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old weekly news items from 1999 when I was 40

news 2007.01.07 sunday 20 hits this week 8150 total.

2007.

New year's eve we watched the hours film, which was very good. Stayed up and watched most of jools, but turned over for the london eye (french) fireworks.

2007londoneyefireworks1_300.jpg

New year's day 1x round the village circuit 8 mins 32.
Cleaned the car in what sunshine there was.
We went for a walk around the village in the grey afternoon - lots of flooded low lying areas.
Stuck the tail back on the stiletto.

Wednesday did a bit of tma01.

Thursday the green wing special was quite good, but rather limited by the fact that most of the story lines had been finished at the end of the 2nd series.

Friday a bit more tma01.

Saturday 1x circuit 8 mins 26.
Took the xmas tree down.
We watched the rest of the mighty boosh live dvd.

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Sunday 1x circuit 8 mins 51.
Hours doing tma01 question 1. 2 more to go.

Back to red background for the new year.

news 2007.01.14 sunday 22 hits this week 8172 total.

Monday evening 1st cadmac meeting of the year.

Tuesday long mynd cancelled due to wet and windy weather.
Had the day off anyway and did lots of tma01 - question 2 and part of 3.

Wednesday sat and watched the whole of the mylene farmer avant que l'ombre dvd. I mentioned the spectacular entrance before. Probably the highlight is the quiet bit with 3 songs starting with the new redonne moi. Not all of the new material works, but some is very good. Surprised to see abraham, after many years behind the drums, come out front to sing. The finale and exit is also special. At 1 point they manage to make it rain indoors, and then the rain strats dropping images. Excellent, but not as good as the mylennium dvd.

Saturday 1x round the village circuit 8 mins 47 in the drizzle.

Sunday 2x circuit 16 mins 18 cool and bright.
Nice and sunny, but it got dark while I finished off tma01.

news 2007.01.21 sunday 26 hits this week 8198 total.

Monday ordered a tornado watt meter and some connectors from overlander for the new 200W/kg ruling in the glider competition.

2006tornadowattmeter1c200.jpg

Wednesday, with carol off to see her parents and with heavy wind forecast, left me driving the van.
The overlander bits arrived.

Thursday very windy.
Connectorised the watt meter and fired up the simply, seeing 104W max.

Saturday we went to oxford for a day of lectures on waves at the continuing eduction place.
1st lecture on the basics, including the wave equation with a good powerpoint show with videos included.
2nd nominally on fluids, given by david acheson started with a demo of alternate vortex shedding using an overhead projector, a pie dish lid, some water, tea leaves and a pencil on a bit of wire, and including the tacoma narrows bridge (of course), the severn bore (of course), but also a slinky demo of wave types and an illustration of harmonics by means of some gratuitous jazz on a classical guitar, and a plug for his book - very entertaining, and a fairly typical eccentic oxford don.
With nearly 2 hours for lunch we went over to eat at browns, and then had a quick look at the natural history museum.
3rd on electromagnetic waves by someone from university of leicester, including a bit of history, rainbows, frustrated total internal reflection, and acoustic waves in the earth's (and other planets) magnetic field.
4th on quantum mechanics by someone from the ou, including some history (again), the shroedinger wave equation, some neat mathematical animations of standing wave solutions and tunnelling effects from the ou module sm358, and some (scanning tunnelling electron microscope) pictures of bose einstein condensates.
Quite a busy day, but interesting

Sunday 1x round the village circuit 8 mins 59.

news 2007.01.28 sunday 25 hits this week 8223 total.

Monday at last a bit of chill in the weather.
Weighed the simply at total 525g (= fuselage 303g + wing 151g + 800mAhr lipo 71g). At 200W/kg that gives 105W. So at 104W the power is right on the limit already.
More info at esoaring.net.

Tuesday a bit of m877 reading.

Wednesday morning a light covering of snow, but back to rain by the afternoon.

Saturday 1x round the village circuit 8 mins 36.
More m877 reading.
Bought a vax cadence bagless vacuum cleaner - seems to work quite well, despite being the cheapest in the shop, but not too convinced by the cyclone, from the visible rate at which the fluff rotates. Maybe a dyson does a better job at 5x the price.

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Sunday 1x circuit 8 mins 26.
Carol decided to change the oil and filter on the van. Not exactly easy access, but after a lot of messing about in the dark we got it done.

news 2007.02.04 sunday 23 hits this week 8246 total.

February.

Sunday got 80% for m877 tma01.

Monday put a new battery on carol's bike.

Tuesday with the broadband connection being particularly slow, I did a speed test - getting only 0.2 Mbps down and 0.4 Mbps up. For a 2M pipe that's rubbish, but probably mainly due to the contention ratio, which I think is 50:1. I guess about 10 others are watching streaming content. Now, if I had the 8M upgrade as promised months ago...

Wednesday morning off to accompany dad for a check up. Lovely sunny day.
Evening went to see nerina pallot at the arts centre. So much better without a backing band, as it is difficult to follow her expressive timing, although some of the acoustic guitar stuff was a bit thin. An excellent performance of damascus on the electric piano. The best stuff though was tinkling about on the steinway.

damascus2.jpg

Thursday plusnet support say I already have an 8Mb line, but that the quality of the line won't support more than about 1.5. Actually, I occasionally get 1.7 which is perfectly acceptable, but it sometime drops below 0.2Mbps - in fact I have seen it as low as 0.08. A rough calculation of 8 shared between 50 is 0.16, so it should never really get that bad.
I checked up on the skorpion - could be a few weeks yet.

Saturday 1x round the village circuit 8 mins 36 in the frosty sunshine.

Sunday 1x circuit 8 mins 44.
More m877 reading.
Dropped the old pico stick servos into the simply glider fuselage.
Cut some of the garden overgrowth back.

news 2007.02.11 sunday 29 hits this week 8275 total.

Sunday unable to upload to the plusnet webspace.

Tuesday off to the mynd, despite the forecast. Despite assurances of continued support, no bus. 5 in 2 cars instead. A few wispy snow flakes on the way. Cold and sunny on top, with very little wind. What little there was seemed to be N, so we headed over to darnford, where it seemed to be coming from the E. Back over to the reservoir slope, and on with the mulutiple layers necessary for the cold. Really notmuch wind at all, but a few big thermals came through and we got up on those. Later on it strengthened a bit, but it was only really suitable for the light stuff ie. the filip.
Turns out the upload problem was due to the new ISP firewall and easily fixed.

Wednesday my budgie cd cuckooland arrived from amazon.

cuckooland.jpg

Thursday a decent bit of snow.
A bit of m877 reading.

Friday a bit more snow, and lots of slush. Peacocks looking a bit cold
Had the curious differential melt pattern in the garden, that was featured (and explained) in the new scientist some time ago.

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The skorpion is still a few weeks away.

Saturday tidied up the pushrod runs in the simply glider fuselage. Looks like the all up weight is about 381g, which is pretty good compared to 525g for the power version. Might manage even lighter by changing the 8 channeel dual conversion Rx for something else.

Sunday afternoon 1x round the village circuit in the warm sunshine 8 mins 11.
More m877 reading.

Swapped to the snow logo for the rather pathetic 2 days of snow this week, which nevertheless managed to cause the usual travel chaos.

news 2007.02.18 sunday 23 hits this week 8298 total.

Monday the 106 rolled through 125000.

Tuesday got news that the skorpion is under construction, so shouldn't be long now - need to look at suitable servos.

Wednesday finished off the simply glider version.

Saturday 1x round the village circuit 8 mins 27 in the light mist.

Sunday 1x circuit 8 mins 21 in the cool sunshine.
I turned 48.
A bit of m877 reading.
Took the bike over to see dad.

news 2007.02.25 sunday 23 hits this week 8321 total.

Tuesday noticed that gianna nannini is coming to london.

Thursday more m877 reading.

Friday some frog spawn in the pond.

Saturday up early and off to london for the march. Thornhill very busy, with a couple of buses going by full, we managed to get on the oxford tube, which we've not used before. It takes a slightly different route, stopping at shepherds bush and coming in along bayswater road to marble arch, arriving at park lane about 12:15. Not as many people as 4 years ago, but a respectable turnout in the showery rain and sunshine. We got something to eat at sainsbury's and stood about for an hour, waiting for the start. Soon thinned out down park lane and picadilly. Saw the 2 wobbly concrete towers in the royal academy. Didn't bother with the speeches and had lunch at garfunkels, just off trafalgar square, which was ok, but rather slow. Went back down picadilly and saw the clock chimes at fortnum and mason. Up burlington arcade, regent street, oxford street. Got the bus back at park lane, and caught up with the broken down previous 1, and stopped to pick up most of its passengers - then slowed up by an accident in the m40 fast lane.

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Sunday 2x round the village circuit in light rain 16 mins 05.
Lots of m877 reading.

Back to rain logo.

news 2007.03.04 sunday 21 hits this week 8342 total.

March.

Tuesday finished the m877 reading. Still some exercises to do, and tma02.

Thursday after work took dad for an appointment.

Friday frosty morning. Afternoon off to take dad for another appointment.

Saturday 2x round the village circuit 15 mins 56 past flooded fields and roads. Lots of wind and rain last night. Daffodils are out.
Lots of frog spawn in the pond, but not many frogs.

2007frogspawn1_600.jpg

Sunday 2x circuit 15 mins 55.
Over to leamington for the traders at the befa agm. Bought a set of hitec hs125mg wing servos for the skorpion. Also bought a futaba s3150 digital servo for comparison as these are the recommended fit. 1st look it doesn't look worth the extra. Also hs81mg for the fuselage and a hitec super slim Rx.

2007hs125mg200.jpg

Popped in to pc world on the way back and bought a techair laptop back pack, as I'll probably be off to italia again soon.

2007techairliberagrafite.jpg

Bretford very flooded.
Read through the remaining m877 exercises and tma02 questions.

news 2007.03.11 sunday 31 hits this week 8373 total.

Tuesday off to the mynd in the lucky break between the rain. No bus again - 5 in 2 cars. WSW put us on pole cott in bright warm sunshine and a brisk wind. At last, a chance to try the 4 servo zagi. The braking effect of twisting the elevons is minimal as for most of the length the suface is more of less straight. Progressively more throw at the tips does seem to smooth out and speed up rolls though. It's a lot less bent than the older black foam zagi. Got some photos of it with lee flying, after his Tx discharged after being accidentally on during the journey. Also flew the stiletto and nano floh. Simon flew his control line ds glider successfully for several minutes. Much too windy on the slope for the new simply, but hand launched it by the car park area and it seems to go nicely.

2007zagi4x1cc400.jpg 2007zagi4x2cc400.jpg

Wednesday made a start on tma02.

Thursday more tma02.

Friday such a pleasure to see the bbc4 1979 ogwt live performance from blondie at their height. So much better than the 1978 also shown. Doesn't seem dated - just great pop songs.

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Saturday we went to leicester.
More tma02.
Fired up the servos. The s3150 is very smooth with no sign of the uncertain buzzing that happens occasionally with other servos, but it is considerably slower than the hs125mg, even at 4.8V.

Sunday 1x round the village circuit 8 mins 43.
More hours on tma02 and at least had a fair go at question 1 (of 3) now.

news 2007.03.18 sunday 25 hits this week 8398 total.

Tuesday into work briefly before heading to stansted. Managed to buy a couple of litres of volvic airside. Flew easyjet to napoli, then a taxi to the vanvitelli, arriving about 19:50 cet - a long day, including over 8 hours travelling.
An italian sitting next to me texting as we taxied out to the runway - he did actually turn the mobile off before we accelerated though. As we landed (bumpy), as soon as the brakes came off we heard the familiar beep beep of incoming messages.
Almost perfect weather, not too hot yet. Hotel too hot though, requiring window open all night. Not helped by my sore throat. Not getting much sleep.

Friday, after 9 hours at work, set out for aeroporto di napoli at 17:00 cet. Very lumpy air over france. As soon as the brakes came off, 2 italians stood up and started unloading the lockers, and a few uk others joined in, before the cabin crew sat them down again. Arrived home about 23:55 - 8 hours travelling. A very long day, feeling rather ill, with the sore throat getting worse.

Saturday up reasonably early for the village litter pick in the sunshine.
My skorpion has arrived in the uk from austria - should reach me next week.

Sunday windy, sunshine and hailstones.
Updated to free avg7.5.

More hours on tma02 question 2 (of 3).

Apparently snow is on the way for tomorrow, in late march.

Back to stars logo, as it seems to have stopped raining all the time now.

news 2007.03.25 sunday 20 hits this week 8418 total.

Monday into work briefly before heading to stansted again. Bought some sandwiches to go in the hold to avoid eating in the hotel ristorante. .Bought 4 litres of volvic airside. Saw snow fallng outside from the departure gate. Flight delayed 40 mins easyjet to napoli. Met up with the others who flew ba from gatwick, then a prearranged taxi to the vanvitelli, arriving about 20:30 cet - a long day, including over 9 hours travelling.
Weather rather cloudy and relativel cold. Managed to work the air conditioning down to about an indicated 16 degress, but could really have done with some fresh air, in a diffferent room from last time, smelling vaguely of smokers. Sore throat mostly better now. Still woken several times in the night by the air conditioning plant just outside the window, making an industrial whine, sounding like a rather low pitched tinnitus

3 very long days at work.

Friday a bit of sunshine after cloud and rain for most of the week. After 9 hours at work, set out for aeroporto di napoli at 17:30 cet. Went past lots of polytunnels with the summit of vesuvio in cloud in the distance. Got away on time at 19:00 - a bit better than the ba flight which was delayed 1.5hrs. Arrived home about 23:35 - 7 hours travelling. A very long day, but not as bad as last week.

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Saturday opened the skorpion box. It is lovely, with faultless build quality, with everything fitting together with a satisfying clunk. The wing servo holes are too small to take advantage of the hs125mg mounting lugs, so I may swap to the futaba s3150. I placed the order in late november, arrived late march so I guess that's about 16 weeks delivery. Cold back in the uk.

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Sunday 1x round the village circuit 8 min 43. A bit of tidying up and lots of sleep. Clocks changed, mostly automatically.
Went to see the 300 film. Excellent stylish visuals, inspired by the graphic novel, but the story telling is weak, and not helped by the narration.

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The k700i is getting annoying as the joy stick rarely works - a well known design fault.

Must do some more tma02 tomorrow.

It seems joan jett is to tour the uk with motorhead in the autumn.

news 2007.04.01 sunday 21 hits this week 8439 total.

April.

Monday a couple of hours on tma02.

Tuesday a bit of last minute edit and sent off tma02.

Wednesday dad and keith came over and we went down the pub to eat.

Saturday 1x round the villlage circuit 8 mins 48 in the cold wind, but sunny later.
Scott lent me his old broken k700i and I dismantled it according to the instructions. The joystick is a single surface mount component. Even if I could find a source, it's doubtful that it could be replaced without destroying the pcb lands. Time for a new phone. The joystick has now stopped working altogether, meaning no access even to the menu.

Sunday 1x circuit 8 mins 51. Cold and windy.
Up early to have a go at glastonbury. All necessary pre registration and payment info handy for cut and paste into the form. Checked at 08:30 and all working ok. 3 mins before the official opening at 09:00 the site was already unavailable. Anyway, keep trying - me and 400000 others. Odds of success about 35%. Tried 2 computers, 2 browsers, broadband and 2 dial ups, and telephoning. After 2.5 hours the site became sufficiently unbusy to be able to tell us that it was too busy, presumably as demand tailed off. At 11:45 finally reached the site itself to see the sold out messages. Almost 3 hours of click, timeout and refresh. Such a waste of time, especially the last bit, as they actually sold out in less than 2 hours.

news 2007.04.08 sunday 20 hits this week 8459 total.

Tuesday off to the mynd. 5 in cars plus 2 more visitors. An unpromising start as we arrived to light rain and mist closing in. Headed for the reservoir slope anyway, and the weather cleared up a lot, with even a bit of sunshine later. Unusually strong E wind, coming from a bit to the left of the reservoir meant some lumpy air and marginal lift, requiring full attention, but it was easy enough to stay up with anything. I flew the new zagi, stiletto, nano floh, simply glider and the filip. The simply is very clean and penetrated well into the high wind, despite weighing very little. Graham lost his big moulded glider to radio problems with a rather spectacular nose burying event that I missed seeing. Took carol's van, which has plenty of space for aircraft in the back.
Ordered the new phone.

Wednesday bought a rotacraft tool for making the holes in the skorpion.

Thursday frosty and sunny.
My new sony ericsson w810i sim free arrived (express delivery) from amazon. Very similar to the old k800i, but a bit more advanced with a better camera (2Mp), a reasonable amount of memory (512M expandable), and most importantly no joy stick - replaced with a 5 way navigation switch. Sold as a walkman, it has flight safe mode (no phone), takes standard 3.5mm headphones through the microphone and radio aerial lead. The display is not particularly big, but very clear and animated. The in ear music sound is not as good as the k700i, there is a background hiss, and the radio reception is not as good. Need to try it with some different equipment. Camera is actually very good - see picture of tadpoles in the pond.

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Friday holiday 1x round the village circuit 8 mins 29.

Saturday 1x circuit 8 mins 21.
Went to oxford. Beautiful day with a slight chill in the air and hot sunshine, and a light breeze. Ate at browns. Lots of buskers. Had a look round trinity college. A bit different in that it has mostly wall and fencing around it rather than big imposing buildings. Those inside are pretty enough, apart from the rather misguided newer stuff nicely hidden from most of the views. Nice gardens along parks road. Rather snugly crammed up against balliol - must have a look at that 1 day.

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Sunday 2x circuit 15 mins 57. Another glorious sunny day.
Changed the bike oil and filter.
Helped carol tidying the front garden.

news 2007.04.15 sunday 20 hits this week 8479 total.

Sunday got 76% for tma02 - better than I was expecting. Just the exam (and some revision) to do now.

Monday holiday and remarkably still good weather.
The radio time synchronisation signal seems to have come back after being missing for a few days, although the watches still seemed to be ok.
Tidied up the garage a bit and cut the grass in the back garden.
Put a 3.5mm connector on the spare hpm-20 headset - sounds good on the pc, not tried it on the phone yet.
1x round the village circuit in the warm afternoon sunshine 7 mins 54.
Made a start on the skorpion. Opened up the control horn clearance in the fuslage and tail cone.

Thursday my 3700mAhr nimh Rx pack for the skorpion arrived (rather late) from overlander. Looks like it might just squeeze into the fuselage in front of the servos - much too big for the nose itself.

Friday went to see the sunshine film after enthusiastic reviews. It is even worse nonsense than most scifi films, getting most of the physics really badly wrong, even basic geometry, relying on some very tired cliches for the plot. It makes several references to 2001, which despite being made 30 years ago is still more technically accurate. About the only thing worth a mention is the artwork - quite pretty.
Just when you thought sketch comedy had all been done, back come harry enfield and paul whitehouse with some new stuff - and morwenna banks too.

Still mostly sunny, once the mist clears.

Saturday a bit of revision.
Swapped to the adapted hpm-20 for the phone - a considerable improvement.

Sunday 1x round the village circuit 7 mins 40.
A bit more revision.
Hot and sunny.

news 2007.04.22 sunday 18 hits this week 8497 total.

Monday after lunch off to stansted for easyjet flight to napoli again. Now 2 flights a day, with the later flight moved back. An airbus a319, which looked quite similar to a boeing 737 and quite nice inside although the landing was a bit rough. Also, on roll out 1 of the engines failed to start and we had to return to get it jump started. Having missed the slot, we queued at the runway and watched 3 landings close up - quite alarming to see how much smoke comes off the tyres. Arrived more or less on time and on to the vanvitelli about 21:00. Managed to get a quieter room at the back.

Martedi italia is already too hot (for work anyway).

Mercoledi went for a takeaway pizza with davide.

Venerdi took the earlier 11:40 flight back to stansted. Actually delayed to 12:10. Another very bumpy rollercoaster descent and landing, despite not much wind - maybe some thermals about. Nice and relatively cool in the uk spring. Traffic a bit heavy on the a14, but ok after cambridge, arriving home about 16:45.

Saturday 1x round the village circuit 7 mins 42.

Sunday 1x circuit 7 mins 34.
2nd chance for glastonbury. All details ready and attacked the phone line with 2 mobiles and a land line, with even worse odds than before - no response. I guessed less than 30mins before sold out, but gave it 45 just in case. I guess we'll be watching it on the tv.
We went for a walk round the village in the afternoon.
Put the new strings on the mandola.

Lots more revision.

news 2007.04.29 sunday 15 hits this week 8512 total.

Monday all 3 peacocks were round and in the garden.
Bought some front wheel bearings for the bike.
Saw the woodpecker in the front garden.

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Thursday over to birmingham for the m877 exam - think it went ok - only need 40% for a pass.

Friday dropped the front wheel out of the bike, and after many adventures with circlips, tried to knock out the old bearings - without success.

Saturday 1x round the village circuit 8 mins 21.
Dropped the front wheel off at spon end and collected it after lunch at browns and shopping. 1 bearing still needed knocking in a little further to expose the circlip slot. Back home popped the wheel back in. I might be imagining it, but the steering seems better now.

Sunday up early and a nice drive in the sunshine down the fosse way to pillerton hersey for the 1st esoaring 200W/kg glider competition. Mostly grey and cloudy with a bit of rain later, and a stiff breeze blowing any thermals through quickly. About an hour measuring all the aircraft as under the max power/weight ratio. 13 entries split into 2 lots of 6 and 7. We managed 5 rounds of 2 slots. Wind coming up a shallow slope from some trees with very little slope lift. Rather a lot of trees about - taking out 1 aircraft during the day. Not much height with only a 30 secs motor run, but I caught a thermal on 1 flight and managed 8 mins plus, finishing 8th on the day. New rules of timing the flight rather than the slot mean a max is technically possible and we did see a 10 min 0 flight, but it didn't quite hit the spot - losing 5 points.

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news 2007.05.06 sunday 20 hits this week 8532 total.

May.

Monday bought a flymo hover compact 330. Seems a lot quieter than the old standard and lifts off quite nicely - collects the grass too. Retaining clip fell off the mains lead after a few secs though. Replaced the pin with a screw and nyloc nut.

Tuesday took the bike to work. Almost perfect weather, if a little windy.

Thursday still on the bike.

Friday we went to see the spiderman 3 film. A bit of a slow start is very unusual in films these days, but when the action comes it is spectacular. Suffers from the usual threequel effect of trying to cram too many things in. But... there are many great things in there. The blackness is largely metaphorical, but provides a good excuse for the cool black costume. Not very feminist - the only time mj seems to take any control is defused by a scene that seems to have been added rather hastlily in the final edit. Overall, probably not as good as 2, but way better than most of the rubbish in cinemas.

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Saturday 1x round the village circuit 7 mins 54.
Looking at the forecast for the best weather of the weekend, we went to ragley hall, where some sort of green festival was happening. Enormous grounds and a house on a hill designed by robert hooke. Found out a bit late that there are no house tours on saturday, but had a look around the grounds, sculpture park and stables. Saw 2 peacocks. Usual green energy stalls by the lake and a music tent. Carol had a go on the wire slide and tunnel slide. Nice and sunny, but not too hot.

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Sunday 1x circuit 8 mins 09.

news 2007.05.13 sunday 25 hits this week 8557 total.

Sunday and monday holiday a bit of maintenance on the 4x zagi.
After a long spell of unseasonably good weather the rain has returned.
Rather impressed by the stuck between stations song from hold steady on later.
Dropped the 2x hs81mg servos into the scorpion fuselage - a bit of a snug fit, and the servo arms are a little above the line of the pushrods, but it seems free enough. However, I'll need to use the inner holesand cut away the clevises to miss the nose cone.

Tuesday despite the forecast rain we headed for the mynd. 5 in 3 cars. Slightly delayed by an accident on the m6 and we drove through the rain. No actual rain on the hill, but extremely windy straight onto pole cott, rather faster than the standard air speed of most gliders. Some damage, but by adding ballast we got some flying in. Flew the 4x zagi and the stiletto. Graham's big scale thing coping well, with wings flexing alarmingly with the extra weight.

Saturday adrian popped over on his ducati.

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Watched the eurovision song contest.

Sunday 1x round the village circuit 8 mins 08.
Lots of rain.
Went to see the 28 weeks later film - very dark, often literally, but tediously predictable in places. Lovingly lingers over many famous london landmarks.

news 2007.05.20 sunday 17 hits this week 8574 total.

Wednesday picked the new bosch sgi45e15g semi integrated dishwasher from currys. Looks like quite a big install.

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Lots of rain has filled the pond.

Saturday 1x round the village circuit 8 mins 26. Installed the dishwasher.

Sunday 2x circuit 15 mins 05. Took the bike over to see dad.

news 2007.05.27 sunday 23 hits this week 8597 total.

Monday over to wolston for the cadmac scale evening - a bit cold and breezy, with no competition, but a good turn out.

Thursday took the bike to work.

Friday on the bike again.

Saturday we decided to make the most of the least bad weather of the weekend and had a look at hampstead heath. Parked in hampstead lane and had an excellent lunch at the spaniards inn. Wandered mostly through the grounds of kenwood house. Saw someone with a flying wing and a bungee on a very small slope - didn't stay up for long. Saw and heard the famous parakeets, lots of magpies and crows. Finding highgate next door we had a look for the famous cemetery, but couldn't find it - eventually googled for the post code and only found the phone number, just before they closed and it started to rain. The massive m1 queues we had seen on the way down are apparently going to be there until end of 2008 and it took a long time to get home.

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Sunday the 200W/kg competition was rained off.

Swapped to the rain logo because of lots of rain.

  Week missing due to holiday in isle of man.
  Week missing due to glider competition and trip to italia.
news 2007.06.17 sunday 46 hits this week (3wks) 8643 total.

2 weeks late due to iomtt holiday, glider competition, trip to italia.

June.

Monday holiday went to browns in the rain for lunch.

Thursday thunder and lightning.

Friday dropped the car off for mot.

Saturday up early to get 2 front tyres on the car, and dropped off for new bushes. Into town for lunch.
Loaded up the bike and over to adrian's to meet up with dave. Set off about 17:30 up the m6 in brilliant warm sunshine and stopped overnight at the darwen services travelodge on the m65.

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(mad) Sunday up early at 02:25 and away at 04:00. Continued up the m6 as the sun came up, gradually joining more bikes. Alongside the scenic river at lancaster (it's a bomber, it's a bomber) to the port of heysham.
A long wait to get on the steam packet sea cat. Lots of europeans. Not too impressed with the in gear and sidestand only, lashing down to a side frame on the car deck, but it seems to work ok. A bit of a tiny boat, but a very fast crossing at 2 hours over a calm sea. Actually, quite lucky to be upgraded to the sea cat and an earlier sailing, compared to the late afternoon traditional ferry sailing booked 12 months ago. It seems many people just didn't get across at all. During the crossing carol made a 3rd attempt, against yet even longer odds, to get some of the few returned tickets for glastonbury - unsuccessful, as you might expect.
Completely different weather at douglas on the isle of man - grey, cool and threatening rain. Followed dave the short distance to the drufc camp site near quarterbridge island. Got the tents up just as it started to rain steadily.
Once the rain eased off a bit we got on the bikes to "do" the circuit. Rain got steadily heavier, and there was dense, dangerous fog on the mountain. Later heard that someone had been killed in a head on collision.
Rather damp, but in a nice dry tent, I read my book and listened to the radio, while adrian and dave got even wetter walking down to the sea front. Camp site rather noisy at night, meaning not much sleep.

Monday still grey, but not actually raining. We eventually decided to ride (rather than walk) to somewhere along the circuit to watch the racing. Lost dave along the way and ended up at what turned out to be ramsey.
The sun came out, we had a supermarket next door, and a good view of the racing from the total garage at the rh bend - excellent. After the racing most of the spectators piled onto the road to do the circuit in near race conditions. We waited a bit longer before heading down the coast road. Stopped to have a look at the smaller laxey wheel. Stopped at the douglas promenade for something to eat. Again, another noisy night.

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Tuesday was supposed to be a rest day, but bad weather meant it was actually to see racing rescheduled from saturday. We spent the day at ballaugh bridge, hoping to see some air in the jumps. Eventually decided to stay on the outside, with the post office and shop. I walked up a pathway along what was probably an abandoned railway to have a look at the roadside ahead of the bridge - me and several others. Lots of locals brought out steps to get a better view, but it was possible to see quite well anyway. Again after waiting a while we headed off and this time continued round the circuit, stopping for a look at the top of the snaefell mountain. Big queues of cars and bikes back into douglas. Had a quick look around the stalls around the start/finish area. Saw the red arrows perform along the sea front. Apparently it was another noisy (and cold) night, but I managed to sleep through it.

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Wednesday up reasonably early to pack the tents away and get outside the circuit before the roads closed. Another blue sky sunny day, but with a cool breeze. We paid to view from the church at braddan bridge. Excellent set up with chairs with shade under the trees, and some decent food. With a bit of time before the ferry we had a look at castletown. Returned on the bigger ben-my-chree which takes 3 hrs 30. Rather choked by exhaust fumes of impatient bikers on the car deck. A cold blast past midnight down the m6 to the same travelodge about 01:00.

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Thursday a leisurely drive home down the m6, with the bike rolling through 59000 miles on the way.

Friday still holiday picked up the car and went into town for lunch.

Saturday 1x round the village circuit 7 mins 57.
Went into town for lunch and to get carol's bike an mot.

Sunday up early and down the fosse way for the esoaring.net 200W/kg glider competition. Glorious hot sunny weather. 1st round on a wide landing circuit I put it into the tree. Was going to be about a 7+ mins flight too. Only about 4m up, it was fairly easy to get down, with only an extra through hole in the profilm, easily taped up to fly again. I adopted a new strategy of actively sweeping about upwind to look for lift, but with my tiny 1.8m simply it takes a lot of energy to cover the ground and often didn't find any, meaning only 3+ mins. But a couple of times got caught up in big thermals and best flight of thge day was 10 mins 04 and 25 bonus. With 7 rounds flown I managed to discard the 0 score 1st round, but the others also benefitted, leaving me 10th of 13 on the day. Actually moved up overall to 6th in the league, merely because some have not yet done 2 competitions.

Monday off to stansted and easyjet to napoli again. Stayed in the novotel for a change.

Much too hot in italia of course now. Air conditioning working well, but it does mean no fresh air.

Friday flight home delayed by about 90 mins - a few mins late arrival of the aircraft and the rest due to capodichino being too small to cope with the volume of holiday types. Some bumpy air over europe. Reasonably clear back up the m11, a14 presumably missing the worst of the rush hour traffic, arriving home about 18:10.

Saturday sunshine and heavy showers as we went into town for lunch.
Sadly saw a message saying that the peacocks are to be evicted from the village. Some people are so intolerant.
Saw a rather good retrospective on tiswas - anarchic saturday morning tv from the 70s.

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Sunday 1x round the village circuit 7 mins 57.
Couldn't be bothered to travel for the 200W/kg down south.
Saw the fantastic 4 film - better than the 1st, which isn't saying much.

Back to stars logo as we have lots of sunshine, despite the showers.

  Week missing due to glastonbury.
news 2007.07.01 sunday 31 hits this week (2wks) 8674 total.

1 week late due to glastonbury.

July.

Monday did the usual logistic swapping round to get carol's van an mot.

Tuesday plusnet connection very slow and dropping out again. Thundery weather.

Wednesday windy and showery.
M877 result was a pass at 50%. Should automatically get the diploma now.
Spent the evening doing more packing.

Thursday loaded up the car and headed off down the a46 and m5 to glastonbury.
After failing 3x to get tickets we managed to go as crew - looking after a brazier through the night in emily eavis' new park area.
Very little traffic as we arrived just after 12:30, ending up in w23 car park, which is at least quite close to the road, if a long walk onto site.
Straight through the gate with our sparkly red easy passout wrist bands. A long walk up to the park area dragging 2 trolleys full of stuff, only 1 with decent size wheels. Showers coming and going, some heavy.
Once again, it was obvious that the camping areas are filled on the wednesday. However, we got into the crew camping area, which is (only slightly) less crowded, and maybe a bit quieter, setting up in the far corner.
We had a quick look round the park area and went back to the tent to get some sleep.
Down to the brazier for 21:00. Now half full of general rubbish, we had to remove the plastic bottles and most of the tins. Also rather damp from the rain, making it hard to light. The pile of logs had been raided by the general festival goers, leaving us with rather few. Even so, we managed to get it going nicely, and poking it with a long stick kept it glowing nicely, with lots of grateful visitors to the still green grass area. 1 of the highlights of the weekend, sitting in the warmth, listening to faithless' insomnia coming from the stage sound system. The new jellyfish ribbon tower lit up and blowing in the breeze under the moon. The lack of fuel meant the fire was reduced to a few glowing embers by 01:00 and we went to bed.

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Friday morning heavy showers kept us in the tent.
When it eased off we headed down past the wishing tree, along the old railway line through the green area, and down to the pyramid stage to see gogol bordello. A couple of times the sun came out to welcoming cheers, but eventually the rain got so heavy that we just decided to go back to the tent, past the automatic on the other stage, and missing amy winehouse. Everywhere is now covered in the familiar light brown runny ice cream mud, but no sign of the huge lakes of 2005 - maybe the money spent on the drainage really has improved things. A nice wildlife pond up beside the crew camping, inside the perimeter fence, and under the mobile phone masts.
2nd attempt we went straight to the pyramid to see the magic numbers. Sunny blue sky showing between the clouds. Some very muddy people out front. Then over to the john peel tent to see the hold steady, which went down really well to those in the know - probably the highlight of the whole weekend. Back to the main stage for the fratellis, having problems with the sound system. Headed back to the tent past rufus wainwright being dreadfully dreary on the other stage.
Back to the brazier for 21:00 to find no logs. Surprise guest to open the park stage was lily allen, doing just a few songs as the sun went down in pretty pinks. 2 gas flares on top of the pillars to the side of the stage. Prepared the fire anyway, but at 22:00 we decided to go and see some bands... only to get a phone call to say the logs were on the way, arriving 22:30. Managed to fill it and get a roaring fire going. Saw a little of the aliens sounding quite interesting, then heard spiritualised, who seemed to do the same dreary song for 1.5hrs. Even so, it was pleasant sitting by the warm fire until 03:00. Missed the arctic monkeys of course.

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Saturday morning a bit of a lie in through more showers. Once again headed over to the green peace and green futures fields. A rather crude looking ark. Found the cat and hdra tent (in the rain). Further on to see the pedal powered industries and some wind mobiles. Even found the lost vagueness field, but didn't have time for a proper look. Got a bit lost heading for the main stage and ended up in the circus and cabaret area, seeing otway. Headed back to the park, past the wishing tree again (including wizard in suspended boat), in time to see lou rhodes. Back to the tent for a while. Prepared the brazier with some (damp) card from the catering areas. Saw a pair go by dressed as chicken and egg - not sure who was in front. Got the phone call to say there were no logs coming, so headed off to see some bands. Surprised to see coventry's own the ripps playing on the bbc introducing stage in the park. Missed the editors. Saw the killers last time, and decided to see iggy on the other stage, including the famous stage invasion. Back at the park it looked as though someone had attempted to light the fire, but it hadn't lasted long.

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Sunday again up late and down to the other stage for the enemy. Managed to get quite close, but the thunderous bass was too much, so we moved to the side of the mixing desk (in the rain). Saw the orange chill and charge tent, but the queue went right out of the field. Went down to the left field tent in time see the end of the tony benn introduction, and then marcus brigstocke. Walked along the back of the pyramid field for the view to the tor, and on to the john peel stage. Then back up through the dance area. Found pussy parlure - often wondered where that was. Back to the other stage and the end of get cape etc. as carol wanted to see the rakes. Back through the park, past the now more or less finished sand sculpture. Found a wooden crate for the fire and lots of cardboard, but with no logs, it was out by 22:00. Missed kt tunstall on the acoustic stage. Missed the kaiser chiefs. We went down to the pyramid stage, against the tide of people coming the other way, to see the end of the who set in the steady rain. Walking (slowly) back we saw the last few minutes of the chemical brothers, which looked rather good.

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Monday we had planned to get up early and get in the queue for the road, but massively tired, slept through the alarm. By now almost everything was muddy and wet, with a small lake at the bottom of the tent. Rain still falling steadily we packed away, loaded up the trolleys and headed down to pedestrian gate d. Although the new park area could really do with a metal road down the middle of it, the going was surprisingly easy as the rain through the night had washed away most of the sticky mud, and it was down hill. The site mostly resembling a battlefield with abandoned and broken tents etc. After searching w22 for the car we eventually found it in w23 and got on the road quickly - certainly much faster than some of the stories we heard on worthy fm radio, especially the east car parks. Most of the empty spaces had pairs of abandoned wellies. 1st services on the m5 were busy with wild eyed people queueing for the full english and real toilets.

My mobile was still showing 50% charge and carol's old k700i was still ok after swapping to the spare battery from my old phone. At times it was impossible to make a call, probably due to saturation of the available channels, as there was always plenty of signal strength. We even had most of a bottle of water left.
Saw a paper saying it was the wettest day for 50 years. Bad as it was, it seems we missed the worst rain
Caught up with most of the many hours of bbc coverage at home. Highlights we missed including the killers, the ting tings with their rather good that's not my name (on the bbc park stage), and gogol bordello doing their song about superstring theory.
Glastonbury 2007. We were there.

Tuesday holiday mostly washing the mud out of things. Went into town for lunch.

Wednesday tony bliar resigns. "Things can only get better", or can they?

Saturday into town in the rain for lunch.
Caught up with the excellent 2nd series of rome.

Sunday 1x round the village circuit in the damp before the rain started again 8 mins 07.
The "total" smoking ban starts today - about time too.

Back to rain logo after rain more or less every day.

news 2007.07.08 sunday 15 hits this week 8689 total.

Sunday afternoon we headed off down the a46 and m40 to london to see gianna nannini at the shepherds bush empire. Parked in the ncp at the shopping centre, and had something to eat at the defectors weld. Very strange to be in a pub with no smoke, but still far too noisy in there. A little walk round and a coffee, before going in at 20:00. I feared the worst for the inclusion of a string section, but it was still heavy enough with the rest of the band there. Occasionally dropping back to just the grand piano - the full range. Understandably lots from the latest (patchy) cd, but lots of classics from the last 20 years. The place was mostly full of adoring singalong italians - a great atmosphere. Before the 1st encore the crowd started singing bello e' impossibile. Mostly in italian of course, but with a special english version of sei nell'anima. All over by 22:15, which seems a bit early, but kept the ncp charge down to about £10. Immediately got lost in the 1 way systems and residential areas, but the sat nav got us home by about 00:30.

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Monday holiday. Went into town for lunch, and to get the bike an mot, managing to miss the worst of the rain.
Went to the cadmac egm to discuss the proposed purchase of (part of) the flying field at wolston.

Tuesday ling mynd trip rained off.
It seems my CCI diploma will be awarded july 31.

Saturday 1x round the village circuit 7 mins 59.
We went over to cotesbach for the 777 celebration of the enclosures act riot/protest. A few people had done the walks in period costume. Some familiar stalls from glastonbury. Nice to have a bit of warm, sunny weather for a change.
Missed the 200W/kg competition up north.
Watched some of the live earth thing - foo fighters probably the highlight.

Sunday 1x circuit 8 mins 01.
Nice bit of sunshine in the garden.
In the evening the rain returned.

godivafestival next weekend. What's the weather going to be?

news 2007.07.15 sunday 17 hits this week 8706 total.

Thursday went to a seminar just off the m42.

Friday bought a samsung clp300 colour laser printer - remarkably cheap at £134.23 from pcworld, and (relatively) small too. Straightforward set up. Steams a bit - maybe it gets the paper a bit hotter? It seems to wet the paper more than a mono laser anyway, more like an ink jet. Print quality also is similar to an ink jet, but without that horrible banding from the mechanical scanning process. I suppose you can't expect too much from an entry level device.
Didn't do the friday evening of the godiva festival.

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Saturday into town a bit late, but just in time to see the carnival proceed through warwick road. Back to browns for lunch, where it is strange being able to sit anywhere smoke free.
We wanted to get to the park in time to see the ripps, but the massive queue was moving extremely slowly, so carol headed for the tent, while I sat in the queue for an hour.
The free godiva festival, now in its 10th year, seems to be getting even more popular. A new layout is slightly better, but still too crowded, when there is plenty more park available. The bins provided were almost invisble, and had closed tops, with predictable results. No effort at recycling.
We went home, and returned later on the bikes, to avoid the traffic, in time to see the enemy. A bit too shouty for me, but still good, playing to an excited home crowd with the electric tent packed. They played the same tent to about 40 last year. At last they have removed some of the sides of the tent covering, allowing viewing from outside, but it would still be better with a proper glastonbury style stage. Also now rotated 90 degrees to face up what little slope there is. Several people climbed the tent supports right up to the lighting level, which seems rather risky. Got something to eat and wandered up to the top of the park, seeing james yorkston and the athletes on the market stage.
We assumed that the headliners were not playing as it was so quiet and there were so few people at the tent, but no - just not much interest and low sound levels to appease the whinging local residents.
Went home in the dusk, fireworks bursting in the damp air over coombe.
Yet another bbc glastonbury highlights actually included 1 song from the hold steady. I had thought the boom camera never swung round far enough, but there we are near the back.

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Sunday grey and damp, we didn't bother with the festival.

news 2007.07.22 sunday 23 hits this week 8729 total.

Keeping up with most of the tour de france on itv4, including the wonderful alpine roads.

Friday lots of wind, rain and flooded roads.

Sunday 1x round the village circuit 7 mins 59.
A bit of blue sky and sunshine before it clouded over again.

news 2007.07.29 sunday 19 hits this week 8748 total.

Sunday saw the last episode of the 2nd series of rome. The fictional characters threading the plot together creak a bit, but it really is an excellent retelling of the history.

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Monday bought the enemy cd we'll live and die in these towns and 2 cds of absolute garbage.

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Tuesday forecast to be the best weather of the week, we went down the pub.

Wednesday the 1st 2x heroes was interesting.

Friday went to see the transformers film. The money is certainly up there on screen - more high quality cgi than ever before. Mostly enormous "robots" transforming noisily and fighting noisily. I think there was a plot in there, or maybe several, but I didn't understand or follow it. The transformers look great and move well, but mostly everything else is a waste of time.

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Saturday 1x round the village circuit 7 mins 51. Nice and sunny.
We watched the rest of the hot fuzz dvd.

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Sunday 2x circuit 15 mins 27.
Replaced the speaker in the crate amp with a 225W 8" from maplin. The original had quickly developed the same low frequency rattle that the shop demo unit had. I had ignored it at the time, as it could be replaced and anyway, you can use an external. Sounds good now - for an 8".
Lovely warm sunny clear weather, with just a few fluffy white clouds and a moderate breeze. We took the bikes over to warwick to catch the end of the festival free music in the market square. Finished quite early, so we had a look in the museum instead. Also had a look at the hill close gardens.

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The tour de france had a few dramatic exits this week, but still entertaining.

Forecast not to rain (much) next week.

news 2007.08.07 tuesday 30 hits this week (1wk+) 8778 total.

2d late due to woodvale and mynd.

August.

Monday sunny took the bike to work, and tuesday, wednesday.

Tuesday was the official day for the award of my ou diploma. Although the paper certificate will probably be another month yet.

Postgraduate Diploma in Computing for Commerce and Industry

year module title result
1993 m861 computer architecture and operating systems pass
1995 m866 relational database systems pass with merit
1995 m867 user interface design and development pass
1996 dm863 intro to common lisp programming pass
1997 m874 software development for networked apps (java) pass with merit
1998 dmzx871 intelligent systems analysis and design pass
2006 m879 distributed applications and e commerce pass
2006 m877 advanced database technology pass

Wednesday fitted a new indicator control to the car, after it broke at the weekend.

Thursday rain, back to the car.
Progressed the skorpion a bit, connecting up the tail servos and looking at how to fit the Rx and power pack into the space available up front.

Friday sunny, bike, bbq at work.

Saturday 1x round the village circuit 8 mins 27.
Into town for lunch, then off up the m6 to richard's to meet up with jes and steve.

Sunday over to the woodvale rally in the hot sunshine. No sign of the forecast rain. I was planning on buying the s3150 servos for the skorpion wing, but no sign of pmp this year. Mostly all the same stuff, which is not very interesting.
Got the sat nav to take me home, down the coast road and the m57. The m6 was remarkably clear for a sunday afternoon. Apparently it was the hottest day of the year so far.

Monday over to wolston for the cadmac meeting.

Tuesday off to the mynd. 5 in 2 cars. NW wind put us on the darnford slope. Nice and sunny with varying cloud cover. As well as a reasonable wind there were lots of bubbly thermals coming through. I flew 5 - filip, simply, stiletto, zagi, nano floh. Stopped a bit later than usual, leaving about 16:30.

Swapped to stars logo as the rain seems to have eased off now.

news 2007.08.12 sunday 17 hits this week (1wk-) 8795 total.

Wednesday sunny, bike, and thursday.

Friday the car wouldn't start. Still a mystery, as the nice man from the aa cleaned up most of the electrical connections, but only a spray up the air intake eventually got it going.

Saturday 1x round the village circuit 8 mins 00.

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Reasonably early we got the bikes ready and headed off down the m1 to london for the 1st ever field day festival in victoria park. Perfect weather. Stopped at the gateway services to fire up the sat nav and got the angel in my ears to guide us across north london through heavy traffic. Found somewhere to park the bikes in a side street and left the secured helmets and jackets. With no advance info of the site layout, we ended up having to walk right round the fenced in area to get to the 1 and only entrance. No bottles allowed - not even water. Managed to drink almost 1.5l of volvic fairly quickly. No wrist bands and no reentry. Fridge were playing on the eat your own ears stage as we arrived - pleasant enough ambient stuff. Same open clam shell stage design as the bbc introducing stage at glastonbury. Excellent setting for a festival, with plenty of shade from the trees. Had something to eat and a look round after finding a discarded program. Some of the summer fete ideas didn't really work, but getting the bands to tug of war against each other was fun. Saw the concretes in the adventures in the beetroot field tent. Still overpopulated at 7 after losing the main vocals, but good quirky swedish pop. Much too hot in a mostly enclosed tent. Sound level too low to hear any of the between song chat. Straight over to see the aliens on the main stage - great fun. A bit more wandering around sampling the various bands and tents, not to mention the strangely dressed up people, including a fox and a squirrel. Left before the end and got home about 00:00.

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Sunday up late. Went to a garden centre to look for a new bench and had lunch there.

news 2007.08.19 sunday 20 hits this week 8815 total.

Sunday night we slept in the garden to see the perseid meteor shower. Saw only about 3 around 23:00. Clouded over through the night. Saw another about 04:00. Saw the birds stirring for the dawn chorus and a squirrel feeding in the trees. Very wet in the morning dew.

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Monday sunny, bike. Coming home a car bumped it at the m6 island, putting me on the floor and wedging the back of the bike into the front of the car, damaging the indicators, number plate etc. Still can't get the car to start.

Tuesday took carol's van. Did all the insurance stuff. The bike is going off to the 4th dimension.

Wednesday off for bike collection. 1x round the village circuit 8 mins 52. Sun, thunder and rain. Managed to get some new plugs fitted to the car. It fires occasionally, but won't start.

Friday morning got the aa to take the car to the peugeot dealers, although he insisted on doing the usual diagnostics 1st. Don't know when they will find time to have a look at it. So, no bike, no car.
Late afternoon the help hire replacement bike from hexagon was dropped off - an 07 suzuki sv650 - very nice, if not very practical for carrying shopping.

Saturday up late, into town for lunch. Went to see the simpsons film - better than expected.

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Sunday saw the v festival highlights - very short, with only a few secs of juliette and the licks. Raining for the foo fighters. Seemed to be exclusively the chelmsford location.
Adrian came over for a quick visit on the ducati in the rain.

news 2007.08.26 sunday 27 hits this week 8842 total.

Monday took the (almost) new bike to work. Slightly vibratory with a lot of torque and engine braking, but handles very nicely. Low fuel light on straight away.
Peugeot say it may be the engine speed sensor feeding the ecu that is the problem, so a new 1 coming tomorrow.
The ou paper certificate for the PGDCCI (Open) arrived.

Tuesday a bit more used to the bike. The twin throb is quite fun for 10 mins, then it just becomes an annoying vibration. Peugeot phoned to say the car was fixed - £106. They had cleaned it inside and out, even the alloy wheels. Collected it in the evening. Lots of claim paperwork.

Wednesday ended the hire, but it will take a while to recover it. No news on my bike.

Thursday did a bit of chasing up and it seems the 3rd party have admitted liability, and the bike will probably be inspected next week. Lovely sunny weather.

Friday lovely and sunny again. Hexagon collected the bike.

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Saturday sunny. 1x round the village circuit 8 mins 24. Carol's van returned repaired from the damage while parked at the allotment. Into town for lunch. Saw titan the "robot". More reading festival.

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Sunday 1x circuit 7 mins 56 - pumped the tires up. Unfeasibly perfect bank holiday weather. We went to have a look at wellesbourne water mill that has just reopened after flood damage. Also looked for a new garden bench.

news 2007.09.02 sunday 21 hits this week 8863 total.

September.

Monday holiday. 1x round the village circuit 7 mins 54. Ordered a garden bench. Into town for lunch with free parking. Dropped the 3700mAh nimh into the skorpion fuselage - looks like it will all squeeze in. Need some extension leads to the wing servo connectors. Weather has clouded over a bit.

Thursday the 4x s3150 servos and extension leads arrived from pmp. A bit more installation into the skorpion.

Friday it seems the 3rd party have at last decided to assess the bike.

Saturday 1x circuit 8 mins 17.
The aliens cds astronomy for dogs and alienoid starmonica arrived from amazon, together with the concretes hey trouble and bedouin captured rotation and extremely live 2003.

astronomyfordogs.jpg alienoidstarmonica.jpg heytrouble.jpg capturedrotation.jpg extremelylive2003.jpg

Finished reading the god delusion book. Dawkins can be rather annoying, but there is some interesting stuff in there.

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Dropped the Rx into the nose of the skorpion, and connected up all 6x servos. Set up a model in the Tx. Still to fix the servos in the wing.

Sunday 2x circuit 15 mins 07. Covered the wings in paper ready to fit the servos. We went to daventry for the waitrose, and popped in to see lucy and brent nearby.

news 2007.09.09 sunday 16 hits this week 8879 total.

Sunday saw 1 of this year's tiny froglets.

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Tuesday holiday. 2x round the village circuit 14 mins 40. Mynd cancelled as the forecast NW 5mph wind would not be very good. Decided to take the day anyway to make the most of the good weather. A bit of a nightmare deciding which of the many methods described in the instructions for fitting the wing servos in the skorpion - not knowing how much to cut away without damaging the structure. Anyway, eventually got 2 servos mostly mounted into the left wing. Still need packing pieces and wiring.
The fvrt100 upgrade kit arrived from xtendedplay.co.uk - very quick, and only £74, including a neat little torx screwdriver kit. It is really only a 160GB hard drive with some formatting and software installed.
Got a call to say the bike had been assessed. As expected it is deemed beyond economic repair, so I should get a cash settlement and the bits back soon.
Got another call to say the new bench is due to be delivered thursday.

Thursday the bench arrived.

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Friday the bike returned. Stripped down the tail end to figure out how to repair it.

Saturday thought we were going to london, but went to oxford instead. Found the big bang in walton street - just good bangers and mash with (very green) peas and red cabbage, if a bit expensive. Wandered up to explore the jericho area and had coffee at a converted church called freud.

Sunday 2x circuit 14 mins 58. Adrian and dave came over on the ducati and dave's bmw r1100.

Still haven't installed the fvrt100 upgrade as there is lot of time shifted stuff to catch up with.

news 2007.09.16 sunday 20 hits this week 8899 total.

Tuesday got the engineer's report on the bike.
Bought the new kt tunstall cd drastic fantastic.

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Thursday afternoon 3x round the village circuit 23 mins 08.
Filed down some metal clevis connectors for the wing servos in the skorpion.

Friday cut all the holes in the right wing.

Saturday 3x circuit 23 mins 10.
Went to hein gericke and jands to look at new helmets. Accidentally found the other hobgoblin and the custard factory.
In the evening we went to a party at radford smelly.

Sunday 3x circuit 23 mins 55.
Fitted, packed and trimmed the servos in the left wing - need to come out again to wire up the wing to fuselage connector.

Saw some of the bestival coverage. It seems the summer is over now, with rain forecast.

news 2007.09.23 sunday 25 hits this week 8924 total.

Monday bought the view cd hats off to the buskers.

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Tuesday afternoon 3x round the village circuit 22 mins 57.

Thursday afternoon 3x circuit 23 mins 21.
The new indicators and replacement mudguard arrived, but it's not the right part. Something on the way from ebay should be right.

Friday a bit more skorpion build before the rain started.

Saturday 3x circuit 23 mins 44.
Into town for lunch at browns.
More skorpion build in the garden before dusk.

Sunday 3x circuit 22 mins 38 - pumped up the tyres.
Several hours skorpion build. The servos are in the wings to stay, with extension cables soldered and heatshrunk on. Still unsure about the wing to fuselage connectors. Anyway should be able to get back to the fuselage and sort out the balance.

news 2007.10.01 monday 24 hits this week (1wk+) 8948 total.

1d late due to london.

October.

Tuesday 3x round the village circuit 22 mins 47.

Wednesday night very bright in the garden under the full moon.

Thursday 3x circuit 23 mins 25.
Got some wheel balancing strips for balancing the skorpion. Fitted the servo covers.

Friday fitted 1 wing to fuselage connector.

Saturday fitted the other connector and checked the balance - looks like 2x 60g strips in the nose would put it at the front of the recommended range. A bit less than the 150g mentioned in the instructions, probably because of the larger 3700mAhr Rx pack I managed to squeeze in. Struggling to find space for it - managed to get some inside next to the Rx pack and the rest on top, but had to lose 5g to get the nose cover back on again. Also relocated the led voltage monitor. Should be about right when it all goes back together again. With all the radio and balancing in it's starting to feel very heavy, even though it has lots of wing area. Should be ready for next tuesday.

Sunday 2x circuit 15 mins 51 in the cold sunshine.
Went to london. Cool and sunny. Lunch at strada in marylebone high street. Something good to eat at bar chocolate in d'arblay street. Cloudy moon on the way back. Saw a fox in the garden.

Monday holiday 2x circuit 15 mins 50.
Lowered the fuselage servos for better clearance from the nose cone by removing the lower part of the rubber mounting grommets. Fully assembled and range checked it weighs about 2.425kg. The balance has ended up about right. Set up all the servo throws according to the various instructions, but with no differential, exponential. Ready to fly.

news 2007.10.07 sunday 16 hits this week (1wk-) 8964 total.

Monday bought the 300 dvd.

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Tuesday holiday. Long mynd cancelled due to lack of interest and the grey weather. Some tidying up instead.
We saw the surprsingly good atonement film.

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Wednesday holiday 2x round the village circuit 15 mins 29.
The bike mudguard from ebay arrived - looks like it will do.
Into town for lunch at browns.

Thursday started fitting the mudguard and new indicators.

Saturday bought the we start fires and foo fighters cds.

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Put most of the bits back on the bike - still the heated grips switch to do.

Sunday 2x circuit 15 mins 59.
Over to leamington for shopping and lunch, then to compton verney for art.

news 2007.10.15 monday 19 hits this week (1wk+) 8983 total.

1d late due to batsford.

Monday off to stansted and easyjet to napoli and novotel caserta.

Vesuvio visible in the distance.

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Thursday evening we went for a walk up the road towards the royal palace (of "naboo").

Friday return flight delayed 1hr at the slightly expanded capodichino aeroporto, meaning we hit heavier traffic on the m11. Traffic announcements of more problems on the a14, so we got out the sat nav and headed for the m1. Went past the airship hangars at cardington.

Sunday fitted the new heated grip switch to the bike.
Afternoon we went to batsford arboretum for the autumn colours.

2007batsfordfly1c400.jpg 2007batsfordpond1_400.jpg 2007batsfordtree1_400.jpg 2007batsfordtreered1_400.jpg 2007batsfordhouse1_400.jpg 2007batsfordtreeyellow1_400.jpg 2007batsfordbushred1_400.jpg

news 2007.10.21 sunday 22 hits this week (1wk-) 9005 total.

9000+ hits.

I seem to have caught a cold in italia.

Thursday morning frosty.
Ordered a multiplex Rx 9 synth ds ipd from smc - provides "fail safe" setting in loss of Tx signal and no need for an Rx xtal.

multiplexrx9synthdsipd.jpg

Friday morning frosty again. Saw a fox trotting along the road into the village with its kill.
Saw the resident evil 3 - extinction film - shows its game roots, most of the plot is ridiculous, highly derivative, but occasionally fun.

Saturday 1x round the village circuit in the cold sunshine 8 mins 35.
The new Rx arrived.

Sunday 1x circuit 8 mins 33 in the frosty sunshine.
Sunny afternoon with little wind. We went for a walk up the hill.
Strange white thing appeared in the garden lawn.

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news 2007.10.28 sunday 23 hits this week 9028 total.

Monday phoned pirelli about a new sport demon rear tyre for the bike. Dropped the wheel out.

Tuesday poipped the wheel over to the 2 wheel tyre centre to get it fitted.

Wednesday bought a new plain white shoei raid 2 helmet from mps £200. Put the wheel back on.
Remarkable how the weight of a standard shoei has come down over the years - these 3 are...
1762g 1661g 1487g.

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Saturday 1x round the village circuit in the grey damp 8 mins 32.
Afternoon we went over to hinckley to have a look at drayton croft.
Evening we went to see the rezillos at the little civic. Last date of the tour, it was great. Mostly the classics from the 1st "can't stand the..." lp, but also an excellent version of river deep mountain high. 2 encores to an excited crowd. I love my baby 'cause she does good sculptures - yeah. The wonderful fay fife.

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Sunday 1x circuit in the wind and leaves 8 mins 48.
Set back the few clocks that don't sort themselves out.

news 2007.11.04 sunday 30 hits this week 9058 total.

November.

Sunday had a bit of trouble getting the car started.

Tuesday afternoon bike collected by the drayton croft van.

Some lovely sunny weather this week, and autumn leaves colour, but missed most of it at work.

Thursday dropped the car off for a new starter motor.
Walked from work to the garage, mostly along the river sowe nature reserve. Amazed to find a lake with geese that I never knew was there. Took a lot longer than I expected and dark by the time I arrived. Anyway, spins very nicely now.

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Friday popped into drayton croft coventry to see a ducati monster spotted on the web site.

Saturday we went for a closer look at the monster m600, then into town for lunch.
Over to hinckley to pick up the bike. August 13 59553 miles around most of europe and some git drives into the back of it. Anyway, november 03 back on the road - feels nice to be back on it.

Sunday 1x round the village circuit in the cold fog 8 mins 16.
Afternoon took the bike over to see dad.
Carol caught some photos of birds in the leaves in the garden.

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news 2007.11.11 sunday 34 hits this week 9082 total.

Monday carol went and put a deposit on the monster.

Tuesday off to the mynd. 5 in 2 cars. NW wind put us on pole cott. A bit too much N in it most of the time. Anyway, flew the skorpion, which went very well with no trim required - nice quiet jet engine sound as it cleanly cuts through the air. A bit heavy and not much lift with no flap, but it stayed up in the lift out front. Bringing it back for the cameras there was not enough to keep it up. Didn't try again as the wind didn't get any better and the low sun swung round to the W. Almost exactly 1 year after placing the order.

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Thursday bought a 52 element aerial to try to improve the tv reception, but not much.

Saturday 1x round the village circuit in the cold wind 8 mins 20.
We went over to drayton croft coventry to collect the ducati monster m600 and Carol rode it home. I had a quick go round the village circuit. It is lovely, extremely light, but the bars are a bit high at the moment and the mirrors are a bit close. The single front disc is surprisingly effective. Back into town again for lunch.

I managed to find a seat ticket reasonably close to the front of the nec arena to see joan jett. Heavy traffic confusion around the car parks took a long time, but I arrived in time. Still missed the 1st 2 songs having something to eat. Anyway it was great, with a reasonable sound level and clear. None of the big screens that are more or less standard now at outdoor events. Just 35 mins to a largely indifferent arena. Then motorhead, which was really, really too loud and a very muddy unclear sound, especially when you have your ears blocked up to protect them. Lots of obscure stuff from the many recent cds. Some songs took a while to recognise through the bad sound. Anyway, the crowd liked it and the encore was good. Headline was alice something or other - I went home. The line up was completely upside down.

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Sunday 1x circuit in the blustery sunshine 8 mins 25.
Adrian popped over on his ducati to see ours. Later I took it for a ride and fuel.

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news 2007.11.18 sunday 17 hits this week 9099 total.

Thursday frosty and sunny. Warwickshire looking pretty in the winter weather.

Friday the wonderful stollen cake is back in the shops - smells of xmas.

Saturday 2x round the village circuit in the not too cold damp 8 mins 31.
Afternoon got home in time to have a proper look at the ducati before the early dusk.

Sunday miserable, wet and windy.
Mostly tidying up.

news 2007.11.25 sunday 22 hits this week 9121 total.

Monday rain.

Tuesday bought some more klik radio watches.

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Wednesday bought a white led unit for the front of the bike.

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Saturday 1x round the village circuit in the grey frost 8 mins 12. Pumped up the tyres.
Over to the nec for the bike show. Met adrian there. Nothing particularly interesting, but had a sit on the latest yamaha r6 and the ducati 848.

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Back home jes and steve arrived - we went to the pub to eat.

Sunday 1x circuit 7 mins 37.
Adrian came over on the ducati.
Into town for lunch.

The advent calendar is back for xmas.

news 2007.12.02 sunday 19 hits this week 9140 total.

December.

Tuesday ordered the number plate bracket missing from the monster.

Wednesday fired up tomb raider legend after a rather long (18 month) break to complete the ou diploma. Looks good in 22" 1680x1050, but slows down after a while, so I'm using 1024x768.

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Thursday picked up the number plate bracket.

Friday afternoon off - took the ducati over to see dad. Getting a bit more used to it - very thrumbly.

Saturday 1x round the village circuit 8 mins 34. Fitted a click radio watch to my bike. Carol took the ducati for a ride.
Into town for lunch, then over to leamington.
Put the xmas tree up.

Sunday blustery day.
Saw a jay in the garden.

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We went for a walk round the village in the afternoon.

news 2007.12.09 sunday 19 hits this week 9159 total.

Monday cadmac agm.

Tuesday off to the mynd. 4 in 2 cars - lee and me in carol's van. A stiff breeze, slightly S of W onto pole cott. A bit too strong for most, but fun with zagis. Sunshine on the horizon, but it never made it over to us. I didn't risk the skorpion.

Wednesday heroes volume 1 came to an end in its usual nonsensical, but faintly entertaining way.

Thursday we went to see the golden compass film. It's fantastic. Sad to see unnecessary voiceovers added. Jordan college sees to me cobbled together from large parts of exeter and cristchurch colleges (and a few others) - the fellows garden looking particularly familiar. Despite being almost 2 hours long, it is rushed, with a few minor tweaks to the plot and a curious reordering of events, but more seriously the dark and intreresting ending is completely missing. Some scenes that were in the various trailers don't seem to have made the film. It looks like it was all filmed, and then heavily edited. I expect there will be a director's cut eventually.
Asriel is fine, I thought mrs coulter was miscast, but she does it well. Lyra is perfect. The bears are utterly convincing. The daemons are occasionally a little bit cgi, but generally very good.
It all looks wonderful. Go see it - after reading the book.

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Saturday we decided not to go to york through the heavy rain, went into town for lunch instead.
Saw 3x squirrels near the cathedrals - here's a slightly out of focus photo of 1 just before it jumped onto my shoulder.

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Eventuially worked out how to win the fight at the end of the japan level of tomb raider legend - took about 20x.

Sunday 1x round the village circuit in the light rain and wind 8 mins 27.

news 2007.12.16 sunday 13 hits this week 9172 total.

Monday the 106 exhaust went, and it seems the front support has disappeared. Dropped it off for looking at.
Put some new rotosound strings on the bass 35, 55, 75, 95.

Tuesday no news on the car.
Cleared enough stuff off the fvrt100 to fit the new (4x bigger) 160G hard drive from xtendedplay - very simple and only took a few minutes. Seems to have a different version of firmware with clearer text displays.

Wednesday off dropped carol off at work, getting a few photos of a frosty warwickshire on the way.

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Bought a new number plate from ducati coventry,
Into town for lunch.
Took the bike (kawasaki) for a ride in the last sunshine of the day.
Collected the car with its new exhaust.

Thursday fitted a new battery to the car.

Friday bought a flytech hornet.

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Saturday 1x round the village circuit in the cold 8 mins 24.
Put the hornet together - you get a lot of for £34.

Sunday 1x circuit 8 mins 34.
Had a go at flying the hornet - tend to stall under full power, needing close throttle control to maintain level flight.
Went over to see adrian.
1x circuit in the afternoon sunshine 8 mins 17.
Saw some of the robert plant set from the 2006 cornbury festival on virgin1 - sounding a bit better than it did standing in the field.

news 2007.12.23 sunday 18 hits this week 9190 total.

I think it's xmas now, so snow background.

Monday we all went to the binley park inn for xmas lunch carvery.

Wednesday off. 1x round the village circuit in the cold afternoon sunshine about 7 mins 50.
Did some fitting of the new number plate for the ducati.
Went back several chepoints to an old tomb raider game save and worked up to the fight at the end of the ghana level with better weapons, but no extra health packs. I eventually managed to pull down the 4 platforms, but couldn't win the fight. After about 20x, downloaded the game save for the next level kazakhstan, which is seasonally snowy, with nice crunchy footsteps.
Fitted some new strings to the guitar.

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Thursday foggy.
More tomb raider, riding a black ducati monster, chasing a train.

Friday took the mandola in and played a few xmas tunes in the afternoon, before finishing early.
Carol had problems starting the van, and unable to get the kawasaki going, took the ducati.
In the evening a nice man from the aa came and diagnosed it as a faulty starter motor, but getting a new 1 fitted over the holiday is going to be tricky.

Saturday 1x round the village circuit 8 mins 21.
We went over to leamington for lunch at strada.

Sunday 1x circuit in the frosty fog 8 mins 41 including an off at the far corner where I lost the front wheel on some black ice.
We went for a walk through badby woods with the sunshine through the oak trees. Then an excellent lunch at the windmill. Then daventry for coffee and shopping.

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news 2007.12.30 sunday 14 hits this week 9204 total.

Sunday I eventually managed managed to jump the ducati onto the train and progress in tomb raider.

Xmas eve 1x round the village circuit in the damp 8 mins 28.
A bit of wrapping.
Finished fitting the number plate properly.
We went into town for lunch, then over to adrian's then dad's.

Xmas day rain.
We went for a walk up the hill.

Boxing day 1x circuit 8 mins 21 in the damp sunshine.
We went to the walsgrave for a family lunch carvery, then round to dad's.

Thursday we bump started the van and over to suzuki coventry for a new starter motor.
Went to have a look at the new ikea. Up the stairs as the lifts were being awkward. It seems a bit daft to site it in a city centre, but they have made a reasonable go of it, even opening the area up a bit at ground level, and with some new views over starley rd.

Friday we went to london. Blustery but dry at 1st. We went to have a look at the crack in tate modern. It looks fairly straightforwardly made to me, just machined out and then filled with reinforcing wire mesh and cement shaped by hand - there are no cut edges of wire. Rain started about 17:00 and it was a bit miserable walking back. Found bar chocolate, but it was too early to be open. Noticed the oxford espress bus has wifi.

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Saturday 2x circuit 16 mins 24 in the windy sunshine.
We went shopping.
We saw the end of the polar express film.

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Sunday 2x circuit 15 mins 46.
Some tidying up.

Watched some 1979 feynman lectures this week on the quantum nature of light photons and electrons - excellent.

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Advent is over, so changed to the snow logo.

Snow is forecast for the end of the week.

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