Mark's old news

2009.

Monday into town for lunch, coffee and cake.
Had another go at the cubase tutorials, with the hardware on line. Managed to record a bit of guitar, while live monitoring through the motu. Problems with the silent metronome click - having to use the laptop gm rather than a vst instrument, but I expect all will become clear later.
Saw the 1st xmas lecture on computers with focus on the microprocessor. Seems to have decided to skip mechanical and valves, starting briefly with transistors. I suppose there is a lot to get through. Usual array of pops, bangs and dodgy analogy.

Tuesday back to the tutorials and connected the xp30 keyboard for midi.

New year's eve frosty.
Charged the car.
A bit more progress in cubase, using the vst instruments to program in some midi bass and drums. Also downloaded a patch names file for the roland xp30, and eventually worked out where to put it. A lot of infuriating problems, when following the manual just doesn't seem to work, but there is usually another way.
Xmas lecture on software managed to completely miss any mention of languages, instruction sets etc. concentrating on binary representation of numbers.
Put the new strings on the yamaha guitar. Using the electronic tuner there seems to be a small intonation error on the a and b strings. It's not clear how to adjust this with string tension on.
Stayed up to see the jools' hootenanny and to get past the fireworks.

New year's day adjusted the guitar intonation by wedging something under the microtuners after depressing the tremolo system to relieve the string tension. Also tweaked the low e string.
We went for a walk up the other hill in the misty grey still afternoon. Many days of frost on the trees. Curious patterns in the broken and refrozen ice in puddles.

Xmas lecture focus on the internet, including a fascinating demonstration of braess' paradox using weights and bungees, where congestion in a network can sometimes be improved by removal of connection paths.

Friday extra day off. Some tidying up of aircraft building stuff. Into town for lunch, coffee and cake. 1x round the village circuit in the afternoon sunshine 8 mins 27 by stopwatch, as the computer needs a new battery.
Last xmas lecture focus on digital intelligence, but actually spent most of the time on the problem of pattern recognition, avoiding all of the deep, difficult problems of artificial intelligence. No mention of the turing test.

Saturday up not very early. Decided a bit late to go to london and protest at the sh1t going on in gaza. Quickly onto a bus at thornhill, but heavy traffic into london slowed us down more. With rumoured congestion at victoria we got off at marble arch and walked down park lane, into green park, along constitution hill. Beautiful crisp, clear sunny day. Coffee and a sandwich from a hut near buckingham palace. Along the mall to trafalgar square. Down whitehall to downing street to see the thrown shoes, but at 2+hrs late it had mostly been cleared up - just 1 missed in the gutter by the wheel of a van. Back to trafalgar square, we had a quick look at the stalls, then decided to go shopping. However, leaving the square we spotted the march heading for the embassy and joined it for a while. Helicopter overhead and circling occasionally. Along pall mall and st james' street.

We split off down jermyn street, eventually coming to leicester square. Another quick look at the music shops then back to oxford street. I had a quick look at hamleys while carol did uniqlo. Then back to greek street for trattoria da aldo again - something different from the menu of the day, also good. Back on park lane a short wait for a bus to a very frosty van at thornhill. Unusually early, the waiting room was still open and there was some warm water to clear the screen. Stopped at oxford sainsbury's for some bird food. Home by 22:30.

Sunday still cold and frosty.
Charged the car.
We watched the starter for 10 film.
Put the xmas tree away.

Been reading some more road to reality. Still in the maths sections, which can be rather long, tedious and impossibly difficult without spending several years studying. Still, symmetry groups next (again).

Monday morning cold with a light dusting of snow, with a little more later.
Started work properly on some drums for the jeans track.

Tuesday morning frosty after an extremely cold night, requiring 3 bottles of water to clear the screen.
Charged the car.

Wednesday much warmer, but still a 1 bottle frost.

Thursday no frost at all, and home before it was properly dark.

Saturday into town for lunch, coffee and cake in the cold wind.
Seems there was an even bigger protest in london, but we can't go every week.

Sunday a stiff SW wind came and blew the cold away.
Charged the car.
Took the kawasaki for a ride shopping and refuel.
Went for a longer ride later, returning before what would have been sunset, had the sun been out. Quite unpleasant in gusty side winds, and on damp muddy roads. But the bike was going very nicely, the heated grips doing a good job.
Read a bit more brideshead now carol has finished it.
The jeans track is progressing, now having an intro, verse and chorus of sorts, just drums and bass at the moment. Gradually learning how to use cubase and the motu mixer.

Swapped back to red background.

I have rerouted the audio through the motu mixer. The guitar amp and speakers deliberately have no top end, losing most of the cymbals. so I have sent the main outs instead through the stereo to my trusty wharfedale lintons. The guitar itself now goes out of another stereo pair to the amp independently. The motu is extremely flexible, supporting a sort of matrix of signal paths.

Tuesday charged the car.

Wednesday morning a 1 bottle frost.
Charged the car.

Thursday into town for something to eat at west orchards, then coffee and cake at m+s, then over to the university for polish.

Friday off to sort out the car. Into town early to drop it off at sac for a reconditioned alternator. A long walk around town to kill the time. A bit grey at 1st, but sunshine later.
£115 and 5.5hrs later I had a reconditioned unit, but the volts at the battery were pretty much the same, and they had broken the bonnet stay clip. Popped over to the dealers to get another for 17p, then returned for an investigation of what was still wrong. Only about 13V at the battery, but 14V at the alternator itself. Measuring across these revealed a bad earth lead from battery to the engine. Rather annoyed that I couldn't have diagnosed this myself. I knew that the earth lead was essential, and had cleaned up the battery terminal, but the other end disappeared somewhere into the engine. Anyway he rapidly removed the air filter ducting and removed and tried to clean up the connection - no different. Then reconnected it to somewhere else on the engine - now a good 14V at the battery - sorted.
Bought a rubik cube from 1 of the many pound shops. Intending to revise the details of the moves I had worked out at university. Unfortunately carol scrambled it before I got very far.

Saturday 1x round the village circuit in the damp sunshine 8 mins 36.
Went to leamington for a change. Lunch and coffee at cafe rouge.
Wet and very windy evening with a few power dips. We watched the remarkable film snow cake.

Sunday 1x circuit in the afternoon wind and sunshine 8 mins 56.

Monday had another go at the rubik cube. Remembered my move for the middle layer edge centres, but still struggling with the corners. Initially 2 opposite corners on 1 face swapped. After some mostly random scrambling, I managed to get them in the right locations, but in the wrong orientation. My move that I thought sorted that, didn't. Some more random moving got 2 of them right. Tried using excel to work out some corner shifting moves, but didn't get far.

Tuesday managed to hear most of obama's inauguration speech on the way home. Maybe the world will be different now.
My lmsa membership card arrived.

More mostly random scrambling of the cube.

Thursday into town for something to eat at west orchards, then coffee and cake at m+s, then over to the university for polish.

Friday over to showcase to see the underworld 0 film. As usual with a prequel, you pretty much know what is going to happen, and they seem to have failed to add any extra plot interest. Looks mostly done with cgi. Rhona mitra looks good, and that's about it really.

Saturday morning frosty. Into town for lunch.

Sunday 1x round the village circuit in the damp grey 8 mins 25.
Tidied the garden a bit. Cleaned the car. Put some grease on the kawasaki chain. Started the ducati.
Another 1x circuit 8 mins 0.

Swapped to the rain logo as it seems to be mostly raining rather than snow.

February.

Monday after more random scramblings I managed to get the cube corners in the right place and having reremembered correctly my move for changing their orientation, eventually got that right too. After a few false starts, I eventually correctly remembered my move for cycling 3 of the bottom layer mid edge pieces, and recovered the whole cube. Not bad for 27+ years ago. Now, if I could just work out how to reliably swap corners around...

Tuesday 1 bottle frost and foggy.
Back to the excel rotation investigation - added a 3rd axis rotation move and discovered a sequence that swaps just 2 corners. Yet to try it on the real cube though.

Wednesday confirmed my corner swapping move on the real cube - pleased to find that their orientation was unchanged.

Thursday into town for something to eat at west orchards, then coffee and cake at m+s, then over to the university for polish.

Friday aunt delia died.

Saturday we went to oxford. A good lunch at pierre victoire then over the road to g+d for coffee and cake. A bit of a wander around the roads less travelled. Impressed by the countdown display of arrivals at the park and ride bus stop.

Sunday 1x round the village circuit in the icy cold wind 8 mins 28.
Afternoon it started to snow.

Swapped back to the snow logo as the forecast is mostly snow this week.

Sunday a bit more work on the jeans track - duplicated out for the 2nd verse/chorus and tacked a bit on the end for the solo. Earlier added a 1 bar drums intro.

Monday a tiny amount of snow seems to have caused rather a lot of trouble.
Heavier snow going home was fun, at least until the 30 mins queue on the motorway.
Added the 1st bit of actual guitar to the track, on the intro. The guitar eq effect standing in for the normal effect of the speakers. Not as good as a proper modelling unit though. Also added the mono to stereo effect, which adds a lot more width, leaving space in the middle of the stereo mix. The fx500 is stereo out, but my set up is mostly down the middle.

Tuesday icy roads, but no new snow, with most of it it clearing during the day. Took some photos in the morning. We have the differential melting pattern familiar from 2007 on the paving. Feeding the birds on top of the snow.

Wednesday proper snow with about 2" or 3" in the village, only about 1" in coventry. Home a little early.

Thursday morning took some more photos of the snow. Long slow run into coventry on frozen roads.
Evening we went out for a meal at the polish centre in town, instead of having a lesson at the university. Still lacking the vocabulary and grammar to do it properly, but really, there was little choice anyway.

Saturday saw some tracks in the snow. Into town for lunch at browns, coffee and cake at liquid bar. It seems alma's has closed down from money trouble. Hit the arena leaving traffic after shopping at tesco.

Sunday sunny.
Read some more brideshead.
1x round the village circuit in the afternoon 8 mins 48 including very slow over the bits of icy snow - just started to rain as I set out, turning into heavy snow as I returned.

After 3 consecutive blue screen crashes of the laptop on boot, I pulled the usb connections to the motu and the cubase dongle, which seemed to fix the problem. Reconnected the motu ok. Probably need an updated driver for the dongle?

The snow this week has taken on a crackle as the long period of cold has kept some of it frozen in place for days, rather than the more usual slushy mess.

Sunday having problems downloading the latest vst sound collection from steinberg ftp site - seems it is the server end that is slow - about 10KB/s.

Monday morning a 3 watering can frost on the car windscreen.
Evening heavy rain came and washed most of the snow away.
Tried using filezilla to make the ftp download, as it resumes from broken connections automatically.
Moderately heavy snow at night, but big wet flakes that were just melting on the ground.

Tuesday morning the ftp had succeeded. Downloading a couple of other files in proceeded at about 60KB/s - presumably much less busy.
Hardly any new snow, and relatively warm, with the sun coming out for most of the day, clearing most of the snow - just a few crackly bits in shaded areas and in fields.
Realigned the washer jets on the car, so that they all actually hit the windows, instead of some of them squirting uselessly over the car.
Updated cubase from 4.1 something to 4.5.2, but haven't spotted the difference yet. Also updated to vst sound collection 1 - the pdf says lots of extra sounds for halion 1, but not tried them yet.
Updated the links page with more places to visit.

Wednesday morning another hard frost, but no new snow.

Thursday into town for something to eat at west orchards, then coffee and cake at m+s, then over to the university for polish - down to only 2 now.

Saturday into town for lunch at browns, then coffee and cake at liquid bar.
My emmy the great cd 1st love arrived from amazon.
1x round the village circuit at dusk 8 mins 33.

Sunday morning 1x circuit 8 mins 07 in light rain and mud.
Took the kawasaki for a ride and cleaned it, then another circuit 7 mins 52.
Read some more brideshead.
Put some guitar on the chorus of the jeans track using the stacked loop feature to select from many takes.
Just a few small bits of persistent snow now.

Monday afternoon off to delia funeral at nuneaton. Lovely sunny warm weather. Back to coventry for a family gathering.

Wednesday I turned 50. They made a bit of a fuss of me at work - cake and some hmv credit. Lots of old photos up, some from this site. I took my guitar and crate amp in and played the new intro to the feel track.
In the evening adrian and family came over. Carol had some food brought in.

Thursday a bit late getting away, so fast food, then over to the university for polish - back up to 4. It seems not enough to run it next term. Only 4 more sessions left.

Friday off using up holiday left over from last year.
1x round the village circuit in the damp muddy slime 8 mins 14.
Into town for lunch at browns, then coffee and cake at liquid bar. Spent some of the hmv credit on sony mdr-v150 headphones and the later louder dvd.
I took the kawasaki over to alf england to talk about the r6. It seems the new demonstrator will be arriving some time in march.
1x circuit in the sunshine 8 mins 12.

Saturday 2x circuit in the sunshine 15 mins 39. A bit of garden tidying. Into town for lunch at browns again, then coffee and cake at waterstones for a change.
Took the ducati for a ride in the sunshine.

Sunday morning 2x circuit 15 mins 26.
More garden tidying.
Late afternoon 2x circuit 15 mins 18.

March.

Tuesday 2x round the village circuit as the rain was starting 14 mins 48 - getting faster.

Tuesday we went over to coventry with adrian and claire to see jonathan playing in a school battle of bands. Remarkable lack of variety, with 2 renditions of I bet you look good on the dance floor. The winners being antidote.

Thursday into town for something to eat at west orchards, then over to waterstones for coffee and tiffin, then over to the university for polish - just 3 this week. 3 sessions left.

Friday took the ducati to work, A bit of sunshine. Went over to see adrian's progress on the house.
Evening we went over to withybrook to eat, then over to alf england for the r1 launch - yes, it makes an impressive noise, but it is unnecessarily powerful, expensive and it looks strange - still not convinced by underseat exhausts. Also there was the 2009 black and gold r6.

Saturday Into town for lunch at browns, then coffee and cake at liquid bar. Nice to hear emmy the great on r4 loose ends.

Sunday 2x circuit 15 mins 11.
More garden tidying.
Took the ducati for a ride.
3x circuit 21 mins 16.

Sunday the last episode of being human.

Monday morning a 2 bottle frost and sunny.
Evening over to coventry for the cadmac meeting, but not much going on this time of year. Saw dad there.

Tuesday the rain arrived in the afternoon.

Wednesday a 1 bottle frost.
3x round the village circuit at sunset 22 mins 59.

Thursday morning a half watering can frost. Lovely sunny day.
A bit late getting away. into town for something to eat at west orchards, too late for tiffin, so coffee and cake at m+s instead. Over to the university for polish - again 3 this week. 2 sessions left.

Friday off to use up holiday. Hard frost and sunshine again.
Took the van down the m1 and m25, almost to the dartford crossing to buy some sliding door bits for the garden gate from barrier components. Stopped at south mimms for lunch, coffee and cake.
Back reasonably early, went to see the watchmen film. Apparently a very faithful adaptation from the graphic novel. 20+ years too late. American history deconstructed through the medium of (not very) super heroes, except for 1 who is clearly an allegory for science and technology in the modern world. Extremely complex story, and very long, but interesting enough.
The trailer for terminator 4 salvation looks good.

Saturday 2x circuit 15 mins 34.
With the best weather forecast for the E we went to have a look at ely cathdral. Quite a clear run in the sunshine down the a14, we passed the wind turbines at chatteris. Lunch at the almonry in the grounds of the cathedral. Unfortunately there was some music event going on at the best viewing points under the octagonal tower, and not tempted by paying £9 to climb it, we didn't bother. Also the cloudy weather had arrived. Proper coffee and tiffin later at costa.

Sunday sunny and windy, before the bad weather arrived.
The cold is making the frogs late this year - normally end of feb.

Monday no frost, but too cold a wind for the bike.
2x round the village circuit 15 mins 27.

Tuesday home reasonably early. Took the ducati for a ride in the cold, damp sunshine.
Did some more work on the jeans track, putting some chords behind the verse and solo/outro, and 2 solo guitars - the joys of multitracking. The stacking feature is great, allowing several continuous takes around a few looped bars, before selecting the best. Exported the more or less completed track to wav and mp3. Still no vocals yet.

Thursday dry and sunny. Took the kawasaki to work, then into town for something to eat at west orchards, and over to waterstones in time for coffee and tiffin. Over to the university for polish - again 3 this week. 1 session left. The other gpz600r there as usual. Nice ride back in the dark.

Friday took the ducati. Went over to see dad. Over to withybrook to eat.

Saturday lovely sunny weather, if a little windy. A bit of garden and garage tidying. Frogs are gathering.
Into town for lunch at browns, coffee and cake at the transport museum.

Sunday 2x circuit in the cool sunshine 14 mins 48.
More garden tidying, including pruning the 2 apple trees.
Frogs have been busy, with the 1st spawn.
In the afternoon sunshine, I took the ducati over to have a look at the esoaring fun day at twywell down the a14. Just a light wind made thermals easier, and the circling birds helped too.
The furthest I have been on the ducati - about 90m round trip. Cleaned it when I got back.
Attempted another circuit, but the lh crank fell off half way round - it had been creaking for a while. Reattached it at home.

Swapped to stars logo, as more snow seems unlikely now spring has sprung.

Monday took the ducati to work in the sunshine.
2x round the village circuit before sunset 14 mins 29.

Tuesday misty morning.

Wednesday went on a site visit to ansty.
2x circuit on the cool sunshine 15 mins 0.

Thursday and the spring equinox.
into town for something to eat at west orchards, and over to waterstones in time for coffee and tiffin. Over to the university for the last polish session - again 3 this week. University a bit different outside term time.

Friday afternoon off for the sunshine. Had a look at wolston flying field on the way home - much improved, with several people flying, but the fence is a bit close.
Took the ducati over to alf england to book a demo on the r6.
2x circuit 13 mins 54.
Over to withybrook to eat again.

Saturday slight frost, already melting. 2x circuit 15 mins 07.
2 lots of frog spawn now.
In the morning sunshine we took the kawasaki and ducati over to alf england for a demo ride on the r6. The latest black and gold demonstrator had already been sold, and the red and white replacement was not yet ready, so we had a go on a 2008 graphite. Great fun, handles beautifully, but has a very extreme riding position.
Into town for lunch at browns, then coffee and cake at liquid bar. Bought the easy virtue dvd.

Sunday sunny again, windy then clouding over.
Fitted a winding hose reel to the wall in the garden.
2x circuit in the grey wind 14 mins 24.

Swapped to the static space logo, as many don't support the required java.

Monday very windy.

Tuesday 2x round the village circuit in the grey 14 mins 29.

Wednesday 2x circuit in the strong wind 14 mins 52.

Thursday took the ducati for a ride down to the canal - a bit cold and windy.
2x circuit in the strong wind 14 mins 59.

Friday off in the blustery sunshine, with just a bit of hail.
Morning tidying the garage.
Into town for lunch at west orchards, then coffee and tiffin at waterstones.
Home and a bit more work on the jeans track, adding some vocals with a bit of chorus and reverb - also added a little reverb to the drums.
Fitted a new chain and sprockets to the kawasaki.
We went to eat at the old lion.

Saturday we did the litter pick in the blustery wind, sunshine and light rain.
Into town for lunch at browns, coffee and cake at liquid bar.

Sunday morning 2x circuit in the cold sunshine 14 mins 56.
Cut the grass and a bit of garden tidying.
Had another go at the vocals on the jeans track.
We went to lunch at the malt kiln farm shop.
Cleaned the kawasaki and took it for a refuel.
2x circuit in the cool sunshine 14 mins 36.

April.

Sunday mixed down the jeans track to normalised wav and mp3.

Tuesday morning early, a bit cold for the bike.
2x round the village circuit in the warm afternoon sunshine 13 mins 59.

Wednesday took the kawasaki to work. Over to drayton croft at hinckley to ask about demonstrators, but still waiting apparently. Looking at the zx-6r and er-6f. Not as pretty as the r6.
2x round the village circuit in the warm sunshine 14 mins 41.

Thursday kawasaki again. very pleasant ride back in the warm sunshine.
Sat in the garden at dusk to see and hear a bat.

Friday took the ducati for a change. A miserable ride in the the mnorning cold grey drizzle.
In the afternoon the forecast warm sunshine arrived. Over to coventry ducati ask about demonstrators, in particular the 848. Available soon apparently, but with a recent 10% price increase on an already expensive bike, together with an excessive £3k excess for the demo ride, I suspect I won't bother.
Popped over to adrian's to see the progress on the house.
Over to withybrook to eat.

Saturday sunny and warm. We went to london, getting straight on an espress bus, but it was a very old model, far too hot, and it took 2h instead of the typical 1h as we crawled along the westway and the marylebone road.
Mostly wandering around soho, looking for the fresh and wild organic food shop. Stopped for coffee and tiffin at costa in dean street. Eventually worked out that it was in brewer street. Accidentally found lina stores, also in brewer street. We ate at a caffe uno.

Sunday morning frosty. 2x circuit 14 mins 50.
Warmed up later. Repaired the kawasaki fuel tap switch, which had become a little incontinent, with a repair kit from bitzforbikes. Took it for a refuel - after draining the tank and putting a couple of litres back in the fuel gauge was way below the bottom red line. Very nice ride in the warm sunshine. Had a quick look at the flying field at wolston on the way back - very busy in the good weather.
2x more circuit 14 mins 0.

Sunday carol took a photo of a reed bunting in the garden. Apparently the other bird is a dunnock, although it just looks like an lbj to me.

Monday evening over to coventry for the cadmac meeting.

Tuesday went swimming after work. 7+7 deep widths. No sign of the forecast showers, just white fluffy clouds and sunshine.

Wednesday another sunny day with little rain.

Thursday grey and damp.

Friday off for easter. 1x circuit in the wet drizzle. Only halfway round when the lh crank fell off again. Managed to refit it loosely on the stop though.
Into town for lunch at browns, then coffee and cake at the herbert art gallery.
We went over to furniture village to try out some mattresses.
Nice to see red dwarf back on tv, even if only for a 1 off special. 1st 30 mins very familiar situation comedy.

Saturday went to earlsdon for lunch, coffee and cake.
I took the kawasaki over to windy corner to ask about the daytona 675 demonstrator. No problem, except that they have no insurance excess at all, or rather an unlimited excess. Not very impressed by that. Suspect I won't take the risk. Shame, as it's generally quite a nice looking bike, available in red, lthough it does have the underseat exhaust, and the engine is 3 cylinder, lacking the natural balance of a 4 and the simplicity of a 2.
2nd 30 mins of red dwarf nicely self referential in a recursive sort of way, as well as a nod to a certain classic sci fi film.

Sunday morning bashed the lh crank back on and tightened it up. 2x circuit 14 mins 44.
Started to rain.
A bit of garage tidying.

Updated the history section a bit, making the photos larger, correcting a few typos and adding links.

2d late due to daffodil sunday.

Sunday the last 30 mins of red dwarf was probably the finest thing that has been on tv for many years, taking its theme from blade runner, and exploring the meaning of life, the roles played etc.

Monday morning misty, with sunshine attempting to break through. 2x round the village circuit 14 mins 50.
With the 1st proper sunshine of the holiday, we went to have a look at the nt berrington hall.
Nice drive through the country around and after worcester. A moderate house with capability brown grounds. Came back the same way, overtaken by an r6 - it does look gorgeous. Saw a couple going the other way too.
Cut the grass in the late afternoon sunshine.

Tuesday evening sat in the garden at dusk listening to the birds in the trees and watching the bats flying about.

Wednesday afternoon the promised warm sunshine eventually arrived. Took the ducati for a ride around some different country lanes.

Thursday into town for something to eat at west orchards, coffee and tiffin at costa in waterstones.

Friday afternoon off for the promised sunshine.
Researched the options for a new mattress.
A bit of garage tidying.

Saturday morning a bit grey and cool, before the promised sunshine arrived.
A bit cold on the a46 as we rode down to knotts motorcycles at stratford for a demo ride on a triumph daytona 675 . Just £1k excess. Similar extreme riding position to the r6, very light, and easy enough to ride, but didn't seem to handle quite as nicely, the suspension seemed harder, particularly the rear. The engine noise is actually a fairly similar functional roar, but with an annoying whistling noise, which I presume is the balancer shaft. I don't think it looks quite as good, either.
Into town on the bikes for lunch at browns, coffee and cake at liquid bar.
Cut the grass.
2x circuit in the warm afternoon sunshine 15 mins 17.

Sunday 2x circuit in the cool wind 15 mins 06.
In the afternoon adrian and family came over, and we went to the daffodil sunday event. Perfect weather. Daffodils past their best by now. Some interesting old and new sculpture.
Back home for tea. So warm that we put up the table in the garden.

Monday took the ducati to work in the summer weather.
Popped over to wolston to see the flying field meeting, but there wasn't 1.

Tuesday more summer weather. Took the kawasaki.
Ordered the mattress.
Popped over to alf england to talk r6 again.

Wednesday afternoon off to wait in for the mattress delivery - arrived about 14:45. A vi-spring traditional bedstead mattress in medium.
A bit of shopping and cleaned the car.

Thursday carol took the ducati to work.
2x round the village circuit 14 mins 09.

Friday a bit more garage tidying.
We went down the pub to eat.

Saturday morning light rain meant cancelling/postponing my demo ride on a ducati 848.
We went to leicester for a change. We ate at debenhams, before a wander around the roads radiating from the centre, which has now been pedestrianised. Coffee and cake at bossa cafe bar. Accidentally found a little st george day celebration with a bandstand and an old chap doing old songs with his banjolele - rather good, so we stayed until he finished. Wandered over to the reverb music shop.
Found the leicester drayton croft, with its zx-6r demonstrator.

Sunday 2x circuit in the cool sunshine 14 mins 11.
Another perfect weather day. Some more garden and garage tidying.
We took the bikes for a ride down to the canal.
Read some more brideshead.

May.

Sunday it seems the web site has crept up to the quota available. So I've removed all the larger video and sound files to make more room.

Monday more rain.
Saw a mouse and a hedgehog in the garden at dusk. Later we sat in the garden and saw at least 2, possibly 3 hedgehogs wandering around the garden.

Tuesday showers.

Wednesday went to see the wolverine film. Not bad for an origins thing, but ultimately a bit silly, and spoiled by the fact we all know how it ends.

Friday we went down the pub to eat.

Saturday we took the bikes over to ducati coventry in perfect weather for a demo ride on the 848.
Very pretty in red and black, but I'm not sure about the red trellis frame.
No discernible rear suspension compression when I sat on it - extremely hard.
Stalled it several times before getting the hang of plenty of revs and easing the power in with the clutch.
Heading out to fillongley it clearly handled beautifully at various angles, but rather disappointed to find a 40 limit for miles and miles.
Eventually I got off to let carol have a go, again stalling several times, just before finding some slightly faster roads.
Swapped over again and headed back round some tiny country lanes.
Back at fillongley we tried to swap again, but couldn't get it into gear without cutting out, so had to call out the van to collect it - probably just a faulty sidestand switch.
We saw it being taken out again as we were leaving.
A bit later than planned we went into town on the bikes for lunch at browns, then caffe and gelato at etna ristorante.
Popped in to see adrian's progress on the house.
A bit more garage tidying.
2x round the village circuit in the early evening sunshine 13 mins 53.

Sunday 2x circuit in the cold damp wind 13 mins 59.
Afternoon we took the bikes to have a look at the rushton triangular lodge.
Stopped at market harborough on the way back. Coffee and tiffin at a costa we found.

Monday holiday - damp and grey.
A bit of garage tidying.

Tuesday windy. Cut the grass.

Thursday took the ducati to work.
2x round the village circuit in the windy sunshine 14 mins 48.
Bought the motorhead cd motorizer and noisettes cd wild young hearts from amazon and some more sony mdr-v150 headphones for carol.

Friday afternoon off and went to see the star trek film. An attempt to reboot that doesn't really succeed.
The casting is excellent, and it has clearly been lovingly recreated, but we still have the usual nonsense including holes in the plot.
A bit more garage tidying.
We went down the pub to eat again.

Saturday 2x circuit in the cold sunshine 14 mins 21.
Cut the front grass - well, about half of it before the hover mower motor went.
We went back to market harborough and had ciabatta, coffee and cake at the giorno deli cafe bar we had spotted last weekend.
A bit of a wander around the now open shops. Then we walked over to have a look at midlands superbikes.
Walked back along the river to the centre. Had coffee and cake again at giorno.
Bought another flymo compact hover 330.
Richard popped in to see us briefly.
Finished cutting the front grass.

Sunday 1 of those perfect weather days.
Took the old mower down the recycling/waste centre together with some other garage clearance stuff.
Not much of a queue, so I went to tesco, only to find it closed, having moved the sunday opening hours back.
A bit more garage tidying.
Took the ducati for a ride down to the canal.
Tried tesco again - success.

Monday took the ducati to work. Took the long way home in the windy sunshine.

Tuesday kawasaki in more windy sunshine.

Rest of the week mostly showery rain.
Read a bit more brideshead.

Friday 2x round the village circuit in between showers 14 mins 39.
A bit more garage tidying.
We went down the pub again to eat - getting a bit busier now.

Saturday into town for lunch, then liquid bar for coffee and apple pie.
More garage tidying.
Evening eurovision song contest.

Sunday 2x circuit in the damp grey 14 mins 47.

1d late due to bike ride.

Sunday excellent to see the pulling girls on tv again, even only for a 1 off special. Sadly, it seems there will be no series 3.

Monday 2x round the village circuit 15 mins 15.

Tuesday thunderstorm in the afternoon.
Dropped the car off for an mot tomorrow.
Picked up by carol in the van.
2x circuit 14 mins 39.

Wednesday took the kawasaki to work, mostly missing the showers.
The car failed the mot, but only needs a little welding.
Cut the grass.

Thursday bought the underworld 3 dvd at tesco.

Friday took the ducati to work in the sunshine. Took the long way home along the canal.
2x circuit 14 mins 37.
Cut the front grass.
Went down the pub to eat.

Saturday took the ducati for a ride in the warm morning sunshine.
Into town for lunch. Caffe and gelato at etna.
2x circuit in the hot afternoon sun 14 mins 48.
Summer has arrived.

Sunday another perfect weather day.
We took the bikes down the fosse way to have a look at george white at swindon.
A roman road from history, very pretty in the sunshine.
It seems the next batch of r6 are due in soon.
Stopped to have a look at the uffington white horse on the way back.
Very pleasant riding around the back lanes of oxfordshire looking for it - almost felt european.
Very hot, we found a welcome shady spot under the trees to park the bikes.
Doesn't look much like a horse to me.

Monday holiday cloudy. Cleaned the ducati.
Read a bit more brideshead.
We went into town again for lunch at browns, coffee and cake at caffe giardino.
A bit more garage tidying.

Tuesday took the kawasaki to work. Lots of wet roads on the way home, but it seems I missed the actual showers.
My pulling series 2 dvd arrived from amazon.

Thursday dropped off the car for repair. Met chris cycling past while I waited to be picked up by carol in the van.
Read some more brideshead in the warm evening sunshine.

Friday off.
Another of those perfect weather days.
Finished reading brideshead revisited.

Afternoon we headed to oxford for the engineering dinner.
Stopped at pear tree park and ride down the woodstock road, as it runs into the evening.
As g+d near christchurch had a broken coffee machine, we had coffee and cake somewhere in the covered market.
With a bit of time to spare we had a wander around the shops etc. eventually ending up on broad street, and circling round the college, past the bodleian library, radcliffe camera, along brasenose lane, before turning into turl street and entering the college. Lots of students about, some just out of finals.
Had another look at the fellows' garden, climbing the steps to get a better view of the radcliffe camera.
On the way we make a quick detour through the jcr. Some rather incongruous looking vending machines, and even more untidy than I remember it.

Reported to the rector's lodgings at the allotted time for drinks. Lots of people from different years to me. I only recognised carlos.
It seems I am quite unusual, in actually still being something to do with engineering, as most have moved into some sort of finance.
As a bit of an ice breaker, 1 of the fellows showed a few videos associated with what can go wrong with jet engines.
Rather warm in the piano room, we escaped with claudine into the garden, shortly follwed by the others. A lovely secluded spot in perfect weather, backing onto the library.
Eventually called to dine in hall at about 19:45.

Dining in hall was a familiar experience, massively closely packed together, yet with 2 completely empty tables around us.
Very expensive. Glasses topped up with wine that we don't actually want. Moderately well prepared food going to waste, as it doesn't happen to be anything I like, and no option other than veggie.
Bread and butter pudding was good though.
Interesting to hear the tales of others' experiences of college life and the engineering course, which was spread out to 4 years after I left, with less intensive maths.
Anyway, very enjoyable. I felt I had once more been through that low door in the wall, if only briefly.
Big hold ups on the way back, with the m40 near warwick having road works taking it down to 1 lane just before the a46 exit.
Home late.

Saturday 2x circuit in the hot sunshine 14 mins 19.
Picked up the car.
We went over to alf england to talk r6 , ending up putting a deposit on the last black and gold 1 in the shop - still in its crate. Just about perfect timing.

We went into town for lunch at browns, coffee and cake at liquid bar.
Evening we went to see camille o'sullivan at the warwick arts centre.
The theatre is an excellent venue with steeply ranked seating and so unobscured views.
The sounds of a circus performance playing while we waited in front of a dark, atmospheric stage with many candles, a chair, and a dressing table with wine bottle on the floor in front.
Sadly, and strangely, many empty seats.
A remarkable performance, with some rather scary ventures into the audience. Such a wide variety of music, from bowie, nick cave, even to dark side of the moon. Rather intense and dark, dark, dark.
Excellent.
1 of many highlights the ship song.

Sunday
I popped over to wolston to see some of the cadmac scale aircraft competition, but the strong wind meant few aircraft flying.
Went shopping.
2x circuit in the hot late afternoon sunshine and wind 14 mins 25. Hot enough for shorts.
Cut the grass.
Busy weekend.
The last days of may.

June.

Monday and the hot weather continues.
More job losses announced at work.
Afternoon off.
Sorted the insurance for the new bike.
2x round the village circuit in the hot sunshine 14 mins 11.

Tuesday seems even hotter, and more humid.
2x circuit 14 mins 41.

Wednesday went to see the terminator 4 film. A bit late getting away from work and with a big queue, I missed the beginning.
Generally very good, but turns into the usual robot fight at the end. Stronger from multiple characters with their own agenda, and better without you know who.
Highly derivative, feeling like the matrix at times, but also from mad max (2), aliens, transformers. Some of the action scenes are excellent and relentless. Missing the point that skynet is global, for the sake of the plot.

Friday the rain arrives in the evening.
Down the pub to eat.

Saturday rain.
We went over to alf england to check on the r6 , but it seems it is still in the crate.
Into town for lunch at browns, coffee and fruit cake at the herbert.

Sunday more rain.
A bit more garage tidying.
Eventually stopped raining, sun came out and dried up a bit.
Took the ducati over to see adrian's house progress.

Monday showery.

Tuesday 2x round the village circuit 14 mins 14.

Wednesday a bit more garage tidying.

Thursday took the ducati to work. Heavy rain during the day, but brightened up again later.
Popped in to see dad. Took the long way home.
2x circuit 13 mins 50 - probably time for more laps.
Cut the grass back and front in the lovely evening sunshine.
Nice to see mitchell and webb back on tv.

Friday took the kawasaki to work.
3x circuit in the warm sunshine 21 mins 12.
Went over to withybrook to eat.

Saturday a bit more garage tidying.
Went over to have a look at the leamington peace festival - very busy in the hot sunshine. Coffee and cake in the park.
Walked back through jephson gardens.

Sunday 3x circuit in the cool early morning sunshine 20 mins 15.
Another of those perfect weather days, but I spent most of it garage tidying, with a break for shopping.
New r6 coming next week.

Been watching lots of the itv4 coverage of the iomtt. Generally very good, but does tend to concentrate too much on the top riders and races.
Very minimal coverage of the inaugural ttxgp for electric bikes - rather disappointing performance at the moment, but still impressive.

Sunday I forgot to mention that a vulcan bomber flew low over the village in the afternoon.

Monday thunderstorms and heavy rain in the afternoon.
Saw dad at the wolston vintage evening - ground a bit damp, but lots of aircraft flying in the still air.

Tuesday off to collect the bike.
3x round the village circuit in the early morning mist 20 mins 41.
A bit of last minute garage tidying.
We went into town for lunch at browns, coffee and cake at the herbert.
Then over to alf england to buy the bike.
A fair bit of paperwork and details of running in etc. Got a couple of yamaha mugs too.
Got it home safely, keeping the revs relatively low as required.
Dad came over. We went for a walk with the dog around the village circuit.

Wednesday nice and sunny in the morning, but the rain forecast for the afternoon eventually arrived, together with strong wind.

Thursday forecast to be dry with some sunshine. Took the yamaha to work, and the long way home by the canal.
Suspension seems not too hard, but the extreme riding position is difficult at lower speeds.
A bit more garage tidying.

Friday mostly packing work stuff for the move to ansty next week.
3x circuit in the grey wind 20 mins 33.
Went down the pub to eat.

Saturday we took the old bikes over to warwick unversity for the alumni weekend.
Carvery lunch at the dirty duck.
Had a look at the wmg warwick manufacturing group. Lots of cnc machine tools, robots, green materials world first racing car, although this year's model was at silverstone for display at the british grand prix.
Apparently they are thinking of entering the ttxgp next year.
Moved over to the idlinternational digial laboratory.
Interesting display of hdr high dynamic range monitors, using variable intensity white leds behind a standard lcd display to deliver a remarkable contrast ratio. The demonstrations (in a darkened room) looked more like a window onto the outside world than a monitor display. Apparently the still photos required 3 or more captures with a standard camera at different exposure settings, then digitally combined. Video under development. Impressive, but fantastically expensive at the moment.
Saw some football robots.
Coffee and biscuits upstairs. They seem to have a lot of space in that building.
Carol took the yamaha for a ride.

Sunday 3x circuit in the early morning summer sosltice sunshine 20 mins 35.
More garage tidying.
Saw a bit of the british grand prix.
Took the yamaha for a ride in the hot afternoon sunshine.

Sunday nice to see the james may (rather light) documentary on the moon landings, switching focus to a trip to the edge of space in the rather graceful lockheed u2.

Monday carol took the yamaha to work.
We went for a walk round the village circuit, taking a shortcut through fields of poppies in the perfect mid summer evening weather.

Tuesday last day at the old site, mostly packing.
Took the yamaha for a refuel in the hot late afternoon sunshine.

Wednesday 1st day at the new ansty site.
Carol took the yamaha to work.
3x round the village circuit in the hot sunshine and wind 20 mins 47.
Cleaned the bike for the 1st time. Didn't really dry properly before dark.

Thursday took the yamaha into work.
Still showing lots of dried water marks, but attracting lots of interest.
Popped over to go outdoors to buy a tail pack after work.
A bit of a miserable ride back through rush hour traffic on 1 of the hottest, humid days of the year so far, with the engine getting hot when stationary and the cooling fan blowing hot air onto me.
Had a go with the recommended mr sheen in the evening, and it really seems to work well.

Friday the forecast heavy rain arrived, just in time for glastonbury, but we're only watching it on tv this year.
It looked like the glastonbury weather was not too bad. Not much missed on friday, but it would have been good to see more of vv brown in the john peel tent - very minimal coverage. Lady gaga was remarkable, and actually quite good. The ting tings played well on the big stage that they should have played last year, when we were unable to get anywhere near, but this is 2 year old material now - time for some new.

Saturday we went to london. A bit late getting away, stopping to feed the pigeon, and held up again along the westway. Off at baker street we went N for a change, eaing at a cafe on the corner with marylebone road.
Decided to go to camden, crossing regent's park. Coffee and cake at the garden cafe. Looked like several weddings taking advantage of the well maintained gardens and exotic plants in the hot sunshine.
Started to cloud over a bit by the time we got to camden. Seems to have expanded a bit since we were last there, especially the horse tunnels, stables area.
Long walk S with the thunder and rain starting. We wanted to get a bus, but don't really know where they go. Eventually hit some familiar roads at bloomsbury and turned W to join oxford street. A rather miserable experience, in the high humdity, heat and rain. Got something to eat from the busy sainsbury's local at marble arch and waited for the bus at park lane.
The normal stop was coned off with special arrangements posted due to events in the park, but that was supposed to be only after 21:00. Anyway, more than 30 mins before that we saw a bus drive straight past. We tried to find the alternate stop in portman street, but it wasn't obvious, and we saw another bus go by. Eventually we found the correct place, and 1 of the others waiting stepped out in front of the next bus and we headed home rather late.

Sunday 3x circuit in the grey humidity 21 mins 47.
A bit of catching up with glastonbury.
Late afternoon we took the yamaha and kawasaki for a ride.
Yet more glastonbury - very extensive coverage on bbc2,3,4 but still only scratching the surface of actually being there.

July.
1d early as I'm off to Italia early tomorrow.

Monday hot and humid, but the air conditioning doing a good job at the new site.
Evening trying to rain, but only a few spots arrived.
Evening mostly updating my cv.

Tuesday took the yamaha to work. Refuel.
At home I tried lowering the rear preload 1 notch and took it for a ride.
200m in 2w, but that is between us.

Thursday still getting hotter. Still no proper rain.
Took the ducati to work. Took the long way home along the canal. Lovely.
Took the yamaha for a similar ride, bypassing the canal. Very different, and much too hot behind the fairing, with heat pumping out from the engine.

Friday a bit of rain at last.
Put in my application for my own job.
Afternoon back to perfect weather again, after the excess heat and humidity.
3x round the village circuit 20 mins 24.
We went down to brinklow to eat at the raven, then a short walk around the village.

Saturday 3x circuit in the hot morning sunshine 20 mins 31.
A bit of garden tidying.
Into town a bit early for lunch at browns then round the back to see the carnival assembling at the cathedral.
Watched the procession entering broadgate.
Coffee and cake at tcodeli.

Caught up with some more glastonbury, but still lots more to see.
It was a shame to miss spinal tap and bruce springsteen, but generally the line up was quite missable, looking like £300+ well not spent.

The freewire site seems to have stopped working although it uploaded ok.

Saturday saw some of the 1st stage (time trial) of the tour de france.

Sunday up early and off to stansted, and on to genova for work.
Saw some of the tour de france on rai2.

Wednesday home by 18:00 with the m11, a14 not too busy.

Thursday a bit of shopping.
We went for a walk round the village through the poppy field again in the cool, windy sunshine.

Friday took the r6 to work in almost perfect temperatures. Took the long way home - very nice, although the suspension is still a bit hard.
3x round the village circuit in the warm wind and sunshine 20 mins 25.
We went down the pub to eat.

Saturday raining.
We went into town for lunch at browns, caffe and gelato at etna.
Finished wading through the coverage of glastonbury. Looks like they had some heavy rain late on the sunday. The minimal look at the yeah yeah yeahs was good.

Sunday 3x circuit in the damp wind and sunshine, around the puddles 21 mins 35.

2d late due to mallory park and wolston electric evening.

Sunday cut the grass.
Monday morning had the interview for my own job.
Rest of the day off. Took the r6 into town for lunch at west orchards, coffee and tiffin at waterstones. A bit showery.
Went over to see dad.
We went out to eat.

Tuesday took the r6 to work.
Fuel light came on on the way home, so I turned round and refueled at morrisons, where I managed to get a photo of the bike.
Took a different long way home. 301 miles now.

Wednesday rain.

Thursday took the r6 to work. Took the long way home.
Carol took the monster, and got a bit wet.
Caught up with some more tour de france.

Friday thunder and lightning in the afternoon, and plenty of rain.
We went out to eat again.

Saturday into town for lunch at browns, coffee and cake at caffe giardino.
Took the r6 for a ride over to see adrian.

Sunday light rain.
Despite the forecast rain, I took the kawasaki over to mallory park to see adrian and dave at the bsb event.
Mostly sunny in the morning, but the rain arrived eventually and we got rather wet.
Not much fun riding the gpz home through the late afternoon rain.

Monday off.
A bit more garage tidying.
Into town for lunch at west orchards, coffee and tiffin at waterstones.
Cleaned the r6.
Took the simply the best and the swift over to wolston for the electric evening, but didn't fly either in the stiff breeze.

It seems the freewire.co.uk domain has been discontinued. Now I need to find some other free dial up. And remove all the links to the freewire site.

Thursday took the monster to work. Long way home by the canal. Cleaned it.
Took the r6 for a ride.

Friday took the monster again. Extra long way home, getting a bit wet in a heavy shower.
Evening lots of rain, thunder and lightning.

Saturday 3x round the village circuit in the morning sunshine 21 mins 46.
More catching up with the tour de france.
To put some more miles on the r6 we took it and the monster down the old road to oxford on the forecast best day of the weekend.
Lunch at the big bang. Coffee and tiffin at g+d. Had a quick look at the shops.

As we were nearby, we popped over to have a look at ducati aylesbury aka on yer bike.

Evening we took the bikes over to warwick for the free part of the folk festival in the market place.
Not very impressed, we went for a walk down to the shops and eating places.
Later megan henwood was good, then mabon got a lot of dancing started, but we went home as a few spots of rain arrived.
Long way home in the dark working around some closed roads.

Sunday 3x circuit 21 mins 55 in the grey wind.
Cut the grass before the rain started.

August.

Monday off.

With rain forecast, took the car over to have a look at hein gericke.
Headed back to coventry through torrential rain on the m69.
Lunch, coffee and cake at b and q.
Went over to have a look at j and s. Bought some gloves.
Refueled and cleaned the r6.

Tuesday off. 3x round the village circuit 21 mins 08.
10 years gone since we bought the house.

Dropped off the r6 at alf england for its 1st service (590 miles).
We went over to have another look at hein gericke.
Back to coventry for lunch at browns, coffee and cake at the herbert.
Picked up the r6.
Cleaned the gpz600.
A biy of tidying up.

Wednesday lots of rain.
It seems I passed the interview for my own job.

Thursday less rain.
We walked past fields of corn and rye, with poppies at the edge, to the pub to eat.

Saturday 2x circuit before the rain got too heavy 13 mins 48.
Into town for lunch at browns, coffee at the herbert. We went in out of the rain to have a look at the wildlife photo competition winners.

Sunday 3x circuit in the cool early morning sunshine around the puddles 21 mins 13.
The fvrt100 seems to have failed, before I completely caught up with le tour de france. It may be the expansion hard drive.
Eventually managed to get it to boot ok and saw the spectacular penultimate stage up the mont ventoux and the chase around the champs elysees.
A bit of garage tidying.

Monday the fvrt100 had failed again.
My bagster tank cover for the r6 arrived from intobikes. Bit of a game collecting it from the correct post office.
Evening I tried swapping the original 40G hard drive back in, but no different, so I guess it is not the hard drive. Time for a new box.

Tuesday tried booting with the hard drive disconnected, same. Fired up the backup freeview box, to at least get access to bbc4.
Microwave oven has failed too.

Wednesday bought a sagem dtr67320t freeview recorder.
Still has a fan noise, and an annoying ticking hard drive, but generally much better with more space, more caching, better guide, programme capture mode etc.
Very quiet in standby.

Thursday sunny, followed by heavy rain in the afternoon.
Went over to see dad on the way home.

Friday afternoon off for the sunshine.
Fitted the tank cover to the r6. Seems to fit very well, and the old tank bag goes on with the standard fixings, but is much too big.
Also fitted the swinging arm bobbins and lifted the rear end onto the oxford paddock stand.
We went over to withybrook to eat.

Saturday 3x round the village circuit in the warm morning sunshine 21 mins 26.
Took the r6 for a refuel.
Into town for lunch at browns, caffe e gelato at etna.
Surprised to see the godiva statue wearing a basque.

Some sort of show going on in the square between the university and cathedral, with music from the satin dolls.
We went looking for a replacement microwave - difficult to find something with a reasonably sized stainless interior, but without a grill.
Bought a panasonic nn-st477sbpq from comet.

Sunday 3x circuit 20 mins 55.
Afternoon we went to have a look at the nt packwood house.
No cafe, but the shop has a drinks machine.

Tuesday hot and sunny afternoon. Took the r6 for a long ride.
Late evening starry night - sat in the garden for a while to look for the perseid meteor shower, but didn't see any.

Wednesday evening and the following morning were cloudy, obscuring the best chance to see the meteor shower

Thursday took the monster for a ride down to the canal.
Late evening a few stars visible through breaks in the cloud, but no meteors.

Friday off. 3x circuit in the sunshine 21 mins 08.
Lunchtime headed off down the a46 to devon. Staying off the motorway as long as possible, got delayed round a long diversion through cheltenham.
Also slow through the pretty painswick.
Stopped for a break and a sandwich just before the m5 near stroud.
Coffee and cake at the next services.
Heavy traffic around the m4 interchange and beyond.
Eventually got to jes and christine after about 5.5h travelling.
Nice to see the extended house.
Steve arrived from his off road adventures.
Then richard, judith and family arrived.
Stayed in to eat.
Detected a few bats after dark.

Saturday morning still a bit drizzly when bob arrived.
We drove up to bishops lydeard to take the wsr steam train to minehead. A bit of a problem with sat navs getting there, but we all got on the train with a few secs to spare.
Saw the engine being turned around manually on the turntable.
Turned into a nice sunny day, despite lots of cloud out to sea.
Some impressive rooks working the seafront takeaway chips.
Took the 16:05 return train.
Back up the m5,m6 home by 21:00.

Sunday 3x circuit in the morning sunshine 21 mins 04.
While I was away, the new bird bath arrived from the rspb. Added the green plate to protect the water from the resin material and the verdigris finish.

A bit of garage tidying.
Took the r6 for a couple of rides with softened suspension settings - seems a bit more comfortable.

1d late due to chatsworth.

Monday morning the 106 rolled through 150000 miles.

Tuesday took the monster to work. Carol took the r6.
A bit more garage tidying.

Wednesday hot and sunny. Took the r6 to work.
Friday we went down the pub to eat.

Saturday with good weather forecast we decided to do chatsworth.
Up the m1, through matlock and darley dale, we approached from the S through the rolling hills surrounding the house and gardens.
Some sort of bbc restoration event going on, but we didn't see much of them.
Lunch, coffee and cake in the carriage rooms (outside).

Inside the house, for once photos are allowed. Most of the wall paintings have darkened with age, but some remain and the ceilings are remarkable. I read about the violin door, but didn't actually find it - carol did. Views over the garden of the cascade and fountains. Surprising trompe l'oeil figures complete with shadows above the 4 poster bed. Just befoire the shop, a room full of sculpture. Although we saw lots of rooms, there was clearly a lot more to the house that we didn't see.

After a detour back to the start to collect my backpack, we started on the garden(s).
We tried to walk around fairly methodically clockwise, but no dounbt missed a lot. I almost missed the revelation water sculpture. We sat and watched it open and close a couple of times. An enormous pair of chickens scratching about.

Carried on up to the cascade. Remarkably relaxed about paddling in it. A very big feature using relatively little water.

Up along the top with a small stream by the side of the path to a pond with a stone bridge. Saw a path leading down with a monkey puzzle tree in the middle and a leaping hare sculpture beside it. A little further along, a reclining horse. It seems every area of the garden has its own surprise. Further along still a wooden shelter on top of some rocks overlooking the lake. Then some cabbage white and peacock butterflies, and a pair of hover flies.

Down at the lake a hare beating a drum.

Carried on down to the fountain, past more sculpture. Surprised to find that there was even more garden in the middle including the maze, which we didn't have time for.

On the way out we saw even more buildings that we hadn't visited.
We exited to the N and looped round through bakewell, back through matlock and matlock bath. Saw a couple of hot air balloons.

Sunday 3x round the village circuit in the windy sunshine 21 mins 46.
Into town for lunch at browns, coffee and cake at the herbert.
A bit of reading in the garden.

Tuesday 3x round the village circuit in the wind 21 mins 38.

Wednesday rainy.

Friday windy. We went out to eat at the axe and compass.

Saturday into town for lunch at browns, coffee and tiffin at waterstones in the comfy corner sofa window seat.

Sunday 3x circuit in the sunshine before the clouds arrived 21 mins 44.
We went over to have a look at hein gericke and j and s. Carol bought some hg leather jeans.

September.

Monday off.
With the best weather forecast in the SE we went to london.
Straight onto an espress bus and relatively quick down the a40 and westway.
The clouds dispersed and the sun came out as we travelled.
Off at victoria, lunch, coffee and apfelstrudel at le signore again just outside buckingham palace.
We headed over to battersea park to find london recumbents and maybe try out a bike.
But they only have trikes in the park, and the dulwich branch is too far away.
We walked along the N bank of the thames up to the houses of parliament. Surprised to find that the small park next door is open to the public.
Along the road works of whitehall to trafalgar square. The girl on the plinth for the hour mostly just taking photos of the people taking photos.
Up through haymarket to picadilly, then leicester square, charing cross road to foyles book shop.
Back along oxford street into the setting sun, past a giant car promotion, to park lane where we once again got straight onto a bus. Home about 20:30.

Tuesday heavy rain, thunder and lightning late afternoon.

Wednesday off for the rest of the week.
We went to rugby. Lunch, coffee and cake at summersault.

Thursday we went for a walk through the fields around the village.
Afternoon we went to have a look at stoneleigh abbey.
With the guided tour at 15:00, we went for a walk around the gardens 1st.
Quite lucky with the sunshine, but windy.
Eventually found the tea room for coffee and cake, but a little late for the start of the tour.
For once I was allowed to keep my backpack, but no photos.
Sadly, much of the older parts have been sold off as residences.
The rooms that remain to be seen are quite impressive.
They actually let me play the organ in the chapel.
3x round the village circuit in the windy sunshine 21 mins 20.

Friday we decided to do the dulwich recumbents.
Setting off about 10:00, we had a bit of an early break for lunch at the oxford services.
Curious to see the m4 has the fast lane reserved for bus, bike and taxi, and a 60 limit. Some interesting architecture to the sides of the elevated section.
Extremely slow in central london as we carefully went around the W and S sides of the C zone.
Eventually arrived at dulwich park a little before 14:00.
Nice and sunny, if a little windy.
They were reluctant to let me at the sportier stuff straight away, insisting that I ride the spirit 1st - 2 circuits of the whole park.
Horribly unstable and a disconcertingly soft rear suspension, but I managed to ride it ok, only falling off the 1st time I stopped - not realising the need to stand up.
Swapped to something different, which turned out to be a mistral. Harder suspension, but similarly unstable.
After the 1st circuit I had the tyres pumped up to 70 from about 35 which was much too soft. This helped a bit, but it still needed steering all the time.
At last they let me have a quick go on a hurricane, which felt a little more stable, probably due to the lower centre of gravity, but the length to the pedals was set a little short for me and I had had enough after 4 laps of the park already.
All of the bikes seemed to have sticking gears, requiring about 3 changes before anything would actually move.
We had a quick look at the water feature in the centre of the park, then crossed the road to have a look at the dulwich picture gallery.
Return journey seemed even worse with the m25 crawling along.

Saturday cut the grass.
3 cds of very old music arrived from amazon.
The modettes the story so far. Long awaited, 1 of the few remaining for my replacement of vinyl with cd. I saw them live in coventry and oxford.

The motors 1. From my 2nd term in the 1st year at oxford.

Perfect unpop. various singles from the john peel show, some of which I still have on 7".

Into town for lunch, coffee and cake at west orchards.
Went to see the district 9 film, which was excellent, original, intelligent, dark and full of messages.

Sunday 3x circuit 20 mins 54.
Finished reading the book god is not great.
A bit of shopping. Cleaned the car.

Sunday had a quick scan through the graffiti woman book.

Monday 3x round the village circuit in the warm sunshine 20 mins 51.
Took the r6 to the cadmac meeting. Quite nice coming back in the warm dark.

Tuesday 3x circuit in the warm sunshine 20 mins 51. Think I saw a grass snake moving from the road to the verge at the high point.
Down the pub for pizza. A walk around the village circuit at dusk.
We finished watching the anvil dvd.

Wednesday took the gpz to work.
3x circuit in the warm sunshine 20 mins 37.

Thursday took the r6 to work. Used the old tank bag, mostly empty.
In celebration of some time at ansty they laid on free food and oversize games on the lawn etc. Andy beat me at connect 4
Cleaned the r6.
Took some photos of the plums and apples in the garden.

Friday took the monster to work. Carol took the r6.
Cleaned the monster.
Over to withybrook to eat.

Saturday into town for lunch at browns coffee and cake later at the herbert.

Sunday 3x circuit in the cool sunshine 21 mins 31.
Took the gpz for a ride in the morning sunshine.

For about a week now a mysterious yellow dust has been settling, most noticeable on the car.

Monday bought 2 new spokes from coventry cycle centre for my old school bike, having worked out that the warp in the rear wheel was due to 2 missing spokes quite close together.
Fitted them and removed most of the warp, but it still needs some fine tuning.

Tuesday saw a red dragonfly at lunchtime.

Wednesday 1x round the village circuit in the chill wind before it got too cold 7 mins 53.
Minor crisis after dark when the hot water overflow wouldn't stop. We eventually traced it to a disintegrated seal in the float valve unit and replaced it.

Thursday into town for something to eat, coffee and cake at west orchards, then over to the university to get my italiano assessed - ok for intermediate apparently.
I'd like to continue with polish, but this is dependent on demand.
Been keeping up with the itv4 coverage of the cycling tour of britain. At last a bit of sunshine and some decent scenery over the moors around blackpool. Still horribly patched up british roads though.

Friday saw the red dragonfly again, maybe not the same 1.

We went out to eat at the sarah mansfield.
Again the tour of britain looking good in the sunshine and countryside of somerset and devon.

Saturday into town for lunch at browns, caffe e gelato at etna.
Bought the muse cd resistance.

Sunday 3x circuit in the cool sunshine 21 mins 02.
Missed the 1st half, but saw the end of the tour of britain, again with good weather, in london.. Looks like it will continue to get bigger.
Took the monster for a ride down to the canal.
1x circuit on my old school bike.

The leaves are starting to turn autumnal. Soon be time to visit an arboretum.

Monday up fairly early and off to bhx to fly with andy to frankfurt and on to tallinn, estonia for work.
A very long way, and 2h time difference.
We stayed in the very tall swissotel and ate in a nearby bar the 1st night. Still found time for a quick walk through the shopping centre and coffee and cake at robert's coffee.
My room on the 19th floor with a view of the harbour and ferries working the baltic sea.
For some reason the 1st floor seemed to be the ground floor in estonia.

Tuesday we went for a longer walk around the old city wallls to the NE, before meeting up with some others and eating in the town centre square.

Wednesday I went off on a more comprehensive exploration looking for musical instrument shops, but didn't find any.
I did see some enormous seagulls in the park. The old town looks typically hanseatic, but the new city centre looks pretty much like almost any european capital city.
A quick rest back at the hotel, then joined the others to eat over to the SW of the centre.

Thursday morning nice photo of the harbour at sunrise reflecting in the glass wall.

Evening we flew back after work - a very long day at 18h, back home just before midnight.
Nice to get back to some quiet, after the noise of the city, airports, aircraft etc. Even the hotel air conditioning was noisy and could only manage to get down to 21 degrees, with non opening windows.
There had been a power cut at home some time during the evening.

Friday off in the morning sunshine.
Lots of washing and a bit of shopping.
I set off about 14:30 on the r6 up the m6 to see richard and judith, jes and christine.
After the inevitable traffic and road works, I made a bit of good progress before hitting the end of the queue to look at the minor accident that was 4 junctions further up.
Stopped for coffee and tiffin at costa at the sandbach services.
Fairly clear after that, I arrived about 18:00.

Saturday a bit grey and cloudy, I set off for home about 10:00.
Relatively free flowing m6.
Stopped for coffee and tiffin at hilton park.
The r6 rolled through 1000 miles.
Home just before 12:30.
Tired of course, but the r6 was not nearly so unpleasant to ride long distance as I had expected.
Into town for lunch at browns, caffe e gelato at etna.

Sunday 3x round the village circuit in the cold 21 mins 35.
Another power cut during the night.

October.

1d late due to batsford.

Monday it seems to be officially xmas now, with stollen in the shops.

Tuesday mostly sunny. Took the r6 to work.

Friday saw another dragonfly at lunchtime.

Saw the pandorum film. Rather too many rather old sci fi ideas crammed into 1 film, but some unexpected twists. Mostly very silly.
We went down the pub to eat.

Saturday very windy, once again blowing away many of the autumn leaves before we had a chance to visit an arboretum.
Sunny in the morning though.
Evening we went over to see some music in the village hall.

Sunday 3x round the village circuit in the cold sunshine 22 mins 45.
Our chesnut tree, grown from a seed, has its 1st nuts.

Decided to go to batsford arboretum in the sunshine.
Stopped for lunch, coffee and cake at moreton in marsh.
Lots of bikes out enjoying the late summer sunshine.
Saw a spiny yellow caterpillar - apparently a pale tussock moth.

Monday afternoon off in the sunshine to catch up.
Into town for lunch at west orchards, coffee an dtiffin at waterstones.
Took the monster for a refuel and ride down to the canal.

Wednesday dismantled the lh switchgear from the monster and cleaned up the horn switch contacts.

Thursday took the gpz to work in the cold sunshine. Dopped it off later for an mot.
Put the lh switchgear back on the monster.

Friday we went out to eat at withybrook.

Saturday into town for lunch at browns, caffe e gelato at etna.
Evening we went to a talent show at the white lion as an alternative to the x factor.

Sunday 3x round the village circuit in the damp 22 mins 30.
A bit of garden tidying.
Updated the links.

Monday down the m40 to lhr and bmi/ sas to sweden.
1h delay due to an accident on the m40 before oxford.
Landed at arlanda and over to sky city to get the train to gävle in the dark.
Apparently the 1st snow of the year fell in the night.

Tuesday nice and sunny, but bitterly cold.

Wednesday up very early in the morning to go home. Venus and the moon bright in the sky
Steady snow falling as we stopped in uppsala, and snow lying in the fields around.
Once again at sky city to fly home.
Lovely drive back up the m40 in the autumn sunshine. Home at 16:00.

The white fungus reappeared in the garden, just 2 days later than last year - almost missed it.

Friday afternoon off in the sunshine.
Into town for lunch, coffee and cake at west orchards.
Back home the white fungus has gone again, lasting just a couple of days as usual.
Took the monster for an mot.
Later returned to coventry for the 3rd time to collect the gpz.
We went out to eat in the dark at the sarah mansfield, but with a private do on, we we went to the axe and compass instead.

Saturday with some sunshine forecast among the clouds, we headed down the a46 and fosse way beyond cirencester to have a look at westonbirt arboretum.
Horrendously busy at peak autumn season, with massive queues, we ate at the overflow vans.
It is pretty enormous. We decided to just work around the old arboretum. It's mostly just trees, without the hills, water, buildings of batsford. Not many birds and squirrels etc.
But those trees are spectacular.
We spent a couple of minutes watching a mole pushing up the spoil by the side of the path.

Stopped at a waitrose on the cirencester ring road, and an organic farm shop just after.

Sunday sunny.
A bit of garage tidying.

Monday evening over to the cadmac meet, staying for some of the sales talk.

Tuesday 1 year since finishing paying for the house.

Thursday bought a 100mm bench vice for the garage from screwfix.

The coventry based comedy home time came to some sort of conclusion with the school reunion.

Friday home just before the afternoon sunshine completely disappeared. Took the monster for a ride down to the canal - still a few autumn leaves on the trees.

Saturday into town for lunch at browns. Heavy rain. We had coffee and cake at the herbert and had a look at the animation display.

Sunday sunny after the end of bst.
Lots of red berries on the holly.

A bit of garage tidying.
In the warm afternoon I cut the grass.
Took the r6 for a ride over to see adrian and family.
We went for a walk around the village circuit.

November.

Monday carol took the monster to work.

Tuesday carol took the r6 to work.

Wednesday with the best weather forecast of the week, I took the r6 to work, but the sun didn't appear until later.
Cleaned it.

Friday off. A bit more garage tidying.
Autumn leaves from the acer in the garden.

Into town for lunch at west orchards, coffee and cake at m+s.
Bought the nerina pallot cd the graduate.

We went over to withybrook to eat.

Saturday morning raining, but brightened up later.
Into town for lunch at browns, caffe e gelato at etna.

Sunday more rain.
Afternoon sunny and windy. Lots more garage tidying.
Found a spectacular garage spider.

Monday over to coventry for the cadmac meet and a talk on 1st person view flight. Full moon shining on the way back.

Thursday official bonfire night, but just a few fireworks against the rain.

Friday off. Into town for lunch at west orchards, now with xmas decorations. Coffee and tiffin at waterstones.
Rain in the afternoon. Lots more garage tidying. Fitted the bench vice.
We went out to eat at the sarah mansfield.

Saturday sunny, but still damp. Took the monster for a ride down to the canal.
We went to oxford to have a look at the ashmolean museum.
Very busy at water eaton. Lunch at cafe rouge in little clarendon street.
The newly reworked museum is stunningly good, with loads more space for artefacts and paintings, and a roof terrace, and all free. Also a stradivari violin and various other old string instruments.

Sunday morning raining. Spent rockets on the ground.
Bought a replacement 12V psu for the adsl router after it failed on saturday.
Took the r6 for a ride.
3x round the village circuit in the damp 21 mins 12.

Monday exchanged the 12V psu after the 1st failed after a few hours - been ok since.

Tuesday ericsson announced that it was pulling development out of ansty park, coventry, meaning I will be out of a job, some time 2010.
28+ years continuous now since I started in september 1981
Rest of the day off. Sandwich at morrisons, coffee and mince pie at b+q.

Friday we went down the pub to eat. More wind and rain.

Saturday 3x round the village circuit in the damp strong wind 23 mins 12.
Into town for lunch at browns, coffee and cake at the herbert later.

Sunday 3x circuit it the damp wind, but in bright sunshine 23 mins 01.
The forecast rain seemed to stay away for the afternoon.
A bit more garage tidying.
Cleaned the r6.

Wednesday windy. Got our new kitchen mixer tap fitted.

Thursday no hot water from the new tap.

Friday off. Mostly waiting in for the tap to be fixed - just needed the check valve freeing off.
We went over to withybrook to eat.

Saturday into town for lunch at browns, coffee and cake at ikea. Lots of rain, and dark early.
It seems the lhc is back up and running in both directions, but probably next year before any high energy collisions.

Sunday 3x round the village circuit in the damp wind and sunshine 21 mins 13.

1 day late due to shrewsbury and getting the advent calendar ready.

Friday off.
The little birds came visiting the garden, so I cleaned the feeders and put some seed out.
Adjusted the tickover on the monster, using the webcam and laptop.
Bought an optimate4 charger.
Bought the terminator 4 dvd salvation.
We went out to eat at the axe and compass.

Saturday we went to have a look at shrewsbury.
Slow through the roadworks on the m6.
Took the park and ride from harlescott. Standing room only. Not really sure where to get off, we took the 2nd stop, after the top of the hill.
Lunch and coffee at mad jack's. Walked around the shops and down to the high and fast river severn. Riverside parks flooded.
Walking along the road under the darwin shopping centre we found a load of birds tweeting in a tree around the warmth of the street lights.

Sunday fitted the battery connector to the monster and charged it through the optimate.
Bought the culture novel matter.

Monday bought some fat balls, seed and nuts for the garden birds.

Swapped to xmas background and advent calendar.

1d late again, due to the bike show and marcus brigstocke.

December.

Monday night bright and starry with a full moon.

Tuesday morning frosty.

Thursday lots of shopping for the weekend.

Friday off. Put the xmas tree up.
Jes and christine arrived for the bike show.

Saturday up late and we went for a walk around the village circuit, before heading over to the nec for the bike show.
Lunch at wetherspoons.
Seemed not very busy in the main stands early afternoon.
The ducati stand was tiny and very disappointing with only 2 bikes, and those out of reach.
The norton looks quite nice, in a retro sort of way, but is ridiculously expensive, and again beyond access.
Bought a maisto ducati 848.
Bought a baglux minea tank bag in black, being a more modern, reasonable size, with expansion zip, backpack option, and a show discount.
Bought a scottoiler v system, agin at a show discount.
Met up with bob and richard for a coffee late afternoon, before heading back in the rain.
Evening adrian, claire and family came over.

Sunday morning we all went over to adrian's.
Into town for lunch at browns, coffee and cake at the herbert with live music.
Evening we went to see marcus brigstocke at the arts centre.

Monday off.
Mostly tidying up away from the rain.
A bit of shopping.

Monday evening over to the cadmac agm.

Tuesday off for the rest of the week.
2x round the village circuit in the damp 15 mins 22.
We went for a walk up the hill.
A bit of tidying and reading.
Evening we went over to leamington to see the new york dolls at the assembly.

Wednesday into town for lunch at west orchards, coffee and tiffin at waterstones.

Thursday 2x circuit 15 mins 16.

Friday morning damp and misty.
We went over to birmingham to have a look at the german market, stopping at hein gericke and triumph on the way.
Over the high bridge from the car park.
Lunch, coffee and cake at the pavillions.
Walked up the hill through the market to paradise and the observation wheel.

Saturday the damp sunshine returned.
Into town for lunch at browns, coffee and mince pie at the herbert.

Saturday night had been starry, but gentle rain sunday morning and the sunshine soon returned.
Little birds feeding in the garden.

Been charging lots of batteries with the optimate.
Read some of matter.

Monday back to work.

Tuesday xmas lunch at work, with a 6 piece brass band playing carols.

Thursday heavy snow in the afternoon, and freezing before dark.
We went slowly over icy roads to withybrook to eat.

Friday more light snow.
Went out for our work xmas lunch.
We went to see avatar in 3d.
The reald technology is very impressive.

Saturday still frozen.
Into town for lunch at browns, coffee and mince pie at the herbert.

Sunday still frozen after a starry night.
Birds feeding in the garden.

1d late due to london.

Monday took the mandola and electric guitar to work.

Wednesday heavy sleety rain on the way home.

Xmas eve home early in the slightly warmer sunshine, but still frozen.
We went over to see adrian and claire and swap xmas presents.

For those who missed the advent calendar, here is what it looked like.

Xmas day morning damp and grey, but sunshine soon returned.
Apparently officially a white xmas for once. No snow here, but still frozen.
Xmas dinner at home, then we went for a walk around the village circuit on icy roads.
Over to adrian's to see the presents.
Saw a deer successfully crossing the road in the dark on the way back.

Boxing day up reasonably early and off to london, getting straight on a bus at thornhill and at baker street before 12:00.
Very busy, but surprisingly many shops closed.
Coffee and cake at foyles.

Sunday 1x round the village circuit in the strong cold wind 8 mins 14.
Into town for lunch at browns, coffee and cake at ikea.

Monday cold and sunny again.
Swapped to a new winter trees logo.