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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. New year's day 1x round
the village circuit 8 mins 32. 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. Sunday 1x circuit 8 mins
51. Back to red background for the new year. |
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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. 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. |
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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. Wednesday, with carol off
to see her parents and with heavy wind forecast, left me
driving the van. Thursday very windy. Saturday we went to oxford
for a day of lectures on waves at the continuing eduction place. Sunday 1x round the village circuit 8 mins 59. |
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news 2007.01.28 sunday | 25 hits
this week 8223 total. Monday at last a bit of chill in
the weather. 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. Sunday 1x circuit 8 mins
26. |
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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. 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. Saturday 1x round the village circuit 8 mins 36 in the frosty sunshine. Sunday 1x circuit 8 mins
44. |
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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. Wednesday my budgie cd cuckooland arrived from amazon. Thursday a decent bit of
snow. Friday a bit more snow,
and lots of slush. Peacocks looking a bit cold 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. Swapped to the snow logo for the rather pathetic 2 days of snow this week, which nevertheless managed to cause the usual travel chaos. |
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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. |
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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. Sunday 2x round the
village circuit in light rain 16 mins 05. Back to rain logo. |
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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. Sunday 2x circuit 15 mins
55. 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. Bretford very flooded. |
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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.
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. Saturday we went to
leicester. Sunday 1x round the
village circuit 8 mins 43. |
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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. 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. Sunday windy, sunshine and
hailstones. 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. |
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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. 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. 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. Sunday 1x round the
village circuit 8 min 43. A bit of tidying up and lots of
sleep. Clocks changed, mostly automatically. 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. |
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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. Sunday 1x circuit 8 mins
51. Cold and windy. |
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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. Wednesday bought a rotacraft tool for making the holes in the skorpion. Thursday frosty and sunny.
Friday holiday 1x round the village circuit 8 mins 29. Saturday 1x circuit 8 mins
21.
Sunday 2x circuit 15 mins
57. Another glorious sunny day. |
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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. 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. Still mostly sunny, once the mist clears. Saturday a bit of
revision. Sunday 1x round the
village circuit 7 mins 40. |
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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. Lots more revision. |
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news 2007.04.29 sunday | 15 hits
this week 8512 total. Monday all 3 peacocks were round
and in the garden. 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. 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. Saturday 1x round the
village circuit 7 mins 54.
Sunday 1x circuit 8 mins 09. |
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news 2007.05.13 sunday | 25 hits
this week 8557 total. Sunday and monday holiday a bit of
maintenance on the 4x zagi. 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. Watched the eurovision song contest. Sunday 1x round the
village circuit 8 mins 08. |
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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. 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. |
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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.
Sunday the 200W/kg competition was rained off. Swapped to the rain logo because of lots of rain. |
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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. (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. 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.
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.
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. 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. 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. Sunday 1x round the
village circuit 7 mins 57. Back to stars logo as we have lots of sunshine, despite the showers. |
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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. Thursday loaded up the car
and headed off down the a46 and m5 to glastonbury.
Friday morning heavy
showers kept us in the tent.
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.
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.
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. 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. Sunday 1x round the
village circuit in the damp before the rain started again
8 mins 07. Back to rain logo after rain more or less every day. |
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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.
Monday holiday. Went into
town for lunch, and to get the bike an mot, managing to
miss the worst of the rain. Tuesday ling mynd trip
rained off. Saturday 1x round the
village circuit 7 mins 59. Sunday 1x circuit 8 mins
01. godivafestival next weekend. What's the weather going to be? |
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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. 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. Sunday grey and damp, we didn't bother with the festival. |
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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. |
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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. Monday bought the enemy cd we'll live and die in these towns and 2 cds of absolute garbage.
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. Saturday 1x round the
village circuit 7 mins 51. Nice and sunny. Sunday 2x circuit 15 mins
27. The tour de france had a few dramatic exits this week, but still entertaining. Forecast not to rain (much) next week. |
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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
Wednesday fitted a new indicator control to the car, after it broke at the weekend. Thursday rain, back to the
car. Friday sunny, bike, bbq at work. Saturday 1x round the
village circuit 8 mins 27. 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. 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. |
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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. 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.
Sunday up late. Went to a garden centre to look for a new bench and had lunch there. |
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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.
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. Saturday up late, into town for lunch. Went to see the simpsons film - better than expected. 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. |
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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. 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. 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. 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. |
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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.
Finished reading the god delusion book. Dawkins can be rather annoying, but there is some interesting stuff in there. 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. |
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news 2007.09.09 sunday | 16 hits
this week 8879 total. Sunday saw 1 of this year's tiny froglets. 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. Thursday the bench arrived. 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. |
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news 2007.09.16 sunday | 20 hits
this week 8899 total. Tuesday got the engineer's report
on the bike.
Thursday afternoon 3x
round the village circuit 23 mins 08. Friday cut all the holes in the right wing. Saturday 3x circuit 23
mins 10. Sunday 3x circuit 23 mins
55. Saw some of the bestival coverage. It seems the summer is over now, with rain forecast. |
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news 2007.09.23 sunday | 25 hits
this week 8924 total. Monday bought the view cd hats off to the buskers. Tuesday afternoon 3x round the village circuit 22 mins 57. Thursday afternoon 3x
circuit 23 mins 21. Friday a bit more skorpion build before the rain started. Saturday 3x circuit 23
mins 44. Sunday 3x circuit 22 mins
38 - pumped up the tyres. |
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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. 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. Monday holiday 2x circuit
15 mins 50. |
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news 2007.10.07 sunday | 16 hits
this week (1wk-) 8964 total. Monday bought the 300 dvd. Tuesday holiday. Long mynd
cancelled due to lack of interest and the grey weather.
Some tidying up instead. Wednesday holiday 2x round
the village circuit 15 mins 29. Thursday started fitting the mudguard and new indicators. Saturday bought the we start fires and foo fighters cds.
Put most of the bits back on the bike - still the heated grips switch to do. Sunday 2x circuit 15 mins
59. |
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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. 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.
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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. Friday morning frosty
again. Saw a fox trotting along the road into the village
with its kill. Saturday 1x round the
village circuit in the cold sunshine 8 mins 35. Sunday 1x circuit 8 mins
33 in the frosty sunshine. |
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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. Saturday 1x round the
village circuit in the grey damp 8 mins 32.
Sunday 1x circuit in the
wind and leaves 8 mins 48. |
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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. 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. Sunday 1x round the
village circuit in the cold fog 8 mins 16.
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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.
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. 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.
Sunday 1x circuit in the
blustery sunshine 8 mins 25. |
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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. Sunday miserable, wet and
windy. |
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news 2007.11.25 sunday | 22 hits
this week 9121 total. Monday rain. Tuesday bought some more klik radio watches. Wednesday bought a white led unit for the front of the bike. Saturday 1x round the
village circuit in the grey frost 8 mins 12. Pumped up
the tyres.
Back home jes and steve arrived - we went to the pub to eat. Sunday 1x circuit 7 mins
37. The advent calendar is back for xmas. |
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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. 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. Sunday blustery day. We went for a walk round the village in the afternoon. |
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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. Saturday we decided not to
go to york through the heavy rain, went into town for
lunch instead. 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. |
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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. Tuesday no news on the
car. Wednesday off dropped carol off at work, getting a few photos of a frosty warwickshire on the way.
Bought a new number plate
from ducati coventry, Thursday fitted a new battery to the car. Friday bought a flytech hornet. Saturday 1x round the
village circuit in the cold 8 mins 24. Sunday 1x circuit 8 mins
34. |
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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. Thursday foggy. Friday took the mandola in
and played a few xmas tunes in the afternoon, before
finishing early. Saturday 1x round the
village circuit 8 mins 21. 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.
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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. Xmas day rain. Boxing day 1x circuit 8
mins 21 in the damp sunshine. Thursday we bump started
the van and over to suzuki coventry for a new starter motor. 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.
Saturday 2x circuit 16
mins 24 in the windy sunshine. Sunday 2x circuit 15 mins
46. Watched some 1979 feynman lectures this week on the quantum nature of light photons and electrons - excellent. Advent is over, so changed to the snow logo. Snow is forecast for the end of the week. |