Mark's old news

Monday we went to see The 2 Towers film. Quite entertaining. Gollum or Smeagol is probably the best generated character yet. In fact all of the effects and visuals are excellent. However, the plot rambles along over a very wide range for the time available. You get the impression that he was making it up as he went along, especially with the reappearence of Gandalf. I still don't know the significance of the twin towers?

New year's eve Carol had the car and I took the bike shopping. We went down the village pub in the evening.

2003.

Thursday back to work.

Saturday a little bit of snow at last. Spotted a new Pretenders CD Loose Screw in hmv, but ridiculously expensive at £17.99, so I ordered it from play.com at £8.99.

Sunday still frosty.

Tomorrow Otway is to appear as a guest on Never Mind the Buzzcocks.

Next Tuesday is the 1st cadmac long mynd trip. Forecast is for a strong E wind with chill factor taking it down to about -8 degrees - eek!

Added a pico stick page in aircraft.

Monday was the 1st cadmac meet of the year. I thought we voted for a peg on system of frequency control, but what we got was a sealed plastic tag with a bit of velcro. Also trouble with the wolston field, with more horses. Otway appeared on the 100th edition of Never Mind the Buzzcocks. Didn't have much to say though.

Tuesday was supposed to be Long Mynd, but the cold E wind put most people off, so we didn't go. Still had the day off and went into town. Lovely clear frosty weather.

Thursday the Pretenders CD Loose Screw arrived. The usual excellent vocal sound and competent guitar, but the tunes are not that interesting.

Friday Carol spotted an ad for budgie in the local paper. Amazingly, they are still at it, at least the bass player/singer. Coming to Coventry soon too.

Sunday the power went off again at about 19:00 for 90mins. Got our trusty generator out again.

1st full week back at work.

Friday my new machine heads arrived from touchstonetonewoods. I fitted schaller mini M6 black chrome units to the violin in place of the traditional tuning pegs. Unfortunately I didn't realise quite how hard the wood was and managed to crack 1 side while trying to self tap the retaining screw. A 1.5mm clearance hole needed. Guitar machine head holes seem to be 10mm diameter, requiring the wide side to be drilled out. The narrow side takes the end of the machine head shaft quite nicely, although I did have to widen this out for the thickest string. I didn't fit the bushes, but they seem to work quite well without. I didn't notice that the bridge is asymmetric before it fell off. I think it I put it back on the correct way round.

Added a bit more about early free flight in aircraft.

Thursday the outsource manufacturer that owns the marconi factory where I work announced that they plan to effectively close it in the summer, transferring the work to their plant in Hungary. In fact the site has already been sold. Allegedly this has no effect on marconi operations. It seems I was right to resist transfer over 12 months ago.

Saturday was cadmac indoor flight. No Graham, so no competition of any sort was organised. There was someone demonstrating indoor electric control line flying with the power packs carried in a shoulder bag, carrying the power down standard insulated wires to the aircraft. Massive resistive losses of course, even though the lines were not very long. They looked underpowered and heavy, and nothing more ambitious than varying height circuits was attempted. It really needs a high voltage, low current arrangement to make it work better, but that would lead to safety problems. I flew the usual 3, mainly the hornet. Nose in hover has become fairly automatic now. I even managed a couple of nice transitions to tail in. I need to locate the power pack better, as heavy landings move it and disturb the trim. Also need to lock the tail down, as it is just pushed in at the moment. Gareth's collective pitch hornet was flying very smoothly. Not too much carnage, but someone managed to tangle a pico stick in the roof. It was still under control, and came down many minutes later, after much throttle pushing. 2 more sessions to come this winter.

War now looks inevitable, for no good reason that I can see. Security of oil supply seems to be behind it.

Bought the Yes dvd YesYears. This seems to be just a documentary that was on TV some time ago. Still worth having though.

Friday Jes, Adrian, Simon, Carol and I went to see budgie at the General Wolfe. The venue has separated from the pub to operate independently. It has been tidied up a bit inside and an enclosed mixing room has been built above the bar at the back. A couple of support bands were indifferent, but budgie were awesome - probably the heaviest thing I have ever seen. Just 3 of them with occasional extra percussion. Burke Shelley was a surprise, looking fit and wiry in torn jeans, with what was presumably the original precision bass. I had only seen photos on covers before, with long hair and glasses. He was very animated, effectively carrying the show. New, traditionally overweight Adam Hart doing an excellent job on guitar, although some of the modern pyrotechnics seemed anachronistic, losing the melodic simplicity of the originals. Many of the songs, familiar from the CDs, were abridged for the live set, which is only sensible I suppose. Steve Williams on drums at the back. We emerged satisfied and slightly deafened into the moderately heavy snow of the night.

Saturday Carol and I went over to Leicester to collect my new yamaha rgx420s guitar from academy of sound. It is lovely, blacker than a very black thing. About 20 years since I last bought an electric guitar. The satellite still works OK, but is looking a bit bashed and rusty. I selected the yamaha with much web research, but had great difficulty tracking 1 down, eventually having to wait for more to be imported. The action is lower and the neck is less deep, making it easier to get around. It has a floyd rose locking tremolo system with clamps at the (height adjustable) nut. Because of this there are also micro tuners at the bridge. The machine heads are angled back, eliminating the need for the traditional string guides. The 5 position pickup switch, rather than just selecting individual pickups or both, provides all sorts of in/out of phase combinations of the 2 parts of each of the 2 humbuckers, before exiting through the volume and tone controls. There is also a bypass switch that just misses out all that lot, and just connects the bridge pickup directly to the out. Stunning value.

On the way back we heard the news of the space shuttle Columbia breaking up on its landing approach. 7 dead is a bit insignificant compared to the carnage to come in the war.

Not long now before the new tomb raider game is released.

Monday was cadmac meet. We had the events list quite late, and I didn't notice that it was the concours d'elegance, and didn't have my camera. Quite a few interesting creations.

Tuesday the cadmac long mynd trip was officially cancelled due to the snow, but Lee and I decided to go anyway. BBC forecast showing 20mph NW wind and sunshine. Heading up the hill from Church Stretton we found the road closed, covered in snow a few meters beyond the cones. Undefeated, we tried to go around the back of the hill armed with an ordnance survey map and a road atlas, neither of which showed all of the roads we were interested in. After finding more closed roads, we eventually found ourselves at the darnford slope, more or less by accident. We considered giving it a go, but decided to try for pole cot. The road up the back of the hill was open, being a little less precarious than the other 2. The T junction in the middle showed both other roads closed, leaving only 1 way up or down. We put on all of the layers we had and headed for the slope, just as the hailstones started. They didn't last long though. The wind was a bit too much along the slope, making a difficult battle to stay in the same place. My zagi got blown away down the slope to the south. I thought I would have to leave it there after about 15mins searching, but Lee managed to find it. Hard work marching through the snow covered heather. After something to eat we decided that the wind was a bit more N than W and to try the other slope. Back the way we came, past a rather spectacularly uprooted tree. The 1st time we had been on the darnford slope with plenty of wind. We got the zagis up and saw a helicopter flying along the valley below us in brilliant sunshine. There were a few patches of grey cloud going over, and when they did, the wind would get stronger and more gusty making flying unpleasant, but then it would pass and back came the sunshine and strong lift. I also flew the stiletto. Lee flew his aerobatic thing. About 15:00 fingers were getting a bit too cold and we used bike gloves to warm up, but my toes were suffering too and we left for home. Very cold, but we had some good flying, and it was nice to see the hill in the crisp winter air with part snow cover.

At last, the 2 pieces of music from Holly Beth Vincent have made it onto CD - The right to be Italian and Holly and the Italians. Found them at amazon. No more the rumble and clicks from the vinyl.

It seems the new tomb raider game has been delayed further. ETA 2003 May 09

Monday found the Blue Oyster Cult DVD A long day's night. A live recording 2002 with the 3 core guitars of the original band, featuring a lot of material from the 1st 3 CDs.

Saturday we went on the stop the war demo in London. A bad traffic jam getting the coaches in left us starting from the north point about an hour late at 13:00. We stayed with the march for an hour before deciding it was just moving too slowly to catch anything in the park, so we dipped down a side street to the north and made better speed parallel to the march, arriving at Hyde park about 14:45. At this point it looked disappointingly empty, as most people were still jammed in the streets of the official route. However, by 16:00 it was pretty well full. We heard a few speakers including Harold Pinter and Bianca Jagger. The video screen was excellent and the sound system was not bad, but a lot of the time it was totally drowned out (deliberately ?) by the helicopter overhead. As we left, Ken Livingstone was on. A suitably grey, damp, cold day left the park a muddy mess. Opinions on the numbers vary between 0.75 and 2 million, but it was apparently the biggest demo London had ever seen. The range of people making the effort was impressive. Lots of peple with the standard banners, but some uniquely creative too. We quite liked "cheese eating surrender monkeys against the war" and "gardeners against genocide". back at the coach we had a long wait while others tried to find it in a sea of coaches around the north and east of the park, eventually getting away into the traffic jam about 17:30.

Back home at 20:25 there was still about an hour left of the penultimate cadmac indoor flight session. I grabbed the pico stick and Tx and headed for Coventry, charging the power pack on the way. I arrived in time to have 2 goes at the pico limbo, only managing a best of 12. Chris won this with 15. My 12 put me equal 3rd, but with a worse 2nd score I was 4th, so no certificate. Too late to take part in the pylon racing. I saw the 4 aircraft final. 4 trying to use the same bit of air around the pylons had the usual effect, with only 1 finishing the 10 laps. Not many there, near the end of the season, with 1 more to go.

The MW44 gas turbine is at last available from wren turbines, at least on the end of a waiting list. A bit too expensive for me at £1450.

Added a protest section to links.

Monday an interesting talk at the cadmac meet on the 1848 Stringfellow monoplane. A proof of concept 10ft span model aircraft powered by a small steam engine, some 50+ years before the Wright brothers got into the air. The talk was based around an electric version built for a TV program. The original was flown indoors, free flight of course, to demonstrate that a steam powered full size aircraft was feasible. Apparently they aimed to produce a transatlantic passenger carrying aircraft.

Tuesday I turned 44. Had the day off.

Wednesday the Holly and the Italians CDs arrived. Great to hear again without the LP noise. Extra tracks too. Also the latest Monica Naranjo CD Chicas Malas. This doesn't seem to get away from the europop/disco stuff as much as on the earlier Minage.

I went to see the Daredevil film, which was quite good really. Similar in some ways to spiderman, but darker. A good adaptation from the comic.

Friday had a guitars session with Simon.

We may now be standing on the brink of WW3. Time will tell.

March.

Saturday was the last cadmac indoor flight session of the winter season. Not many there. Despite the low numbers we had someone transmitting on a frequency different from what they wrote down and pegged. The monitor picked this up, I think. Also, a nasty head on crash caused by someone doing clockwise circuits. I had made a new ply locating plate for the power pack on the hornet. Also refitted the canopy retaining stick that fell off last time. The centre of gravity used to shift a lot in heavy landings as the power pack slid about. Once rebalanced, it flew quite nicely and I managed a few successful transitions from nose in to tail in, including 1 to the left. No crashes. We had a pico limbo session. I managed 12 both times. Catching the tape and the floor kept the total down a bit. Anyway, with Chris missing, I won.

Saturday night I became an uncle (again) when my brother Adrian and Claire had a daughter - Georgina.

Sunday a lovely bright sunny early spring day. Tidied the garage a bit, and cleaned the car. We also got the bikes running again after the winter, although we didn't actually go anywhere.

1x round the village circuit.

Frogs are assembling in the pond.

Only 2x more farscape left.

We seem to have had a government vote about the war during the week. Despite a historic rebellion and massive public opinion against, it looks like they are going for it anyway. Maybe 2 weeks away.

A day late after an extremely busy weekend.

Monday was the cadmac bring and buy auction. The largest attendance ever.

Tuesday was the cadmac long mynd trip. Almost rained off, but after 2 cancelled trips people were keen to go. Grey and showery forecast with 11mph from SW sounded good. 7 in the bus and 1 in a car. Arriving on the hill, it was obviously considerably more windy, and despite being reasonably warm, it was quite cold in the wind chill. The wind was rather more S than W, putting us on Ashes Hollow. There are several ways of measuring wind strength. This was somewhere between "blew my hat off" and "can't stand up". Electronic meters recorded a peak of 50.5mph. It was also very gusty. Really only suitable for zagis, although Lee flew his epp aerobatic thing. A couple of others ended in bits. Anyway 3 zagis got lots of flying in before the rain arrived at about 14:00. A solitary sheep seemed very interested in us.

Friday the washing machine faded away. It started occasionally tripping the residual current breaker, before eventually taking out the overcurrent trip immediately on power up. It kept my washing locked in there too.

Saturday morning up early to buy a new machine. Decided on a hotpoint wmt03 from comet, which seems to do everything we need. Also got rid of those 21 year vouchers.

Saturday night saw the triumphal return to Coventry of 2 hits Otway. Jes, Christine and Steve came up for this. Sold out. We got there in time to see the support, but were not impressed. As for Otway, the set remains the same, as ever. Well, more or less. A great night. Bought the "rock opera" Cheryl CD. Driving back we had to negotiate several drunken people in the road.

Sunday Jes and I went to the GTBA AGM. We didn't bother with the meeting and seminars. Saw the MW44 running and several installed in aircraft. It's very quiet, compared to the larger/older engines. The engine management system seems well sorted, pretty well taking charge of the warm up procedure and transition from gas to liquid fuel. A very desirable thing, but still a bit expensive at £1450. Apparently the waiting list is something like 2 months.

I managed to disassemble enough of the front of the old machine to get my washing back.

More frogs assembling in the pond. On Monday the 1st potential froglets arrived.

Monday was the last farscape. Remarkable ending with "to be continued". Maybe there will be a film.

We are now getting some resignations over the government's position on the war. Maybe 1 week away.

Otway's "rock opera" Cheryl CD is a bit of a waste of time. It seems to have been expanded from the fairly good song and a half that remains in the live set.

After the success with Holly and the Italians, I looked for the other 2x that I haven't managed to convert vinyl to CD. Found the Triumvirat CD Spartacus.

Saturday 2x round the village circuit.

Saturday evening we watched Withnail and I again. Such an excellent film.

Sunday we went for a free trial at 1 of those private exercise places. Nice facilities with warm water and clean changing rooms, but I can think of better ways to spend £50/month. Got a free swim though.

Frog numbers have gone down a bit now, but they're still at it.

It's that time of year for yellow and white flowers.

Added a picture of the pulse jet petal valve to history.

War hasn't officially started yet, or perhaps it really started 10 years ago, or never stopped. Anyway the US have their toys out of the box now, and they are determined to play with them.

Thursday our new coffee table was due to arrive, so I phoned to confirm, and went into town to collect it - Carol came over too to help shift it. Anyway despite the "system" saying otherwise, it was nowhere to be found. Try again next week. Oh yes, the war started too.

Saturday morning we did the village litter pick. In general it seemed a bit less than last time, although that was 2 years worth, and we were doing a different bit. Why would anyone think that a ditch by the side of the road is a suitable home for a vacuum cleaner, 2x car exhausts, spare wheel etc.? A cold start, but the direct sun soon warmed things up, and my head got sunburned.

Saturday the Sheryl Crow CD c'mon c'mon arrived from play.

Saturday afternoon, it was getting a bit late, but we decided to go to the London march/protest in Hyde park. Not very impressed by the coach organisation last time, we went on the bikes. Got a bit lost in north London, and struggled to find somewhere to park. Eventually we found some pay and display along a road that cuts through the park itself. Of course you can't securely display a ticket on a bike... Anyway we arrived about 16:45 just in time to hear Ken Livingstone and Tony Benn. Someone there said that the attendance was bigger than last time, but I doubt that. The media have it at about 200000. The number of coaches seemed the same. Anyway, it was impressive, considering the short notice and supposed shift in public opinion. Unfortunately, my camera cells were too expired to capture it. We went for a walk down to the bottom of the park. I was surprised to see a lake down there, and a restaurant. Walking back up Park lane past some of the most expensive hotels in the country, we found a little filling station with a shop and batteries. By this time the crowd had pretty well dispersed - time to go home. We put on all the clothes we had brought, but were still cold from the windchill on the M1 as the stars came out in the sky.

Frogs have all but disappeared now, although we heard some croaking today.

Of course, we are not being told the whole story about the war, but it does seem to have got off to the usual start, with the US killing plenty of themselves and their allies, as well as loads of the supposed "enemy".

Tuesday our new coffee table finally arrived, and I took the sack truck into town to collect it. We were surprised when it came in 2 flat packs, but it went together nicely, and it is lovely. Made in Nederland apparently.

Saturday we went over to Leamington to the new eatery in the park. Not that impressed.

Sunday 2x round the village circuit. We did a bit more garden tidying. The tadpoles have started wriggling. Finished book 6/9 of Herodotus.

Added a composite video of my winning pico limbo flight of March 01 in aircraft.

The war seems to be getting messier, as you might have expected really. It looks like it might come down to a traditional medieval siege of Baghdad. The stories of Babylon being taken by Cyrus and Darius (documented in Herodotus) were on the radio this week. Not the same city, but not far away.

April.

The long dry sunny spell seems to have slowly broken up.

Thursday was a classic retrospective look at The Old Grey Whistle Test from 1977, including The Tubes, The Runaways, and Otway and Barett. Great to see Joan Jett etc. from the early days, playing live, rather badly, it has to be said. Missed it when it was originally shown. Otway with Cheryl's going home, and more chaos than today, featuring the famous incident where he tries to jump onto the amps, which I had only seen a clip of before.

Saturday we went to a pub in Rugby where 5 local bands were playing, supposedly against the war. Only The Retards were worth mentioning, for their rather punk/metal version of Britney's Baby 1 more time. Unfortunately we arrived a bit too late to see the rather interestingly named The Higgs Bosun.

Sunday 2x round the village circuit.

I've revamped the old zagi a bit, mainly because the old solarfilm was hanging off. I think it had got damp underneath it. I replaced it with red profilm. 1st time I have used it. It does seem superior, if a bit thicker. I replaced the old fins with new plastic cut from the centre of some outdoor/bbq plates. I've added pin hinges at the tips and sealed the aileron gap with diamond tape. Back in action, ready for the Long Mynd.

The war is progressing slowly. We had the princess Leia style "rescue" of some US female soldier from hospital. The US seem to have been caught out telling lies about their success by UK journalists. Baghdad remains to be taken.

Tuesday cadmac trip to the Long Mynd. 8 in the bus and 1 in a car. A beautifully sunny day with very light SE wind would normally put us on Ashes Hollow, but that slope is out of action during the spring breeding season. We spent a long time marching over a significant part of the other hills looking for a suitable alternative, eventually finding an excellent spot. We got quite a lot of flying in with the lighter models. Strong thermal lift would come through, pushing aircraft well up into the sky even when there was almost complete calm, eventually followed by equally dramatic sink. Graham and Lee probably had the most air time with their lightweight champion aircraft. Graham and I flew light zagis. Quite a long flight with the siesta too. The newly revamped heavy zagi didn't even get out of the bus. About the time we were about to go home anyway, the ranger turned up and told us we were on an unapproved site, so we won't be able to use it again.

Thursday Carol went down with the flu symptoms that are going around.

Friday my Triumvirat CD Spartacus arrived from amazon together with an earlier work of theirs and an early Joan Jett CD I love rok 'n roll and Motorhead CD Bomber.

Saturday was the next anti war protest in London, but we didn't feel up to travelling, so we went to town as usual. I bought a book. It must be beautiful. A look at some of the most elegant equations of science.

Sunday 2x round the village circuit.

Sunday we went over to the big house for the annual opening of the grounds.

The war actually appeared to move along quite quickly this week, with no sign of the expected long drawn out siege. However, there have still been appalling casualties, even including a few journalists. The US seem to be desperately short of man power, and have replaced "tyranny" with anarchy.

Lovely hot sunny weather this week.

Tuesday I took the swift over to wolston. It flew well enough with plenty of duration, but is really a bit underpowered with the pico motor. Even so, I managed to loop it, roll it and some inverted circuits. 1st time I had used the new peg off/on system.

Wednesday it was so hot, I took the bike to work.

This week a girl was killed by a model aircraft down south somewhere.

Friday 2x round the village circuit.

Friday was to be the only decent weather of the holiday. Carol and I went down to have a look at Ivinghoe beacon. It might be a suitable alternative to the Long Mynd for some wind directions. With the wind in the E, we arrived to find aircraft flying right next to the car park. Real Italian ice cream being sold there. I flew the heavy zagi and the stiletto. The air was a bit lumpy due to the trees off to the right and a few bushes down the slope, but plenty of lift. Far too many public about for safety, as you would expect on a holiday, but it would probably be OK in the week. We walked up along the ridgeway to the beacon itself, which looks like an excellent site.

Sunday we went to Stratford. The sun eventually came out.

Added a bit about our 1992 trip to Glastonbury in history.

Monday holiday the cadmac meet was rather low attendance. I dusted off the eco8 flew out a charge with just a tail in hover. A bit windy for anything more adventurous. Got the training undercarriage off now though. Also flew the swift 2x including loops, rolls and inverted circuits. Very long duration with a pico motor and 700mAh.

Tuesday I took the bike to work. A bridge is being rebuilt at the moment, meaning a bit of variety in the route.

Wednesday they announced another phase of redundancy at work - 20% to go from our bit. Later broken down to more like 40% of the bit that I'm in - eek.

Saturday I bought the May QEFI. It reviews the swift, finding the same problem with the interference fit of the gearbox and lamenting the absence of zagi tape in the box. Still an excellent aircraft though. Also a look at the latest developments on the hornet heli, a look at the cougar fun fly, a nice looking prodij slope soarer, and the new big swift electric themal soarer, among other interesting stuff.

Sunday we went over to the Newbold quarry/lake. 2x round the village circuit.

May, and the April showers are a bit late, but here now.

Wednesday, fed up with approaching pedestrians in stealth mode, I fitted a bell to my push bike. 2x around the village circuit.

Friday I went to see the X2 film. Rather excellent, I thought, although I suppose it helps to be a fan. It's nice to see films with more "main" characters than the usual 1 to 3. Still missing Angel though. They also seem to have made it long enough to work, rather than the traditional plot destroying cutting that usually goes on, only to have them reinstated on the DVD. Nice trailer for Matrix reloaded too, which looks like more of the same very stylish nonsense.

Sunday lovely sunny weather. 2x round the village circuit. We did some work on the garden and garage. Over to Ryton gardens to see the new vegetable kingdom, but still not ready. Had a look at wolston, wind a bit too strong, keeping several aircraft on the ground.

2 days late, extremely busy week/weekend.

Monday holiday 2x around the village circuit. Evening cadmac meet with flying outside. Flew the pico stick, the hornet and the swift. On advice from the article in QEFI, I sanded a little out of the lower side of the original motor housing, allowing the gears to mesh with that all important gap. I flew it with the pico motor 1st, landed, swapped the motor, and flew out the rest of the charge. It zips about nicely now, although the balance is perhaps a little far back. Still noisier than the pico motor, but much less vibratory.

Tuesday was an almost perfect day at the Long Mynd. A moderate W wind blowing straight onto Pole Cot with brilliant sunshine, broken by a few fluffy white clouds. Perhaps because of the holiday, only 6 in the bus. We had to share the air with full size, para and hang gliders. Lee flew his new whistler with the prop off, which did lots of er... whistling about. Lots of combat with the heavy zagis. I managed to accidentally knock the power off on Lee's. It's flying very smoothly with the newly hinged and tap sealed elevons, profilm covering, and garden plate fins. Managed several inverted circuits. Also flew the light zagi, including trying to catch it on landing. Didn't quite work. At last had the right conditions to get the siesta up, carrying the extra weight of the camera. Got several reasonable pics and a long video sequence. Bit of an adventure getting off the hill. Along the most precipitous bit of the road along the side of the hill, in a fairly wide minibus, we met a large pickup truck towing a wide trailer carrying some seriously heavy equipment. Well, he wedged himself into the inside of the passing place, and we went down the outside... and stopped, as the trailer was blocking the exit. The pickup was going nowhere, just spinning the tyres. We couldn't get out, with the slide door on the outside. After a bit of worrying about it, dad got out the passenger door and swung round over the abyss to the front by hanging on to the wing mirror. He then directed us out over the edge and we somehow got back onto the road. Apparently we flattened 1 of the plastic warning posts in the process.

Tuesday Carol's van refused to start, so the 106 was pressed into sandwich van duty, leaving me on the bike.

Friday off up north to Richard's. The 106 went through 80000m on the way up. It's still going OK though. Saturday we went to a model aircraft flying display on Southport beach. No helicopters, but some of the extremely large models that we usually see at Woodvale, and several gas turbine jets. Sunday we went to the Northwich thundersprint bike rally. Lots of old racing bike doing time trials in the main car park. Slightly unfortunate to close the car park and then invite lots of people to visit, meaning chaos on the local roads. I suppose you should go on a bike really.

Sunday back home I managed to get the van going, but we didn't trust it for Monday.

The new Tomb Raider game was supposed be released on Friday, but has been put back yet again - latest ETA June 06.

Wednesday we bought a new suzuki van. 5 doors, 1.3L 16 valve engine, high flat load area with no wheel arch intrusion, central locking, removable fascia stereo. Stunning value at £6.5k including vat from Etone Motors Nuneaton.

Friday marconi plc shares stopped trading, ready for the new debt relieved marconi corporation starting on Monday.

Saturday I went up north to Simon's to see the tribute band Whole Lotta Led. A very good reproduction of the original material, inluding the whole 4th album.

A day late due to another busy weekend.

Monday saw the transformation of marconi plc into marconi corporation. Shares started at about 60p.

A lot of rain this week, clearing to merely showers by the weekend.

Saturday 1x round the village circuit. Dad and I went over to Walsall to see the 1st day of the barcs radioglide competition. I wanted to see the HLGs and the SLGs. The hand launch glider section was dominated by prebuilt things, achieving much better efficiency than home build stuff. The overarm throw, rotary discus launch, and the mini bungee all seemed to yield about the same initial height, which was not much, with which to go thermal hunting. Nevertheless, a few got away and did good times. Late afternoon saw the self launch gliders. Bit of a misnoma really as they usually get someone else to launch them, it used to be called electroslot. Carrying enough energy for 3 ascents means they are a bit heavier than a pure thermal soarer, but we saw several slots flown out with the traditional spot landing just as the final beeps sounded.

Saturday evening was the eurovision song contest, which in a rather sad way, I have watched since the 70s. Rather historically, the UK got nul point. OK, it was a poor song, performed badly, but even so... Might have something to do with the war? Or maybe it's just that the UK is becoming increasingly irrelevant to the rest of Europe.

Sunday Carol and I went south to visit Kew gardens. Remarkably easy to get to, being just off the end of the M4. A nice relaxed feel to it, with plenty of space, slightly spoiled by the jets taking off every 90 secs. They have a walkway through the treetops, made of some rather ugly scaffolding, but probably worth it. An artificial, oversize badger set. The rather undersold evolution house was quite good, despite its small size.

Monday holiday. 2x round the village circuit.

I seem to have lost my freeserve dial up and email, although the site is still there. Probably because I haven't used it for quite a while. Oh well, nevermind.

Friday I took the bike for an MOT, which it failed for expired brake pads. I bought some ages ago, but hadn't quite got around to fitting them. So I spent the early part of the evening figuring out how to do it again. 1000m+ this year.

Saturday 2x round the village circuit. In the morning we both went over to Coventry to get the MOT at retest. 1 of those extremely hot days from the middle of summer, on the last day of May.

I keep forgetting to mention that almost all of our tadpoles have disappeared. Maybe the late frosts, or something else. Apparently not just us, but generally a bad year for them. Despite this, the main pond is nice and clear, and very full of various frogs. The newer shallow pond is still a bit green.

Sunday 2x round the village circuit. In the afternoon we went on the airport march through Rugby. Rather disappointing attendance, considering the good weather.

Fixed the old news here link so that it takes you straight to last week's stuff, rather than back to 1999.

Next weekend is the godiva festival in the memorial park Coventry.

June. 2 days late due to another extremely busy week/weekend.

Monday Jes and I went to see BOC on the 1st night of their UK tour at the Stables Milton Keynes. A good venue, set in much greenery, it apparently covers classical music too, with an excellent clear sound. BOC were very much like the DVD of the US tour last year ie. nice to hear the old stuff, while the rest is fairly indifferent.

Also saw the film Matrix Reloaded. Contrary to the reviews, I didn't find it overlong, nor was the ending disappointing. The interpretation of what was actually going on, and how it was to be resolved, left my head spinning. The philosophical aspects are important. I guess the people that find it boring, just don't get it. The endless fighting becomes ridiculous and tedious after a while. The car/bike chase is well done, but exposes some gaping holes in the plot. Last part now please.

Getting back about midnight, planes on charge ready for Tuesday cadmac trip to the Long Mynd. I didn't get a chance to see the forecast, actually a SE wind, which would have been an ideal opportunity to try out the Ivinghoe beacon, but we went to the Long Mynd anyway. 7 in the bus. Ashes Hollow still out, so we marched accross from the gliding school to the backup SE slope. A pretty site that I hadn't visited before, with lots of trees in the distance. Spoiled a bit by the hills upwind disturbing the air. I don't know whether it has a name. Very much a heavy zagi day in the moderate wind. Lots of combat, ending in a head on impact which shattered 1 of my new fins. For some reason, most of the others had believed the forecast and only brought light aircraft, which wisely didn't venture into the air. Rather miserably overcast, we headed home quite early.

Thursday the 106 failed its MOT for the exhaust.

Saturday 2x round the village circuit. Afternoon we went over to the godiva festival in the memorial park Coventry. Excellent weather may have effected the increased attendance from last year. The afternoon bands were almost an exact repeat of last year, with only Kid Galahad and Thoria worth a mention. We waited for the headlining Shed 7, but couldn't be bothered after a few songs.

Sunday we went over again for the last 2 folk bands, Strawbs and Meet on the Ledge. At last persuaded to buy both CDs.

Monday I dropped the car off. Are we having the euro? yes, no, maybe, none the wiser.

Tuesday on the bike, with torrential rain on the way home, very reminiscent of various european holidays. 106 sorted.

Friday a lot of people left from nhp, both vr from marconi, and cr from the gradual close down of the outsource manufacturing operation.

Saturday 2x round the village circuit. Saw a hedgehog in the garden, behind the pond. Seems to be the time of year for purple flowers.

Carol took the van for its 1st service, although apparently all they did was checks. In town we saw that whole lotta led were playing at the wolfe, so we went along to that. Not many in the audience, perhaps because of the excellent weather outside. Not exactly the the same set as last time, but good anyway, with a late finish at about midnight. Road closed on the way home with some work being done on the bridge through the night.

Sunday 2x round the village circuit. A quick look at the cadmac aerobatic competition at Wolston. Then a quick look at the allotment, and over to Leamington for the end of the peace festival. Music not really worth a mention, but a good free festival. Warwickshire looks lovely in the perfect June weather. It would be a shame to spoil it with an airport.

Some good stuff on the meet on the ledge cds. Impressed that they can get "hydrodynamicist" into the lyrics.

Removed the stop the war link from the home page.

Monday was the cadmac vintage evening at wolston, in perfect weather, meaning the largest attendance I have ever seen. Also a 1st go at holding a barcs style SLG electric glider competition. 4x entries, 1 highlight which came down 1st every time, and 3 based on the simply the best wing with carbon fibre everything from fvk. 1 original fuselage, 1 highlight, and 1 scratch built. Despite the calm air as the sun went down, these 3 reliably did about 9 mins. When I got back about 21:45, we both saw the hedgehog wander over to the pond and disappear into the undergrowth.

Wednesday we went down the pub and sat outside, although it was really a bit too cold and windy.

Friday into town for the much delayed tomb raider game again, and... it still isn't there. Bought the "free" promotional dvd anyway. It has some background info, videos of the game in play, and an old documentary, as well as the trailer for the 2nd film.

Saturday and the summer solstice. Suffering a bit from hay fever, decided against the bike. Went to the village fete in the afternoon. A bit smaller than last year.

Sunday Lee, dad and I went over to the heart of england site for the fly in by invitation. A bit too windy for the electric aircraft we took over. Some very professional flying. A well organised site with a peg on system. They have a mobile home with cooking facilities from which we were fed for free. There is a well defined pits area, and a landing strip separated from the pilots by a low fence. Slightly spoiled by the surrounding trees and the fact that a large part of the field is given over to a crop, ideal for losing bits of aircraft in.

Glastonbury next weekend. Have to watch on TV again.

Tuesday fine weather with no wind. I flew the eco8 in the garden.

Friday and another release date for the much delayed tomb raider goes by with no show.

Spectacular scrap between the bbc and the government over the war this week.

Saturday 2x round the village circuit. We went over to Rugby for a change. Bought a Jessops own brand 128M smart media card for the camera at £36.99. I have often run out of space in a single day. 20s videos take about 3M, still pics about 750K. Now have space for about 166 full resolution pics. I had thought that no tadpoles had survived, but we saw about 20 froglets by the pond. there may be a lot more.

Sunday 2x round the village circuit

Spent some time researching bits for a new pc.

Glastonbury still happening at the moment. So far, fairly typical, with no really interesting bands, and very little coverage of smaller stuff.

July

The Sunday night coverage of Glastonbury did actually cover some of the smaller stuff going on. I was waiting for yes, but no mention. No Otway either.

Tuesday 2003 July 01 and tomb raider hits the shops at last, at least for those who have reserved a copy. Into town to pick it up, before a meal out with the family. Back home late and a lengthy 2 cd install and... it won't run. Not entirely surprised as my pc falls a bit short of the minimum spec. Apparently in need of updated directx 9 driver for the video card.

Wednesday I managed to find a directx 8 driver and installed that. Eventually got it to run, in a way. The text menu options unreadable, but a few guesses and it actually started. However the frame rate was about 1 frame every 20secs. I think it really does need 128M memory and the slowness was due to the virtual memory swap out of the overflow from my 64M. Oh well, probably best to wait for the new computer.

Saturday 2x round the village circuit. We went over to Rugby again, partly to go to a computer fair. I was tempted by some more memory for the old/current pc, but decided there wasn't much point when the new 1 will be here soon. Mosrt of the stuff there seemed to be not much cheaper than you can find elesewhere by shopping around. Good to have a look at what the latest is. Also went to some of the free "punk" music festival at the Webb Ellis pub. Very bad sound in general, but they used an electronic drum kit for everyone, which did a good job. Unusual to be able to hear the hihat and cymbal rhythms.

Sunday 2x round the village circuit. In the afternoon we went to another village fete.

Monday 2x round the village circuit. Holiday. Went over to stak to decide on some pc bits, then into town for lunch. Also collected my lottery win £58 for 4 numbers. Bought a 75Ahr leisure battery to replace the old standard car battery, which can now only manage about 2 heli charges. In the evening was the cadmac meet with flying outside. Flew the swift, which now has an excellent rate of climb. A bit twitchy until I taped a £2 coin to the front. Could still use a bit more though. Also flew the eco8. The wind was a bit unpredictable in strength and direction, but I managed a bit of nose in hover. With the new battery, I might get some more time on it.

Tuesday was cadmac Long Mynd. 9 in the bus. A light to moderate W wind put us on pole cott. The sky was grey and threatening rain, but it never actually started. The wind was a bit too light for serious fun, but strong enough for everything to be able to fly, keeping the air quite busy, with full size etc. over to the left of us. We actually got to use the new frequency control board, which was just as well, as we were joined by someone with a sblitz zagi type thing and a rather expensive looking tragi. Flew very nicely, as you might expect. Baz had a "new" ex electric p38 lightning. A coming together of zagis broke 1 of my control horns. With the zagi out of action, I flew the stiletto quite a lot. I tried adding a little weight to the tail to try to stop it dropping its nose in rolls. It didn't improve, so took it off again. Trimmed the ruddervators to make it loop a bit straighter. The large amount of flying going on meant leaving a bit late, hitting the traffic on the m6 car park. Sun came out nicely on the way back.

Wednesday was the day for the cr announcements and... it seems I still have a job. The place is starting to feel quite empty now. Plenty of space in the car park.

Thursday I bought the bits for the new pc. Bit of a last minute upgrade when the main board selected was out of stock. Here's a list of bits...

I'll transfer the cd drive and various peripherals from the old pc.

Saturday 2x round the village circuit. Bit of pc building before we went into town for lunch. Found a serial ATA power cable adapter. In the evening I went over to Jim's place for the rather late housewarming party. Perfect weather for a barbeque. Driving back in the dark and a bit tired, I managed to miss the info on the roadwork signs, ending up driving between 2 junctions on the m42 3x, before getting back really late. Nice clear moonlit night.

Sunday 2x round the village circuit. Very hot and sunny. More pc building. Bought the daredevil dvd.

Monday I was on a training course up north and back home late. Even so, a bit more pc build got it to the point where I could install and run tomb raider. Played through the 1st few Paris levels in silence, as the sound card implementation on the main board had no headphone out, and anyway wasn't configured yet. The graphics are a bit improved, but the gameplay is more annoying than enhanced by the new features eg. you used to have to be very careful with the action key (ctrl), to keep hanging on to ledges etc. but now it just happens automatically, requiring an action to let go. The grip time out, although more realistic, is just annoying.

Tuesday I bought and installed a new sound card. It seems even base models now have 5.1 sound etc. but you can get them to just drive headphones.

Wednesday the long hot spell of almost central european weather finally broke down into thunder and lightning, but not much rain.

Friday I went to see the Hulk fim despite some of the reviews. I was never much of a fan of the comic. An angry brute leaves even less scope for plot development than your usual superhero. Still, they made a better job of it than the tv effort. The wonders of modern cgi. The 1st part is rather dark and visually horrible, with jarring colours on screen, presumably intentionally. Once the green turns up, it's more fun, but later turns into king kong/godzilla.

Saturday 2x round the village circuit. In the evening we went to see Simon and Chris playing as Higher Ground in a pub in Coventry. A good set of covers professionally done.

Sunday 2x round the village circuit. More pc building.

New starfield logo this week. A bit fed up with the old lake effect.

Monday was cadmac at Wolston including the 1st official electroslot competition. The rain cleared up and there was a fair bit of blue sky, but not much in the way of thermals. A reasonable number of entries. Most of the traditional wooden gliders were wiped out by Neil's highlight/simply the best hybrid with brushless motor. I'm quite tempted by an fvk simply the best. After the 3 rounds were done, I flew the swift, which is going very nicely now, loops, rolls, inverted etc.

Lots of late night tomb raider this week. After the 1st few levels it has developed into the traditional gameplay. Noticed a few more graphics enhancements like shadows, reflections on water.

Friday missed out on seeing Hawkwind and Budgie at a bike rally up north, but the rain, the high entrance fee £35, and general tiredness put me off.

Saturday 2x round the village circuit. In the evening we went to the Wolfe to see spaceritual.net. A band made up of a lot of early members of Hawkwind, led by Nik Turner. We got there in time to see the last few from the support tractor. When the main band started it was as if half the audience got up onto the stage. A very gradual build, as tuning up noises slowly built into the traditional space rock. Nik appeared last, and did a quick tour of the floor playing the saxophone in his red/white spike costume, before joining the others on stage. 9 in total (10 for the encores) leaving not much room to move about. A couple of long unknown tracks before the familiar d rider from hall of the mountain grill, followed by brainstorm. Others I recognised orgone accumulator, ejection, sonic attack, master of the universe, silver machine. A lot of the performance was imperfect, but it was great to hear some 30yr old space rock. Very late finish, back home about 00:50.

Sunday we went to Charlecote park just for a wander around, free as members of the national trust.

More pc building.

August hot.

Having great difficulty buying a simply the best electric glider. It seems there are none available to buy anywhere in europe. The only way to get 1 is to order it built which would take 4 wks. Mid September is getting a bit late in the season.

Felix Baumgartner free glides across the channel strapped to a carbon wing and lands right in front of the waiting cameras. Cool.

Friday went to see Terminator 3. Not good. Started quite well, with Arnie managing a convincing reproduction of his frame, although he looked older later. Mostly a recycled plot from T2. All the new characters very shallowly explored. The rise of skynet almost trivial. A few car chases, shoot ups, and a bashed up robot do not a good film make. The trailer for Matrix 3 looked good though.

Saturday we went over to Shugborough park to see Claire's balloon trip.

Sunday 2x+ round the village circuit. Extremely hot and sunny, lazy day.

Very little tomb raider this week.

More pc building. This update brought to you from the new pc.

Hotter.

Monday was cadmac club meet. Flew the swift, eco and hornet. In the calm conditions I managed almost a complete charge in nose in hover with the eco. With the hornet I didn't feel confident about turning it roun, so tried some height instead. Very smooth going up, with a good rate of climb. Getting it down was another matter. It started to spiral around, still pointing in the same direction. Quite a battle to get it steady again. I think this comes from the reduced gyro effect as the head speed necessarily slows with lower throttle. I guess the collective pitch upgrade would sort this.

Tuesday was cadmac Long Mynd. 5 in the bus. An E wind put us on Ashes Hollow, in use again after the breeding season. In fact the falcons seemed quite indifferent to us, and the aircraft, hovering above and landing quite nearby. Lots of sunshine and plenty of wind straight up the groove when we arrived. It soon clouded over and there were occasional spots of rain, but this was quite welcome on an extremely hot day. Lots of thermal activity, with the wind sometimes completely falling away, meaning a long walk down into the deep heather. I flew the zagi, stiletto and siesta with the camera on board, but didn't get any good photos. Lee doing some impressive low inverted passes along the slope. Very hot in the bus coming back.

Wednesday the hottest day of the year so far.

Friday we went to the Wolfe to see the Vibrators. Missing the 2nd guitar, but a good effort. This music is only 25yrs old.

Saturday 2x round the village circuit. We went to the Revel fete. After almost 4 years living nearby we got to look around the grounds. The main building a bit red brick, and not very interesting, spoiled by the more modern extensions and new buildings nearby. Nice clean aritificial lake, with lots of wildlife. As well as loads of the usual 2" electric blue dragonfy there were some unfeasibly large things, about 4" long red/brown.

Sunday 2x+ round the village circuit. Some thunder storms. Apparently the hottest day since records began down south, but the rain kept it a bit cooler here.

Some tomb raider this week. Cheated for the 1st time with the lasers in the Louvre galleries.

More pc building. Moved the dvd drive across. It never really worked well with the old processor - too slow. Now is stunning with a quality monitor - better than the TV.

Monday black 1 died aged 20. He lived 18 months longer than his brother black and white (probably half brother). Very strange to live in a house without cats. This photo from July.

Tuesday the new pc got attacked by the msblast worm attempting to install itself. Not actually succeeding, but doing enough damage to require a reboot.

Wednesday I installed the free zonealarm software firewall from zonelabs. It works very nicely, blocking all sorts of undesirables. Also the free avg virus solution from grisoft. While the firewall was doing its thing I could hear a strange chuffing sound, which I assumed was extra hard disk activity. Anyway I closed the window, as it was getting cooler and shut down the pc. Walking past the door to the garden I heard the chuffing sound again. Venturing out into the darkness revealed the source. 2 hedgehogs were circling each other nose to nose, just in front of the pond, snorting. We watched them for quite a while, then left them to it. In the morning there was a 1m circle of heavily flattened grass.

Saturday 2x round the village circuit. We went to Oxford for a change. Had lunch at the Bear pub. Used the new Water Eaton park and ride.

Sunday 2x round the village circuit. Finally got the new pc to a state where it can replace the old, and tidied up some of the spaghetti behind it.

No tomb raider this week.

Weather a lot cooler now - just nice.and sunny

A day late due to a busy weekend away.

Monday was cadmac electric evening at wolston. Electric power has lost its novelty, to become fairly routine. Another round of electric glider competition too.

Friday took the day off, and in the afternoon we headed south for the Canterbury Fayre festival. About 5hrs travelling including a 2hr crawl around the M25. We didn't arrive until after 20:00 and decided to put the tent up in what was left of the daylight. Very hot. A long walk through the orchards of Mount Ephraim Gardens, past apples and pears to the site. We saw most of the Space Ritual set in the solar powered croissant neuf stage tent. I see they've revived the tradition of semi naked lady dancers. Local resident power ended the music at 22:30 and we headed back. Ah, the joys of camping in a farmer's field with no facilities. Despite the floodlights we could see a few stars, and probably mars too. Some of the others were kind enough to provide music into the night, to make sure we didn't get too much sleep.
Saturday morning, with not much happening until after lunch, we headed for the coast. We had a wander around Whitstable. Saw a display about the planned wind farm out to sea. Back at the site we managed to squeeze the car back into the weekend field. Parking seems to be a real problem, while the tents were quite spaced out. The main stage is at the bottom of the hill from the house, providing excellent views, with the gardens to the side. The mixing desk nestling under an enormous tree. We found a shady spot under trees to the right of the stage. 1st up was Theo Travis doing something with multi tracked flute, before Otway and the big band. Of course the set remains the same (more or less). I think he went down very well, riding on last year's chart success. Sounding excellent on a proper sound system. We had a look round the stalls. A nice atmosphere with people of all ages about, including families. People even using the litter bins. Later the wind got up, and we went back to the tent to get warmer clothes before returning for the headline Robert Plant. Very professional, if a bit boring between the well known classics. Very carefully went off stage about 22:20 to leave time for an encore.

We couldn't be bothered with the 3rd day for an extra £30 each. We went to have a look round Canterbury. Initially horrified at £4.00 to see the cathedral, or even get into the surrounding area, having already paid £4.00 to park the car, we had lunch before paying up. Impressively big. Some interesting shops and a nice clean river. Lots of european tourists, as you might expect.

Monday I went to see the new Tomb Raider film. It motors along from 1 holiday location to another, with Angelina in almost every shot. Yes the plot has holes, but I was entertained.

Last day of August and much cooler now.

Saturday 2x round the village circuit. Took advantage of a 3 for £20 offer to catch up on some DVDs.

Sunday 2x round the village circuit.

September.

Monday cadmac meet. Flew the swift and eco8. A bit unstable in the moderate wind blowing over the buildings next door, but I managed a 180 turn from nose in.

Tuesday cadmac Long Mynd. With Derek, Lee and John off sick, and Baz on his boat, I had to drive the bus. Graham, Tom and Brian makes just 4 and an expensive trip. A very light N wind put us on Darnford slope, past a road closed sign. There were 3 others on the hill when we got there. A lovely sunny day through broken cloud, meaning lots of thermal activity. The wind often fell away completely, with lots of retrieval from down the slope. 2x during the afternoon we had massive lift come through for about 30mins. At 1 point all 7 of us had thermal soarers wheeling about in the sky above us. A helicopter up and down the valley below.

Sunday up early and only 1x round the village circuit as it was a bit cold. Over to wolston by 9:30 and I had the field to myself. Flew a charge through the eco8. Managed another turn from nose in. About 10:00 people started to arrive for the glider competition. Only 4 entries. John lost half of the V tail and spiralled in to break the rather expensive simply the best wing. Neil, in trying to lose height rapidly at the end of the slot, failed to pull up and similarly destroyed his. That left Ray and Graham to walk away with the points, using traditional balsa aircraft. After that, back to the usual Sunday morning flying. More helicopters than fixed wing now. Extremely noisy, when you are used to the peace and quiet of the long mynd. Left them to it and went home for lunch.

In the afternoon, I tried to get my new PIC interface for FMS working with the new pc. Something not right, as the pulses seen in the calibration screen are all over the place.

3 days late due to a weekend away and pc in bits.

Wednesday we went to see heather nova at the stables. Still missing the electric guitar, and the cello, but her performance is as excellent as ever. Not impressed by the band. A very woolly bass guitar and/or double bass, a drum kit that sounded like a bag of wet spanners. No excuse for this, as the sound quality in general was really good. The keyboard playing was ok, but his voice did not fit together with her willowy tones. Several spine tingling moments, including island barefoot. Some of the new stuff from the forthcoming storm actually sounds good. Maybe 1 day we will hear her sing sugar. Need an electric guitar for that though. A clear run back up the M1 except for a diversion around a closed bridge causing much queueing. A moonlit starry night with mist descending,

Thursday/Friday off. Started decorating behind the pc, putting it out of action for a while.

Saturday we got up early and went to the Ludlow food festival. Very expensive, overcrowded, and mostly sausages. Pretty part of the country though, in excellent late summer weather. We stayed b+b in Leintwardine which was also good. Didn't get to eat at the Jolly Frog, it being solidly booked up for weeks.

Sunday we headed west for a more interesting route home, and accidentally popped into wales. Had a look at the spaceguard centre observatory at a high spot near Knighton. An entertaining talk on star and planet formation, as well as the talk on what they do ie. look out for potential big impacts. Stopped at a pub in Bishops Castle for lunch. Heading back to Church Stretton we saw the long mynd from below and to the west, before driving right round the south of it. I had the zagi and stiletto in the car and thought about going up the top, but instead we had a look at carding mill valley. Not much to see there that you don't get on the top, other than the reservoir and the gift shop. We did the usual bit of parking on the M6, but it wasn't too bad.

Monday off again, more decorating and putting the pc back together. In the evening at the cadmac meet I managed to put a charge through the eco8 before it got too dark. A couple more 180 turns from nose in.

Wednesday I got my incoming email fixed. Apparently it has been not working for a few days.

1 day late due to another busy weekend away.

Thursday treated myself to a new usb scanner. A canon canoscan lide 30 for £60. Things have moved on a long way from my old scanner which was most of £300, ridiculously big, and connected by an enormous scsi interface. Now about 3cm deep, barely bigger than a4, powered down the interface cable.

Friday we went down south for...

Saturday we went to Yeovilton air day with Jes, Christine and Steve. No battle of britain flight, apparently due to low cloud, despite being extremely hot and sunny. Lots of harriers, helicopters, a tornado, hawk, F16. Quite entertaining, if a bit expensive and rather dangerous. Highlight was probably 2 helis getting worryingly close. Later saw Jes' MW54 gas turbine running on a test bed. The electronic management is well sorted, making it very easy to start. 10 pounds thrust shifting lots of air, blowing the bushes about. A bit of a slow spool up/down at about 5secs, but that's jet engines for you.

Monday I saw the underworld film. A nicely complex plot with lots of characters, unfortunately shot full of holes like an extra large aero. Tasty though. More shiny black stuff than the matrix, not to mention the guns. Annoyingly washed out lighting throughout, no doubt to maintain the gothic feel. Accents all over the place. I still don't know where it was set. left open for #2. Bring on the dvd.

Starting to get some spam email now, probably to the address harvested from this page. I've now replaced it with a picture of the original - harvest that.

Saturday we got up early to go to London for the anti war demo. Went on the Coventry coach (1 of 2). Probably because they expected fewer people, it started at Hyde Park rather than ending up there. While waiting to start I sampled the park porker from the honest sausage - rather indifferent. We followed the crowd to join the queue, but it was obviously enormous and snaking back on itself into the park, so we invoked the great british tradition of pushing in, and joined close to the exit from the NE corner of the park. Compared to previous efforts, it flowed quite nicely at a comfortable walking pace, down park lane and along picadilly, pall mall to a very full trafalgar square. We pushed on forward at every opportunity, and so got to see a large part of the procession. The highlight was probably a girl pedalling a tricycle towing a sound trailer with all the amps, speakers etc. for a small group of musicians.

Having done our protest bit, we headed off for a couple of hours sight seeing/shopping. Decided the man in a box was a bit too far. Wandered through horseguards and found where downing street is, although you can't get very close. Explored the charing cross road area. Bought the goldfrapp cd black cherry and the spaced 2nd series dvd.

Heading back through covent garden to the embankment to find no coach. OK we were about 5 mins late, but still. After walking up and down the whole row of coaches, we phoned up. Eventually, on the 2nd call, they owned up to being in a side road. Several more missing. We eventually got away, 1 hour late, leaving 2 behind. Back home after 21:00. Very little coverage in the news. I don't know why.

Sunday 2x round the village circuit, but in the afternoon when it's a bit warmer.

"The dark winds shimmer in the October sun".

A bit of Heather Nova for you there.

Managed a bit more tomb raider this week. Having climbed up to the top of the hall of seasons, now stuck at 1 of those almost impossible things to do. Cheated for the 2nd time. Even knowing what you're supposed to do, it's going to be difficult.

Thursday we went to Coventry for Otway's 51st birthday do. Of course, the set remains the same. This year's present was an electric violin. Looked very much like 1 of those yamaha "silent" things in blue. Now John (can't sing, can't play, what's his name?) Otway surely wouldn't know what to do with it. In fact, he picked it up and rattled out something classical, in an almost competent manner. Sounded very much like a leftover from some very early lessons, somewhat destroying his rock and roll credibility. There was also a toy horse's head on a stick with a built in neighing sound. Both were used on crazy horses, together with the traditional theremin. Finding notes on a violin is a tricky business, and he wisely put it away quickly, promising to practice before it appears again. After the excellent Canterbury experience, the sound system was just appalling. Not enough vocal, feedback, and far too much bass guitar in a very muddy sound, in an overheated, smoky room with too many people. I think it had sold out again. They really ought to look at using a larger venue. They looked and sounded tired, with several errors and some of the wit missing. Highlight was probably the encore with John playing Geneve alone on his new acoustic guitar, being joined by the whole band for the end.

Friday I made the leap of faith into digital TV. The freeview site for our postcode just said no, but surely it's more complicated than that? Found a bit more useful info at dtg, which said I should get 4 channels at least, including some music. I didn't want to get an aerial company in, as I expect they would tell me I need a new something whatever. So I just bought a box and tried it. A ferguson fdt 500 for £70. Connected to the main amplified feed from NE to find... nothing. Not a sausage. No TV stations either. Connected it to the secondary W facing loft aerial, and was pleased to see loads of channels appear. Can now get clear pictures and sound from most of the free channels. A considerable improvement over the old snowy analog stuff. Curiously, no music channels. Apparently those on mux D. Some of the channels I can get are actually a bit marginal, with the occasional lockup and break in sound, particularly Saturday night in the wind. Maybe a new aerial on a stick would get me a bit more.

Starting moving the decorating front around the room.

3000+ hits.

Monday I investigated getting a better antenna for the digital TV signal. Quoted ridiculously expensive amounts for something on a stick, I decided to see what I could get with £28 of wideband high gain from B+Q.

Tuesday was cadmac long mynd. 7 in the bus with Lee driving. Heavy traffic in the pouring rain got us off to a slow start. By the time we got to Shrewsbury, there was brilliant sunshine with plenty of wind. We went straight to the main slope, only to find that the NW wind (as forecast) was too off slope to work. Back in the bus and over to Darnford. Ovecast most of the time, with showers coming through, and strong buffeting wind. Even so, we had a bit of sun, and lots of flight time with the zagis. I managed a new move - an outside loop starting level and going down until it came back upright again. Rather alarming to dive at the ground, but it works just fine with the zagi, several times. Also managed to land it inverted, largely accidentally, as I just ran out of lift with insufficient height to roll over, but nicely under control.

Swapping the new antenna in got me a few more channels, but worse quality than before. Then I realised that the bit of (conductive) wire I was using to suspend it in the roof was probably not helping. Replacing it with a bit of string got me everything. I now have 56 feeds coming in. Mostly rubbish of course, but I can get some music videos now. Only the occasional glitch.

Friday I popped into town for some retail therapy. Bought Heather Nova cd Storm and Matrix Reloaded dvd. Much cheaper at WHS than the usual suspects.

Saturday 2x round the village circuit. Remarkably warm and sunny early autumn day. Finished off the decorating behind the TV. Behind the sofa next. Carol's made a start on the 2nd bedroom.

Sunday up early and over to Wolston to help out with the cadmac electric glider competition. I took the eco8 and swift, hoping tp get a flight in before the wind got up, but was defeated by our wonderful peg off, token on system. Someone had cleared off with my frequency peg. Anyway, there were 4x entries, 1 flyaway (lost sight of it downwind), 1 battery terminal broken (again). Went quite quickly and smooth, before allowing the multitude of eager ic helis at the circle.

In the afternoon we went for a walk round the village circuit.

Monday we had the much rumoured announcement of more job losses at work. Very accurate rumours for once. Almost 1 in 3, which will leave less than 200 on site. Doom and gloom. Got pissed.

Tuesday my Pretenders dvd Loose in LA arrived from amazon. Also 2 more Witchblade books Distinctions and Prevailing.

Finished reading the xmen book a few weeks ago.

Wednesday I squeezed a little more digital signal out of the antenna, by lifting it right into the apex. Got another couple of numbers on the signal strength display. Don't know what they are calibrated in. Losing about 3 numbers in the cable from the roof. I'll try to replace it with single run. Still, it is working OK. Suffers from clicks when other stuff switches on/off.

A word of warning about the fdt 500 digibox. I took mine around to my brother's and it worked fine. However the unit he bought was a bit worse at picking up the signal - a couple of numbers lower when compared back to back. He got it replaced and the next was fine. Beware there are bad units out there.

Saturday morning I got the digibox connected with a single run fron the roof, giving the best numbers yet. The afternoon looking at fireplaces.

Sunday got the electric guitar connected again. Welcome back.

Frost in October.

A bit more tomb raider. Fed up with that sodding red ghost at the top of the hall of seasons, I downloaded a save game in order to progress. Still in Paris though.

Friday headed down south ready for Saturday, including the crawl along bits of the M5.

Saturday, a lazy day. Flew the eco8 and the swift. A bit too much wind for anything other than a tail in hover, but lots of aerobatics with the swift. In the evening Jes, Christine, Bob and I went to see Hawkwind. No show for Simon House on violin, but we did have the traditional synth swooshy noises. Alan Davey doing his very best troll impression up front, with some excellent bass. A good sound system in a packed arts centre room. Almost 2 hours packed with classics and even a couple of new tracks. Dave Brock, stage right as ever, holding it all together with guitar and vocals.

November.

1 day late, busy decorating.

Tuesday we at last got see the film Belleville Rendezvous at the art centre. A french animated full length film is a bit of a unique experience. It wasn't all good, but most of it is excellent, exploring many themes including globalisation, the meaning of life, money, music, freedom etc. Probably best when getting into the mind of the dog, especially its dreams. The art work is just lovely, even if some of the subjects aren't. The ending seemed a bit sudden, almost as if someone had pulled the plug on the money. See it.

A bit more tomb raider. Progressed to Prague with some nice crunchy snow. Lara not really dressed for the cold.

Friday we chose a fireplace (I think). Yet to be delivered/fitted though.

Sunday (and Monday) mostly decorating, pushing both borders round, past the fireplace and sofa.

Tuesday cadmac trip to the long mynd. 5 in the bus and 3 more in cars. A strong blustery S wind put us on ashes hollow. Quite warm for November. Very much a heavy zagi day, but some other stuff flew successfully. Another 2 new faces turned up later, 1 with a nano floh, which we all thought had no chance, being only about 30" span and very light. However, with some lead strip ballast taped to the sides of the fuselage it zipped about and performed aerobatics very nicely. I braved the gusts with the stiletto. I got it down safely after a short flight that wasn't as much fun as the zagi.

Wednesday I went to 1 of the early showings of matrix revolutions, just a couple of hours after its synchronised worldwide release. It is awesome. 2 and 3 are really just 1 story, and it would probably be much better combined. A highlight is the defense of zion, when there is so much going on, you just have to concentrate on the screen to take it in. Quite a few surprises. Nicely left open to interpretation, rather than everything explained at the end. Highly derivative from films such as aliens, final fantasy, daredevil, yet still original in its own way.

Saturday evening we went over to Leicester to have a look at the aeronutz indoor flight session. Apparently not as busy as usual, probably because of all the fireworks happening at the same time. Lots of unfeasibly small aircraft. Electric power controlled by radio or infra red. About half were free flight, both rubber and electric. A highlight was a tiny rubber powered dragonfly.

A bit more tomb raider. Seem to be in some sort of biodome at the moment, looking a bit light the indoor bits of Kew Gardens.

Monday bought the X-Men2 and Animatrix dvds. The 9x matrrix animated shorts are a bit mixed, the the Final Flight of the Osiris is excellent, by the makers of Final Fantasy, covering events just before the 2nd film.

Friday off, originally for the new fireplace to be installed, but that's now late, so just got on with some more decorating. Now papered all the way round. Still to be painted.

Saturday was cadmac indoor flight. Hardly any freeflight. The decision to charge members £3 went down badly. No organised competition. Several new grey depron aileron things with carbon rod fuselage and pico electrics that flew well, including aerobatics. Must get 1 of those. Lee managed to get his pico stick tangled in some string hanging from the roof. I helpfully flew mine round to knock it down, only to end up stuck there too. Eventually brought down by throwing footballs at them. Flew the hornet lots. Starting to feel more comfortable with it, and in control. 1st ever complete 360 turn. Also tried left/right traverses. Inevitably bashed it up a bit, but it is a hardy little beast. No more till after xmas now.

A bit more tomb raider. Started into the section where Lara is replaced by Kurtis.

Monday we found out that the 2nd delivery promise for the gas fire was off, apparently due to a personality clash with the suppliers. Getting short of time before xmas, and the fitter was already booked for the next 2 weeks, so...

Tuesday took the afternoon off and we headed up north to fetch it ourselves. We had a tiny out of date leaflet with a post code and a phone number. We drove past about 5 miles of stationary M6 southbound traffic - radio said a hole had appeared across 2 lanes. M6 toll must be opening soon. Off at Stone and north to Leek, we found the factory all closed up. However, the showroom was in the centre of town opposite woolworths. No it wasn't. Asking in tourist information no help, but a quick bit of phoning revealed it to be in Longton, about 9 miles away. After a crawl through rush hour traffic, we eventually found the shop in the middle of a 1 way system. With the M6 still blocked, we took the A50 cross country to Derby on the way home.

Wednesday we picked up the rest of the fireplace bits, and got a date early December for fitting.

This week saw the visit of the warmonger from the US to the warmonger from the UK, forming the appropriately named warmongers USUK. Some excellent protest, which we didn't attend. Some timely appalling "tearist" activity. Now where should we place cause and effect?

Saturday the new Ottakars bookshop in Coventry was open at last. 3 floors providing some competition to Waterstones, The 1st to have a coffee shop. A bit too crowded at the moment.

Sunday more decorating, painted right round.

A bit more tomb raider. Another 1 of those virtually impossible to do things at the end of the (1st) Kurtis section meant a save game download. Back to Lara.

Last day of november. Has xmas started yet or not?

Hit counter seems to be broken at the moment.

Gradually getting back to normal after the decorating session. Still the fireplace to come yet.

Friday was the cadmac games night.

Saturday we went to Ikea. In the evening I went to Leicester to see the aeronutz. More people there this time, including the shop, for all those hard to get bits for tiny aircraft.

Hit counter seems to be back again.

Monday finished tomb raider. It was nice to have it back again, if a bit out of season. Superior graphics, a few extra moves. Some of the more infuriating complexity is gone, making it much easier to progress. Will there be another?

Monday evening was the cadmac AGM. Well attended with a very full car park. A bumper crop of nonsense motions, rather messily discussed, meant a very late finish.

Tuesday cadmac trip to the long mynd. 6 in the bus, off to a late start due to an initially missing bus. A rather weak E wind straight up the valley put us on the nice end of ashes hollow. We started off with red, yellow and blue zagis, which was fun, although the wind was a bit marginal. As the afternoon progressed, the wind reduced, and we moved to thermal soarers. Eventually the only things left flying were 2x champions. A grey day with occasional sun, but not cold for december. At last, the wind swung round to the N and we went home.

Thusday I bought a sheet of 3mm depron and some tiny 4.4g servos to make an aileron replacement for the pico stick.

Friday off to see the gas fire installed. Now all working nicely. 1x round the village circuit.

Sunday we went to the village craft fair thing, mostly to go up the bell tower to see the view. Nice crisp, cold, sunny weather.

Back to the snow logo, ready for xmas.

Got the xmas tree up.

Some progress on the new indoor aircraft. Making a balsa and ply centre section to form the wing over, and hold the servos etc.

Thursday saw an interesting horizon on the Pilcher flying machine. A lot of assumptions were made, but they ended up with a viable aircraft. It seems most of the early pioneers died for their efforts.

Friday we had a 2 hour power cut from just before 21:00. We just got the candles out and listened to the radio in front of the new fire. Must be wintertime.

Saturday night there must have been another power cut. Don't know how long it was off.

Updated the mylene farmer link to point at mylene.net. It seems there is a new remix cd out.

Tuesday the airport announcement came. It seems we have escaped. No completely new airports. Only incremental growth at existing sites. Still bad for the environment though.

Little progress on the new indoor aircraft. I thought the Rx from the pico stick was damaged, as channels 1 and 3 were not working. Turns out after some substitution testing that it was the Tx. Eventually traced to the channel invert switches being neither normal nor inverted, but somewhere inbetween. They must have moved when it fell out of the back of the car after the last long mynd trip. All working OK now.

Wednesday we moved offices again at work. What's left of us all huddled together at 1 end of the site.

Friday afternoon off. Jes came up to see budgie at the wolfe. Adrian and Carol too. Similar excellent set to last time. New guitarist still has a very modern style, but a bit more musical in his excess. At times his fingers just a blur over the frets.

Saturday we took Jes into town to see the new Whittle arch. In the evening back over to the wolfe for the vibrators and UK subs. Vibrators with a different bass. UK subs remarkably energetic, but ultimately rather tuneless.

Saturday night there must have been yet another power cut.

Family from Portugal arrived in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Sunday morning the washing machine started making some horrible sparking noises and burning smells. So we spent a lot of time and money getting another. Went for a hotpoint wma22p.

It seems we are to suffer some increased air traffic after all, from Coventry airport. Still not as bad as a full size airport next door.

Bought the hawkwind dvd love in space. A live set from the alien 4 cd.

With all holiday used up, I was working until xmas eve. Got away about 11:45, in time to do that last minute shopping. Carol went off to her parents.

Xmas day round my dad's with a house full of kids.

The beagle2 spacecraft crash lands on mars and... nothing. Joins the not very exclusive club of failed mars landings.

Spent most of boxing day and the following morning, finishing off my pico stick replacement aircraft.

Saturday we went into town, pretty much as usual, except indoor fight after lunch. Reasonably well attended, considering the unusual time. I helped out with a couple of new helis. 1 desperately out of trim on the rotor head, another with a looped aerial causing intemittent control. Flew my new aileron aircraft, initially with a long stick. Nice and smooth on the controls, but horribly heavy and underpowered. I cut the stick down, leaving only about 1" between the ailerons and the tail. Not much better for power/weight and the handling in pitch was much worse. With the stick still loose, the V tail would sometimes rotate, giving combined rudder with elevator, making it difficult to control. Borrowing Lee's LiPol pack was a big improvement, losing a large part of the weight. Must get some of those. Lee's nutta, built very much to plan, with no undercarriage, Lipol and a hot motor/propellor went very well. I'll extend the fuselage stick again, maybe with a lighter material. I want to keep the wheels though. Flew the hornet heli lots, with no crashes. I can now reliably flip it between nose in/tail in, but no circuits. Unofficial competition of the day was a "carrier" landing on a table tennis table. All too easy with a heli. £5 to get out of the car park, plus £3 to fly, made it an expensive day. Used to be only 50p in the evening.

Haven't had time to look at the old washing machine yet, but the new 1 is in and working ok.