Busy weekend. Selina was home to see Graham, and the KC&RC were hosting a League Shoot leg.
Saturday afternoon, (sun shining) was used to set up the shoot. Five stands with automatic traps were placed in the field and loaded with clays for a Sporting layout.
Sunday was a wet and miserable day. We did not expect many to turn out for the shoot, but they did and I was told that was more than the average for a league shoot attended. By the time we had cleared up it was 1 o’clock.
Went to the open day at Pennywise Racing to say hello to Cressex Katie. She may be running again in a couple of weeks at Wolverhampton.
Just got back from a holiday on the island of Guernsey. Flew out on Saturday morning the day before the storm struck the UK. Sunday was fun standing on the cliffs leaning into the hard wind, and driving the car along the North coast road being covered with sea spray. A few fences blew down around the hotel.
The rest of the week was peaceful, and warm. Did several walks and generally ended up walking in tee shirts.
Visited Herm where Rosemary picked up lots of shells. This was one day when the sun never shone, it was very misty, but warm. Even the top of Herm was out of sight, and there was no way you could see Guernsey from Herm. This was a short visit to Herm, out on the 8.30 boat and back on the 12.35. Wanted lunch and did not really fancy fried Scampi, so we rushed back and over to the Auberge restaurant which is South of St. Peters Port. Lovely views if the weather was clear.
Most days we ate out at least once. This was usually lunch. Food seems much better then it was ten years ago. Maybe it is because we go to better restaurants. The Grande Mare Hotel, where we stay though was a lot better then it was ten years ago food wise. We used to be disappointed when we ate there, but now they seem to do some really decent meals. The last lunch we had had at the hotel was excellent value, and very good for a three course meal in the Islands Tennerfest initiative. This Tennerfest initiative runs during October and the first part of November. Participating restaurants produce lunchtime meals for ten pounds. Generally they are pretty good quality and value.
Friday was the one bad day when it drizzled all day. We really did not do much other than have a swim in the pool and lunch at the hotel. You need these wet lazy days.
Friday night, Saturday morning there was a hard frost. So with ladder and bags we crossed the field and collected Sloes for the Sloe Gin. Last years Sloe Gin was a bit bitter, so this years mix was changed slightly.
o Fill 1 litre bottle with Sloes
o Fill with Gin (will be about 500 ml)
o Add 4 ounces of sugar.
o Keep for a year and decant.
The difference this year is we are using a little more sugar, and the Sloes were collected after a frost.
We collected far too many Sloes. There was a very good crop. We did not have to venture on to any and, other than our own to collect the Sloes. The extra Sloes we gave to next door, and John Curd.
Yesterday and today I have spent several hours working in the graveyard cutting down many dead Elm trees which have succumbed to Dutch Elm dieses. I thing we will have to replace some of these trees with other English woodland trees.
On the 4th, Brian and I caught the night ferry from Portsmouth to La Havre, and then drove down to Clermont-Ferrand arriving at 2.00pm on Saturday. A quick drive to the Puy de Dome where we did not have to pay to drive to the top, because we were taking up another paraglider pilot. Here we spoke to several French and eventually had a very nice soaring flight alongside the Dome in the setting sun.
In the evening we set up camp in the town called Royat. This was our second campsite we looked at; many were closing at this time of year. In the morning, we drove through more of the region and found the ski resort. This could be a good for flying, but unfortunately the weather was cloudy, windy and drizzle. So back to the campsite, packed up and drove on down to Millau, camped for the evening by the river and located a school for advise.
In the morning we flew at a site called Brunas, here we had lifts to the top from the school, and flew a few top to bottoms. At twelve the school went off to lunch promising they would be back at 14.00. Had a lift from some Germans and another top to bottom. Suddenly we realised another hill was being flown from, and there were no French on our hill. It transpired the wind had shifted a little, and the French school had excellent flights from the new hill. We managed to race over there where I had a short but magnificent soaring evening flight.
Next day Tuesday, flying started again at 14.00, but was rather windy. I managed to get off and had a short flight, but despite the wind very little wind.
This was the end; the weather forecast was bad for the rest of the week, so off we went back home.
Lessons learned, next time we do this it would be better to have a more formal arrangement with one of the schools so that they would look after us and make sure we had transport to the top of the hill, and make sure we were on the right hill. While we had some short flights, beginners at the school managed 2 hours of soaring on the Monday and Tuesday while we were on the wrong hills.
Old Walker UK employees past and present had a get together at the Bugle Horn for a drink and a quick meal. Present were Steve Blasdale, John Curd, Peter Willson, Mike Barton, Rosemary Blasdale, Nigel Hudson, Steve Allen, Chris Quarmby, Barbara Wilkie, Stefan Roos. We had a good time recounting the old times.
Anyone else from the old Walker who reads this note and would like to meet up for future meetings, please send me an email, or fill in the visitors book.
Rosemary and I took a long weekend at the Cambridge Alumni Weekend. We left home at 6.00 am Friday so we could leave the car at the B&B and be at the first event at 9.30. The weather was kind the whole weekend.
Had a good tour around the new buildings of the university, seeing the new Mathematical Sciences Campus, and the William Gates building for Computer Sciences.
I had never visited the Scott Polar Research Institute despite being next to the Chemistry Laboratories. This was put right on Friday with an interesting talk about the research being carried out on the creation of new marine conservation areas at the Antarctic.
Rosemary had a good tour of the Archaeology and Anthropology museum where she got to hold ancient precious objects. Finally we met up and visited the Museum of Zoology where we had a tour behind the scenes.
A pleasant Friday evening was held in the Fitzwilliam Museum where we ate canapés, drank wine and viewed the paintings. Wonderful atmosphere and beautifully presented.
Saturday morning was dominated by hour long lectures:
The afternoon was spent listening to Chris Andrew talking about spies in Cambridge, and reflecting on the Hunt for Osama Bin Laden. Next it was a talk by David Starkey on Monarchy and Democracy. This was the Star Lecture and was very worth listening too. It was a very brief overview of the last hundred years of his up coming Television Series.
A quick trek from the Sedgwick site to the ACDC theatre. Here we enjoyed a one-man play by Julian Curry (Claude Erskine-Brown in Rumpole of the Bailey) on the history of wine. Very entertaining.
We had a very nice evening meal sitting outside, overlooking the Cam by Magdalene Bridge.
Sunday was basically two tours.
The first tour was of the Herchel Smith Laboratory of Medicinal Chemistry, where we were introduced to Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Here they were using the MRI scanner to look at knee and finger joints, and their research is particularly relevant to arthritis research.
The second tour in the afternoon was to the Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory. Here we were shown several of their radio telescopes. Some now not used, but many doing leading research. Some of the work is in designing and testing new ideas at the site, and then either building a better version or getting the Americans to build a larger version at a site more suitable for astronomy.
We saw the light telescope, which uses multiple telescopes mounted at a distance apart, which can thus synthesise a larger telescope. This was seen detail on the nearer suns. A larger newer one is being build in New Mexico where the weather conditions will be better.
A very good weekend.
England had a 4.8 earthquake centred on Dudley in the West Midlands at 12.55 am Tuesday. It woke both Rosemary and I. At first we thought it was a heavy lorry (or military tank, we were woken years ago by a convoy of tanks going down the road, they really shook the house), but as there was no other sound, I said earthquake. It just gently shook the house for a few seconds.
Went to catch the coach which was leaving from the local farmer at 7.30 We left for London at 8.00 with a full load. No traffic on the way into London other than a few other coaches. We were dropped of at Hyde Park Corner at around 9.30 .
Joined the waiting march at about 9.45. The march started at 10.00 am and we eventually started to move at 11. I was walking with Annie and George from the local garage. The weather was very variable, sun, and cloud with a little rain. Magnificent crowd with no trouble at all. Very few antis turned up, and these were treated with respect.
There we a wonderful mixture of people on the march, walking with a great mixture of slogans. Many of the banners carried slogans comparing Blair with Mugabe and Hitler. (Apparently Hitler banned hunting, and we know what Mugabe is doing to farming.)
The march for us ended at 2.30, and we were back to the coach by 3.30 and on our way home. No problem with the tubes. We crossed the march end at about 200 thousand. When the march finished the count had registered 400 thousand participants. This was a great success, but will Blair listen. I somehow don’t think so. So I some how think the next demonstrations will not be quite so nice.