The Hamers

Christmas is coming

2011-11-13T18:54:00.000Z

We made our Christmas Cake today: it’s baking at the moment, the smell is intoxicating. Maybe that is something to do with the amount of Armagnac on the fruit.

After we saw what Sainsbury were charging for turkeys we went to the local award winning butcher (Uptons of Bassett) yesterday and ordered fresh free range prepared turkey and home cured gammon. The weather has been too warm for it to seem very Christmassy though.

In other news our central heating has now been brought into the 21^st Century with a modern boiler, some new radiators and working thermostatic valves all round the house. The new boiler is wall mounted in the utility room so we’ve been able to put the kitchen bin in the old boiler cupboard. Many of the new radiators are smaller than before, or old radiators have been removed leaving holes in the walls and missing bits of paint and paper.

This picture is the area in our bedroom where the fitter brought the pipes up through the floor to go through the attic and down into the airing cupboard. Typically the walls were not straight so he had to put a bend in the pipes. We had to move the power sockets to make room for the pipes too. This is all repaired now, mostly hidden by a dresser.

Moving day 1

2010-10-27T10:19:00.000+01:00

Car Boot sale

2010-10-24T10:02:00.000+01:00

At the car boot sale near Bordon today.

Annual Naval Mass

2010-07-11T11:13:00.001+01:00

Sea Sunday today in Portsmouth.

Induction day

2010-07-09T12:36:00.001+01:00

Today I am on my Kingfisher induction day at B&Q Hedge End.
This is a view from the training room.

Havant Symphony Orchestra

2010-07-03T20:57:00.001+01:00

We're at the last concert of the season tonight.

Slowly getting better

2010-06-28T13:18:00.000+01:00

Photo from June 26th

The cut on my leg after nineteen days

2010-06-11T06:41:00.000+01:00

I cut it open when a glass mug smashed when it fell to the floor at my feet. That was on Sunday 23rd May.

Serious Dog Pack attacks alligator (quite gory)

2010-06-05T08:44:00.001+01:00

Dog Pack Attacks Gator In Florida

At times nature can be cruel, but there is also a raw beauty, and even a certain justice manifested within that cruelty.

The alligator, one of the oldest and ultimate predators, normally considered the "apex predator", can still fall victim to implemented 'team work' strategy, made possible due to the tight knit social structure and "survival of the pack mentality" bred into the canines.

See the remarkable photograph below courtesy of Nature Magazine.

Note that the Alpha dog has a muzzle hold on the gator preventing it from biting, while another dog has a hold on the tail to keep it from thrashing. The third dog attacks the soft underbelly of the gator.

Not for the squeamish...

Laughter is good for the soul. Have a Great Day!

My leg again

2010-06-04T08:07:00.000+01:00

It doesn't seem to be healing very well. The sides of the cut are pulling apart. I guess I'd better get it looked at again.

Portsmouth Spinnaker Tower

2010-05-31T11:18:00.000+01:00

We took my Mother to Portsmouth yesterday and we went up the Spinnaker Tower. We pre-booked and saved 10%. There were some sites online where you could save 20% but their tickets cost more than the official prices!

Here are some of the pictures…

After going up the tower we went for lunch in The Old Customs House.

The Spinnaker Tower itself

View of the harbour mouth, including old defences – Isle of Wight in the background. Taken from the first viewing platform 100 metres up.

Another view of the harbour mouth, including old defences – Isle of Wight in the background – Ryde is 5 miles away

HMS Warrior and HMS Victory in the Royal Dockyards.

Old and New warships

100 metres up in the air on the glass floor – in socks (no shoes allowed)

Gunwharf Quays – people walking on water in the dry docks – see video below

Balls on the water

Cut on leg

2010-05-28T13:03:00.001+01:00

Insurance

2010-04-03T19:51:00.000+01:00

I received a cheque from the insurance company today. They had been charging me for home and contents insurance on two policies for nine years. They could have been on one policy. After an appeal to the ombudsman I got a refund of nearly £1500. I had to be persistant though.
I also changed insurers and saved £200 per year as well.
Advice of the month.... Check your policies, get quotes and go through the complaints procedure!

Dacian Battle Scythe or Falx

2010-02-26T09:04:00.001Z

Yesterday I went to a lecture given by Dr David Sim to the Liss Archaeological Group. His topic was "A Terrible Weapon: Did the Dacian Battle Scythe deserve it's reputation".
David Sim is an experimental archaeologist. He has investigated reports of the Roman battles with the Dacians (who lived in what is now Romania) and was not satisfied with the answers normally given. So he made a Dacian "Falx" and tested it on simulated human flesh.
He was able to show that it would cause severe injuries to the Roman legionaries in their normal armour. Hence before returning to fight the Dacians the Romans added leg protection (greaves) as well as arm armour. They also re-inforced their helmets, but Dr Sim and his colleague suggested that this was for protection against missiles (like rocks) when storming a Dacian fort rather than against the Falx.
After the lecture we got to play with his reconstructed Dacian Falx and a Roman Gladius or short sword - this was actually about 2 feet long. This is a picture of a Falx that I found at theancientweb.com. Their rights are reserved. Please contribute to support them!

See the article that this picture comes from at http://www.theancientweb.com/falx discussion

Florida USA: Fairchild Tropical Garden

2010-02-26T08:46:00.001Z

Our last day in Florida was the Thursday. We had a leisurely breakfast at the hotel – keeping to the “continental” style of breads/bagels, cheese and fruit rather than the “full American”.

We then checked out of the hotel, checked in (online) for our flight and set out to drive to Miami. There were long queues to get into southern Miami because of road works.

We went to visit the Fairchild Tropical Garden. Partly because my mother likes gardening – and we do too, but also because it offered a tram ride round the place and shouldn’t take too long to visit! It claims to be the largest Tropical Garden in the world. It’s pretty big, but we’re not sure how it compares with Kew Gardens and The Eden Project in the UK.

We walked a little way together along the very pleasant path, then Mum went off to wait for the tram by the lake side and we carried on for a few more minutes before joining her.

We then had an enjoyable tram ride together. There was an informative talk from the volunteer guide as we went round the park. She pointed out the art works on display as well as the plants and other interesting features.

Many of the plants had been damaged by recent cold weather and had brown leaves or had shed them completely.

In addition to the plants we were lucky to catch sight of Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster who both seem to be resident at the park. Other residents included birds and at least one turtle.

After the tram tour we needed a drink, but the only cafe was some distance away up a slight hill (yes, there is a hill in Florida). One of the volunteer guides used her radio to call for help, and we were soon on our way to visit the cafe in a little electric cart driven by another volunteer.

After our drinks (tropical fruit juice sodas of course) we spoke to another volunteer about getting back. She offered to call for help again, but suggested we tour the orchid house while we waited.

The cart arrived soon after we emerged from looking at the orchids and we were soon back at the main entrance.

We then drove back into Miami, looking for the car rental place to return the car. My satnav took us to a random street in downtown Miami – which was a bit worrying especially as my friend Bob had said the day before that there were places in Miami that he didn’t like to get lost in. We wanted 3901 SW 28th Street. Later analysis suggested it had taken us to 390 SW 28th Street.

I put the address in again and it directed us through a maze of side streets and light industrial areas until we arrived at the Budget Car Rental facility. All a bit stressful!

We checked the car in, which took only about 10 minutes and got on the bus to the airport. The driver forgot to ask us which airline we needed so we missed our stop for Virgin Atlantic and had to go round again!

We dropped our bags and then the special assistance arrived in the form of a wheelchair and handler to take Mum to the gate. She was taken all the way to the plane door: after we’d had a brief break for a burger and a Panini – which was all there was to eat in the departure lounge.

The flight was uneventful, but on arriving at Heathrow our taxi took a few minutes to reach us. That was partly because it took a few minutes for the messages he had left for me on my mobile phone to get to me.

Florida USA: Sawgrass Mall; Sawgrass Recreation Park – Airboat ride; Japan Inn

2010-02-24T08:54:00.001Z

On the Wednesday of our visit to Florida we met up with a friend of mine called Bob for lunch. He’d booked a restaurant in Sawgrass Mall where we could get a light lunch as it was Ash Wednesday. I put the details of The Grand Lux restaurant into my SatNav and we set off. We arrived on time in the car park of a Taco Bell.

A hasty phone call to Bob suggested that the restaurant was in a nearby part of the mall, so we parked and walked a few hundred yards.

We had a great lunch – interesting conversation being the key. The food was good too. I am glad we had the light lunch option as my salad was huge!

We asked Bob and his wife Mary for advice on where to go next on our trip. We said we’d been thinking about the Everglades, but it turns out the Everglades as we think of them (mangroves, etc) are further south. However, the Everglades nearby are also worth a visit. Bob recommended the Sawgrass Recreation Park and the Air boat ride.

A short time later we arrived at the park, had bought our tickets and were waiting for our ride on the airboat.

We saw quite a few birds, including the osprey on the dead tree above. No alligators though. We learned a lot about the ecology and history of the Everglades too from our captain “Chuck”.

Airboat Ride

After the boat ride we toured the rather depressing animal park. They had alligators of course, and turtles. This picture is of a turtle we encountered near our rooms at the Hyatt earlier in the day.

The other animals including black leopards, wolves, bob cats, skunks and so on were kept in rather small cages and runs.

After leaving the Sawgrass Recreation Park we met up with middle daughter (age 16) and son (age 14) and went off for dinner at Japan Inn. We had fun finding the place with they two of them navigating – but at least we saw a lot of Weston driving around.

Japan Inn is good fun for a dining experience as they prepare the food on a “hot table” in front of you. The chefs do this with style and panache, involving the children. My daughter suggested we pretended it was someone's birthday to get a free dessert, but to be honest there was enough food for us not to need dessert at all let alone need to be deceitful to achieve it!

Florida USA: Fort Lauderdale: beaches, art and steak house dining

2010-02-23T08:50:00.002Z

On 16th February we went to Fort Lauderdale.

This was Shrove Tuesday as well, so on the way we stopped at a diner in Weston where I was able to get my "fix" of pancakes (with eggs, bacon, etc. etc.).

After initially parking in downtown Fort Lauderdale and walking a brief way along Las Olas Boulevard we decided that it would be too much for my mother to manage to walk to the beach – she has angina – so we went back to the car and drove to a car park by the beach. I was asked by a visitor from Alabama how to pay for the car parking.

We then walked on the beach a little way, and then sat enjoying the view. We left mum sitting on the sand and went for a stroll, stopping for the world’s most expensive smoothie on the way. While drinking my smoothie I was asked to take a photo for a couple of German tourists.

We then drove back along Las Olas Boulevard to the Fort Lauderdale Art Museum. We parked just around the corner and went in. The ground floor was closed as an exhibit had ended that weekend and the new one was setting up so we were allowed in for free – possibly because there was only a couple of hours left until closing too!

There was some frankly odd art from the CoBrA school (artists from Copenhagen, Brussels and Amsterdam), but I did enjoy the rest of it. Some great stuff by Andy Warhol and other “names” like Tracey Emin in an exhibit called “with you I want to live” as well as a wing devoted to the American artist William Glackens.

We had a chat with the security guard as we left. His wife was from Norwich, England. They met on the beach at Fort Lauderdale 20+ years ago! He recognised our accents and wanted to know if we knew Norwich.

Back at the hotel we had dinner in the Ireland’s Steak House restaurant with my daughter’s new “in-laws” plus my two youngest. The food was great (and expensive to match) but the service was lacking. We were 10 minutes late getting to the restaurant and they had given our (reserved) table to someone else. This was despite me asking for an 8 o’clock table and being told they could not take us until 8:45. I had to pursaude them to take us at 8:30, we arrived at 8:40. They then said we’d have to wait for 10 minutes for a table so we sat in the bar drinking bloody mary’s. The ten minute wait for a table turned into half an hour. It then took them 30 minutes to take our order and another 30+ minutes to serve it. So it was now 10:15 and we had all eaten loads of bread. The restaurant was nearly empty anyway.

Lots of silly frippery in the restaurant – like different types of salt for different courses/entrees, loads of different types of bread and different types of butter for each one. They offered a 36 ounce steak as well – which they said we could share if we wanted. I found the 8 ounce was just fine. My mother and daughter had the halibut – causing some amusement, my daughter had never encountered “hali – butt” before.

I also hated the way the server kept interrupting our conversation to tell us about the menu choices or whatever. I appreciate they need to do their job, but butting into our conversation is just not acceptable to me.

I see from this review http://findlocal.sun-sentinel.com/weston/restaurants/steaks/irelands-steakhouse-at-the-hyatt-regency-bonaventure-weston-restaurant that other diners have had a similar experience to us recently. One of the reviews seems a little TOO good – maybe written by a member of staff? I also see online that they are advertising for a new maitre d’ – I think they may need one!

Florida USA: The Day After The Wedding

2010-02-23T08:08:00.002Z

On the day after the wedding we took my mother and my middle child on a trip to the Florida Keys. We didn’t go all the way to Key West. We stopped at Islamorada. We went to the “Theater of the Sea” there. They have displays by sea lions and dolphins as well as turtles, parrots, iguanas, sharks and alligators.

Sea Lion

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Stroking a (very small) shark

An egret on a pole

After enjoying the displays we went on to the Hurricane Memorial, but everyone refused to get out of the car to see it any closer than the parking bay next to it. We then went on down a side road until we could see the sea.

The beach we reached was presumably private, but we didn’t do anything other than walk down to the water’s edge and take a few pictures. The sea was dead calm. The sand was fine and white, it looked like the Caribbean.

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We then drove back north. However we wanted to experience more of the Keys. I suggested that the Keys were famous for Key Lime Pie so we should stop and try some. We reached a place called the “Key Lime Store” outside Key Largo. This was really fun and kitsch but did not have anywhere where we could sit and eat Key Lime Pie. A few miles further on we came to a lovely little traditional US diner called DJ’s on the overseas highway 1 where we got slice of Key Lime Pie to share and coffee (daughter had a HUGE brownie instead of the pie). This place was clean and quiet, service was excellent too. While in Key Largo we were amused by the signs directing us to “The Church of God” – we wondered WHICH god they were referring to.

We then drove back to Weston, stopping at “Chili’s” for our evening meal.

Florida USA: Wedding Day

2010-02-19T17:44:00.001Z

Beautiful weather on the day of the wedding. We spent the morning exploring the Hyatt Regency Bonaventure hotel.

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Then I had to put on my suit. This was fine, but the tie was a clip on and the collar was much too tight. My wife had to tug to get the clip done up.

Off to the venue up the road for the wedding itself. Yes, her husband is in the US Army. He is on 2 weeks R&R for the wedding and is then back to Afghanistan for several months.

Florida USA: travel and breakfast

2010-02-19T17:36:00.001Z

We went over to Florida last week for my eldest daughter’s wedding. This was held on February 14th (Valentine’s Day).

The flight out – on Friday 12th February was eventful. We were delayed on departure and then just before we were due to land we were told that due to storms affecting Fort Lauderdale and Miami we were being told to hold off landing for a couple of hours. The captain then said we didn’t have enough fuel to last a couple of hours so we were off to The Bahamas.

We landed at Nassau and were not allowed off the plane. I called the hotel to let them know we were delayed. I couldn’t get through to the car rental office and I left a message for my daughter who was supposed to be meeting us at the hotel at 8 pm. They refuelled the plane after an hour and 45 minutes and we then set off again, swinging wide to avoid the storm as it came towards Nassau so the flight took more like an hour and a half rather than the 50 minutes we were promised.

We landed at Miami about 11 pm – having been due in at about 5:15 pm. We arrived at the car rental office at midnight and had to queue for an hour to pick up the car. We then drove away… I thought north, but it turned out to be south. So we had to turn around and head back. We then picked up the I-95 heading North.

I may have been a bit tired but we missed the exit we wanted, so we ended up taking the I-75 back south. Having driven around looking for the hotel I remembered that my mobile phone had satnav “Ovi Maps” on it. I turned it on, it picked up the satellites – eventually - and directed us to the hotel. We would never have found it without.

The next morning we met up with my daughter, her fiancé, his mother, his half sister and his half sister’s friend for a proper American breakfast in a diner. After two pancakes, bacon, sausage links, eggs (sunny side up), coffee and toast I started to feel human again.

We then headed over to Sawgrass Mills to get some shoes: my wife had sent a pair off to be dyed to match her dress, but they had got lost at the dyer. So we had a hectic hour or so visiting shoes shops before we found a pair that were the right colour and fitted her. Miracles do happen!

We met up again with the fiancé's family at the wedding venue (Bonaventure Golf and Country Club in Weston) for the rehearsal.

That evening we went to my daughter’s new mother-in-law to-be’s house for a meal.

Fordingbridge in the New Forest

2010-01-24T17:15:00.000Z

We went to have lunch in Fordingbridge today. My wife was having a dress fitting, so I had an hour or so in the George pub before she joined me.

I took some pictures of the bridge and river Avon from the pub. The water level is very high as we have LOTS of snow melt. There are large patches of snow and some frozen ponds in the forest still, but the New Forest ponies don’t seem bothered.

More snow

2010-01-13T17:11:00.000Z

It snowed again overnight. So back to clearing the road AGAIN!

Still getting icicles

2010-01-09T17:08:00.000Z

The icicles are still forming. In some of these pictures you can also see the results of the hours of labour clearing the snow off the road. Only another 200 yards to go…

Icicles

2010-01-07T16:54:00.000Z

Huge icicles hanging off the house today. I grabbed some pictures before breaking them off.

The snow is still with us, but the road is now nearly impassable.

Snow

2010-01-06T16:44:00.000Z

It snowed again last night.

Nearly a foot of it.

We went for a walk through the golf course admiring the pristine white carpet (a hackneyed image I know). Some pictures below....

Ovi Suite for Nokia 5800 'phone

2009-12-15T17:14:00.005Z

I have had major grief today with the new version of Nokia's PC suite for their mobile phones. It is now called the Ovi Suite 2.0 but the name change is nothing compared to the software itself.

I installed it okay but then it wouldn't actually sync anything much - eventually it managed to do my calendar from Outlook but that was it. This required me to keep unplugging the USB lead over and over again.

I did some online research which suggested uninstalling the Ovi Suite, and the old PC Suite, then running the PC Suite cleaner utility, then running ccleaner, then rebooting, then re-installing the software. That didn't help.

I then tried running the software "As Administrator" - that didn't help either.

Further research suggested that you needed to have the latest software in your phone. My phone was on version 21.0.025 but the Nokia web site said the latest for my phone was 31.0.101. Online reviews said the version 31 was much better and less "buggy".

Now my Nokia Software Update Utility stopped working recently as there had been an update to it. Whenever I tried to run the Utility it tried to update to the latest version of the Software Update Utility. Then it would give me an error as I was using Windows 7. It helpfully did not allow me to download the software to run it. I tried doing the update check over the air but of course T-mobile do not support that.

Eventually I found the Nokia Software Update Utility latest version on their web site and downloaded it. I was now able to "tell" it to run in compatibility mode for Vista (SP2) and got it installed. It was then able to run and told me that I was on the latest version of software for my phone.

More research told me that version 31 had been released in Europe - but not in the UK.

I then uninstalled the Ovi suite again, ran Ccleaner to remove any stray junk and then reinstalled the "old" PC Suite. This is now running just fine.

So several hours pratting around and all I achieved was getting the Nokia Software Update Utility to work on Windows 7.

My view of Nokia has gone down several pegs too. Fine, they can not test every combination of software and phone model in every language but their web site should know not to tell me about a software release that is not valid for my jurisdiction yet. Ideally it should tell me WHEN it will be available though. They do offer a facility to register to receive emails or SMS messages when updates are available - that takes you round and round in circles too.

Equally, they should not prevent software from installing on more current operating systems - or they should be much quicker at testing for issues with new versions of Windows. Windows 7 Beta has been available for months - the final release was issued weeks ago. There is no excuse for this failure.

Their new Ovi Suite version 2.0 is also badly executed. If it requires a software update on the phone then it should bundle that as part of the upgrade or tell you before doing the install.

El Gato Negro :Tapas Bar

2009-12-14T19:18:00.000Z

.: El Gato Negro :. Tapas Bar

I was stunned over the weekend - we watched a recording of Gordon Ramsey's "The F Word" from earlier in the week. Who should be on it but Simon and Chris. Former colleagues of mine at Harvey Nichols. Pleased to be able to report that they won their round for best Spanish restaurant in the country. It remains to be seen whether they get through to the next round.

Click on the link to see the tapas bar in Ripponden, West Yorkshire. That's a long way to go even for one of Simon's meals so I probably won't be able to visit any time soon...which is a shame.

Forbidden Planet

2009-12-04T17:08:00.000Z

I was shopping in Forbidden Planet, Southampton today. I walked round a corner in the basement and nearly had heart failure. There was a Dalek in the lift!

Lucky for me it was an old model, not one of the new “hovering” ones you get these days, so I assume it couldn’t get up the stairs to the exit and couldn’t press the lift buttons as it has a sucker rather than fingers.

Libraries

2009-12-03T02:56:00.001Z

This BBC article reflects exactly some of the ideas that I wrote to my local library about earlier this year. I said they needed to use IT systems like Amazon to suggest books to people that they might like based on other people's borrowing.
The already allow you to order online - if you know the book you want. But they send you a postcard to tell you when your book is in stock!
They don't monitor the blogs, magazines and TV stations to make sure they have books in stock BEFORE they become popular, so they are always reactive and fail to be relevant.
The books are not selected for young adults. Most of them seem to be chosen for women too.
Maybe they should look into providing audio books on hire for a period of time using current formats like ebook readers and iPod/MP3 players rather than CD and cassette.
The reply from the head librarian that I received was dismissive, saying that my library received a regular update of new stock. Basically, too challenging for them to think about.

in reference to: BBC News - Libraries 'must modernise' to secure future (view on Google Sidewiki)

Windows 7

2009-11-09T12:29:00.001Z

I installed Windows 7 last week. All seems to have gone smoothly (so far). I was advised by the Upgrade Advisor software to uninstall iTunes first, so I did that. After the upgrade completed I reinstalled iTunes. This failed a couple of times until I ran the install executable “as Administrator”.

My graphics card driver needed an upgrade – also identified by the the Upgrade Advisor – so I downloaded and installed the latest one. This said that it was not certified for Windows 7 but it seems to work fine.

My Printer (Lexmark 4650) stopped working too. I downloaded the new drivers but these made no difference. So I uninstalled it, and the full Lexmark suite, rebooted and then re-installed. After I had put in the wireless network key it was running just fine again. I had to connect it via USB as when doing the first install for the software.

Everything else seems to run fine. Sleep mode is quicker both to sleep and to wake again. The wife likes the “themes” used for screen wall paper. We are using the Great Britain set at the moment. It cycles between Tower Bridge, Stonehenge, The cliffs of Dover, Tintagel castle, etc.

Southampton Walk

2009-11-09T12:12:00.001Z

I was in Southampton last week. I had some time to spare and it was a nice bright day so I decided to walk around the medieval city walls.

I started at the Bargate (above) which is next to the main shopping centre. The old city of Hampton lies behind this gate. I walked over the Portland Terrace bridge to the tower below and then on round the wall and past the ruined castle.

On the way I passed “King John’s House” (closed), the Archaeology Museum (closed) and “The Tudor Merchant’s House” (closed for major reconstruction – reopens 2011).

I ended up back inside the city walls at the Holy Rood Church.

This was built in 1320 and was bombed during the second world war on 30th Nov 1940 and is now used as a memorial for sailors. See the dedication behind the anchor in the picture below.

There is a fountain dedicated to the loss of R.M.S Titanic there as well.

The city has provided information boards on the route that point out items of interest.

The castle itself has been built over but you can still see part of the bailey.

Southampton, showing bridge over Portland Terrace and the city walls

Cinema

2009-11-02T17:20:00.001Z

I had an afternoon to spare today, so I went to see "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" starring Heath Ledger, Jude Law, Johnny Depp et al. Rather weird and quirky but enjoyable. Worth going to see as I guess it will be a classic. I found it to be more accessible than some of Gilliam's other work - like "Brazil" for instance.

The Mill Tea and Dining Room, Lyme Regis

2009-10-25T10:51:00.000Z

Yesterday evening we were taken out by my mother to The Mill Tea and Dining Room in Lyme Regis. See www.teaanddiningroom.co.uk
The place is very small - maybe 6 tables. The food was excellent English fare. My only criticism being that some products were used a lot. Many things on the menu used leeks for example. On the plus side, this showed imaginative use of seasonal, local produce.
I had a leek and caper starter, my mother and wife had the carbeens - rissoles made from pig trotters and pork. For the main I had stuffed chicken leg - stuffed with leeks! The others had skate with caper sauce and rolled pork belly. For the desert the ladies had lemon curd blancmange and I had warm stewed quince with vanilla ice cream. I had never had quince before - it was lovely.
Well worth visiting again I think.

Bordon to Liphook Rail Link Bus

2009-10-13T07:51:00.001+01:00

Yesterday I was planning a trip to Southampton from Whitehill by public transport, so I thought I would investigate using the new Rail Link bus service provided by East Hampshire District Council. I remembered that it had been reported in the “Bordon Herald” that the timetable could be found on East Hampshire Council’s website at www.easthants.gov.uk. I went to the website and could find nothing from their “home page”. I tried using the “search this site” links from the home page. These search links had technical problems. I tried an alphabetical browse through council services… there was nothing about the bus listed under Whitehill, Bordon, Liphook, “rail link” or bus. After about 20 minutes of searching I found a community news feed. The last item on this feed was about the new bus service. This eventually led me to a hyperlink to the timetable.

So, in a spirit of cooperation: the news feed led to this page http://www.easthants.gov.uk/ehdc/community.nsf/webpages/8.93+Rail+Link+Service. The timetable itself is at http://www.easthants.gov.uk/ehdc/community.nsf/0/538C7BA936AD54918025762C0048DC9E/$File/Timetable.pdf. So that’s nice and easy to find now.

I have taken the liberty of using an online service to shorten the first of these hyperlinks for ease of use. You may prefer to type http://tinyurl.com/ykncg5r into your preferred web browser in order to visit the description of the service and link to the timetable.

I have reported the failed website search to the East Hampshire “Contact Us” service. So it may – in due course – get fixed. The bus service itself may well be failing to attract customers if it is not easy to find out where and when it runs.

Heron

2009-09-14T09:16:00.001+01:00

We were out for a walk last week when we heard an almighty racket coming from a garden ahead of us. On looking through the hedge I could see a heron standing in a garden pond.

There was a cat watching it. The heron was yelling at the cat!

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I went into the garden and shooed away the cat. The heron did not move. I went closer. It then tried to take off, but failed. It had a plastic net wrapped round a foot. The net was stuck down to the pond. So the heron crash landed again.

The cat started to sneak back.

I knocked on the door of the house. No reply, so I rang the police and asked if they could contact the RSPB. In the meantime my wife went next door and roused the neighbours.

Soon there were six of us standing around watching the heron when the house owner emerged and asked what was going on. She did say it explained why the cat hadn’t come in for its tea.

At this point the neighbour’s wife turned up with a tea towel, suggesting she could throw it over the bird’s head while one of us took the netting off its foot. I took a look at the beak on the thing and suggested we should just wait for the RSPB. The owner said that if it was still stuck when it got dark she would ask her husband to cut it free so foxes didn’t attack it in the night.

We continued our walk. On the way back the heron was standing in the pond again.

We got home much later than planned and were just about to eat our evening meal when my phone went. It was a wildlife protection officer from the RSPCA – the RSPB had passed the call on! She was over an hour away and wanted to know what was going on. So I drove round to the cottage where the heron had been and found that they had cut the plastic so it could fly away.

However, it still had the netting stuck to its foot. But now at least it could peck it free without being bothered by cats or foxes. So I called the RSPCA officer back told her not to bother coming out.

Caterpillar damage

2009-09-04T15:31:00.001+01:00

Effects of the cabbage white caterpillars on our cabbages.

Caterpillar

2009-08-31T12:41:00.001+01:00

The results of our gardening efforts can be seen below. We have been growing cabbages. This was fine until the “cabbage white butterflies” took an interest in them. Despite picking off the eggs and removing the growing caterpillars when we saw them we now have skeletal cabbage plants and HUGE great caterpillars. Like this one…

We won’t bother with cabbages again next year.

Cats

2009-08-21T20:28:00.002+01:00

Two of the cats have hypothyroidism, so we have regular weigh ins at the vet now. They went today. One has gone up slightly, the other has stayed the same as last month. So we go back again next month for another weigh in and another £60 on 30 tablets each this month!

In June they were both 4.1 kg. In July one was 3.9 kg, the other was 3.55. In August one was still 3.9 kg and the other was now 3.6 kg.

time off

2009-08-20T20:36:00.002+01:00

Sorry to my readers: I have had some time out with the family recently.

2 kids have been with me, which has been fun. They went back to Florida on Tuesday.

My wife has been operated on - finally. A cyst about 10 cm in diameter was removed. She now has an impressive scar and is on strict "no lifting or bending" for six weeks!

Daughter’s Dell Inspiron 1525 Laptop

2009-07-30T20:55:00.001+01:00

My daughter’s laptop kept on shutting down for no obvious reason. I checked the event logs after it did it last night and could not find any issue. It was very hot, so I suspected over-heating.

Today I removed the base plate by undoing 8 little screws, then under that there is a heat exchanger that is held in place by 5 more screws. I undid them and lifted it off. In the gap between the fan and the vent was the huge plug of dust you can see in the pictures below.

See Dell’s website here for more details on how to remove the “Processor Thermal-Cooling Assembly” as Dell call it.

I also ran ccleaner across the registry and deleted a load of junk. The computer is running much faster now.

Greatham walk

2009-07-27T10:11:00.001+01:00

We went for a walk around Greatham, Hampshire yesterday.

There is a footpath from the main road up to the top of the hill. It was nearly blocked with brambles and nettles but I forced a path through. This is the view from the top of the hill. A field of rape and views all around. Shame it was raining!

We then took a bridleway down to the road towards Selborne. This is the bridleway. This looks like an old “drove road” as it is quite wide. There are banks either side too.

We then walked down the Selborne road, which was quite busy with cars and only had a footpath for the last half. We turned back into the village and past the Manor House. This looks really impressive with its high chimneys, but is hidden from the road. It is used by a Christian fellowship called L’Abri. There are pictures of it on their website here: http://www.labri.org/england/images/photos/property/index.html

Next door to the Manor House are the ruins of St John’s Church.

We then went down the lane by the church ruin and across a set of fields planted with turf. There were big signs warning of prosecution for trespass if we strayed off the path here, but the footpath was marked with direction signs, even if it was a bit difficult in places with nettles and ploughed soil to cross.

At the end of the route I spotted these toadstools.

The whole walk took about 2 hours, but was only about 3 – 4 miles.

Hole

2009-07-22T08:33:00.004+01:00

A scene reminiscent of the Somme or from the movie "Holes" greeted us yesterday.

Over by the back fence was a pile of dirt, the base of the fence had been torn away and there was a tunnel under the fence. Perhaps the closest movie should be "The Great Escape" rather than "Holes".

We thought at first that it may be the cats, but it seems too small for them. Finally we concluded that it may be a rabbit hole! We asked around, but no one nearby has lost a rabbit.

See flickr pics

Geek Dads

2009-07-11T13:36:00.001+01:00

I can’t say I can do ALL of these 100 skills for geek dads; just MOST of them. http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2009/07/100-basic-geek-skills-for-geeks/ That’s kind of sad. But I am not alone: see this page too http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2009/07/10-reasons-michael-jackson-was-a-geek/.

Unfortunately for Maria this one also applies to me… http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2009/03/10-annoying-hab/

The website is also available as an RSS feed… a podcast… J

Walk on the Roman Road

2009-07-03T09:46:00.001+01:00

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

2009-07-01T20:33:00.000+01:00

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

2009-06-26T14:56:00.002+01:00

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

2009-06-22T16:10:00.002+01:00

MP Expenses - James Arbuthnot

2009-06-18T16:36:00.002+01:00

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

2009-06-13T12:06:00.001+01:00

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”

2009-06-06T18:36:00.000+01:00

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.

Mindless Vandalism

2009-06-05T12:37:00.005+01:00

We went for an afternoon stroll yesterday evening, taking our usual route over the golf course to where the Roman Road supposedly runs (see my post of 4th May). Just as we started to cross the golf course we encountered a group of teenage boys - 5 of them. They stopped to drink from a water fountain provided for the golfers. Suddenly a man on a bicycle came speeding down the path. He was yelling and cursing. "I'm gonna get you...you little...&^%$£$%!" The boys scattered in all directions but the man chased after one in particular over the brow of a low hill in the direction of the club house.

We waited for a minute or so, but there were no screams of pain or anything and the surrounding golfers went back to their game.

A few minutes later the man cycled back up the path - a bit slower now. We asked if everything was okay and he replied "yes, I got them" and rode on.

A short while later we came to where the path goes by the "monastery fish ponds". There is a sluice gate here: a concrete channel leading under the path, where two pipes take the overflow water down to the stream nearby. The channel is blocked by a wooden barrier. So to drain the ponds you just remove the barrier.

Yesterday we found that the wooden barrier had been pulled out and broken up into separate planks. The ponds were draining fast.

I climbed down into the channel and retrieved the slimy planks. I then managed to lift them into the groove in the channel where they were supposed to sit. It wasn't water tight, but it was a lot better than it had been. Water started to build up again behind it.

There was the blade of a garden trowel wedged into the wood. I seemed to have been used to lever the planks apart and to lift them out of the groove.

Hopefully not too many fish had died.

We assume the teenage boys had something to do with it. Had the man on the bike seen them or had they done something else to him?

The day before (Wednesday) when we did the same walk there were 4 teenage boys hanging around the same place at about the same time. They were very interested in the sluice gate channel. I wondered at the time if they were going to fall in to the pond and get into trouble with their parents. I didn't think anyone would be so stupid as to break up the barrier and drain the pond.

The man on the bike was not around. Had the boys drained the ponds and then gone on to do some other mischief that upset him? What did he do to them over the hills of the golf course? Will my repair to the sluice gate hold? Are the boys innocent?

More information and maybe a photo later on!

Hare Krishna in Guildford

2009-05-30T21:39:00.002+01:00

Hare Krishna marchers walking up the hill, singing, while we were in Guildford today.

Chinook over Blackmoor

2009-05-28T12:02:00.001+01:00

There was a Chinook helicopter flying low over Blackmoor yesterday. The cloud cover was low too. It circled over the village a couple of times before heading towards RAF Odiham where they are based. Kinda noisy!

Fishbourne Roman Palace

2009-05-25T21:14:00.001+01:00

Today we went to Fishbourne Roman Palace, this is in West Sussex near to Chichester (Noviomagus Reginorum - “the new market place of the proud people”) and was apparently the palace of the local king Tiberius Claudius Cogidubnus. It is an impressive place and a similar size to the imperial palaces in or near Rome. It is the largest Roman building North West of the Alps.

The archaeologists have exposed only one wing of the huge building and have reconstructed half of the garden. The South and East Wings are mostly under more recent buildings.

The view below shows the gardens looking towards the main receiving hall in the West wing. The flight of steps in the left distance being where the steps up to the receiving hall were. The rest of the hall being under the mound in the distance in front of the modern houses.

The rest of the palace is under the modern and Georgian houses surrounding the site or under the main road to Portsmouth that runs to the South.

The views above and below are of the modern building covering the North wing. The garden has been planted following the original planting lines left in the soil and following guidelines from Roman authors.

This is a view of the outside dining area. They would lie on the raised benches to eat and drink. It is very uncomfortable: I tried it!

Above is the famous “dolphin mosaic”. It has subsided a bit in places.

The view below is the internal view of the North wing building. Some of the mosaics have subsided where they were laid on soft ground or post holes from former wooden buildings.

These black and white mosaics were laid about A.D. 70 – A.D. 100. The coloured mosaics like the dolphin one were second century. There was a fire about A.D. 270 – 280 after which the palace seems to have been abandoned.

It was built on an area with a high water table, so parts of it go underwater even now. There are spots of lichen growing on the excavation where it is damp. So the Romano-British occupants probably decided not to stay there as it was too wet. We listened to a talk by one of the archaeologists who said that the East wing had been demolished before the fire – probably to re-use the stone repairing the main building.

One room was in the process of having a new floor fitted – but was left with work in progress. Piles of mortar on the floor of the room next door, and the central heating hypocaust built but not covered with a floor yet.

In the gardens we visited the Roman herb garden, which was full of butterflies and bees.

On the way home we got caught in a traffic queue. A caravan had overturned, along with the car that had been towing it. It took us half an hour to get by, two recovery trucks and 3 police cars having gone by. All the occupants were standing by the car, so it looks like they were all safe. It was right by a junction so I assume a car pulled out of the slip road in front of it, the car towing the caravan braked hard so then the caravan “jack-knifed” and then rolled over taking the car with it. That suggests the car was going too fast.

Petersfield

2009-05-18T13:12:00.005+01:00

Today I went to Petersfield to see the bank. It was a lovely sunny day when I arrived, which is when I took this picture using my phone. It shows the statue of William III in the town square.

When I came out of the bank it was starting to rain.

I spent a few minutes walking round the car park in the rain looking for the parking space Maria had used on Saturday. She had been ticketed for using a motorcycle bay. I found the space she had used and it was signed, but I can see why she missed the notice. Today there was a motorcycle parked in it too. It looks like we'll have to pay the fine and then campaign to get better signing for the future.

I realised today that my posts for the past week or so were still in draft, so I've published en masse today.

Rayleigh, London Metropolitan Archives

2009-05-14T10:06:00.004+01:00

Yesterday I went to Rayleigh in Essex for a business meeting. It is a lovely little town.

I was thinking of popping in to see people from DCK on the way home, but they didn't return my calls, so I went to the London Metropolitan Archives on my way back across London. I was looking for baptism and similar records for my ancestor Richard who was born in 1835 or the workhouse records for his father James - who died in the workhouse in 1849. It appears the workhouse records I need are not in the archives - there is a gap from 1845 to 1851. With Richard I do not know which parish he was baptised in. His sisters were baptised in a new church built in 1837, so I need to trace where the family were living before then.

I also looked for Maria's side in Woolwich - no joy there either

Car Service

2009-05-11T20:03:00.002+01:00

Had the car service done today. Despite the dire predictions of MOT test failure by the dealership a few months ago there was nothing serious wrong with it. We need a couple of tyres soon though which we can get done at our leisure. I think we'll avoid the main dealer now: they were trying to get us to replace the car to avoid paying for major work - or maybe hoping we'd ask them to do the work even though it wasn't needed.

I walked to the garage from the town - which was about 2 miles. It was a lovely sunny day so I was a bit warm when I got there!

Hospital

2009-05-08T18:01:00.002+01:00

We went to see the doctor today, at his clinic in Alton. He is now going to schedule surgery as he has an opinion from all of his colleagues: but we have to wait to get an appointment from the hospital. He can't book us in himself.

Woolmer Forest Historical Society

2009-05-07T12:49:00.002+01:00

Yesterday I went to the May meeting of the Woolmer Forest Historical Society. On the way in I met my ex-father in law. It turned out he had come along to present a file to the WFHS. The file contained the details of the war memorial in the town; the fund raising and construction of it.

We then had a lecture on "Jane Austen's Chawton" which was an interesting over-view of Chawton and Alton around 1809-1817 when Jane Austen lived in Chawton.

Hounslow

2009-05-05T18:45:00.002+01:00

Went for a pleasant business meeting in Hounslow today. It would have been a pleasant drive too, were it not for the 10 mile queue to join the M25 from the M3. There had been an accident - three HGVs decided to drive into each other just before the exit. It took me over an hour to do this section of the journey. As usual the traffic bulletin on the radio was wrong - they said the accident had been cleared, so I contined on my way. If they had said the accident had been cleared but there was 10 miles of standing traffic waiting to go by it then I could have taken another route and missed it.

Roaming after the Romans and Little Birdies

2009-05-04T19:44:00.003+01:00

We went out for our usual walk on Sunday afternoon. We had a mission this time though. There is a Roman Road that runs from Neatham (near Holybourne, outside Alton) to Chichester (or vice versa) via Iping. It crosses over the Blackmoor Golf Course near us and joins the lane near Oakhanger by the Satellite Ground Station. Before we set out we researched the route, looking at the County Archaeological Records to find out what they knew and comparing that to the Ordnance Survey map.
The road starts at Iping, which is near Midhurst and then exists as the main road in the Longmoor Army Camp and then was visible many years ago south of Woolmer Pond. It then crosses the main road (A325) and bends slightly, passing Blackmoor and Oakhanger as it heads North. Longmoor Army Camp is MoD property and apparently the Woolmer Pond section is no longer visible. Most of the rest is on private land except for where it emerges from the golf course. It crosses near Blackmoor House which is where the Selborne Cup was found.

Map

Location Data

OS X (Eastings) 477180
OS Y (Northings) 134680
Nearest Post Code GU35 9JD
Lat (WGS84) N51:06:22 (51.106233)
Long (WGS84) W0:53:56 (-0.898970)
LR SU771346
mX -100072
mY 6606829

We walked over the course (on the byway/footpath) until we reached the junction with the Oakhanger Road. There are some ponds here. During our research we had found that they were Medieval fish ponds associated with Oakhanger Monastery. This was odd as we could find no other references to a Monastery in the area. There is a Priory at Selborne, so maybe this is what was meant. The houses here are in a circular enclosure with a bank and ditch round it, so maybe the Monastery was actually inside this bank and ditch.
There was no sign of the Roman Road, just the straight path in alignment with the Oakhanger Road which runs across the front of the houses alongside the fish ponds.
We walked back over the golf course. The line of the road is visible from the public footpath in the distance as a line of trees and bushes crossing the course.
We will have to look into some of the other public locations.
As we came back I saw some odd birds on the course. I only had my phone with me, not a decent camera, so the pictures are a bit grainy. I haven't identified the birds yet.

Andover, Company set up

2009-05-02T08:11:00.011+01:00

Yesterday (Friday) I went to Andover for my second interview. It seemed okay at the time and they ended the meeting by giving me a box of sample products to take away. Attached to the box was the postcard above. Inside were samples of teabags, infusions and instant chocolate drink. On the back of the card was a note.

I met the HR woman who had seen the feedback from the on-line testing. She thanked me for giving the feedback that I did.

After the interview I went to see Tim who lives nearby. His parents were there too, so we chatted together for an hour or so until they left, then Tim and I had lunch and chatted more until I came home. While I was driving back the recruitment agent called me and told me that I had not got the job, but neither had the other candidate.

Once at home I arranged the meetings for next week on the contract and set about setting up a limited company to control tax, banking and so on.

Chessington

2009-04-30T23:05:00.004+01:00

On Thursday I went to Chessington for a meeting about a possible short contract. They liked the proposal and asked me to go ahead. I have a second interview for a full time post tomorrow though, so although I'm starting work I'm also preparing for that! It looks like the short contract may take an elapsed 3 months or so which may not be good if I'm supposed to be starting work somewhere else.

It rained all afternoon, but we got out for a walk late evening. Maria is trying to "push" herself to see if she can get back to work.

I got some feedback from the company who run the on-line tests I was doing yesterday. They said that they were about to start testing Internet Explorer 8 but their software would work with IE 7 and Flash 10. I had pointed out that IE 8 was on general release now in my e-mail, something they ignored. Why on earth did Microsoft bother with the beta test program if there are arrogant companies like this out there!

On-Line Tests

2009-04-29T17:24:00.002+01:00

Today I went to do the on-line psychometric and other tests for the job I am applying for.

The personality profile test went okay, I rattled through the questions without too much bother.

The mathematical and verbal reasoning tests were a pain: the web site being used insisted that I could not use Internet Explorer 8, which is annoying to start with. Then it said that I must use the latest version of "Flash" and gave a link to down-load it. The latest version of Flash is version 10. It then said that this was the wrong version.

After much messing around and trying different browsers I managed to locate (on the web) an old version of Flash for an old version of FireFox and was able to use that. While I was doing the first test a guy came to the door asking if we needed any trees pruned which kind of distracted me even though I didn't answer the door and Maria sent him away. That meant I ran out of time on the last question or two.

After I had completed the tests I sent an email describing the issues to the feedback link and cc'd it to the recruitment agency.

After I did the tests we went into Farnham to get some tile grout. Maria drove for the first time in weeks and had some pain afterwards but no where near as bad as it has been at times over the past weeks.

Save Our Rail Link Demo

2009-04-27T22:22:00.004+01:00

County Councillor Adam Carew addresses the demo crowd outside Liphook Station. The Rail-Link bus can be seen behind him outside the "Railway Hotel". South West Trains plan to stop running the Rail-Link bus on 17th May. We had 50 people at the demo this evening at 6:30 pm - plus two policemen watching us.

Apple Cake

2009-04-25T20:41:00.000+01:00

This is a picture of the Apple Cake that I made for tea today (Saturday). I got the recipe from the May 2009 “Sainsbury’s Magazine” but I added extra ingredients as my cake tin was larger than the 20 cm one they suggested (mine is 24 cm). We had a slice each for tea, which used about 1/4 of it. It would go well as a dessert too with cream or custard.

Recipe

125 g soft butter (I used 150 g)
125 g caster sugar (I used 150 g)
3 large eggs separated (I used 4)
grated zest and juice of 1/2 lemon
125 g of plain flour (I used 150 g)
1 teaspoon baking powder
a pinch of salt
3 small, good flavoured, firm dessert apples
2 tablespoons of flaked almonds

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C (fan 160 degrees, gas 4). Grease the tin and line it with baking parchment.

Beat the butter and sugar until creamy and light in colour then add the egg yolks one by one beating as you go, then the lemon zest and juice. Sieve in the flour and baking powder and a pinch of salt and mix.

Whisk the egg whites until they are stiff, then add a small amount to the egg / flour mixture and stir it in. Then gently fold in the rest of the egg whites a spoon at a time, trying to keep the air in the mixture as you go.

Peel core and halve the apples. With the curved side uppermost, without cutting all the way through make as many fine slices as you can lengthways in each half.

Spoon the mixture into the greased, lined tin,then push the apples into the mixture, curved size upwards, evenly spaced. Sprinkle with the almonds and bake in the preheated oven for 35-40 minutes (mine took 50 minutes) or until golden and firm. A thin skewer will come our clean.

Allow it to stand for a few minutes in the tin and then take it out to cool on a wire rack. We ate it slightly warm. It tastes lemony, and the apples are still slightly firm, not mushy.

Bleeding Friday

2009-04-25T07:24:00.003+01:00

I went to give blood on Friday - for the first time since September 1994 - so I'm feeling rather virtuous now. I moved house in November 1994 at which point the blood donor service stopped sending me reminders to attend (did I not tell them I'd moved?). I was also working in places where going out for one to two hours to donate was NOT encouraged. So, now I've recovered from my surgery last year and I'm fit to donate again. If you not seen the Hancock Blood Donor sketch then I urge you to watch it. It MAY be available on YouTube or you may find that you have to buy, rent or borrow it on DVD (or download it from a torrent site if you don't mind breaking the copyright laws). There was some fun and games: my sample was tested for iron by being dripped into copper suphate. Of course my sample didn't just drop like it is supposed to: mine went half way down and then came back up again. They had to do the test 3 times and use a new vial of copper suphate before it worked. It took several minutes for them to find a vein they could use to draw the blood too but all went well after that and I managed to get home in time to take my good lady wife to the Doctor's.

She has been having some complications with regard to the pain relief that she is on but the GP was able to prescribe some ointment and stuff so that's all good.

We went out for our usual walk a bit later on - leaving home at 7 pm, we met a neighbour on the way back and stopped to chat: so we got back home at 9 pm!

Thursday continued - Jehovah's Witness, Utility prices

2009-04-25T06:33:00.003+01:00

I've had a busy couple of days since my last post about the flowers opening.

Just after I posted it we had a knock on the door, followed by a "bang" - the visitor had rapped on the glass by the door with his walking stick! I was reminded of the opening chapter of "The Hobbit" in which the wizard Gandalf bangs on Bilbo's front door with his staff. However, when I opened the door there was no tall, impressive, wizard in front of me, but a rather short, stout man wearing a tweed jacket and a Tyrolean style hat. So he looked more like a hobbit. He said to me "What is the name of your God?" which I thought was an interesting opening line. We had about 5 minutes discussion about the nature of the Trinity (which he said was "lies, all lies"), whether Jesus was the son of God and the existence of the Holy Ghost. I wished him good luck on his mission as I closed the door, but privately I was wondering how successful he was being by telling people that their faith was "lies" and trying to damage their front doors. "She who must be obeyed" said after he had gone that she was ready to have a major discussion on the divinity (or not) of Jesus, but she didn't come to the door. She suggested a couple of arguments that I could have used - "why didn't you ask him to explain Pentecost?" - but I wasn't going to ask him to come back.

An hour later the door knocker went again. This time my visitor was a young man in jeans and a tee shirt from Southern Electric asking whether I had taken advantage of recent price changes for my power supply. I said I had checked our tariff (which was sort of true) and that we were okay thank you and sent him on his way. Back inside we discussed it - notably that our last electric bill had been for £75 for the month whereas a year ago we had been paying £55.

I dug out the old bills; I went onto the web site for our provider (EDF Energy); I spent an hour with a spreadsheet working out how the usage became the charge (the first 900 KWh used per year [pro-rata for the billing period] are charged at tariff A, the balance is at tariff B - so you need a formula to calculate the "split" between tariffs and then the sum becomes a straight addition between the two, plus taxes, etc.). Having done this for the electricity I found that of course the cost had gone up, but also our usage was up by around 2000 KWh per year.

We discussed this and worked out that most of it was because I had been at home most of the year, so the kettle and lights had been on more. But also, the computer had been on for an additional 6 hours per day and this was the bulk of the extra usage.

We adjusted the computer's power settings so that it would go to standby sooner (screen off after 20 minutes, standby after 1 hour).

I then went on to a price comparison website to see if we were on the best deal. At first it appeared that we could save £250 per year, but then I realised that the website had miscalculated the amount we actually spent based on the values I had put in for our usage in KWh (kilowatt hours). So I went back and put in the amounts in pounds rather than the values in KWh. This time it miscalculated the usage at which point I realised that either the site had faults in its code or it was designed to make you think you could save money when that may not be the case. Lets be charitable, there must be so many variables to take into account that it has to be a simplistic calculation and hence it cannot be relied upon. There is probably a disclaimer somewhere on the site.

I looked in more detail at the tariff proposed that would save me £250 per year. The charge for each KWh was higher than we are paying at the moment, the break to move to tariff B was earlier though and there was a standing charge on top of the basic usage. I decided to modify my spreadsheet to allow me to change the variables and see the effect. So that's a bigger project - watch this space!

The lesson for the day though is to doubt the truth of the words on the price comparison sites. It is not just a simple choice, nor is it made easy for you to decide which provider to use as you are not comparing "like with like". I guess that could extend to the door-step discussion on faith too, but I am not going to change my beliefs based on whether or not my church gives me loyalty points or better value for money: you just know when it is right for you.

Birthday Flowers

2009-04-23T13:09:00.001+01:00

The flowers that I got “She who must be obeyed” for her birthday finally opened today, so the whole room is now full of the smell of Lilies. Lily pollen is toxic of course, but luckily the cats are not allowed in this room.

I heard this morning that I have got a second interview for a firm in Andover next week – yay!

Birthday

2009-04-21T22:11:00.000+01:00

It was the birthday of “She who must be obeyed” today. I gave her some books from her Amazon.co.uk wish list, some perfume (CK Escape), a new hair brush and some flowers.

This evening I cooked her a meal of sirloin steak in peppercorn sauce, loaded potato skins and onion rings!

Prawn cocktail to start, and ice cream to finish!

Andover

2009-04-20T20:10:00.000+01:00

I drove over to Andover for an interview today (Monday 20th April). It seemed to go okay: fingers crossed!

Easter Sunday and Monday

2009-04-14T09:45:00.002+01:00

On Sunday we went to the In-Laws for a meal. This seemed like a good idea, but after 2 hours in the car and a few more sitting at the dining table "the wife" was in a fair amount of pain by the time we got home again. A nice meal: roast beef and all the trimmings, profiteroles for "afters". Nice not to cook too!

In the morning I noticed that Ancestry.com had identified a link between my father-in-law's grandfather on our tree and a person with the same details on another tree. That showed up a link that revealed what is probably my father-in-law's grandfather's wife's family back to the 18th century. We just need to verify a few points and then we can probably accept the link. It seems very well researched, so I don't think that will be an issue.

On Monday I did some more family history research. I found an article on the German Wikipedia that mentioned some of my ancestors and gave me the name of my 2x great grandfather - but not his dates, or his wife's name, or where he was born. But it's a start. My ancestors owned department stores in Germany before the war (until they were "Aryanised"in 1933 anyway) and German Wikipedia had an article about them. The research seems legitimate, and the other facts tie in with things I already know. I did some more digging and found another reference that gave me my great grandparent's address in Cologne before the war. A nice looking location - judging by Google Maps!

More4 Pub Quiz

2009-04-12T00:25:00.003+01:00

We spent a happy hour tonight drinking wine and playing the More4 Pub Quiz - see http://www.more4pubquiz.com.

It may have been better to start in the easy room and work up, but we managed to get the rooms back to front and started "hard" and then went for "easier"

A new Doctor Who episode tonight too! See Planet Galifrey in the "blogs I'm following" for details!

Irish Music at The Mill Tavern

2009-04-10T10:55:00.004+01:00

Yesterday evening I met my brother at The Mill Tavern in Shottermill, near Haslemere. We had a drink and a chat together, then he played the violin with a group of people. I only stayed until 9 pm (they were going on until 11) as I had left "the wife" at home in pain. Back home I described the performance for her and showed her the pictures and video footage that I took. My brother doesn't want them published on-line though so I can't put them on here in full.

In the morning I went to the Alton Executive group meeting - 3 of us turned up, so we are now merging with another group. About a third of the original group are now working, but I guess the others are on holiday.

Save our Rail-Link

2009-04-09T10:43:00.003+01:00

Yesterday I went to the meeting of the Save our Rail-Link group at the Community Centre. I ended up volunteering to take the minutes.

South West Trains are planning to axe the link between our town and the nearest station at Liphook on 17th May 2009. They will put on extra buses for people travelling to London, but people going South or to Guildford will be disadvantaged. This does not encourage use of public transport or tie in with the "green town" vision either.

The website for the group is at www.saveourraillink.org. There is an on-line petition to the Prime Minister at http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/saveourraillink/

So you can lobby Gordon Brown on behalf of the group!

Police Interview

2009-04-07T08:57:00.003+01:00

I went off to Aldershot yesterday to be interviewed for a voluntary role as a "Safer Neighbourhoods Support Assistant".

I was interviewed by a pair of typical HR people - Caroline and Beckie who asked me 4 questions each, asking me to provide examples from my experience. Questions like "what software have you used?"; "Have you worked in a team?"; "How have you adjusted your behaviour to be more inclusive for minorities?" The last one threw me, I said that I didn't adjust my behaviour for minorities, I treat everyone the same. What she meant was things like storage of files on shelves when working with a colleague in a wheelchair. I was then able to describe not over-doing the wrapping of a christmas present for a handicaped person. I suppose she was allowing me to think about different treatment of different faiths as well as the disabled.

During question 7 the fire alarm went off. I answered the question, then asked if we should react to it. Beckie went to check and then came back to say that the did normally check the alarm on Monday afternoon but it was still going so we were evacuating.

We trooped out into the yard and then into the car park. I noticed that they evacuated the prisoners from the cells too - into a Police Van and left it in the yard with a guard.

After two minutes we went back in, back up three flights of stairs, and did question eight.

Interviews, Dentist, Blessing the Bounds

2009-04-05T07:53:00.004+01:00

Another manic week. I had two interviews: one in High Wycombe on Wednesday, the other in Great Missenden on Thursday. On Monday I asked the agent about the role in Hove - I'm not "out of the running" yet, but I see that they are advertising it again which can't be a good sign. On Friday I called the company who I went to see in Wokingham. The woman in the HR department said that I "should have had a letter" explaining why I didn't get the job. She said they had appointed someone with "more retail experience". She was going to find their copy of the letter and call me back. She didn't call me, so hence I conclude the letter was never sent. I thought at the time of the interview that the hiring manager may feel a bit threatened by me. I went through a few minutes hoping that he gets into trouble for not sending the rejection letter - and maybe for inventing spurious rejection reasons too. The interviewer in Great Missenden gave me some genuine feedback at the time, which is great. I have heard that a couple of other roles are back on too.

We went to the dentist on Wednesday morning, which seemed fine: no problems detected. I got home too late from High Wycombe to go to the Woolmer Forest Hisorical Society meeting on Wednesday evening. On Saturday I was supposed to be going to "Bless the Parish Bounds" with the mayor and other people from the Historical Society but we were in Petersfield. I was doing the weekly shop and Maria was getting her hair done. We knew it would be tight, but with Maria unable to do any bending or lifting it took longer than I planned to unload the car. I got to the rendezvous at 13:15 but they had already left (the start time was 13:00 for a 13:15 departure). So instead we sat in the garden, we watched the cats playing/fighting and we read. I fell asleep and nearly got sun-burned too.

Doctor meeting, Internet Explorer 8 and McAfee Security Center/BT NetProtect Plus, Earth Hour

2009-03-29T09:03:00.010+01:00

We met with the Doctor on Friday. Good news (of a sort) he is going to schedule surgery to fix the problem and he has confirmed that it isn't cancer either. We now have to wait for the hospital to get back to us with the date of surgery.

Yesterday I installed Internet Explorer 8. I had been putting it off as the McAfee website says that it does not support IE 8 as it is beta software. When I DID try the Beta version of IE 8 I got a blank screen in McAfee Security Center which made it impossible to use, so I had to uninstall the Beta version. Recently however I downloaded BT Netprotect Plus which is the BT branded version of McAfee Security Center (without the Spam filter). BT's website also said that IE 8 is not supported with NetProtect Plus. This is despite the fact that BT/Yahoo are promoting IE 8 on their home page. When I checked on Friday on McAfee's website they said there was a problem with Microsoft's software and they would not support IE 8 until it is fixed.

I raised a support query with Microsoft. They came back to me saying they could not comment on third party software but suggested I installed the software in "safe mode".

I thought "huh?" and "why?" but I went along with the instructions provided. However after downloading the install package and trying to run it in "safe" mode I was given an error and told the installation could not proceed.

After restarting in normal mode I ran the install package again. It took only a few seconds to complete.

I checked BT NetProtect Plus/McAfee Security Center and it is working just fine. IE 8 is working fine too. It still doesn't load as fast as Google Chrome or Opera but the extra functionality is on par with these two if not better in some places.

When I checked BT's website and links today it appears that they have removed the warnings now! You can download IE 8 from Microsoft by clicking here.

I cooked (shop bought) crispy duck with pancakes, and an apple and blackberry crumble (home made). All seemed to go down well. The cats liked the left over duck!

Crumble Recipe
7 oz plain flour
1 oz whole wheat plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 oz unsalted butter at room temperature
5 oz dark brown (molasses) sugar
4 bramley (cooking) apples (about 2 lbs)
4 oz blackberries (NOT blackcurrants)
1/2 oz caster sugar

Cut the butter into cubes and rub it into the flour and baking powder until it looks like breadcrumbs. Then mix in the dark brown sugar.
Peel and slide the apples, add the caster sugar, stir and microwave until slightly soft.
Mix in the blackberries.
Cover with the crumble topping.
Bake in the over at gas mark 5 for 40-50 minutes

serve with custard

Last night was "Earth Hour" - we dutifully sat in near darkness for over an hour. Luckily we were only watching TV! We watched Housesitter with Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn and then part of Brokeback Mountain. We gave up on Brokeback Mountain as it was too difficult - they kept mumbling and had strong "southern" accents too.

Interview trek

2009-03-26T12:19:00.003Z

I had a manic interview day yesterday.

I drove to Brighton (Hove actually) for interview number one, then drove up to Redhill where I parked and got the train to London for interview two. I then got the train back to Redhill and drove home. 150 miles of driving, plus time on the train.

I had my SatNav on in the train: its fun seeing it trying to plan a car route as you keep moving along the train line. It assumes you are on the nearest road of course.

Maria is now seeing the Consultant in Alton on Friday - hurrah!

Boiler ongoing

2009-03-26T12:11:00.003Z

these are some pictures of the valve the engineer changed for us.

This seemed to fix the problem with the heating not turning off.

Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn't seen it) on Vimeo

2009-03-24T19:53:00.001Z

Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn't seen it) on Vimeo

this is SO good, you MUST click on the link NOW and watch the whole thing.

By the way, she has actually seen a few bits of the trilogy.

Mothering Sunday

2009-03-23T16:57:00.001Z

The In-Laws came over on Saturday night to celebrate Mothering Sunday.

We had Asparagus with Pancetta as a starter; Roast Beef, Yorkshire Pudding, Carrots, Beans, Roast Potatoes, Roast Parsnips and gravy as the main and Profiteroles filled with Chantilly Cream and topped with hot chocolate sauce as a dessert.

Recipes are below. The Profiteroles are by Gordon Ramsey, the Asparagus was from a Channel 4 website but I used Taleggio not Parmesan. I served a french Merlot and an Australian Sancerre with the food. Followed by coffee.

Asparagus wrapped in pancetta with parmesan and
butter recipe
Ingredients
30 stems of asparagus
15 slices of pancetta ham
120g of cheese of your choice
Method: How to make asparagus wrapped in pancetta
1. Boil asparagus for 1 minute then put in cold pot of water. When cold wrap 2 stems of asparagus
with a small amount of cheese in a slice of pancetta ham.
2. Place in oven for 10 minutes before serving. Serve 3 bundles on each plate.

Profiteroles with hot chocolate sauce recipe
Makes 30 profiteroles
Ingredients
Choux pastry
125ml milk
200ml water
150g plain flour
1 tsp golden caster sugar
? tsp salt
100g unsalted butter
4 medium eggs, lightly beaten
Chantilly cream
1 ? a vanilla pod, split
300ml whipping cream
1-2 tbsp icing sugar
Chocolate sauce
200g good quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)
30g unsalted butter
3 tbsp clear honey
125ml full fat milk
Method: How to make profiteroles with hot chocolate sauce
1. Preheat the oven to 200oCIGas 6. Sift the flour and salt into a bowl. Place the milk, cold water, salt,
sugar into a pan and set over a low heat. Once the sugar and salt has dissolved add the butter. Once
the butter has melted, bring to a rolling boil. Turn off the heat then tip in the flour and beat vigorously
with a wooden spoon. As soon as the mixture starts to come away from the side of the pan, stop
beating and tip onto a plate to cool.
2. Return the mixture to the pan, then gradually beat in the eggs, a little at a time, mixing well
between each addition, until you have a smooth paste. (Alternatively, transfer the mix to an electric
mixer and gradually add the eggs while the mixer is running on a low setting).
3. Line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper. Spoon the choux pastry into a piping bag fitted with a
large plain nozzle (about 1.5cm in diameter). Pipe a small blob of the pastry mix under each corner of
the greaseproof to keep the paper in place. Now pipe about 20 walnut-sized balls onto the baking
sheet, spaced well apart. Level the peaked tops with the tip of a wet finger then bake for 18-20
minutes until well risen and golden brown.
4. Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before filling.
5. For the Chantilly cream scrape the seeds from the vanilla pod into a large mixing bowl. Add the
cream, and icing sugar then whisk together until the consistency of a soft meringue with floppy peaks.
Spoon the cream into a clean piping bag, fitted with a small plain nozzle. Pierce the base of a choux
bun with the tip of the nozzle and pipe in the cream. Repeat with the remaining choux buns.
6. For the chocolate sauce, break the chocolate into small pieces in a heatproof bowl. Place the bowl
over a pan of simmering water and heat. Add the butter and honey stirring from time to time, until the
chocolate begins to melt. Gradually whisk in the milk until you have a smooth sauce and warm
through. Serve the cream-filled profiteroles with the hot chocolate sauce drizzled over.

A Creative Use for Sheep

2009-03-23T09:33:00.001Z

Okay, all you shepherd wannabes out there ... Check this out:

http://break.com/index/light-up-sheep-art.html

Recipe Exchange

2009-03-19T18:06:00.007Z

We got invited to join in a recipe exchange the other day. We send a recipe to a complete stranger, add our email to a list and send it out into the web to 20 "friends"/"victims".

In return we get 400 recipes back.

I was able to correct the spelling error in the title of the email and sent off our contribution: my famous prawn risotto.

Prawn Risotto – for 4

Ingredients

2 shallots or a small white onion

1 clove of garlic

300 grams Arborio rice

125 grams of unsalted butter

50 grams of grated Parmesan cheese plus extra to serve

15 ml of olive oil

1 litre of hot chicken or fish stock

150 ml of white wine (Sancerre perhaps)

250 grams of prawns raw or pre cooked – larger ones are best (or more if you want everyone to get lots of prawns. I use 2 x 250 gram packs of tiger prawns)

100 grams of petites pois – defrosted if frozen

Salt and pepper (white pepper is aesthetically better but I prefer freshly ground black pepper)

Method

Turn on the radio or have someone in the kitchen to talk too.

Chop the shallots and crush and chop the clove of garlic

Add the olive oil and half the butter to a deep non-stick frying pan/sauté pan and heat until the butter melts, then add the shallots and garlic and fry gently for a minute or two without letting them burn or colour until soft.

Add 100 grams of Arborio rice and fry gently for a couple of minutes stirring all the time then add 150 ml of white wine and keep stirring. When the wine has been absorbed add the stock, a ladle at a time while stirring. Do not stir too hard or you end up with mush! Keep the heat low.

After 20 minutes or so of listening to the radio, stirring and adding stock you will have a creamy risotto base. If needed add at ladle of water if the rice is still firm to the bite and keep cooking until it is softer. Add the petites pois and the prawns if using raw ones, if using cooked (pink) prawns wait a couple of minutes and then add them – you only need to heat them through but the peas need to cook. Keep stirring gently otherwise it will burn / stick to your non-stick pan.

When ready to serve, add the cheese, the rest of the butter and season to taste. Stir until the butter melts through and the cheese is mixed in.

Sprinkle more parmesan over the risotto as required when served.

You can add a side salad if you want

Back to the Chemist

2009-03-11T12:52:00.001Z

The pain relief drugs that I picked up yesterday were WAY too strong, so I went back today and picked up some more.

You can buy these new ones over the counter, but why buy them when you can get them "free at the point of delivery"

Quiet days

2009-03-10T15:54:00.004Z

Sunday and Monday were very quiet... Not doing much, taking pain killers mostly and updating the "pain diary" - keeping track of what hurts and when.

Yesterday (Monday) Maria broke out a jigsaw: one of the Christmas ones that we hadn't started yet. I went into town to get some things, drop of a request for more pain killers at the doctor and I ran in Alan at Tesco, he's looking good, the chemo treatments seem to be helping a lot.

I rang the insurance company as we'd had the renewal forms through. It appears that they have been over charging me for insurance for years as we have separate policies for contents and buildings. I merged them, and that alone has saved £450 a year. However the lowest alternative quote I have is about £200 less than the latest combined quote from the current company. I'll do some more digging into best value I think.

I rang her boss at work, she hadn't been told anything about why Maria was off - communication breakdown or protection of privacy perhaps.

Today I went to the chemist to get the pain killers. I also rang the bank about the mortgage as our current deal ends on 31st March. I signed up for a new "tracker" mortgage which will save another £40 a month.

Update

2009-03-07T11:04:00.003Z

Maria spent the night at Basingstoke, but was sent home on Thursday evening with pain relief. She's going to be having a CT (or CAT) scan and seeing the consultant in a couple of weeks time. They also took blood to test for "other nasties" as they called it.

We've started keeping a "pain diary" so we can track how the pain moves around and how bad it is as we were finding it hard to remember the details in the hospital.

back to Basingstoke

2009-03-04T22:58:00.001Z

We went back to the Doctor today as the pain had got worse. He sent us down to Basingstoke again. Maria got admitted and is scheduled for another scan tomoorow.

Basingstoke North Hampshire Hospital

2009-03-02T16:50:00.005Z

We've been spending time at the North Hampshire Hospital in Basingstoke this weekend.

We initially went to the "ThamesDoc" - our GP's out of hours service - at the local community hospital, The Chase at 8:30 on Saturday night as Maria had severe pain and her leg kept going numb or feeling "hot". She got sent to A&E by the doctor at about 9 pm as he said she needed an ultrasound scan. We got to Basingstoke about 9:45 and got seen by the triage nurse fairly quickly. I had managed to drop her off at the main entrance, park the car and then spent 15 minutes roaming round the hospital looking for the Emergency department. The Emergency Department is BEHIND YOU as you stand looking at the sign by the Main Entrance, so of course I went the other way :-). After having blood pressure and temperature taken by the Triage nurse we were then moved into another room, blood was taken and we were left to wait. After an hour her blood pressure and temperature was taken again. A bit later a Doctor came to see her. He said they didn't do ultrasound scans overnight so she should go home and see her GP on Monday, but he would request a scan anyway. We got home soon after 1 am on Sunday.

This morning, I'm over in Alton at 9:15 for a meeting. I've made an appointment for her to see the GP at 3 pm as well. Then Maria calls to say that the hospital have rung up and would like her to come in for a scan at 11 am. So I leave the meeting and head home, then then we go back to Basingstoke, arriving at 10:50!

They tried the scan at 11:10, but complained that her bladder wasn't full enough, so we got sent away to drink water for 40 minutes. When we got back we'd been elevated to seeing the consultant - Dr Green, and also testing a new ultrasound machine too.

They found the cause and explained the pain. Dr Green is going to refer her on to "Obs and Gynae" for treatment so I won't be going into any details here! So she rang the GP to cancel the appointment and to let him know what was going on.

Visitors to my blog

2009-02-28T09:18:00.006Z

I was curious about where people came from when they found my blog.

It appears that many people are looking for information about central heating systems supplied by British Gas, some are having problems with their Lexmark printer and some people are interested in music.

I will try to be more helpful in future, explaining how to solve printer problems in more detail perhaps - or visitors could contact me or comment perhaps :-)

I've been doing a bit more with Twitter this morning, but I can't get into pushing out comments about what I'm doing all the time, but it is interesting (to a point) looking at other people's comments.

I saw that a company who interviewed me in July (how time flys) for a MIS Director job are now looking for another member of staff: reporting to the guy who got the job. I applied. Looking at the job description that they sent me I found his name in the document properties and looked him up on Linked In. It appears he's a 3rd degree connection of mine. Scott brought me back to earth though by pointing out that he has 1.5 MILLION 3rd degree connections on Linked In.

Another TV marathon last night: "American Idol" eliminations, "Waterloo Road" from earlier in the week and then I watched Sean Connery / Ursula Andress in "Dr. No". They followed "Dr. No" with "Austin Powers: The Spy who Shagged Me" on the Sky Movies Comedy Channel. So there are people with a sense of humour working at Sky Movies. It was "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me" that featured the parody of the Ursula Andress bikini scene as Austin arrives at Dr Evil's volcano lair. I didn't stay up to watch it though.

Insulation Inspection

2009-02-27T10:13:00.003Z

The guy came yesterday to survey our insulation.

What a surprise, it's not as inexpensive as they said in the advert as those costs are based on a smaller home, but even so it "should" pay back in about 2 1/2 years.

Mind you it would mean losing most of the storage space in the attic, or extending the joists and re-boarding it. The main saving is from adding to the loft insulation.

Where are we going to put all the junk though?

He said the quote is valid for 6 months, but the small print says 28 days. We'll probably get it done when I'm working again.

The heating is fine now. The heating engineer changed the pump which was sticking "on". Maybe the battery had died in the RC1 too.

Dante's Inferno

2009-02-26T14:51:00.003Z

After yesterday's post mentioning Dante I was inteigued to find out that EA are making a GAME out of Dante's Divine Comedy. Images above are copyright EA.

See this... from Wired Blog

http://blog.wired.com/games/2009/02/san-francisco-.html

Pancakes, TV and Books

2009-02-25T10:02:00.005Z

It was Shrove Tuesday yesterday, so I made some pancakes.

In fact I ended up making 7 of them, between 2 of us :-). The 7th one was rather small, so I ate it rather than show it off as an example of my culinary skill. The first one was a bit too thick too.

It would have helped if I'd thought that the recipe that I used to get the ratio of flour to eggs to milk would probably be designed for 4 people, not two.

Lemon juice and sugar since you asked. Keep it simple :-)

Then we had a TV marathon as Tuesday is BBC's "drama night" we watched "Holby City" and "Mistresses" and then a recording of Sunday's "Damages".

I started reading "Illuminatus! book 1, The Eye in the Pyramid" again - man that book is weird! I last read it about 20 years ago I guess.

I've just finished reading "The Gargoyle" by Andrew Davidson which was very good (IMHO). I bought that and "The Suspicions of Mr Whicher or The Murder at Road Hill House" by Kate Summerscale on a buy one get one free offer a few weeks ago. I enjoyed "The Suspicions..." too even though it is more of a history than a novel. "The Gargoyle" premise - was a bit obvious I thought, but it was good fun getting there. I liked the Dante references too!

London

2009-02-24T09:40:00.003Z

I went up to London yesterday, to Kensington in fact, for another interview.

I had a cup of tea and a toasted tea cake in a place called "The Muffin Man", so of course my brain was then stuck in "the muffin man" scene from Shrek even though I wasn't in Drury Lane which is near Aldwych/Holborn/Oxford Street. I had to then "google" the words to the song too. See the Wikipedia article.... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Muffin_Man

"Do you know the muffin man?"

"The muffin man?"

"The muffin man!"

"Do you know the muffin man who lives in Drury Lane?"

aaaghhhh! "not my chocolate buttons!!"

How to Quit Smoking

2009-02-23T10:10:00.005Z

My sister sent me this... if you smoke you need to watch it

Teenage dad Alfie Patten ..........

2009-02-18T08:39:00.002Z

has joined 'Fathers for Justice'. In an interview, the 13 year old said "it made sense as I already have a Spiderman outfit"

Heating again

2009-02-14T18:14:00.005Z

The house has been freezing all day.

It was down to 14 degrees when I got up (woken by the cat) at 7:40. The heating came on at 7:50 but its only just reached 19 degrees.

We've got an energy survey being done in a few weeks - we need cavity wall insulation I think!

Apparently this is where to find the manuals for the RC1 and WRI thermostat/receiver.

http://www.invensyscontrolseurope.com/InvensysControlsEurope/Pages/Product.aspx?NRMODE=Published&NRNODEGUID={EA65767E-D57E-4472-9B56-A1F317FD8ECE}&NRORIGINALURL=/InvensysControlsEurope/en/ProductsServices/MarketSegments/Heatingdomesticcommercial/Drayton/RoomThermostats/ComingSoon-thenewDigistat.htm&NRCACHEHINT=Guest

or -

http://preview.tinyurl.com/bozew9

http://tinyurl.com/bozew9

Boiler guy

2009-02-13T18:11:00.002Z

The British Gas guy came today.

He diagnosed a faulty valve, which he swapped. But he booked a return visit for Monday as he wasn't sure this would fix the problem. This also would give him time to order the parts he may need.

So we've got to monitor it over the weekend.

Its been fine the past two nights - so may be fine over the weekend too.

WRI & RC1 and British Gas 330 Boiler

2009-02-10T23:34:00.002Z

I had fun last night with the central heating. It wouldn't turn off! We thought there had been a problem for a few nights as it got very warm, but the weather has been quite cold so it didn't matter too much. But last night it woke me up it was so hot.

I came downstairs and checked the timer. It was off. However the boiler was lit and the pump was running. After some messing around, turning it off and on again (well, it works on computers) and checking the Wireless Thermostat Receiver (WRI) in the airing cupboard I thought that maybe the batteries in the thermostat (RC1) had died or were dying, so I changed them.

All seemed well.

I ran some tests during the day and it seemed to shut down and start up normally. Then tonight at 11 pm we noticed it was still running again. I checked the timer: it was set to turn off at 11 pm and it appeared to have shut down on the timer, but the boiler was lit and the WRI was reporting it was active. To get it to shut down I turned the boiler off.

I guess tomorrow I'll have to call British Gas :) Lucky I've got a service contract!

Odd that this seemed to have started since the service visit to check the water leak from the boiler. The water leak was apparently due to the condensation drip tray overflowing after the drain pipe froze. However the weather has been too cold for us to notice a problem before now.

Snow clearance

2009-02-04T09:50:00.004Z

We spent 2 hours yesterday working with neighbours to clear snow and ice from the road. One of our neighbours is a nurse and she needed to leave to get to work for her shift.

After 2 hours the road was clear enough for our neighbour Mark to get a car out to go to the DIY shop to get some salt.

With salt on it the road was clear enough to use :-)

There was ice under the snow - thanks in the main to the local lads driving their motorised tricycle on it yesterday, spinning and throwing up snow. This compacted the snow into ice, on which more snow fell. They didn't come out to help shift it though.