reflect on how far we have come and how much Leon as grown. If there is one thing I’ve learned since losing Jo it’s that memories are precious, you should do whatever you can to keep them, and keep them safe because sometimes that’s all we are left with.

Warm summer days in Cornwall

The new Mr and Mrs Reed

Well what an exciting month that was, with wedding, the family 70s party and the wonderful family holiday/honeymoon, oh and a bit of  windsurfing thrown in for good measure. The pace of it all surprised even, after proposing to Michele (out of the Blue) it was only a matter of weeks and we were married and on our way out of to the windy isles  for two weeks of sun, sea, family fun, and a little windsurfing thrown in. The kids had a fantastic time, it was great to see them all so chilled, relaxed and happy. They all have the spirit of the ocean in them, and I’m sure they will all turn out to be fine surfers and windsurfers. Oh and as for Michele and I, well we had the best time imaginable, and we are looking forward to many more years of fun and laughter together. Cheers!

 

The one windy day I gave the windsurfing a miss.

Happy family on the beach.

 

 

 

One year in, the PhD journey continues

Well it’s not quite one year, but it’s almost there. But my research has come to what is effectively the 1 year mark for a part time PhD any way, so I’m quite pleased that I’m ahead of the game and the proposed timetable. So I’ve have spent 10 months writing the literature review, a behemoth of a document in itself which makes the case for continuing the research. The report along with other supporting documentation forms what the University of Plymouth refer to as the RDC1. This is really the first major milestone on the journey, and means that the academic team have decided that your research has shown sufficient cause for a more detailed analysis of the problem domain. So for me, moving forward it’s now mostly about evaluating the performance of mobile routing protocols and IDS solutions and building a sound argument for the need for improvements in intrusion detection. Oh and a lot more writing to do toward the next milestone which is the transfer report (RDC2) in 12 months time, but I’m aiming to do it in less. It’s been a lot of work, and I’ve spent way too much time in front of a PC screen, but I wouldn’t change it. It’s hard to explain why we do it, it’s not solely about what you take from the research, it’s also about what you give back to your peers and your students. I don’t think I’d have come this far though if not for the support of my partner Michele, whose driven more miles that a DHL driver, made more tea and sandwiches than Mrs Doyle, and read my work more times that I have, which alone deserves a medal, or maybe a few more surf lessons.

Summer surf

Looking tasty

Now that’s a bit more like it

2013 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 4,400 times in 2013. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 4 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Comms room

I’m starting to think it’s about time my comms rack gets  an upgrade.