Phew!!!! I need a holiday! After redesigning the site I reckon I might even have earnt one - what do ya think? I think so, but where shall I go? Florida maybe.. yeah, Florida sounds good to me, plenty of sunshine there, although at the time of writing there is a hurricane heading that way! Still, should be gone by the time I get there.. lol ;-) OK now how to pay for the trip..... hmmmmm...... I know! Please send your donations for the web designer's recovery trip to..... OK, only kidding guys - honest! lol :-)

Seriously, redesigning the site was somewhat of a challenge due to the sheer size of it! When we first started the site we never dreamed it would be this big, and, consequently, I never took much care over the file structure of it - making for one very messy set of files when it came to sorting it all out

to redesign it! Having said that, I did get there in the end and it didn't take as long as I had predicted. I hope you all like the new look site as I don't plan to be redesigning it in it's entirety for some time to come!

One of the major new additions to the site is our on-line forums where you can post questions, queries, want ads, coming events, anything really, for other visitors to read. It's completely free to join and you can even set up your own profile complete with your own signature, contact list and picture to accompany your posts. I've also re-vamped the guestbook into something a little more attractive :P but, unfortunately this meant we lost quite a few of our posts, so, if you feel so inclined, you could always sign the guestbook and fill it up a little for me ;-)

Our latest addition is of course the Salvation Army e-cards. Yet another little script I've been playing with :-) There are several cards to choose from with more planned for the near future - just as soon as I find the time!!! :P

Now it wouldn't be my musings page if I didn't have a little whinge now would it?! So, with that in mind, here we go...... 

A couple of months back I was asked to do a website for a friend of friend as it were, well, this site was, by it's very nature going to be graphically intensive and the chap had some pretty strong ideas as to what he wanted - even down to the space between cells!! ARRGGGHH!!! I should've run at this point, but, ignoring my better judgement I agreed to build it (why, I'll never know..)

Being the type of chap he was I decided, despite already having agreed a design etc..., to build just one page and get him to check it. Having done this and after having it approved I completed the site and uploaded it for him. Well, then the fun really started. Bearing in mind that he had already approved the site, he then wants me to change the core element of it - being one very large script because it wasn't quick enough on his computer!!!!! Hmmmm.... perhaps a faster computer might be the answer?????? lol :-) Trust me, the download times were fine! His computer is slow. But, not being one to argue (well, not too much anyway) I re-scripted it all and uploaded it again, then the Sir decides that the button that runs the script would look better moved over 10 pixels!!!!! picky, picky, at this point we had a one way conversation, with me doing the talking!

Since then I haven't heard much apart from an email that says he really likes the site now and is getting a lot of response from it!! The moral of this story? If you instinct says run... DO IT!!! lol :-) Now, with all that said, 99% of the folk I build websites for are brilliant and I have a great time doing it - it's just that other 1%................ ;-)

However.. onto more pleasant matters. Some of you may be aware that we recently moved servers, for a variety of reasons, the primary one being cost! :-) With our new servers comes a feature we were previously lacking - detailed web statistics! Might sound a bit boring to you guys out there in cyberspace, and, under normal circumstances I would agree with you, but these have been quite a little eye-opener! Now I knew our little site was quite popular, but until I had the chance to analyse the stats I didn't realise quite how popular it really is! We are getting double the unique visitors that I was reckoning on and from a wide variety of countries too, 53 at last look!

Well, that's about for me this time my friends, just one more thing before I go though. If you have any suggestions for the site please post them in our suggestion box on the forum, which can be found HERE. Oh, almost forgot.. there's also an "Ask The Web Designer" board on there too so if you're building a corps site and have run into trouble, try posting a message on the forum, I might just have the answer for you ;-) Till next time, God Bless...... :D