Peter's Blog

Aviation Museum and SBS

2009-06-25T11:42:00.000Z

Was chatting to my friend Mark the other day and the subject of my blog came up. I said to him that I didn’t know he read my blog. He said that he would if I updated it a bit more often, or words to that effect. So here we are. Grabbing some time on the train heading to work as I type this. At Southampton passed another friends Paul Gottle’s train heading the other way. Paul you must tell me where you sit on the train. I’m in the front carriage of mine. Maybe we could wave to each other every morning. Wouldn’t that be fun. Might get a few strange looks though.

So what have I been up to? Well quite a lot. Working on the new website for the Bournemouth Aviation Museum, which I hope to put live in the next week. Been fun, the museum is an exciting project and it’s great to be able to contribute to it.

As you may have read on Sue’s blog, we had a day out to the Spinnaker Tower, which I highly recommend to everyone. Pick a nice clear day and the view is fantastic. Then off to see Chicago with Jimmy Osmond and Emma Burton (her from Eastenders) WOW both were outstandingly good, as was the rest of the cast. Great show.

Bought myself two new toys recently. On Sunday a new (to me) drum kit. My current one has served me well. It wasn’t that expensive and with it I’ve learnt the basics, admittedly I should be more advanced than I am at the moment, so hopefully the new kit will help. For a start it’s full sized and I’ve now got what I consider the minimum needed to drum, gaining a ride cymbal and now having two rack toms, The kit is also good enough to gig with, not that we ever do,

My second new toy is an SBS box. Basically this picks up signals from aircraft fitted with certain equipment that broadcast their flight number, location and a unique hexadecimal code (yes I knew all the binary and base 16 rubbish we did at school would come in useful one day). This box picks these signals up and displays them on a PC screen, With those broadcasting their location appearing on a radar type display. So I can sit in the back garden looking at the aircraft flying over and know what they are and via the Hex code, which is unique to the aircraft, know which aircraft I’m looking at. Has made spotting easier. But is it too easy? Currently on an average evening I’m making at least 10 new aircraft. Lots of Easyjet and Ryanair, and I’m sure that one day I will get close to fleeting them (ie seeing them all). Which is what I bought the box for - to see planes as it always frustrated me see an airliner trail across the sky and not know what it is. But am I on a level playing field with other spotters. Those with SBS boxes yes. But those without? Ok it is not a competition. We are not trying to out do each other all the time. We all have slightly different rules as to what we count and what we don’t. I would count a lot more that my aforementioned friend Mark. But it is up to us what we count, it’s our hobby and we do it only for ourselves, I guess that it’s no different to those that live close to a main airport and those that don’t. The former will see a lot more than the latter. Anyway, I love my SBS box. Just wish it wasn’t so cloudy so much of the time and more frustration is when I sit at work looking out over blue skies all day and then for it to cloud over in the evening..

Still approaching Bournemouth now, where I get off. Blog entry done, Hope this makes Mark happy, he should be he got three mentions in it!

YouTube

2009-05-07T21:03:00.001Z

YouTube. Well in this case it is MeTube... my first video on the web...

Easter and a few days away

2009-04-20T07:59:00.001Z

Gosh it has been a long time since I blogged hasn’t it dear readers. But I’m back. Good Friday I went off to Barnet to see the mighty AFC Bournemouth play. Though they weren’t so mighty and lost 1-0. Still got some spotting in and it’s a new ground for me. So far I’ve watched matches at 18 football grounds.

Had most of last week off as it was Sue’s birthday. Went and stayed in a Travelodge near Eastbourne. On route we stopped off at a Nature Reserve to see if we could see a rare bird that had been spotted there. Only info I had was that it was sighted near the car park. However and 10-15 bird watchers had set up their scopes/cameras near by and were all looking in one direction. This did make it easy for me. However it was 45 mins until the White Throated Sparrow made an appearance. Nice one. One to add to my life list and in some ways more importantly, it added to my Hampshire list. Whilst waiting for the sparrow also made a blackcap and a marsh tit. Nice one.

Stopped off at Midhurst on route to Eastbourne area and a look at someone’s garden that they had opened as part of the National Garden Scheme. Always nice to look at good looking gardens. Poke around their potting sheds and compost heaps. See how other people do it and I always leave with ideas.

Next day (Thursday) did a little driving tour of Sussex villages. Stopped off to look at five historic churches, one of which was locked (boo), saw the Long Man of Wilmington and the Litlington White Horse.. Both hillside chalk figures. Then the evening spend near a reservoir, just sat taking in the evening sun, watching the birds and the fisherman out on the water. Lovely.

Next day it was a bit rainy, so at Sue’s insistence (well she suggested it) we went to the Bluebell railway. Managed to get on the footplate of two steam locos, whilst they were in steam. A first for me. Really nice of them to allow people up on the footplate. Lovely railway. Would recommend a visit if you are ever down that way.

Back home on the Saturday via Shoreham airport. Which seems to have improved its viewing facilities. Which some airports would take note. Then home. Spend the rest of the weekend in the garden. Really bust at this time of year. I feel that we’ve had the last of the frosts, I hope, so was planting out in Ernest. Spuds, lettuce, onions, spring onions, cabbage, parsnips, runner beans, peas etc. More stuff in the green house. By Sunday evening I was pooped. But really glad that the growing season is finally here. We’ve even started to harvest some of the items as Sue made a lovely omelette with chives from the garden. Nice.

Monday morning now, and back on the train to work. Most of the regulars on board but I notice that one or two are missing. Wonder if any of them notice when I’m not around..

Not my normal blog!

2009-03-12T13:33:00.004Z

Break from my normal blog - Just knocked up a quick table showing how many councils have twitter feeds of their news stories and the number of people that are following those feeds. This is th enew version which updates

Bournemouth Aviation Museum

2009-03-03T17:42:00.001Z

Oh what a good weekend. Sue and I spent most of Saturday afternoon in the Garden. Got some good work done. Clearing out the borders. Weeding. Trying to get my holly bush to have baby holly bushes. I’ve got some cuttings in pots from a branch that I accidentally snipped off and I’ve got another branch, part of which I’ve buried , which I’m hoping will root like one of my other bushes have. The other bush has produced four others, the smallest one I have potted up and hope to grow on.

Sown my first seeds of the season. Might be a bit early but Carol Klein told me to do it (via an article in the Guardian) Fifteen broad bean seeds are now in compost filled toilet rolls in the greenhouse. If they grow they grow, if they don’t well I’ve always got some spare seeds.

Now some of you will know that I used to be on the committee of the Bournemouth Passenger Transport Association, aka the Bournemouth bus museum and was involved in organising their annual rally. Well Sunday I relived those days by helping out my mate Steve and the Bournemouth Aviation Museum. They held their First annual Vintage Transport Day and what a good day it was. I was in two minds as to whether I should help out with the event, doing odd jobs and trying to help the event run smoothly and sort out any problems or to take my stall down there and help out the museum by donating some cash to them from any money I might make. It was really a tough call and I was debating about it right up to when I left home. But I chose to help out with odd jobs and there was quite a few to do in the morning. All skillfully organised by Steve. Yeah it was fun. The museum project is one I would really like to get more involved in. They have a wonderful museum there, which really looks like its heading in the right direction, all they need is a half-decent website. Anyway, the museum itself is all down to the hard work of a handful of volunteers. Well done lads, Roll on the next project?

DC-9 with winglets

2009-03-03T17:39:00.000Z

Gosh I did leave you all on tender hooks last time, didn’t I? I know that you are all dying to know about my six month review thingy with my boss Charlie. Well it went OK. See I told you he was a nice boss. And I’m sure he’s going to be an excellent dad. His wife giving birth to their first child, a son James, last week. Congrats to them both.

So what have I been up to? Last Thursday I went off with a couple of good mates to have a tour of RAF Shawbury and RAF Cosford. A good time was had by all. I would tell you about the hilarious incident coming back at Birmingham when I tried to convince the other lads that the SAS that had just landed looked like a DC-9 with winglets. But I doubt that most of you would get the joke. It turned out to be a Regional Jet on its first visit to Brum. The lads were grateful in the end that I pointed put the aircraft to them.

Friday, I went to Doncaster again for the train. I lived up to its hype. So much so that I stayed all day at the station, leaving briefly to get a KFC for my tea.

Saturday, I went down to the new Bournemouth Aviation Museum site at Bournemouth Airport. They have a bus on site now for use by the spotters. You see, the airport authorities are building a bank of earth all along the perimeter of the airport. There has been some quite bad traffic accidents along that stretch caused by people being distracted by the aircraft. Hence the bank to block their view. So the museum has bought a double decker bus and so we are able to sit upstairs and look over the bank. They have done a lot of work at the museum and it starting to look really good. But, hey why not see for yourself, they are holding a Vintage Transport day next Sunday (1st March). Normal admission rates apply. Lots of old buses, vintage military vehicles, old cars. Going to be a good day out for all the family. Hope to see you there.

birds, snow and nice bosses (creep creep)

2009-02-05T19:13:00.004Z

OK, quick catch up blog here.

Last Friday – Went to Doncaster to do a bit of train spotting. Nice day out, used a free weekend ticket that I get with South West Trains to go up to London. Across on the underground to Kings Cross and then to sample National Expresses service to Doncaster. They have just celebrated their first 'birthday' i.e. they have operated the route for a year. They had some single tickets on offer for just a fiver and I took advantage of this to have a day in Doncaster for just £10 return plus underground fares. Now for the underground I acted like a proper Londoner and used an oyster card. Normally when I go to London I get a travel card but it wasn’t worth it for just two trips across town. So I got an Oyster card. It's cheaper than paying by cash.

Doncaster was good but very cold. Added a couple of churches to my list. St Peterswhich was close to the station and Doncaster Minster which is also just a short walk away. There are a coupled of more churches a bit further away that you can see. I might do these on my next visit to here in a couple of weeks.

Saturday and Sunday – Did a bit in the garden. As much as the cold would let me. Clearing of the border is going well. I also moved the rose buses from the front of garden to the back and made a little display of them.

Monday – Tried to get to work in the snow, but failed. Walked down town and waited for an hour at the train station for a train. When the station announcer said that they were operating a very limited service and that we should listen to local radio for updates I thought that was it. If he doesn’t know when the trains are what hope do they rest of us. I walked home. Visiting Tesco on the way. Buying amongst other things doughnuts. They thought of spending a quiet day at home eating doughnuts seemed too good an opportunity to miss. Just settling down when the door went. Sue couldn’t get to work either. Oh well I guess it would be bad if I ate all the doughnuts anyway. Not that I would have done. Would have saved a couple for Sue. It was nice to have her safe at home rather than trying to drive through all the snow. Doughnuts are for sharing anyway, but was hugely disappointed in the amount of jam in them… You hardly noticed in some of them that they were supposed to be jam doughnuts. Shame on you Tesco.

Monday evening received an e-mail from my boss, telling me not to struggle trying to get into work on Tuesday. Sue had mixed emotions. Pleased that I didn’t have to try to get to work and get into trouble. Not quite sure that I should be given carte-blanch to have a another day at home but realising that Charlie is such a lovely boss to think of me like this… He is a good boss… One could not wish for a better boss…. Top leadership, Wish all the bosses there could be more like him. Yeap – he reads my blog and that I have my 6 month review tomorrow!

Whilst spending time working from home I sat in the conservatory looking out at the bird life, whilst still working hard. Put out plenty of food for them and this seemed to encourage the birds in. Them being unable to get any due to the snow. We had two wagtails in the garden, a species I have seen before in the garden but only on a rare occasion. Two new birds seen in the garden were a Chiff-chaff (a life tick for me) and a Green Woodpecker (a year tick for me) But most importantly they added to the garden birds list as well. It’s great to have birds in the garden. Sit and watch them for hours and I don’t have to travel to see them.

Wednesday was off on compassionate leave to attend the funeral of Sue’s Aunt Marion,. A lovely lady Sue is blogging about that right now on our laptop.

Thursday – back to work – boo hiss..’

What a match!

2009-01-25T13:04:00.003Z

AFC Bournemouth - a team on the brink over being relegated to the football league. A new manager comes in. Well he's an ex-player who was on the coaching staff anyway. He becomes the leagues youngest manager. He makes a signing. Big Steve Fletcher. A player we released a couple of seasons ago, even though he was our longest serving player. He's been playing at Crawly Town in some non-league that will soon include AFC Bournemouth if they don't do something and soon. Could this guy be the spark to re-ignite our season. Well if yesterday's match was something to go by. Yes he can!! I entered the ground about 15 mins after kick off, after selling my half time draw tickets. We were already one-nil down, to top of the table Wycombe Wanderers. You could hear a pin drop in the Bournemouth end. We all knew that if the fact of a new manager and star player returning wasn't going to do anything then that would be it. We might as well give up. Even goading from the Wycombe supporters didn't bring the Bournemouth end to life.

Luckily the players didn't give up. Are these the same players that have been playing so badly of late? They seemed, well interested in playing football again. They wanted to win and a superb free kick, made even better by the booking of a Wycombe player when he was lining up the wall, made it one all.

Goal mouth action again, and joy of joys were two-one up. Now it was our turn to sing. Wycombe just seem to fall apart. Then it was half-time.

Comeon lads we've got to win the second half. Wycombe soon made a double substitution. Sending a message from the bench. Quite what that message was I'm not really sure. But it made no difference. From my angle it was a superb lob that made it 3-1 to Bournemouth, later BBC Sport gave it as a deflected cross that happened to beat the keeper. That was it. Wycombe huffed and they puffed by they could not break down the Bournemouth defence. Who were for once, playing a full 90 minutes of football, rather than the normal 80. Well be played a 4 minutes of 'injury time', don't know how as the trainers weren't on the pitch once during the second half. But final whistle came. We shouted. We clapped. We were happy. Oh it felt good. You know those who don't go to football regulary won't get it. Yes we have had some rubbish games of late. But when you eat nothing but spam all the time. You really appreciate when you have steak one in a while.

My entry for Stu's Weekly photo Challange

2009-01-18T21:42:00.000Z

Good Weekend

2009-01-18T20:57:00.003Z

Gosh, its been such a long time since I last blogged. Sorry about that folks.

Having a good weekend, yesterday was spend mostly in the garden. Got my plan sorted out for the veg plots for the summer. I'll have to blog about that later. Anyway yesterday was spend most clearing areas of the garden. Gave the fir tree a bit of a chop to let more light into the bed below it and visited homebase for spinach seed and another pair of secetours. I've no idea where my original pair have got to.

Today been up to Blashford Lakes to do some bird watching. Highlight must have been the Iceland Gull. First one ever for Blashford apparently. Also saw the Black Necked Grebes together with my favourite grebe, the Little Grebe.

great day

2008-12-13T21:52:00.000Z

Good day today seeing Lady S-I-L, Anne (she writes books you know – and good ones) and my brother Keith. Had a really good day. Good birding and good company. Went down to Titchfield Haven. Saw my 100th different species of bird in Hampshire today. A marsh Harrier. Saw lots of nice birds and really used my scope, which I love. Taken spotting to the next level.

Interview with Sir Alan

2008-12-09T21:48:00.000Z

Took the day off today to go to London. Spent the day doing some train spotting, having a good day. But the main reason for my trip to London was that I had a interview booked with Sir Alan. No, I’m not going on the apprentice, its not that Sir Alan, but Sir Alan Greengross who is chairman of the South West Trains Passenger Panel. Been trying to get on the panel for a while. Would be so interesting to see their work and get to know the workings of a train company better. And of course to try to get South West Trains to give me a better service. Sir Alan seemed a really nice chap. Friendly and passionate about his work. I just hope that I did enough to impress him. He seemed keen especially when I talked about websites, seemed like the passenger panel might want one.

Birthday

2008-12-05T21:41:00.003Z

Yeap its my birthday today. Had lots of books, a brid watching in Norfolk DVD. A hedge trimmer from Sue's parents but my main present was a brid watchers scope. Tried it out this afternoon. Its great. Spotted a scaup today. First time ever. Wouldn't have seen it if it wasn't for my new scope. Doesn't count to my Hampshire list though as we were at Langford Lakes in Wiltshire. Good venue. Good day today.

Book Review

2008-11-26T21:12:00.000Z

First time I have read one of Anne Brookes books and I wasn't disappointed. Rape isn't the nicest of subjects but it how Kate copes afterwards that is the main thrust of this story. She is sometimes her own worst enemy but you really know where she is coming from. She has your sympathy, well most of the time. You do get frustrated with her at times. But the story flows well and you just hope that it all ends happily, but you do wonder at times whether Kate will find peace.

The story questions the friendship between Kate, her best friend Nicky and Nicky’s husband . It explores how close people do get to each other. No matter how close THINK you are to someone, you never completely know them and never completely open up to them.

Thanks Anne for a great read, great story and for making me think.

Quick Catchup

2008-11-10T10:20:00.001Z

Well I hope you are all well. I am. Been a busy chap of late. Seen sister in Norfolk, went to Penshorpe Nature Reserve, lots of nice birds. Went to Norwich beer festival, Drank lots of beer. Very nice. Had a nice weekend. AFB Bournemouth match was good, best for ages. Popped down to Blashford lakes yesterday. Added a couple more birds to my Hampshire list for 2009 (now on 98).

You are feeling sleepy

2008-10-16T13:33:00.001Z

Have work laptop, so blogging on the train. The reason for me taking the work laptop home is that I've been to an Ordnance Survey conference for the last couple of days up in the Midlands. Good event it was too and it was good to see how other councils, plus the emergence services are using geographic data.

However, what I will remember most from this conference and what most people will remember me for(!!) is what happened in the evening after the Gala Dinner. The post dinner entertainment was a hypnotist. I always been a bit sceptical of these sort of acts and to satisfy my own curiosity and to what it was like to be involved in such an act, I was one of 6 to volunteer to be put under the spell. I closed my eyes and it started.

I milked a lovely cow for all I was worth. I rode that horse and won the race. My victory dance was quite a sight apparently. Then I used my shoe as a mobile phone. I got a laugh and a small round of applause for using a shoe lace as an aerial. And that was it, I think. I know I didn't take off any clothes before you ask, apart from the shoe. Apparently I was the star of the show and the reaction I got off stage and the next morning from everyone was fantastic. All wanted to congratulate me. They all wanted to know how it felt. There was at least one person who recorded some of it on his mobile phone. I'll post it on here if I get a copy of it.

So how did it feel. Well the best way I can describe it is that it felt like I was in a dream. I knew where I was. I knew what I was doing. My inhabitations would have still stopped me doing anything dangerous or obscene. But when the hypnotist made a suggestion, you thought, yeah that silly but I'll do it. When I got back to my seat it did take me a couple of minutes to get ‘back to normal', but then I was fine.

Now I hadn't texted or phone Sue all day, mainly because there was no phone signal in the hotel at all. So about midnight I went outside. To the side of the hotel, they have a lake in their grounds with reeds, ducks etc Plus a small seating area. Whilst sat there I received a couple of texts and a voicemail message from Sue that she had sent that day. I sent her a text knowing that if she wasn't awake she'll get it in the morning. I did wait around for a few minutes to see if I would get a response. The hotel was quite hot and stuffy so it was great to sit out in the fresh cool air. It was lovely.

I was soon joined by Roger, one of my bosses. We had a quick chat about the hypnotise and a bit of a laugh. I did ask him when he came out.. Did he see me outside? Did he just fancy a walk in the fresh air or what? He said that one of his ex-work colleagues and someone we met earlier that day had seen me go outside and towards the lake. She went to him worried that something was wrong and I was suffering from being hypnotised that evening, I assured him that I was OK and I promised him that I wouldn't jump into the lake.

Lovely Tits

2008-10-08T18:14:00.003Z

Was sat in the conservatry today having been off work sick, yes I'm feeling a lot better but think Sue might be going down with it. Anyway, Robin normally has the garden largely to himself, plus the odd Collard Dove, pidgeon and blackbird. However today we had a flock of various tits decend on the garden. Robin was going mad trying to chase them off his patch. He even had a go at the collard doves who were taken by surpise.

The tits contained at least 3 long tailed tits, 2 coal tit and some great and blue tits. This was the first time long tailed and coal tits have been seen in our garden. Lovely.

Going to do somecatch up blogs at somepoint, as I haven't bloged for ages. I haven't told you all about my holiday in Austria. It was great. Apologies to all for not getting a postcard. I did buy them and buy stamps but didn't get around to writing them out etc.

Web 2.0

2008-09-11T10:41:00.000Z

Went to a Web 2.0 Conference yesterday in London. Wow, mind blowing. So much to think about both at work and in my non-work life. I can see the way we use the web changing. More social ineteraction. Main speaker for the day was Ewan McIntosh. He's from Edinburgh. Don't know if I siad before but I've started reading, what Sue calls 'proper' books i.e. Novels. Working my way through Ian Rankin books at the moment. Yesterday Ewan made a joke with refernce to Ian Rankin's books and I got the reference. Something I wouldn't have done just a couple of weeks ago...

Ruby, Ruby, Ruby Ruby, Ruuubyyyyy*

2008-09-06T21:27:00.002Z

Apologies to the Kaiser Chiefs for the blog title.

Been a quiet couple of days. Sue's been away at her brothers. I’m sure she'll tell you all about that in her blog. Watched 'Lost in Austin' which Sue recorded on Wednesday night whilst I was at band practice. The other day we read an article in the paper on Janine Duvitski. Apparently, she has made lots of money on property in addition to all her TV work. She always seems to on the box, having appeared in lots and lots of stuff. The article mentioned that her eldest daughter was going to be in 'Lost in Austin'. We thought we spotted her, a young actress who looked like a younger version of Janine. But we had to establish the characters name so we could check that we had the right actress. I initially thought that she was playing Kitty, but the Radio Times said that this was Florence Hoath. Then Sue pointed out that she thought she was playing Mary, but that's an actress called Ruby Bentall. We were expecting someone called Duvitski. Then it stuck me, according to a web site I read the other day - Janine has an English mother and a Polish father, So her maiden name is Duvitski and must have married a Bentall. Sue then Googled away and found a site that confirms it. Phew!!! What we saw of the remaining programme look very good, we missed the first part trying to work out all this stuff with Janine's daughter. Its such hard work watching TV programmes these days.

So to recap, 'Lost in Austin' stars Florence Hoath, we did make it to my actresses website and Ruby Bentall who is the daughter of Janine Duvitski, who so nearly made my actress website but didn't. Also Pippa Haywood is in the series as well. She did make my actresses list. Talking of which, another actress on my website, Rebecca Callard sent me a note via Facebook the other day. First time I've heard from her for a while, I really must get around to replying to her and updating all these webpages with new info!

Ruby Bentall as Mary Benent in 'Lost in Austin'

Busy Weekend

2008-08-17T17:48:00.000Z

On Saturday went to Aldershot for a AFC Bournemouth match. We got a draw. It was a relief to come back from 1-0 down, but we should have made the chances when we had them in the first half. Used one of my free train tickets I get with my annual season tickets. Made the most of it by travelling on some lines that I’ve never travelled on before, namely Aldershot-Guildford and the two lines from Guildford up to London via Effingham Junction. Didn’t think much of Aldershot as a town. Neither did my friend Gill who was hoping to get some shopping in.

Today Sue and I decided to have a day together and went down to Titchfield Haven. Added a couple of birds to my 2008 Hampshire List, namely Sandwich Tern and an Osprey. Both of which went into my Life List as well. Unusual sighting of the day must go to one of the Kestrels who was attacking a couple of magpies. No idea why it was doing that.

Good weekend

2008-07-20T20:13:00.002Z

Saturday, met up with with some mates for a pub lunch. Met up with guys and gals, some of which I've met in real life before and others have only been on line. After the meal went off with one of the guys and did a geocache. Something I haven't done for ages.

Today, Sunday, been up to Popham airfield and had my stall there. Took a bit of money but not as much as usual. However seeing the lack of people up there today, I'm surprised we made anything at all.

Week in Norfolk

2008-07-14T07:38:00.000Z

The problem, if it is a problem, is that I no longer take my work laptop home on a regular basis anymore. Not since buying my own laptop. Good job as my new work laptop weighs a ton. Therefore I don’t have a laptop to use on the train. Which is when I did most, if not all of my blogging. Ah, you think, that’s why the blogs have been so thin on the ground of late. Well, yes. There is no entry in my daily timetable anymore marked, ‘write blog’ Too busy living my life to write about it. So is it a problem? Well living my life isn’t a problem, However, you dear reader likes to be kept informed of my goings on, plus its nice for me too look back on past events. Reminisce about them, also to see what was important to me then, which may not be so important now, or how some things have grown in importance over time. Anyway. I took the work laptop home over my holiday, hence me having the laptop on the train on this bright sunny Monday morning. So I’m able to blog today. Quite when I’ll blog next, I have no idea.

So last week Sue and I headed off to Norfolk to see my sisters new place. What a change it is from her last place. At least twice the size. Lovely inside and out. The back garden is wonderful. Small patio and seating area. Enclosed, and a nice sun trap. To one side are steps, which lead up and up, through the trees, to an top area, with trampoline (no I didn’t have a go) a huge stone water feature and more seating area, with one corner covered. With tree all around it’s a totally secluded spot. Lovely to sit up there in the summer.

Now that word, ‘summer’ became a bit of a theme during the week. Sue wanted to see Norfolk in the summer. She’d only see it at Christmas or beer festival week (end of October). Hence this visit, which coincides nicely with sisters new house. We were sat in a café in a book shop in Diss. Looking out over the lake and spotting the ducks, gulls and even a great crested grebe. All getting wet as it was lashing it down at the time. This place would look lovely in the summer, commented Sue. It is summer, I replied. And so it went on.

Having said that, it was a really nice week overall. Managed to get in a couple more National Trust properties. Stayed in a new, for us, Travelodge, Ely. Bought some nice plants for the garden, from some house just south of Mildenhall. Spent too much on food, but made up for that by not spending on anything else much.

Back on Friday, so I could got to the Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford, which was cancelled due to rain. So a piecefull weekend is in store. Busy week again. Work today. Farnborough Airshow tomorrow with my good mates Paul and Mark. The going to Reading each day for the rest of the week to do a course on Microsoft SharePoint.

Oh well, next station is mine, so I’d better sign off now

Do you know what it is?

2008-06-28T21:27:00.002Z

This picture has been bugging me for a couple of weeks. Seen in my garden on one of our new fence post. Let me get very close to it to take the picture. Who'll like to guess what it is. I must admit I needed the help of another birder to tell me what it is.

By popular demand

2008-06-26T20:17:00.003Z

So Mel says to Charlie, that according to Facebook, I'm still stiff from gardening at the weekend. I'm update my facebook page, a bit more often than I blog but not much. So I felt that I had change my facebook line. Saying that I was heading to B&Q tonight. This lead to another complaint, this time from Anne, basically saying, forget B&Q, get blogging! So here I am. Trying to please all the people all of the time.

Yes did go to B&Q. Got some compost, some mainsonary paint for a project I'm doing in the summer and a couple of pepper plants. Now watching a film. The Core. It is rubbish, the only reason we're still watching it is that it does get so stupid that it becomes funny. The acting is a bit rubbish as well. The only famous person in it being Hilary Swank and even some of her acting isn't that good, I think that even she can't do much with this rubbish script. Getting towards the end of the film now, and its just get too unbelievable.

Slug City

2008-05-27T10:44:00.001Z

My horoscope in the Metro freeby paper said today that I should do some creative writing. ‘My novel awaits’, it said. I think the nearest I’m getting to a novel is this blog. Not that I take any notice of horoscopes, but I admit that I do read the metro one. Most of the time is gives good advice, such as ‘don’t jump to conclusions’, be a nice person, try to help someone today and so forth. Its more like a public information film, you know, Charlie says don’t cross the street without looking first. What ever happened to horoscopes that predicted that you will receive a strange parcel, or that you destiny links you to the letter C.

Anyway, Tuesday morning and I’m writing this blog on the train to work, having just had a week off. See Sue’s blog for details of that. Will say that I had a fabbo time in Derbyshire. I’ve slept in the same bad a John Noakes you know, but not at the same time.

I’ve come to the conclusion that there aren’t enough animals and birds that eat slugs. Its slug city in our garden at the moment, all the rain yesterday bought them out, I’ve used a whole bottle of salt trying to kill them. Hedgehogs are supposed to eat them, but I doubt that the ones we used to have ever eat them. Some birds are supposed to eat them as well but none that visit our garden. We should create a slug eating monster I think.

Work starts on our front garden today Its only a matter of weeks before I have my own greenhouse..Still a bit bervious having it at the front rather than the back of the house, not that there is any room at the back. Hopefully it will be OK. Will be totally brill to have one, Hopefully I can keep it slug free.