Mark's old news

2006.

Boxing day we went out for a family dinner late.
Had a bit of a play with the old fender acoustic. All of the frets had a slight burr which was snagging, so I filed it away - much more comfortable now. I noticed that in moving the bridge back to improve the intonation, I had raised it slightly, making the action worse. Had another go at lowering it. Still a bit out. Why aren't acoustics adjustable?. It would be improved by lighter strings, but they're not easy to find.

Tuesday we got the oxford express to london. After a sandwich on the bus we got off at baker street again and had coffee and cake in a segafreddo. A bit of oxford street shopping before heading over to rosebery hall when it got dark. Nice and warm in there, compared to the bitter freeze outside. We ate at the nearby strada.

Wednesday we headed north. Surprised to find sadler's wells almost next door. Got a bit lost in islington before turning west, passing king's cross and the rather impressive st pancras station to have a look at the (new) british library. A bit red brick outside and mostly clean white inside, around the multi storey display of the king's library looking very nice, but rather inaccessible behind glass. No easy access to the main reading rooms. Some rather indifferent visitor displays and a restaurant that was still closed. Then up the camden high street to camden lock, with its impressive range of alternative shops and street side food for lunch. A quick look in the hobby store there, and a short stop in a fresh and wild shop, then over to regent's park in the brilliant cold sunshine. We walked down the eastern edge, past all the expensive white buildings with the narnia lamp posts, then down portland place past several embassies. Stopped for coffee and cake in a coffee republic in upper regent street. Walked down to the west end and saw the producers film in the shaftesbury avenue cinema complex. Found the moroccan maison touaregue restaurant that we had lost before and ate there despite the absence of a no smoking section. Saw some banksy stuff on the way back.

Thursday had a look round forbidden planet in shaftesbury avenue. Up through soho square to hobgoblin for some new strings for the mandola. Had to buy them individually. Still can't find a set of acoustic strings starting at a 9. Down regent street for a look at hamleys toy store. Surprised to see an apple store opposite shifting lots of ipods. Had a sandwich for lunch in a side street cafe. Walked down haymarket and pall mall to trafalgar square and a had a look at the national gallery. Stunningly good value for free. Amazing how close you can get to the paintings. I was surprised at some of the vibrant colours and detail that just doesn't come across in low res reproductions. Lots of french, italian and others about, but not too crowded - I imagine it's quite different in summer. A bit too tired to do the last, oldest section. To avoid doing regent and oxford again, we headed west along picadilly a bit before going north up some expensive looking burlington shopping arcade and bond street, with all its bling. Found a chappell music shop, but still no 9 strings. Got on a busy bus at park lane and headed home. The car at thornhill was covered in a thin layer of frozen snow. The heater never really got warm, all the way home.

Friday some food shopping.

Saturday new year's eve we went to town as usual.
Rationalised the tv set up - got rid of the vhs recorder that never gets used now, and the fm tuner and sony dvd unit. The fvrt100 does most of it and the toshiba dvd that came free with the tv does everything else.
Stayed up late watching some of the ewan mcgregor long way round dvd that was a present from adrian and claire.
Watched some of the jools holland thing before the inevitable fireworks at midnight.

Sunday new year's day.

Keeping the snow background - it's still xmas.

Monday holiday. Reworked the wing dowel hole on the stiletto. Straightened out the nanofloh wing.

Tuesday's flying was cancelled due to bad weather, so we went to work instead.
Finished watching the long way round dvd.

Wednesday saw the last episode(s) of the tv series rome - very good, I thought. 2nd series to come apparently.

Friday got the email that amazon have sent my tom tom navigator 5, after over 4 weeks in the system. I guess they were popular at xmas.

Noticed that gianna nannini has a new cd grazie and tour coming up. Now, if I can just arrange to be in italia?

Saturday morning snowing, wet at 1st, then the lighter, settling stuff, but turned wet again later.
Took the xmas tree down.
Finished the hawkwind book.

Sunday mostly tidying up.

Back to red background.

Monday bought a korg ca-30 chromatic tuner. Something to support the non guitar notes and the mandola, and also to look at the intonation on the fender acoustic. Remarkably thin, cheap (at £19) and clever bit of electronics. None of the calibration issues of an analog meter - replaced with an lcd. It detects and displays the note heard on screen. You can even offset it to whatever obscure tuning you might be daft enough to use.

Got home to find my tom tom navigator 5 bluetooth had arrived from amazon (4+ weeks). Not much in the box - the gps Rx itself, an sd memory card (128M), a product code, a cd and a few manuals, quick start etc. Fitted the memory and quickly got the uk map unlocked and the application running. Fired up the Rx and showed it the window, and hopefully a few satellites, but the pda was complaining about no gps device or something like that. Bluetooth had started with the app. I assumed that the flashing green meant bad reception and took it outside for a better look, but no different. Had to break off to go to the cadmac club meet.
Some web research revealed that flashing green means a good "fix", so the problem was the bluetooth link. Manually configured, it worked OK. I have the pda set up to only trust paired devices - it may work straight away if it's wide open.

Tuesday flying was cancelled due to the rain.
I took the pda for a walk down the road, watching the progress on screen - very accurate. Told it to take me home, which it did, announcing I had reached my destination, just as I stepped onto the drive. Wonderful. Carol took it for a walk too. Actually it seems to assume you are there when it gets down to about 35 yrds (set for uk miles at the moment).

Wednesday, took it to work. It is now connecting automatically - maybe I was a bit too impatient, as it takes a few secs to turn on bluetooth and negotiate the connection. Nice to know it chooses the same route home as I take anyway (if not very helpful), and let it talk me home.
Somehow I was expecting to be able to install a pc version of the software from the cd eg. for a laptop, but no - pda only. Not that it would have been much use on a very stationary desktop.
The new scifi tv comedy hyperdrive was not as bad as expected. Derivative from red dwarf and the office, but it had its moments.

Thursday frosty.

Friday played around a bit with g minor on the guitar.
Had a look at web radio at shoutcast. Not too impressed by the rather low fi listen again options at the bbc, I was surprised at the excellent sound quality of some of these using mp3 at 128k (and more).

Saturday raining. Got the tomtom to take us home from tesco. It correctly routed the short cut we normally use. Deliberately not taking it, I expected it to say turn around, but no, it quickly rerouted. I guess it had worked out that there was not much in it, and no easy turn around soon.

Sunday 1x round the village circuit in the damp. 1.432 m in 9 mins 27. Sunny day.

Watched the underworld dvd again, as a reminder before the new evolution film.

Moved the bridge back a bit more on the fender acoustic. I think its better, but the e and d strings are still going a little # when fretted.

Tuesday. Now, you would not believe this if not for the photograph, but today carol spotted a pair of peacocks in the garden. Sitting on the garage later too. And I was quite pleased with a pheasant. I suppose the white 1 is technically a peahen.

Adrian came over to have a demo of the gps - took it for a short drive. Seems to cope perfectly well with a modern metallised windscreen, getting a fix in just a few secs.

Friday the long awaited underworld evolution film. Rather lacking a sensible plot, it seemed to be mostly fighting, stealing scenes from terminator 2 and others. Often reminded of tomb raider. Starts with a bit of history, presumably meant to explain the rambling story. I suspect this is actually stuff left over from an attempt to make a prequel. Where were all the vampires and lycans of the 1st film? The hybrid character is a waste of space. Why does marcus have wings? Who is the derek jacobi character? Do we care? Not all bad though - the camera concentrates nicely on selene most of the time. Number 3 left open.

Saturday nice and sunny.

Sunday morning the psu for the fvrt100 seems to have failed. Over to maplin to buy a replacement.
The birds were back in the sunny afternoon.
Swapped the speed controller in the simply from the unit that came with the motor to the smile that I was using using with the kontronik motor. Ran it for a 30 secs test. No sign of that burbling/shut down - just clean power. Had to make some 4mm to 2mm adapters to get it connected. Also connectorised the castle creations phoenix 25 that I bought a long time ago. That is lighter and should work ok, and can be programmed for a proper 3 cell lithium shut down.

Sunday more pics of the peacocks.

Monday frosty. At work most of what's left of marconi (including me) became a small part of ericsson. The end of an error.

Friday the gianna nannini cd grazie was released, but how to get a copy? Not available at amazon.fr for 2 more wks. Just a few italian sites have it. Why is there no amazon.it? The cover colour scheme looks very familiar from the subways.

February.

Monday ordered some props for the simply and a motor for the swift from smc. Also an idp frequency checker.

Thursday ordered the penrose book.

Friday the bits arrived. I can't get the 3.2mm props to clamp up on the 3mm shaft of the motor. The new motors have a darker finish on the casing. The frequency scanner works fine.

Sunday up reasonably early to have a go with francesco's new parkzone mustang. It didn't get away well, and the reduced rate controls didn't help much with lifting the nose, resulting in a moderately heavy crunch that rotated the wings a bit, and cracked the spinner and nose. After we got the wing realigned we found the power on crash had also stripped the motor gearbox.

Afternoon tidied the car a bit more and went for 1x round the village circuit. Accidentally completely reset the computer, including the wheel size cal. Anyway, the usual 1.43m in 9 mins 58.

The new channel4 comedy the it crowd was funny in places. New series of green wing coming.

Tomb raider legend has gone back to april.

Monday cadmac meet with neil giving a good presentation on how to be competitive in the coming glider events.

Tuesday off to the mynd. Not been since november. 7 in the bus. A grey day with strongish W wind put us on pole cott slope. Not quite too cold. Graham flew his enormous scale glider successfully. Other graham lost an aircraft down the slope somewhere. Undergrowth fairly low at the moment, but we couldn't find it. Flew the zagi, nano floh and the stiletto. The rain promised for 16:00 arrived about 13:30, but it was only showers, with even a little sunshine.

Wednesday amazon free delivered by dhl the road to reality, the arctic monkeys cd and the dark blue world dvd.
Left the package in the recycle bin on the day that it gets emptied, but it was still there.

The penrose book is the size of a house brick (even in paperback), 1000+ pages, and the 1st 16 chapters (of 34) are pure maths that you need to follow the rest - hmmm.

Saturday we stayed up to watch the film l'homme du train, which was rather good.

Sunday 1x round the village circuit in the damp and drizzle. Got the computer into some strange rotating display state, and couldn't get it reset, so no time. Got the manual out later and recalibrated it.
Started fitting 1 of the new cycle bell motors to the swift.

Monday pete brought my gianna nannini cd and dvd dualdisc grazie from roma. No really strong tracks. The dvd is an interesting "making of" thing, but sign of the video that is on the web site.

Tuesday historically significant for a pretty conclusive vote for a total ban of smoking in workplaces. We just have to wait for summer 2007. At last we should be able to see live music in comfort.

Friday saw the aeon flux film. Some nice old sci fi ideas, and it has a certain style, but the gaping holes in the plot, the wooden acting, the mismatch of technologies, etc. not to mention all the guns, ultimately leave it rather boring. I actually fell asleep about 20 mins in, only to be woken by the unfeasibly loud modern sound levels. Even charlize theron is not quite the right shape for the part, and seemed to wear the same stuff throughout. Anyway, nice to see something different from the usual hollywood trash. Maybe mtv film will get better.

Saturday 1x round the village circuit in the frosty, sunny morning, with puddles still partly frozen. The computer didn't start counting at 1st as the sensor and magnet had moved, so no time.
I turned 47.
Flowers are coming.

We went to oxford. Fog on the motorway, and we missed the turn for water eaton, ending up at the pear tree park and ride. Soon sunny, but still cold. We got off early, by the engineering block and had lunch at browns, at the very start of the woodstock road. Had a very authentic steak frites and excellent double espresso - must go there again. Took the next side street through to walton street for a change. It was full of even more eating options and various strange shops. A bit of usual saturday window shopping and a trip to the market, before heading down to have a look at magdalen college. Not been in there since 1981. £3 each, even with my new exeter alumni card. We walked right up to the corner of the fellows garden and over to the deer park, although the deer were far in the distance. Amazing how much land it has, right in the city centre. Back to g+d's for coffee and ice cream at dusk, before heading home.
Popped in to see adrian on the way back.

Sunday up early for 1x circuit in the damp cold grey morning. Computer now working ok - 1.430 miles in 10 mins 02. That's using the cal for 26" wheels, which must be very close to what I measured originally.

I've seen a frog stirring in the pond.

Monday finished fitting the new brushless motor to the swift.

Thursday morning snowing.

Friday morning light covering of snow, slightly frozen.
Lunchtime acoustic guitars session with simon and baxter.
Home in the sunshine, with all the snow gone, but cold, cold, cold.

Saturday windy. Another beer festival with music at the pub in the evening. Hardly the weather for it, but a marquee kept most of the wind out and the smoke in. Bands actually fairly good, but far too loud with a painful high freq through the pa.

Sunday too cold and windy for the glider competition practice session. Also couldn't be bothered with paying again to stand in the cold for the folky music at the festival.

Been looking at "silent" media pcs. It looks like this will be the year they take off. Still expensive, but expect that to change. New shuttle m2000 looks good.

March and still snowing.

7000+ hits.

Tuesday they attempted to ups deliver my new pc psu. Since the q-tech unit became intermittent, I've been using a cheap jeantech unit, which sounds like a small jet engine at the back of the pc. Time for something quiet.

Wednesday had the afternoon off to try to intercept the next delivery attempt at about "13:00". Got home just after 12:00 and no card. About 14:45 still no sign, but a neighbour brought it round - it had arrived at about 10:45. Oh well. Soon got it installed. It's a nexus nx-9003 sfb 350W from novatech. It doesn't spin the fan at all most of the time, only giving a quick burst when rising temperatures require it (>= 30 degrees at case free air sensor). So it's effectively silent most of the time. Monitored about 28 at the processor and 35 on the main board). The noisiest thing left is the optical drive(s), but they only spin when used. That leaves the hard drive, which is well noisy when accessed, but even idling makes an annoying whir. Should be able to get rid of most of that with a hard drive enclosure.

Also popped over to leicester soundcontrol to try out and buy a crate gtx15. Only 8" speaker, but well loud at 15W. Sounds better when using a bigger external speaker, but still pretty good for something portable. Also has some very useable preset dsp effects ranging from reverbs, through delays, flange, chorus, to even octaver. No compression, but plenty of distortion gain. The 106 went through 115000 miles.

Thursday simon came over for a guitars session.

Friday morning very frosty with a light covering of snow. Warwickshire looking picture postcard pretty in the clear bright sunshine
Took the yamaha rgx420s and the crate into work for a lunctime guitars session, with baxter and graham (on fretless bass).
1x round the village circuit 10 mins 02.
Started looking at hard drive enclosures. These are going to reduce air flow and probably put the temperature up. Downloaded the dtemp.exe utility. It said the drive was already at 44 degrees, which is over the critical limit default of 41 so showed red - eek. I guess having no air flow through the case is not helping. Maybe I need a quiet case fan too.

Saturday morning 1x circuit 10 mins 17. A bit slowed down by the road being mostly blocked by an upside down, burned out car.
Watched the drive temperature creep up from about 25 at 1st log in to about 41.
Bought a cooler master ultra quiet (18 dBA) fan and fitted to the back of the case, but as expected, it made little difference to the hard drive, as it is right at the front with no inlet anywhere near. Needs moving.

Sunday 2x circuit 2.727 miles 18 mins 34.
Spent some time learning enough javascript at webmonkey to get the pics working again on the weather. Saw 45 on the drive temp.
Spent a lot of time finishing the consider phlebas book.

Tuesday, despite the really bad forecast, 4 of us went flying. We headed for ivinghoe to try to get some time in before the rain arrived from the W. Well, that didn't work, with steady horizontalish rain in a 20mph wind. After a few failed attempts facing into the stinging rain, we turned our backs on it, sat down in the damp and had a sandwich. Already quite damp, we headed back to the van. Went for lunch at a cafe in dunstable and then home early.
My silent box hard drive silencer arrived from quietpc. Had a go at installing it, but it is so enormously long that the only place it will fit is the top 2x 5.25" bays, which currently house the dvd and cd. I'm not convinced that there would be much air flow up there either, so thinking again at the moment.

Wednesday had another go at the pc. Dropped the 2 optical drives into the lowest 5.25" bays and added the silent box into the 3rd. Impressively quiet, but certainly not silent. The access rattle is very quiet, but the whir is still noticeable. Still, a much nicer thing to have next to you on the desk. The case itself is very much entry level cheap, with no sound control features.

Frogs are splashing about in the pond now the warm wet weather has arrived.

Thursday bought a 5.25" bay inlet fan from maplin. Although it says "quiet", compared to everything else, it was still quite noisy. might be worth trying it at a lower voltage, but for now I've left it disconnected. It still provides an inlet for the main case fan to pull air through. Ran a virus scan to make the drive busy and saw 47 degrees. Back at idle it settled back to 46 degrees. A bit of web research seems to indicate that keeping it below 55 should be ok.

Friday lunchtime guitar session with simon, graham and baxter.

Saturday 1x village circuit 9 mins 57.

Sunday 1x village circuit 10 mins 02 in the icy wind and feathery snow flakes.

Signed up for another ou module m879.

Thursday lunchtime guitars session again.

Friday afternoon off and into town for lunch.

Saturday up early to go to london for the protest. A bit delayed by the roadworks to the N and W of oxford. Cold standing in the wind waiting for the oxford espress. Got off at baker street and walked down through st james park to parliament square in time to see the tail end of the march go past. We headed up the embankment past the eye and up to trafalgar square, where we had lunch at garfunkel's. Then caught most of the speeches in front of the national gallery. Many seemed to have differing agendas, only agreeing on the main point. The song by julie felix at the end probably said it best. Warmed up a bit in the sunshine.
While carol was doing uniqlo, I wandered back up regent street and oxford street listening to the k700i fm radio. Giving the shipping forecast a miss, I listened to the remix of mylene farmer's je te rends ton amour, loud and in excellent quality while walking west along the south side of the street - a surreal moment. We ate again at an italian between new bond street and oxford street, before heading home.

Now have some frog spawn in the pond.

Tuesday saw the long awaited 1st episode of green wing, which did not disappoint. 2nd series and 1st dvd coming soon.

Wednesday bought a ritter rcg700 gig bag (black and grey) for the guitar. Works well as a back pack.

Friday lunchtime guitars session again, with simon, graham, baxter and peter. Took the fx500 in. Got a bit of a recording using the pda, but the agressive agc, intended for voice notes, makes a bit of a mess of it.

Saturday up early for 2x round the village circuit in the sunny, damp, windy weather. 2.725 miles in 18 mins 30. Saw a pheasant run along the road and cross in front of me, at the high point.
Frogs are going bonkers in the pond. Seems a bit late, but spring has sprung.

Sunday 2x circuit. 2.727 miles in 18 mins 33.
Cut the grass and tidied the front garden a bit.

April.

Started looking a bit more seriously at a new camera, particularly the canon ixus 800 is.

Wednesday took the bike to work. Rear tyre going down quickly, but no sign of a puncture, probably just old rubber leaking past the rim - could do with new tyres anyway.

Thursday last full day before the factory closes. Simon brought a control line team racer (diesel) and flew it successfully in a roundabout in the car park Very noisy and slimey. After that had a lunchtime guitar session, just me, simon and graham.

Friday 31st march, the "official" day the factory closed. Not much work going on. Had a long guitars session with me, simon, graham, baxter and pete. Even had small audience for some of it. Stopped when everyone went down the pub, which lasted for most of the rest of the day. It felt a bit like xmas, except some aren't coming back. Lovely sunny day.
Also went down the (local) pub in the evening, before the 1st episode of the new series of green wing. Verry good, but had something of that difficult 2nd album about it.

Saturday april fools day. Went on the extreme redundancy cycling trip to cannock chase. Just me, carol, lee and baxter. 7+ miles of mountain biking round the "follow the dog" trail. Lots of ascent hills, followed by twisty downhill sections through the pines, mostly with brakes on, rarely getting out of 1st or 2nd gear (of 15). My bike having no suspension and road tyres didn't help. Only fell off 1x. Had something to eat at the cafe afterwards. Nice and sunny, with the occasional drop of rain.

Sunday bright and breezy. Hosed most of the mud off the bikes.

Frogs have cleared off now.

New rain logo - seems appropriate for spring.

Stop press - nerina pallot was just on top of the pops - watch this 1 go.

Sunday ordered the canon ixus 800 is from amazon. Only just released, and presumably a lot of demand - could be a while before it arrives.

Tuesday off to the long mynd. With lee in italia, just 4 in the bus, with me driving, graham, simon and brian. A moderate NNE wind put us on darnford slope. Lots of sunshine on our backs, lighting up the aircraft nicely. Still a bit cold in the wind. As usual, not much lift, except for directly in front of the hill. Flew the nano floh and the stiletto, managing a couple of consecutive, fairly axial rolls across the slope with a bit of well timed elevator. A mid air with simon's big glider stripped 1 of the aileron servos, but I managed to fly it down ok. Took the fin mostly off the other aircraft, but again, it came down under control. Another nice day out. A few snow flakes falling as I emptied the car.

Wednesday frosty morning. Moved desks and sites (again). We had a little opening ceremony for our new workshop and a buffet.

Friday off to wait in and receive the rescheduled ou module m879 course materials delivery - arrived at 09:00.
Popped into town for lunch, and to buy the newly released tomb raider legend. Also the green wing series 1 dvd.

I think for the 1st time the game is delivered on a dvd. Requires directx 9c. I updated to 9 from the nvidia site, but it still wanted to install 9c. Seems to work ok anyway. A massive 7.6Gb install. The graphics don't seem that different, but I guess that depends heavily on having an up to date card. Clearly a few more bits modelling lara. The controls are a step back (imho), as they are from the player point of view rather than 1st person steering of lara - takes a bit of getting used to. Also no walk option, making it difficult to look round methodically. Camera panning is on the mouse, which is all very well, but it was easier just using the keyboard only. game progresses very linearly, with regular checkpoints to be passed. Saves only store at the latest checkpoint, rather than the exact point you have reached - very annoying.

Saturday into town for lunch, then tesco - not too busy with no game on. A few hailstones falling when we arrived home.

Sunday up fairly early, and took the simply over to wolston for a quick flight test. 1st climb out was unspectacular but achieved plenty of height over the manually counted 60 secs. Struggling to made headway into the stiff breeze meant it came down quickly in about 7 mins. 2nd (and 3rd) flight launched into a decent thermal and stayed up for about 12 mins. 4th climb was noticeably slower on lower V, and managed about 7 mins again. For info, I tried a 5th climb out, which ran ok. Later, I flew a 6th which did appear to cut out after about 40 secs. All this means it could do with a heavier prop on it, to use the energy more quickly. Just need to adapt those 1/8" props to the 3mm shaft.
Also flew the swift, with its new brushless bell motor. Very similar performance to the old speed 300, but I suspect I could keep it going with no risk of burn out.
Made a start on the ou course reading.
Late afternoon big wet snowflakes falling after the rain.

Easter.

Monday traced the left side banging in the car to a broken off bracket on the exhaust can. Managed to wire it up temporarily. It's passed 116000 miles now.

Wednesday new exhaust on the car.
Finished the 1st section of tomb raider - bolivia. Managed to get the stealth walk going, and do the combat better - still don't think it's as good as earlier versions.

Friday off for easter. 1x round the village circuit 9 mins 48. Saw a hare cross the road in front of me at the high point - either that or a very big rabbit.

Saturday we went tp cambridge. Down the a14 past the wind farm near wicksteed park. Ended up in the park street short stay, which was expensive at £7 for 4 hours, but whatever. Some impressive busking going on, including a 15 mins jam from the holloway brothers and some clown with an accordion.

Sunday 1x circuit 9 mins 03.
Made a shim out of a bit of the support from some futaba radio connectors and fitted the 9x5 graupner cam folding prop to the simply. Seems to pull very nicely now. Also adjusted the tail trim. Ready for competition.

Monday holiday. 1x round the village circuit 8 mins 48. The distance was wrong at 1.41 - may need calibrating again, but presumably the time is correct.
Into town for lunch - almost everywhere open.
Tidied up a bit and read another section of m879 in the garden.

Tuesday past the latest dispatch estimate for the camera, and some new estimates duly arrived - watch this space.
Brian sewell's grand tour came to a tearful end in venice. Excellent series.

Thursday noticed that the fvrt100 is getting noisier - could be the hard drive bearing, or possibly the fan. Seems to still work ok. Found an upgrade option at xtendedplay.co.uk. A lot more record space and hopefully quieter too.

Sunday rather impressed by the flaming lips yeah yeah yeah song on top of the pops.

Monday went swimming. A bit expensive at £3.20 and £1 for the car park. They've changed the lanes round, so I did 9 lengths.

Tuesday bought the flaming lips cd at war with the mystics and the2006 version of fires by nerina pallot.

Wednesday 1x round the village circuit 8 mins 48.
Interesting program on bbc4 about the oxford museum of natural history. I didn't know it was the location of the famous debate. Some of the trivia were amusing, like the hippo found on the roof.

Thursday we did a pub quiz, and came last. It was joint last, and there were only 2 of us, although we did get a bit of help.

Friday the 2nd set of leaving events. We went down the walsgrave for the excellent cheap carvery for lunch. Later moved out into the cool sunshine, then into town for brown's and later still, akbar's for a(nother) meal. Numbers gradually diminishing.

Saturday sunny and gradually warming up. Dropped and lost my hands free kit for the k700i somewhere.

Sunday fitted a new lead to the Rx power pack of the filip, a new wing fixing screw, and a new aileron servo gearbox to the stiletto.

May.

2 weeks late after hols in france.

Monday holiday. A bit of spring cleaning. Saw most of the blue max (again) on tv.

Tuesday off flying. SSE wind meaning ashes hollow, which is closed for the nesting season. Also the bus was having an MOT. So we went in cars to callow bank near hathersage. Me, lee, graham, john, simon. A bit of a grey day, but a steady elevator of lift right in front of the S facing, very steep slope. Lots of zagi zooming about, with 2 of 3 out of action, at the end of the afternoon, from high speed impacts. Graham flew his big scale glider 2x, including some big air aerobatics. Also flew the stiletto. Left at 14:30 as the rain moved in and went down to the pool cafe.

Wednesday another new delivery estimate from amazon for the camera. It seems a few other places actually have it in stock now, for a similar price - hmm. My replacement hpm-20 hands free kit(s) did arrive from blueunplugged - very quick.

Thursday unseasonably hot. The 4G sd card arrived from emartbuy - also quick, but no sign of a camera to put it in. Put it in the pda instead. Whereas 1G was a little tight, I was struggling to fill 4G with music etc. I put on the star wars fan film revelations - 252M.

Friday some last minute packing for the holiday.

Saturday up very early to head off to stansted. Breakfast at the services before parking at the pink elephant. Had a citrus trembler smoothie, which was rather good at the airport. No sign of ixus 800 in "duty free".
Flew ryanair to rodez.
Just starting to rain as we walked from the plane to the tiny terminal. Picked up a europcar, which turned out to be a d**s*l seat ibiza in dark blue (as usual). Not very impressed with the way it automatically locks all the doors as soon as you move off. And 2x clicks to open all of the doors, but it was ok, with decent air conditioning - not that we needed it just yet. Headed into rodez to find a supermarket, following the main road round the N side to find a leclerc.
Turned on the satnav and headed for najac. It seems not to know about some of the latest gyratoires. The road looking quite familiar from last year when we came back from the visit to the millau viaduc. Once we got closer, tried to navigate to villevayre, but unsure of detail after that. It didn't seem to know about le puech de barrayre (later found it was in there without the "le"). Anyway, got a bit lost and eventually headed back to the centre of najac and went "home" from there using good old fashioned memory navigation.
Greeted by the cat, it didn't seem like a whole year since we were there last.
Despite the big sky, the gps was struggling inside the thick stone walls. Set the new home location on the french map.

Dimanche very tired, got up slowly and late. Went to san antonin for the sunday market in the sunshine. Hoping to see a hoopoe in the same place on the way to varen - but nothing. Very crowded and ever so slightly more english than last year. Lunch took a very long time, during which it started to drizzle. had a bit of a proper walk around the town and down by the river aveyron. Fig trees growing in the gardens.
Returning home we were startled by a flurry of tan, black and white, flapping across the road which was a hoopoe in the usual place.
Although we had programmed the fvrt100 to capture loads of stuff, with the free sky satellite channels available, we decided to keep up to date with the english tv.

Lundi decided to have a quiet day, but eventually weakened and went to najac for some bread. Had a look at the belle rive hotel and restaurant at the foot of the hill where the river meets the railway. Not too impressed by the menu. Heading back, there was a brief hail storm.
Carol got the 500 jigsaw out, put it away, and got it out again. I made some progress on it.

Mardi the sunshine returned. Asked the tomtom about supermarkets and found an actual carrefour at cahors. It decided to take us the pretty way through all the little villages and the national park which was lovely. Arriving a bit late, we found a parking space in the centre of town amongst the 1 way systems and quickly found a side street restaurant, typically serving just the 1 or 2 things, which was actually very good.
Walked down to, and along the river lot, where there is a clock with some arty rolling ball mechanism. Round the river bend and along the shops, quite a pretty place. Saw a music shop in a back street with a familiar looking black rgx420s on display. With not much time on the pay and display ticket, we didn't get to see the old pont valentré that we saw on post cards in the shops.
The carrefour itself was disappointingly small, but adequate.
Let the satnav take us back the same pretty way, with a proper french moon, almost full, in the sky.

Mercredi breakfast outside in the sun, with the cat, although the table and chairs from last year were no longer there. Carol found a bee fly and we watched while it warmed up and gradually speeded up its wings for flight. Also a honeycomb in progress on 1 of the shutters, and a rather fine lizard. Finished the 500 jigsaw, although with 1 piece missing, and an extra that didn't belong.

A lovely sunny day, we went for the walk down the valley to the old watermill. A wonderfully left alone wild place, with fallen trees in the dappled sunlight and shade. Saw some strange yellow and black flying things that seemed to have 4 wings, although I didn't get a decent photo. Also a big black beetle by the mill, and a caterpillar.

Having doubled back a bit, we tried to come back a different way, but we got a bit lost when the path disappeared. Although the satnav knew where home was at only 850m away, it wasn't much help in finding a viable path. Eventually we gave up scrambling through the undergrowth on the hill and retraced our steps.
Went into najac and got some maps and leaflets etc. from the (now open) tourist information - curiously, no english spoken. Found the remains of an enormous moth on the road.
Saw the other cat in the evening.

Jeudi we decided would be a good day to go to the recommended restaurant, "just outside monteils", so we went over to monteils to try and find it, before going to have a look at the viaduc du viaur. No sign of it though, even though several restaurants were signposted.
The viaduc seemed to be just a modern road bridge over the valley, which we crossed - ho hum. Maybe there was another older 1 - I saw some signs mentioning 2. We were a bit late for lunch and ended up just getting a sandwich from a small super u in carmaux. A pretty drive back through monesties and cordes sur ciel.
When we got back we asked where this restaurant was - actually about 6km out of monteils, and tried to book it, only to find it was out of season. Went instead to le moulin de varen. Nice location overlooking a weir on the aveyron. Excellent food, with more potage de légumes than you could ever eat.

After we walked along the river and through varen. Large bats flying about by the riverbank. Once again the camera latency defeating my attempts to get a photo. But, I got 1 accidentally, and it shows up reasonably well on a heavily enhanced photo.

Also started the 1000 jigsaw. Soon found the piece missing from the 500.

Vendredi bit of a cool grey day. Carol found a sleepy "may bug" beetle.

We went to have a proper look around villefranche sur rouergue. A bit industrial around the edge, but pretty enough by the river. Filled the car up at the little leclerc.
Saw the penultimate episode of green wing.

Samedi into week 2. Despite the rain we headed for the market at albi. Saw the market stalls north of the river, but parked in the underground car park and walked back over the bridge in the rain. Not very impressed, but we did find an agriculture biologique shop and bought loads of organic stuff. Had lunch in a motorway services style cafe attached to a supermarket on the main street. Weather brightened up a bit and we decided to have a walk around the town. Soon found the rest (most) of the market. Had another quick look at the impressive red brick cathedral.

Popped over to gaillac for the excellent leclerc that we found last year, with the all important barcode scanning cd samplers. Listened to loads and bought a few.

Dimanche lovely sunny day. We went to have a proper look at laguepie. Had lunch at les deux rivieres, next to the railway crossing. Saw a nice modern loooking train go past slowly , and a lizard exploring the curb while we waited.
Walking back to the centre I tripped off the curb and bashed the camera on the pavement, shedding the batteries, bending the corner of the memory card, and partly opening the case. I pushed it back together again, and it seemed to be working ok, apart from asking for the date to be set. Remarkably tough little beast. On power off retract it grinds a bit now, but seems to work ok. I realised later that the full reset had also swapped to default 1Mp resolution, so I got a few lower res photos for a while.
Went for a walk over the bridge and along the river. It really is a beautiful spot. Picked up a dog along the way, that wanted sticks throwing in the water.

Back home for a quiet afternoon by the pool with the cat.

Lundi we went to have a look at figeac. Bits of the road looked vaguely familiar - maybe taken before in 1994 coming from andorra heading for aurillac? Apparently champollion was born at figeac, with a new museum being built. Had lunch at a café called la monnaie.
Then went over to cahors again for a leclerc supermarket to the NE. Drove past the pont valentré, but didn't really have time for a proper look.
Saw the 3rd cat in the evening.

Mardi up slowly with plenty of time before the flight. Tidied up and put the jigsaws away - only about 60% done of the 1000.
Didn't have time for the planned look at rodez. Just bought some more wine and headed for the airport.
Not too busy mid week and plenty of spare seats. Nice and sunny in france and above the clouds, but we descended into cloudy damp grey stuff over england, covered in slime yellow fields.
Had another smoothie at the airport and bought a radio times. Stopped at the cambridge services for something to eat. Coming back up the a14 it brightened up a bit, doing a better impression of the french countryside we had left behind.
I managed to read quite a bit of the fabric of the cosmos book, once more trying to understand the mystery of relativity and quantum weirdness.

The satnav was a great help in france, giving you the security of taking obscure roads, knowing that you can get where you want to go. At the same time you have to know when to ignore it, as it tends to send you down some roads that are too small and twisty. It would have been helpful at home too when we missed the motorway exit coming home.

Back home it was very noticeable how much the garden had grown. Not been away for more than a week for a long time. The cat had also put on a lot of weight.
The fvrt100 had failed after a couple of days, possibly due to a power cut indicated by the flashing clock. Just as well we managed to see most things.

The canon ixus 800 arrived while we were away, despite the estimate of several more weeks. It is a very precious shiny thing, and surprisingly heavy and solid.

Wednesday off to get organised after the holiday. Cut the grass. Also to try and catch up with the m879 java exercises. I had taken the reading material with me on the pda, but didn't open it, and the java stuff needs a real pc.

Thursday back to work.

Friday saw the da vinci code film. Quite a faithful rendering of the book, I thought, but suffering from the usual effects of transfer eg. not enough time, too many characters etc. It also seemed to have been toned down a bit. Difficult to tell if all the twists were credible, having already seen them in the book.
Last episode of the 2nd series of green wing was excellent - very dark.

Saturday 1x round the village circuit 9 mins 20.

Sunday 1x circuit 9 mins 6.
Spent most of the day writing this lot.
Not had much time to play with the new camera yet.

I was going to switch to the stars logo for summer, but it still seems to be raining lots.

Forgot to mention the cuckoos, woodpeckers and owls in france.

Also, on saturday we wandered past the motor museum, and went in to have a look at the old type of bus I used to go to school in. They also have charlie boorman's round the world bike showing the rewelded rear frame.
Stayed up for the eurovision song contest.

Monday busy with m879.

Wednesday bought the nerina pallot 1st cd dear frustrated superstar. Tesco seem to have the single at #4 in the shop, while the bbc have it at #14. Was tempted to see the tour at the stables on thursday, but it has sold out now.

Friday saw the x-men #3 film - hmmm. Curiously short in these days of 2+hrs. With this possibly being the last of the franchise, they seem to have tried to cram in as many characters as possible, with the result that few get much screen time, including some of the originals. The plot(s) didn't seem to make much sense. Looks good though, with lots of action.

Saturday 1x round the village circuit 8 mins 47.
Changed the speed controller in the simply for the kontronik unit. Also replaced the Rx antenna and rerouted it outside the fuselage. Hopefully that should sort the problems that sometimes had the motor spinning at zero throttle.

Sunday up early and over to wolston for the glider competition. A very damp field after all the rain, but sunny and breezy. Not many, probably due to the holiday weekend - just me, dad and neil. With dad timing, just 2 then. Neil flying with the shorter 1.5m wing and no airbrake for some reason. The simply climbed and flew well for 3 rounds and I managed longer times in the 1st 3x slots, with neil's better landing accuracy not quite making up for the time - 3000 points. I was still within the landing tape every time. Last slot the climb was not so good, but a reasonable height. I managed my best flight of the day at 8 mins 32 and 30 landing bonus, but neil managed 9 mins 52 and max 50 bonus, winning the day. No sign of motor control problems.
Cut the grass and tidied the garden a bit.

The godiva festival details are up now. Looks good.

2 days late due to a busy weekend with m879 tma01.

June.

Monday holiday. 2x round the village circuit 16 mins 53.
Repaired the zagi, replacing the missing push rod.
We went to have a look at the space centre, which was expensive, with not much to see other than info you can get for free on www. You can't really expect much genuine space hardware I suppose.

Friday summer at last and barbecue at work.

Saturday 2x round the village circuit 16 mins 23.
Warm and sunny we went over to have a look at kingsbury water park.

Sunday cadmac gider competition. Lovely sunny day. Neil away left just me, keith and ray competing. 1st slot keith had radio problems, and I lost sight of the simply on the climb - a tail on view at about 1000ft presents a tiny 1.8m by 1.3cm sliver of transparent purple against the mostly solid blue sky. Managed to lose about a quarter of my height by the time I got it sorted. So only managed 5 mins 15 but with max 50 landing bonus, compared to ray's 8 mins 57 + 0. 2nd and 3rd slots I managed about 8 mins against the others' almost 10 mins. 4th slot I headed for the big clear blue bit of sky and found some lift, managing 9 mins 47 + 20. After, I put it up again - still plenty of battery left despite the full 1 min motor runs. Should be even more competitive if I can get a bigger prop on it.
Most of the rest of sunday writing and debugging the java for question 4 of tma01 for m879.

Monday cadmac meeting. We decided against the tuesday mynd trip, with only 3mph S forecast, ashes hollow still closed, and the bus still without an mot.

Tuesday had the day off anyway to finish off tma01 and generally catch up. The m879 course is quite interesting and not too difficult (so far), but is a big time commitment.

Back to stars logo for summer.

Wenesday another hot windless day. Took the bike to work, which rolled through 58000 miles.

Thursday took the bike in again.

Friday even hotter. Barbecue at work.

Saturday 2x round the village circuit 15 mins 44.
Carol got her bike an mot and we went into town on them - roads nicely clear, due to some people kicking a ball around somewhere.
Went down the pub to eat in the garden sunshine with the horses etc.

Sunday 2x circuit 15 mins 26.
Time shifted isle of wight festival and some of the uk grand prix.
Some m879 reading in the garden.

Sunday completed the next 3 weeks of m879 reading, but still need to do the exercises.

Monday still hot, humid and thundery.
Our new hob unit arrived early from 365electrical, only to turn out later to be an e6005x instead of the frameless e6005. Not too impressed that they can get it wrong when it was ordered correctly online.

Wednesday a replacement e6005 arrived early as a swap. Quickly sorted out anyway. Very good price compared to the main stores, who don't carry stock either.

Pre mot checks on the 106 revealed a non working brake light. Much mystery and swapping about, and a multimeter showed the fault to be in the housing itself. In fact a broken spot weld between the bulb housing spring connector and the plate wiring across the housing. Managed to reunite and cable tie it.

Thursday the fete preparations included various traffic signs including a road closed. Got the bike out to have a look, but nothing interesting, and no closed roads, so ended up doing 1x circuit, but no time as I didn't start the computer.

Saturday up early and over to rugby on the bike to collect tickets that I missed arriving on friday. Used the sat nav, which was mostly invisble in the bright sunshine, but I could occasionally hear it from the tank bag at slow junctions. Really needs a bluetooth headset link.
Good weather for the village fete, which was not at the school, but spread around the village for a change. We had a go at the parachute your teddy from the church tower, including an ascent basket on a rope to save actually climbing the tower. The parachutes turned out to be just carrier bags on a bit of string.

Into town and dropped off the 106 for its mot repair(s).
The new larger props for the simply were for 5mm shaft and the blades themselves had larger fixing holes, so not easy to fit.

Sunday up early again and over to wolston (in carol's van) for the 4th cadmac glider competition. 4 competing and no extras, so we ran 2 at a time. Not quite sunny, which helped with visibility against the mostly white clouds. 1st 2 slots I managed to find some lift and stay up to the end. 9 mins 48 + max 50 and 9 mins 47 + 30. 3rd and 4th the wind got up and it turned cooler, making lift hard to find. 7 mins 21 + 0 and 6 mins 55 + 20. Still came 2nd on the day with 3744 points compared to neil's clean 4000.
After lunch we went over to catch the tail end of the leamington peace festival, which was pretty much the same as usual and busy.

Monday with the 106 in for mot work, took the bike to work.
Thought more about a bluetooth headset for the bike - needs to be ear piece only with a separate Rx. The mobile has wired handsfree and bluetooth - why not use that? However, it seems it can do the opposite only ie. use a bluetooth handsfree itself.

Tuesday bike again, starting to get used to it now.
Popped in to see how the 106 was doing - all done except a retest. Went shopping and home, then got a lift in to collect it. All ready... except someone had driven into the side of it while it was parked out front. Left it behind for repair. Back on the bike again.

Thursday collected the car - they've done a good job of filling it and matching the paint, even repainting the petrol cap, which had become rather bashed over the years. OK for another 12 months then. 117000+ miles at the moment.
More research into bluetoothing the sat nav reveals that the headset feature in the 4150 pda is turned off in the registry. It can be reg hacked back on and after much faffing about, it seems it can be made to work, but the sound quality is rubbish, which may be why it was turned off in the 1st place.

Friday back in the car, despite the rather nice weather. Bought the dvds aeon flux and serenity, now they're below £10.

Saturday my underworld evolution dvd arrived from amazon. Also the mighty boosh 1 and 2.

Bought a new tap for the garden.
Found an itech clip 3 bluetooth headset with a separate ear piece for £30 in the orange shop. Thought it might be worth experimenting with. Works ok with the k700i and got it working as a headset from the main pc. Yes the sound quality is low, but should be ok for sat nav directions. Now, how to edit the pda registry?
1x round the village circuit 8 mins 26.

Sunday 2x circuit 15 mins 25.
Mostly catching up with the m879 java exercises. Still waiting for the tma01 mark
Very quiet in the afternoon because of some game somewhere. We went for a ride on the bikes 4.047 miles in 26 mins 0, including a bit of get off and push it up hills.

Stop press - the tma01 has been marked at 79%.

July and hot.

Wednesday took the bike for an mot - passed ok.
After much web research it seems that the 4150 pda is incapable of supporting a bluetooth headset. You can turn it on in the registry, switch the audio dll to reroute sound to bluetooth, and make a connection, but nothing comes through. Something very low level is wrong and apparently unfixable. The only way it is going to work is with a separate Tx.

Thursday took the bike in just for fun.

Saturday 2x round the village circuit 15 mins 05. Carol kept up for the 1st lap. Saw some more mighty boosh

Sunday up early for the cadmac glider competition. Only 3 of us, me, neil and keith, but some helpers allowing us to fly 3 together. Found I'd left the hatch at home after removing it to clean the fuselage last time. Oh well, it should fly ok without that. A few secs after launch the motor cut, and after much resetting would only manage about 50% throttle, so rather unspectacular climb. Still managed a reasonable time, maybe due to some lift in the heat. Neil lost sight of his aircraft for many secs and lost lots of height, but still managed the best score and 1000 points. 2nd flight very similar, except that neil lost it permanently in the hazy blue humidity, and went off to look for it. 3rd flight just me and keith, but I managed only 26 secs after the motor really gave up. I suspect it was a bit overloaded in this application - time for something bigger. Neil returned, with aircraft, to win the last slot. I also flew the swift - going very nicely, before leaving the field to the noisy types. Long time to the next competition.
Lots of m879 reading - up to tma02, but still need to do the exercises.

1 day late due to festival.

Tuesday off flying. With an E wind and ashes hollow still closed, we went north to the E slope near hathersage. 4 in the (rather new replacement) bus. Arrived to find the stiletto wing missing - a quick check in the car failed to notice it in the overhead bungee. A bit rocky, but a good amount of lift and a reasonable landing area over to the left. Lots of sunshine, but cool enough in the breeze. Flew the filip, nano floh and the zagi.

Thursday morning dramatic thunderstorms and heavy rain.

Friday off early to do the nspcc big bike ride. 11.657 miles in 1 hr 06 mins 06 around coombe abbey. Quite well organised, including bike scrutineering - got my headstock bearing and rear brake tightened up a bit. Felt a bit dangerous on the bigger roads, but generally a pleasant ride around familiar ground. I thought I was going reasonably fast, but got left well behind early on.

Saturday off to the cornbury festival. Stopped off at charlbury and had lunch at the bull inn. We could hear the music, and saw several people getting off the train, so it was obviously close. Followed the festival signs, but we seemed to drive round the whole estate before finding the way in. Nicely laid out with a separate quiet camping area and car park on the way to the arena, which was not too long a walk over the lanscaped grounds and lakes with dragonfly and leaping trout. Got the tent up and over to the arena in time to see the hayseed dixie set in the hot sunshine. Clouded over a bit later. Back to the tent for a while and returned with the folding chairs for robert plant. Quality stuff including new arrangements of some old favourites. We knew he would be back for an encore, having not yet done the top of the pops song. Started to drizzle a bit during the set. A couple of bands were no show due to "delayed flights".
Walking back through the camp site we heard an unfeasibly loud sleeping bag zip, wjich seemed to be repeatedly unzipped and zipped - actually someone well away snoring. After another trip to the car for some more water for the morning, we settled down to wait for it to go "quiet". Apart from the noisy families there was the music event at the other end of the "noisy" camp site, which went on until about 02:00, and despite being over the top of the hill and a good distance away, the sound was carried by the wind being in exactly that direction. Fortunately the rain got heavier, and that was mostly all we could hear.

A bit cooler on the sunday, but still plenty of sunshine. We waited for the rain to ease off, got up late and had coffee from the camp stove, before heading over to the arena for lunch and a proper look at the stalls and some of the folk music. Rather amused by the "singing plague victims" at the entrance. Not too impressed by the £3.50 entry level for food, although is was generally quite good. A double espresso for £1.50 was particularly good. Back to the tent for a rest, before packing it away and returning with chairs for the evening.
The quiet and thoughtful songs of nerina pallot were rather drowned out in the noise coming from the fair at the top of the hill, and not helped by the full backing band and string section trying to keep up with her last minute set changes. Not much of a connection with the audience, and no sign of a couple of my favourites - damascus and rainbow from the 1st cd. Still good to see though.
Then chrissie hynde came on to show everyone how it is done. 1+ hr of quality rock and pop, making it look easy - excellent. Why the pretenders were not the headline escapes me.
Had a quick look at kate rusby in the "2nd stage" (too small) tent before heading home. Outside the arena a small crowd watching the final on a large tv screen.
Got the tomtom to navigate us back through oxfordshire, looking lovely in the late summer sunset.
Now in its 3rd year, it looks like it could go on to get bigger. Having 2 stages in the same field is not good, even though the sound direction is parallel - much better to have them back to back, facing in opposite directions, as at glastonbury. A lot of it was filmed, so maybe there will be a tv or dvd later.

Monday off to catch up. Added a music festivals section to the links.

1 day late due to festival.

It seems ww3 is breaking out, although if you listen to some sources, war has been continuous for at least the last 100 yrs.

Made a start on tma02.

Friday bbq at work. There was someone there doing an nspcc sponsored busking (motor) bike ride round europe - 5 days, 2500 miles, 10 countries, 11 cities.
Went over for the 1st evening of the godiva festival. A bit too hot and sunny. Mostly saw the local bands in the spotlight tent, only trailer of any interest - giving out free cds.

Saturday we went over early to catch the festival procession. Some good creatures on the theme of "the natural world". Over to browns for lunch then the memorial park for the main part of the festival. Nothing very interesting in the arena, no strangely dressed types wandering about, and the bands weren't up to much either. The main tent filled up very quickly when the fratellis came on. Listened to a bit outside and went home for tea. I went back later to see the headline mercury rev and got inside early enough, but after a few songs at much too loud and ridiculously powerful uv lights aimed straight at the audience, gave up and went home.
Stayed up late and watched the glastonbury film/documentary, which rather nicely captured some of the atmosphere and history not seen in the usual tv coverage.

Sunday 2x round the village circuit 15 mins 10.
Afternoon back over for the quiet day of the festival. Again, not much of interest. We sat in an over hot tent, through some unknown classical material, waiting for the valkyries, which was rather disappointing when it arrived, being largely drowned out by the noise from the fairground.

Monday too hot and getting hotter.

Too hot, and humid.

Tuesday took some photos of the moths around the lavendar.

Wednesday took the bike to work on the hottest day of the year so far.

Thusday bike again.

Friday bought a new tent from tesco. It has a proper inner dangling from the outer, rather than having the fly sheet stretched over, which seems to provide more opportunities for rain to seep in. Also has a porch, allowing rain protection and being able to see out at the same time. Nice turquoise colour too, excellent vale for £19.

Saturday eventually decided against going over to see hawkwind at the eastern haze festival, mainly due to the extreme thunderstorms forecast for the area, but also because I still have tma02 to finish off. Got caught in the thundery rain in town. Bought a new joint for the house guttering, which was dripping annoyingly.

Sunday 2x round the village circuit 15 mins 07. Carol did 2x too.
Mostly more tma02.
Went over to withybrook to eat. Saw crayfish in the brook.

plus.net broadband connection has been a bit rubbish recently, often dropping out.

Still too hot, and humid.

Monday took some photos in the garden - grapes and figs in the green house, plums and apples.

Tuesday took the bike to work. My new pjs 550e motor for the simply arrived from robotbirds. Same unit as ray is using.

Sent off tma02.

Thursday a little bit of rain. A few minutes of power cut about 18:00, and again at 18:30.

Friday a little cooler and less humid. bbq at work.
Bought an lg gsa-h10n dvd rw drive from pcworld. At only £35 it's not really worth not having 1 any more.
Got the new motor fitted to the front of the simply. Fitted an 11x6 prop. It's fairly low revving and feels like it may cope with a bit more.

Saturday 2x round the village circuit 15 mins 17.

Sunday 2x circuit 15 mins 32.
Had a go with the dvd drive. After the usual faffing about, managed to write a cd with nero express. A dvd of some videos from the camera was remarkably easy, with just a few clicks of the wizard. Did take a very long time though. The tesco dvd-rw disks claim 4x, but I could only get it to work at 2x.
Tidied the garden a bit.
Read some more tma879.

August and cooler.

Tuesday more m879 exercises. Need to decide on the next module soon.

Wednesday cold, dark and almost autumnal in the N wind.

Thursday the sunshine returned.

Friday bbq at work.

Saturday 5th august - exactly 20 years since my gpz600r was registered in 1986. 58270 miles. I had intended to take it somewhere nice for a new photo, but too much other stuff going on. Here's a photo from 2002.

Didn't manage to get up very early, but got away just before 10:00 to head for oxford. Got straight on an espress bus and got to hyde park by about 12:15. Grass looking like straw from the recent hot weather. The front of the protest march had already left, but there was no sign of the end of it, with a steady stream flowing. Had an unfeasibly expensive burger and double espresso from the speaker's corner shop, although it was quite good.

We joined the march heading down park lane, and stayed with it all the way to parliament square. There seemed to be some festival going on in trafalgar square - the more usual end point. Lovely weather, but a bit hot walking in the sunshine. Again, a confused mixture of messages from the speakers. About 16:00 we headed back up (against the flow) to downing street, which by now had a continuous line of yellow jackets in front. The arc of flying children's shoes making a curious analogy to the war that this is all about. Many had been placed on the cenotaph. We ate at a place opposite, but it was expensive and not very good. When we came out they were still going past, and we took a few more photos. Shortly after, the forces started to push the tail end away from downing street with lots of armoured minbuses. We headed off N to do a bit of shopping, past reinforcements waiting in most of the side streets. The organisers say 100,000, official source 20,000 - take your pick.

Looked for the italian restaurant we used before, only to find it closed. However, we ate at the pizzaiolo, opposite where it used to be in woodstock street, off oxford street. It was very good, sitting outside in the cooler evening.
The espress driver announced thornhill park and ride when we got back, but drove straight past - dumping us at the bext bus stop. Managed to get 1 of the airport buses to give us a lift back, but it was almost midnight by the time we got home.

Sunday catching up on sleep, and a bit of shopping.

Been squeaking on the violin this week for some reason - think it's getting better.

Added a bit on the 1994 bike trip to spain in history.

Tuesday despite the still missing bus, and despite the low wind forecast, we went in cars to the long mynd. Probably 1 of the best days ever, with a moderate W wind straight onto pole cott, with lots of sunshine. Rather a lot of tourists about. A flew the filip, stiletto and nano floh. had a few glitches with the nano floh and landed quickly. Further investigation with the scanner showed someone transmitting on my frequency, while claiming the peg for the adjacent channel - not good, but no damage this time. Dad returned to the slope for the1st time this year, and flew the vampire, after another frequency clash, wrong peg, adjacent channel thing (his was correct). Lots of paragliders and some full size further down the slope. Also, a pair of black birds working the lift with us. Later the wind got a bit stronger and we got some zagi action going. Stayed about an hour later than usual and got even more sun. Back in coventry, we went to akbars for a meal.

Up a bit late working through my travel checklist.

Wednesday. Allora, l'avventura italiana comincia.
Up early at 05:00 and left at 06:00 for stansted. Parked in the mid stay eparking. Rather confused by the 10:50 ryanair flight showing as 09:40, later delayed by 20mins, then actually leaving only a few mins late. Had a smoothie, espresso and cake, and bought a sandwich. Flew to genova for work. Not too hot, and a little rain. Saw a lizard scuttle away as I walked over to check in at the sheraton - not been there since 1999.
After work, took a walk down the main street, now missing a certain "m" fast food place that used to be there. Lots of early evening people and buskers. Walked back to the hotel. New combined tv and internet access on a wide screen and keyboard, plus ethernet connector, but still just the usual channels. Did a bit of m879 reading on the pda.

Giovedi. Up early again, breakfast, checked out, and walked along the (now completed) flyover, past the 1997 memorial that is still there, down a footpath that disappears at the other end, into work for 08:00.
Walked back to the airport to find the return flight showing "cancellato". A bit of phoning around revealed the chaos in london, leaving me to queue up along with everyone else to make alternative arrangements. Very tempted to jump in a car and head N, but 1000+ miles would take a very long time. More or less in the middle of the queue, I think I was lucky to get booked onto a next day flight from pisa. Really needing some water and something to eat, I eventually worked out how to prepay and got a bit of slimy pizza.
Got the autobus to genova stazione principe. Looking at the partenze schedule I couldn't find any sign of pisa, although la spezia sounded in the right direction. Big queues at the bigletteria - hmm. Then spotted the magic word pisa on an electronic display, leaving from binario 20 at 15:39. Time now 15:28 - eek. Anyway, found an electronic ticket machine, paid, and managed to get on the train in time. Very slow crawling E through most of genova and stopping at most places along the coast. Saw santa margherita ligure, where we camped for the 1st night in italia in 1987. Saw lots of sea and coastline, getting very busy with standing room only around the holiday resorts, before it headed inland further down. Unsure of how we were progressing past unfamiliar small town names, I got the sat nav out, but couldn't get a signal inside a metal box surrounded by overhead cables. Saw a family of pigeons nesting in the concrete overhead, during a long stop at la spezia. Arrived at pisa centrale 3 hrs 30 mins later, with the river looking quite familiar. Had a bit of a look round the station area for a supermarket but found none. Got the sat nav out to see if the holiday inn I was booked into was far away. Got a signal ok, but the pda was completely dead - seems the controls had been pressed down in the box, continually turning it on, discharging even the nimh backup cells..Hadn't brought the charger with me. Took a taxi to the holiday inn in miglarino. Caught up with the day's events on cnn. Had something to eat.

Venerdi. Up early again, breakfast, checked out, and got a taxi to the aeroporto, past the leaning tower, in the distance, through the rain.

Big queues at the check in for a very full flight to uk. No special restrictions, unlike the uk airports - just the usual, very thorough italian security. Only slightly delayed take off. Spiral ascent providing good views around the piazza dei miracoli.
Some bumpy air on the descent. Stansted heaving with people trying to fly out, but apparently better than the other london airports. Had another smoothie, jumped in the car and headed home. Stopped for something to eat on the way. A difficult drive, being massively tired. Arrived home about 15:50.

Tma02 had been marked at 78% - better than I was expecting.
The pda seemed to charge ok, but of course had effectively a full reset, requiring set up as from new. All the stuff on the sd card was ok though.

Saturday reconfigured the pda, especially turning off the controls (when in standby) to prevent accidental turn on. Reinstalled mvp media player,and the more windows like pocketexplorer.

Sunday catching up on sleep. Also installed betaplayer on the pda - seems to do a better job than mvp in some cases.

Been watching I claudius on bbc4. Excellent tv from the 70s, despite the low budget sets.

Mostly raining this week, with a mountain of m879 reading to do, and a few exercises, before the big tma03.

Friday more rain, thunder and lightning.
Applied for my next ou module m877 adavanced database technology. It seems like the best option out of what's left after the others I've already done.
We went to see the scanner darkly film. Vaguely interesting delusional plot. The comic book artwork effect over live action is mostly just annoying, only occasionally looking good.

Saw most I claudius. Good to see it again.

Saturday 1x round the village circuit 7 mins 52.

Sunday 2x circuit 14 mins 48.
Mostly m879 reading.
Popped over to ryton gardens to see their tropical day, with water bufalo and alpacas(?).

Lots of coverage of the v festival on e4 and e4+1 - kasabian shining, nerina again a bit rough live.

1d late due to festival.

Showers and sunshine this week.

Monday despite the forecast, it brightened up quite nicely for the cadmac wolston fun fly. Flew the simply. Disappointing ascent with the 10x6 prop. Swapped to the 10x8, which was better but still unspectacular. Very low revs on the motor.

The peacocks are back - have been for a while actually. Sadly, their wings have been #*@$*d so they can't fly. It used to be a magnificent sight as they flew into and out of the enclosed garden. Anyway, they walk everywhere now. Even turned up with a chicken in tow this week. The cat is tolerating them at the moment - they are bigger than him.

Wednesday bbq at work, in a marquee, out of the rain.

Thursday saw the blue peacock in the garden, but how did it get there?

Friday finished the m879 reading. Now, just a few exercises, tma03, and the small matter of an exam to get through.
Up late watching the reading/leeds festivals.

Saturday morining a bit of a surprise to see 2 blue peacocks. It seems the recent sightings of the 1 with brown and white feathers on its back is diifferent from the original. They can both get up to the rooftops. New 1 quite indifferent to the cat, but the other is more intimidating and chased it off a bit.

Had lunch at the new lebanese/italian restaurant aqua.
Over to the pub in the evening to see what all the noise was about - a beer festival with music.
Again up late watching some of the massive festival coverage - arctic monkeys and muse of note.

Sunday 2x round the village circuit 14 mins 13.
Over to wolston for the 6th cadmac glider competition. As expected for a bank holiday weekend, no one else turned up. I flew the simply anyway to get an idea of the perfrmance with the new motor and prop. It sounds veru smooth and effecient. The height obtained is still about the same, and extra weight means a faster float down. However, I managed 6x 1 min ascents, so an even bigger prop is required. The cells were comfortable warm. I might need some 20C cells. On the 5th and 6th I got it down quickly, doing some loops amd even flying inverted.
Adrian and family came over for tea, before returning to the festival. Very good rock covers band, but didn't catch their name. Only slightly raining as it got dark and the church lit up.
Watched some more festival before consigning the rest to what space was left on the fvrt100.

Momday 2x circuit 14 mins 19.

1 day late due to busy weekend with visitors.

September.

Wednesday took the bike over to the post office to pick up my 2nd 4G sd card for the camera from emartbuy. Almost as much space as a single layer dvd. The 1st is in the pda.

Thursday my poly pro 800mAh lipo pack for the simply arrived from overlander. This should save a bit of weight and support higher drive current.

Friday 25 years at work.

Sunday 1x round the village circuit 8 mins 48.
Catching up with m879 exercises. Made a start on tma03.
Set up the intonation on the bass for the new lighter strings.
Keith and carol (and dad) came over in the evening and we went down the other pub for something to eat.

Web counter seems to be working again.

Monday 1st day of 1 week holiday. We went to oxford. Surprised to find a noisy fair going on.

Tuesday off to the mynd. 8 in the (very old) bus. Clouded over a bit on the way, but still a bit of sunshine. The brisk SW wind put us on pole cott, with plenty of lift, despite being a bit off direction. A few others there too, including someone with a skorpion, which was very impressive. It moved up my shopping list a bit. Heading back, the left rear wheel bearing started to protest rather loudly, and proved to be rather wobbly once jacked up. After a couple of hours chasing non existent r*c cover, we eventually got a very nice man out from the aa, even supplying a spare car for those of us who couldn't fit in the truck. Got home about 22:00.

Wednesday evening we went out for a family meal.

Thursday 1x round the village circuit 7 mins 51.
Connectorised the new 800mAh pack. It seems to settle after charge to a slightly higher voltage 12.44, compared to the older pack which quickly settles to about 12.35. Seems to run the current prop ok. I don't have anything bigger at the moment.
The 106 went through 120000 miles.

Friday 2x circuit 15 mins 17. We went over to leamington. Saw some banksy style art subtly stencilled onto walls. Had lunch at, and a free guided tour round the pump rooms. Perfect late summer weather with blue sky and not too hot. Walked back through the gardens.

Saturday 2x circuit 14 mins 12.
Bought a new kitchen weighing thing from the argos robot. The new 800 pack is 71g against the 1050 at 80g. Not as much lighter as you might expect, probably due to the extra wiring associated with the cell balance connector and special heatshrink.

Sunday morning still slightly misty as I headed over to wolston for the cadmac glider competition. Only keith and myself. Keith borrowing dad's Tx, which we had to program up for the v tail. The simply climbed out well on the new pack, stopped at 50 secs. Managed a close to max time and 40 bonus. 2nd didn't find lift and down a bit early. 3rd and 4th used the full 60 secs and managed close to max again, but with rather inaccurate landings. Anyway, I should get about 3500 points to swap for the worst score so far - about 1600. I tried a 5th ascent and it cut out about half way up. So the pack and prop are fairly ideally matched for 4x 60 secs motor runs.
Mostly writing the big essay for tm03.
Short break for 2x circuit in the warm afternoon sunshine. No time as the sensor had moved away from the magnet.

Tuesday saw 2 peacocks on the garage roof - so all 3 can get up there.

Thursday sent off tma03.

Saturday 1x round the village circuit 8 mins 11.
We went to the 1st ever napton music festival. 12 hrs 12 bands (mostly local) in a farners field for £15. Stopped off in southam for some lunch. We arrived in time to see some of the 3rd band whole lotta dc doing a fairly accurate tribute. Excellent clear sound system, and not too loud. Not much in the way of traders, particularly missing any espresso. Not too impressed by the 4th, we took a break and headed off in search of civilisation ie. shops. Ended up in daventry. Got back about 17:00 - time for a buffalo burger. Managed to park the car facing the stage although you couldn't see much.#8 ministry of beaver were quite entertaining.#11 v8 were very good, doing all sorts of rock/metal classics. Apparently they did a lot of the organising too. #12 headliners girlschool were a little disapponting. They can certainly rock ok, but it all sounds rather dated, and the songs aren't that good.

Tuesday bought a 1 for all remote. The fvrt100 was getting difficult on some functions. A few minutes entering some codes and it now controls everything (only 4 boxes now).

Friday went to see the children of men film. Not good. It seems very confused. The plot is (literally) shot full of holes. Can something set in the future have anachronisms? Anyway, it has plenty. Some of the hype said they spent a lot of money to give it a cheaply made look - well they succeeded in that at least.

Saturday 1x round the village circuit 8 mins 10.
Bought the captain scarlet series 2 dvd.

Sunday we did a bit more deforestation in the garden, to let a bit more sunshine in.
Evening out for a family dinner.

October.

Monday budgie have cancelled some of the early tour dates for some reason. Found some early video on youtube including breadfan and mountain. It seems there's loads of archive stuff up there. Even gianna nannini and maschi, which I haven't seen since it was on mtv in the 80s.

Wednesday the m877 course material arrived - a bit early - not due to be sent until october and course officially starts november. Still m879 exam to do yet.

Saturday 1x round the village circuit 8 mins 19.
Avoiding revision, we went to london. had an italian lunch at a place in paddington st, off baker st. Discovered the basement of virgin records in oxford st, where there is a massive musical instrument shop soundcontrol, with plenty of demo access. Had a quick look in foyles book shop. Saw someone selling bamboo saxophones in charing cross road. Had something to eat in the devonshire pub in denman st.

Sunday 2x circuit 16 mins 05. Dark, rain and thundery at lunchtime.

Got only 61% for tma03.

1d late due to french film.

Monday bought the x-men 3 dvd. Also surprised by a new accoustic cd and dvd from kt tunstall.

Tuesday with a bit of a cold, decided not to fly at the mynd, and stayed home for some m879 revision.
Added a few youtube links to the music artists section of links

Friday windy. Went down the pub to eat. Full moon in the night with the clouds scudding by.

Saturday bought the juliette and the licks cd 4 on the floor.

Sunday up early for the 7th cadmac glider competition. Cold, grey, damp and windy. Just me, keith and neil, but with dad and tony to do the timing. Mostly trying to put just enough down trim in to avoid getting blown downwind too much. 1st slot I managed 7 mins 15 and max 50 bonus, with the rh wing covering the centre of the circle, which totalled more than neil's longer time. 2nd and 3rd not so good - landing short. 4th best time of the day at 8 mins 09 + 40, but neil managed a max 9 mins 58 + 30. However, with 1 more to go, which neil can't attend, it seems mathematically impossible for me not come 1st overall.
Afternoon mostly revising.
Evening we went to see some french film at the arts centre, not realising it was 3+ hrs long.

Tuesday afternoon m879 exam in central coventry. Probably passed it ok.

Friday misty morning and lovely cool sunshine in the afternoon.

Saturday 1x round the village circuit 8 mins 21 in the thin mist.
Installed the m877 software.
Nice sunny afternoon, we decided to take the bikes for a ride, but a loose battery connection and then broken battery terminal stopped that.

Sunday 1x circuit 8 mins 34.
Mostly tidying up.
Another 1x circuit 8 mins 08.

It seems holly beth vincent is to release a new cd sometime soon - long time coming.

Added a few myspace links to the artists section of links.

Tuesday 3 long awaited cds arrived from amazon. Bird mimicry was a bit disappointing as most of it is just birds copying other birds. The budgie is rather badly recorded, but the bowerbird doing shaken spray cans, metal ladders, hammering etc. is so amazing it seems hard to believe. Sinner from joan jett has lots of previously released tracks. Guarda me a vida na mao from ana moura 1st heard in a supermarket in cahors, france.

Wednesday 3 more cds arrived from amazon - only ordered sunday. Demos federico from holly beth vincent is literally early demos of songs that did or didn't make it onto the records - some of them with the original tape in bad condition. You're speaking my language the 1st full cd from juliette and the licks. Tracey ullman sings classic 60s stuff and more.

Started the m877 reading.

Friday holly beth vincent has 4 new tracks up on myspace.

Saturday morning blue peacock by the pond flashing brilliant colours in the damp autumn sunshine.

Sunday morning up early for the last cadmac glider competition of the season, which was promptly cancelled due to too much wind. There probably will be a reschedule, meaning I can now mathematically not win.
1x round the village circuit 8 mins 04.
Added 2 more servos to the lighter zagi. Got the Tx manual out 1st to prove that mixing elevons and crow braking could be done - seems to work ok. Still needs recovering.

1d late due to wulfrun.

Tuesday ordered some profilm for the zagi from smc.

Friday put a new battery in the klik radio controlled watch, as the night light was getting a bit weak.

M877 web site open.

Saturday 1x round the village circuit 8 mins 10.
We went to oxford. Bit of a grey day, but a nice walkabout. Lunch at browns.

Sunday 1x ciruit 8 mins 06. Clocks change, mostly automatically.
M877 reading, before the official start.
Went over to the wulfrun to see hawkwind, it being the closest to home they get this year. Confusing signs on the m6 roadworks meant an unexpected diversion around star city, but generally the sat nav did a good job in getting me there. Bought a ticket at the little civic and went into the hall. A little surprised to find new order on stage at 21:00. A strange choice for a support. It was far too loud and a very messy acoustic in there. By 22:15 it was clear that hawkwind were not going to show up and I decided to head for home. I asked what had happened on the way out, only to be told they were on in the "other" wulfrun hall - round the corner. Arrived in time to catch only the last 2 songs of the encore. Did all the travelling, paid, stayed up late, got soaked in smoke... and still missed it.

November and cold.

Monday bought the ultraviolet dvd.

Tuesday chased up the profilm - sent "yesterday" apparently.

Thursday morning frosty.

Saturday still no sign of profilm and considered travelling to find some, but found the package on the doorstep on the way out for lunch - rather damp and probably been there for days. Spent most of the afternoon covering - new stripy yellow and red underneath.
Finished watching the captain scarlet series 2.

Sunday up early for the rescheduled, last of the season, cadmac gilder competition. Neil not needing many points to win the season. Cold and sunny with a stiff breeze at height left us diving to penetrate and so short 5-6 mins slots. Anyway, 1st 2 slots I managed to stay up a few secs longer than neil and get the max 50 landing bonus, so 2000 points. 3rd slot I think he changed tactics and went for more height, and I landed out 2x, leaving neil to win the day and the season.

Added wiki links to most of the music artists (and others) in links.

Monday bit of a mad rush to get the reworked zagi (almost) finished, but the mynd trip was cancelled anyway, due to the forecast fog. Neil did a little talk on altitude loggers and variometers sold through his hyperflight online shop. Cheaper than the picolario, but still way too expensive. It's about time we had full digital telemetry at a reasonable price - and gps too.

Wednesday finished attaching the elevons and fins. All seems to work quite well. There is a strain on the servos as they try to maintain the twist in the elevons for the crow braking, but it should be ok as they are metal geared and it's only to be used for landings. Slight problem with elevator trim, which seems to only move channel 2 output - going nowhere in this case. Need to see what I can do with the various mixers. Still need a bit more weight in the nose to counter the extra rear mounted servos.

Saturday 1x round the village circuit 8 mins 39.

Sunday 1x circuit 8 mins 18.
Completed the m877 reading and activities for the foundations section. 1w ahead of schedule at the moment.

Still waiting for the m879 exam result

1d late due to xmas lights.

Tuesday more m877 reading.

Thursday bought a little black xmas tree from borders.

Saturday 1x round the village circuit 8 mins 37.
We set off reasonably early for london. Lovely sunny drive with autumn colours. The bus was unusually busy, with only single seats remaining - probably the xmas shopping effect. The sun low in the sky was rather dazzling. Got off in baker street again and headed east for a change. Discovered marylebone high street and a little market by the church. Had lunch in the orrery epicerie. Had a general wander along oxford street and beyond while carol was shopping. Found the 300 graphic novel (of the film, of the history) in forbidden planet - not as impressive as the film trailer. Discovered denmark street with its almost continuous run of guitar shops. Back down oxford street to see the lights. Here are a few photos - note non traditional bus and cab in the 2nd. Didn't find anywhere for something to eat, ending up with something fast before getting back on the bus.

Sunday 1x circuit 8 mins 17 in the frost.
A bit of late sunday shopping and over to coventry for the xmas lights switch on. Most of the lights seemed to be already on when we got there, with the xmas tree in millennium place being the only obvious difference, but there were some thunderous fireworks launched from the rubble covered wasteland next door where there used to be quite a nice old building. Several floats and marchers in costumes looking rather familiar from the godiva festival. Still, it was free, and with a nice atmosphere.

Been investigating the skorpion a bit more. Seems there is a very long waiting list.

It seems m879 exam result will be some time in december.

I forgot to swap to the glitzer logo for bonfire week. Anyway, it's up now. Planning an advent calendar for december - watch this (mark)space.

8000+ hits.

Monday cadmac meeting with a talk from alshobbies, handing round jet engines including the mw44, right up to some 35lb thrust monster. Also, news of something even smaller - the kolibri.

Tuesday ordered the skorpion - due feb/mar.

Wednesday watched the french dvd un long dimanche de fiancailles that I bought in france last year.

Friday afternoon off. Into town for lunch with jes and a quick look at the transport museum. Over to ryton for the cadmac games night. I think that makes it officially xmas now.

Spent a lot of time building the advent calendar. It takes a while to load. None of the windows will open until december.

December.

Monday bought a 6' black xmas tree and some white lights from tesco.
Caught up with the m877 reading I should have been doing last week.

Tuesday, wednesday, thursday doing this week's m877 reading.

Friday found this virtual reality flying thing on smsa and youtube. Probably as close as you can get to actually sitting inside a model aircraft - maybe an audio link still required.

Saturday 1x round the village circuit 8 mins 10.
Put the tree up.

Sunday balanced the 4 servo zagi.

Advent calendar seems to be working ok.

Windy.

Forgot to mention I bought the race to dakar dvd on saturday.

Monday cadmac agm.

Tuesday despite the forecast, we went to the mynd. 4 in the bus, which seems to have been fixed after last time. Nice and sunny at 11:00, but very windy, and a bit of a struggle carrying 5 aircraft to ashes hollow. The winter sun was low in the sky, making flying into the S wind difficult. I tried the old zagi, but got blown away. Simon managed a bit of control linbe glider before a heavy impact broke it. Graham flew a big moulded scar, which coped well with the wind, but stripped 1 of the wing servos on landing. He also flew his zagi just as it clouded over, the wind got even stronger and the hail started. We sat in the wet, getting buffetted by the wind for a while before giving up. Twigs thrown straight up in the air would disappear 50m downwind. Had a problem picking up 5 aircraft again and the wind grabbed the stiletto while I had it by the tail, breaking off both tail feathers and getting blown away. Back in the bus and rather damp we decided to go to a cafe, but they all seemed to be closed for the season.

Thursday ordered the avant que l'ombre dvd from amazon.fr.

Friday after a long wait got the m879 exam result 52 - not good, but a comfortable pass. Now just need to pass m877.
Evening we went out for the ryton gardens xmas meal at ask in rugby. Got soaked in smoke in a pub after.

Saturday bought the raconteurs cd and snow patrol.

Finished watching the race to dakar.

Sunday 1x round the village circuit 8 mins 32.
Mostly reading m877.

Monday coming out of tesco the 106 was unusually noisy.

Wednesday a large package arrived from amazon. The new cd/dvd from hawkwind, the ep from juliette and the licks, the glastonbury dvd, graffiti woman art book, italian grammar.

Thursday off and dropped the 106 in for investigation. Probably the cam shaft, but also the radiator is leaking.
Moved the pc onto the floor, to make it a bit quieter and leave more desk space.
Went to the evening village meeting to view the planning applications.

Friday with the 106 in for a new radiator, took the bike to work. Xmas do with mince pies and a brass band. Lots of people leaving and down the pub for lunch. The 106 really needs a replacement engine, which is going to be expensive, but I might get another year or 2 out of it.

Saturday 1x round the village circuit 8 mins 18. Saw the 3rd peacock further down the village - don't know why it stays separate from the other 2.
Earlier this year mylene farmer staged an all too rare concert at bercy. At last, my dvd arrived. Now, previous entrances have been pretty spectacular, and this was up there too, being alien, witchblade, barbarella, spinal tap and of course, peculiarly french.

Sunday 2x circuit 15 mins 49 in the frost.
New toner cartridge for the laser printer - lasted for more than 1 year.

Swapped to snow background for xmas.

1d late due to xmas.

Foggy.

Monday gave up waiting for stock at ebuyer and ordered a samsung 22" sm225bw monitor from microdirect. Not been released long and seems to be selling fast.

Tuesday after refuelling at tesco the 106 made a horrible noise and wouldn't start. 122000+ miles. The nice man from the aa turned up fairly quickly and said the cam belt tensioner had fallen off. Dropped it off at the usual place.

Wednesday forecast says ice and fog for the next 5 days, so got a lift into work and back. Arrived back too late to do anything about the missed monitor delivery.

Thursday I left a note for the redlivery to be diverted. Got a phone call to say the new cam belt tensioner had fixed the car, and there had been no damage to the valves etc. It now runs better than it has for a long time. It seems most of its problems had been caused by gradually increasing error in timing.
Picked up the monitor in the evening, and quickly got it connected. It is excellent, the screen area is almost exactly the size of a portrait a3 sheet of paper, but a bit wider (1.6 aspect ratio - 1680x1050), very bright and clear. I haven't noticed any dead pixels yet. Google earth is wonderful, and it's just great having more room to do stuff.

Friday took the mandola and recorder into work. Went into town to join the queues for some xmas shopping in the afternoon.

Saturday 2x round the village circuit in the dim still dampness on 1 of the shortest days of the year 15 mins 55.
Decided to do tesco in the morning and a late lunch in town (with free parking). Had a go at sainsbury later.

Xmas eve 2x circuit 15 mins 49.

Xmas day 2x circuit 15 mins 14. Dinner at home, then over to adrian's for the family.

Swapped to snow logo for winter.

Boxing day 2x round the village circuit 15 mins 58.
had a look at the welcome to the black parade video from my chemical romance, that I heard recently on kerrang. Apart from being an excellent piece of music, it now sounds like xmas.

Over to the walsgrave for a family xmas lunch.
Swapped over to use the DVI lead from PC to monitor - eliminated the slight interference ripple during boot.
Swapped back to the standard monitor lead, as the DVI seemed to be blacking out unpredictably.

On the 3rd day of xmas there were found to be 3 peacocks in an oak tree, and 3 geese in a drainage ditch.

We went to london, getting straight on a bus at thornhill and arriving in baker street about 12:07. Had lunch at ponti's off oxford street. Bought the black parade and sweet revenge cds.

Had a go with a £55 guitar in a shop in denmark street. It was a peavey raptor junior, and fairly nasty, with high action and slight fret buzz, but I suppose you can't expect much for £55. Wandered down through st giles and neal street to covent garden, then along the strand, stopping to watch the skaters at somerset house. Then down fleet street to st pauls (boarded up to look as if it isn't), and over the millennium bridge to the tate modern to see the slides. Had a quick look at the 5th and 4th floors before it closed. A long trek back through leicester square to picadilly, then up regent and along oxford street. Got some chips on the way.

Thursday probably the best weather of the holiday with a bit of sunshine, but didn't see much of it, being down a+e with dad again.
Bought a freeview box for the bedroom after noticing that the old sony actually does have a scart connector.

Friday wet and windy. Mostly catching up with m877 activities.
The royal institution lectures were poor this year - maths can be so interesting, but it rarely got above the level of simple puzzles, and nothing of the recent developments. There was more maths in physics lectures a few years ago.

Saturday just lots of rain.
Found a complete juliette and the licks gig at fabchannel.

New year's eve 1x round the village circuit 8 mins 34.
Heavy rain again, and windy.
Completed the m877 reading and activities, and read the tma01 questions.

Swapped to the rain logo.