Walk on the Roman Road

Yesterday evening we went on a different walking route for our exercise regime. We followed the map to the supposed route of the Roman Road at Blackmoor.

This photo shows the road alongside a field of sweet corn (maize). The grass is parched over the route.

This is the route towards the church from the road.

The Kitten with No Name

Today I went and picked up the kitten that we are giving to Maria’s niece and sister for her niece’s 19th birthday.

She comes from a local farm in Oakhanger and at the time of the photo she is 9 and a bit weeks old.

We brought her home for a few hours first, she seemed okay walking round and hiding behind furniture. Then she met the resident cats!

Tosca had a hissy fit, first at the kitten and then at me. Shelley seemed okay with the kitten, but the kitten hissed at her! Nala wouldn’t come into the house, but when we went out she was rolling around by our feet trying to be super-cute.

The kitten then went down to Maria’s sister’s and met both her new "owner” and Maria’s other sister and nephew. Maria’s niece is supposed to be back from Spain today, but she managed to miss her flight and is not hurrying to get home – she doesn’t know about the new arrival. Her mum told her to get herself home today though as she was ruining her birthday surprise.

We got home in the evening and all three of our cats seemed quite pleased to see us – without the little intruder.

Vet

Yesterday we took the cats to the vet...all three at once.

Mayhem ensued when it came time to catch them, put them in the baskets and then the car.

Oddly they got quieter when we got there, by the time we got the first one out of her cage for her check up and booster she was purring like a kitten.

She had a bad chunk of plaque on her teeth, which the vet pulled off with a pair of pliers. That spoiled her mood a bit!

Shelley

MP Expenses - James Arbuthnot

I have been looking at the records on the BBC website about MP expense claims.

As an IT professional I was interested to see that my MP, James Arbuthnot has been buying computing equipment and software on his expenses. He bought an IBM Thinkpad laptop for £2001.18, he then added a DVD drive and a spare battery for £350.22. This was in Feb 05. In May 04 he bought a memory stick for a whopping £322.26. In Dec 04 he bought wireless PC kit for £184.96 and in Jan 05 a service pack from IBM for £158.63 - this was before he bought the laptop though. In Jan 05 he also bought a scanner, wireless cards and a copy of Adobe Acrobat software. In Feb 05 he added a firewall and a router for £129.99 and £119.91. He seems to have trouble using this kit though as he has twice paid for out of hours IT support at his home to connect his wireless network.
In April 06 he bought another scanner for £559.30 to go with the one he bought in Feb 06 for £75.98 I assume.
He bought several USB memory sticks in 2005/06 - Feb 06 he bought 3 for just under £90, Sep 05 he bought another for £149.99 and Dec 05 he bought another for £59.99. In Sept 05 he bought a couple of external hard drives for over £300. It is a good job he is also claiming for his subscriptions to the Information Commissioner as a registered data user under the Data Protection Act as he seems to get through a load of USB Memory - maybe he leaves them in all the taxis he takes.
On the telecoms side he claims between £60 and £120 per month for his broadband (on a few occasions he pays for his calls - or half of them - but usually he doesn't split this out and claims for all the charges). He also claims for a separate fax line but this also appears to be included in his broadband bills too. I pay about £60 per quarter for my broadband, I share my fax line with the same line and I have a broadband phone service thrown in for free. So he seems to be being seriously ripped off.
He is also running BOTH a Blackberry Mobile Phone (which has Internet access built in) and paying for a Vodafone mobile with GPRS Internet on top. So he pays for using the Internet on his Vodafone mobile. I say "he pays" but of course he has re-charged both of them. Does he always carry both of them?
It occurs to me that the country could save a fortune if someone at the House of Commons arranged for MPs stationery, computer purchases and so on. How can the country provide security for PCs and networks used by MPs at home if they seem to be able to buy their own equipment out of the public purse?

Brigadoon

We arrived in Lyme Regis yesterday. The fog started between Dorchester and Bridport so the house came out of the mist like a scene from Brigadoon.
After a cup of tea and a chat the first job was setting up the tv to the new digital signal. That took 5 minutes. The next job is explaining to Mum how to use the on-screen tv guide and extra channels! That is on-going.

Pictures of the water gate after “repair”

Below are some images of the pond gate after I put the wood back in the slots.

Water starting to build up… but still leaking through.

Note the rocks where the vandals broke down the sides of the channel.