Sad Gits reunion

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Sunday 8th saw me head into London on a train from Bicester.  Normally my mode of transport is through Aylesbury.  Bicester is nearer and has a more frequent service, just that it’s a tad more expensive.  I have to admit the non stop service was nice, though the Victor Meldrew in me took exception to all the loud iPods playing around me in what was meant to be the quiet carriage.

Arrived and headed over to the British Film Institute to meet the other Sad Gits.  A special reunion in honour of Jon Lewis who was passing through from South Africa.

Sad Gits

Sad Gits

A quick drink, and then there was the call for lunch.  One pub ignored because it was totally crowded.  A good call was made not to eat on  the terrace.  Minutes later it started to rain.

Instead we went to the Tate Modern and ate in the downstairs cafe.  Decision making is not a feature of Cambridge graduates, trying to get a decision on the number of bottles of wine was rather painful, Andrea came to the rescue, the only non Cambridge graduate amongst us.

Massive spider sculpture by Louise Bourgeois

Massive spider sculpture by Louise Bourgeois

A quick tour of the gallery, and a walk across the millenium bridge and then it was goodbye as we wended our way home.

The walk across the bridge is always a spectacular walk, especially with the dramatic skyscapes we had on that Sunday.

I had another appointment in the evening, and went to a GMB union fund raising event at the Poetry Society in Covent Garden.  Here I was entertained to some poetry readings.  Decided to cut this short as Rosemary was due to pick me up from the Station, and I had a 5.00 early morning rise the next day.

The Crack, this is what happened to it.

The Crack, this is what happened to it.

On a final note, I have added an image of The Tate Modern’s crack.  This was a Tate Modern Turbine hall exhibition where a huge crack was created in the floor.  I always wondered what happened to it.

Visting Iran

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I am meant to be going to Iran to do some work for a customer. Presently Visas seem to be an issue. First my 3 month application for a visa was rejected, and now my 3 day visa was rejected. It looks like I will have to wait a few more weeks before reapplying.

This is such a shame, the people I met and worked with in Iran a few years ago were very nice and helpful people. I do hope this can all be sorted out quickley.

Waterperry

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No sooner had the deluge of rain occurred, the cold weather returned.  We have had a couple of weeks with snow and ice, shortages of rock salt, and now huge potholes in the road caused by frost damage.

Today it warmer.

Yesterday we went to see some snowdrops at Waterperry.  Waterperry  is near Oxford and is a garden centre and arty farty type place.  It though has some magnificent gardens, well they might be magnificent,  winter is not the best time to see them.  I went to see the snowdrops, and the crocuses.  Must admit, in past years, we’ve seen more snowdrops at other places .

Navigation to the centre was aided and abetted by my new mobile phone. [More like “hindered”.  Ed]

Wet weather

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The wet warm weather is back.  I drove to Bristol on Monday in the most appalling weather.  Windy and wet.  This was just a day visit to check out the customers user acceptance system, making sure all the modifications had been correctly customised during the copy.

They should be going live in February with their upgraded system.

Arrived back  quite late at 9.45 just to have supper and go to bed.  What a coincidence, cottage pie for lunch in the canteen, and cottage pie back at home for supper.  Ours though was traditional proper cottage pie made up from the left over roast from Sunday.

The cold weather

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Will this cold weather ever stop?  We have had -7C on our thermometer.  The ponds are frozen, and the temperature has failed to rise above zero for days.  Where has this global warming gone, or is it another con by our politicians and the green  groups. If we are cold, then one assumes there must be a balanced hot area in the North.  To me it does not seem  right that all of Europe is cold,  and that Canada is having a cold winter as well.  Sea ice in the arctic was at a high this summer as well.

Typical of Putin to cut off the gas when it is cold. At least we have our wood burner, fed almost exclusively on hard wood. In this cold weather, how have the wind farms been doing.  Oh not a lot, generating nothing.  Cold weather comes with no wind.  Seems to me a rather waste of money.  Time the UK stepped up to the task and built more nuclear reactors.  At least they work, look at France which generates 90% of their electricity with nuclear.   It’s time something is done, even if it’s opening the closed coal mines and building more coal-fired powerstations before our lights start going out.

Talking about lights, we can not buy any more filament lights, at least the type you can see by.  Another green con, and instead all the mercury from the new low energy lights will now go into landfill, polute the ground water and make us all brain dead.  Maybe the EU and our Government want to us to be brain dead, so we just accept their dictacts without argument.

WordPress 2.7

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Another painless upgrade to my blogging software.  I am now running version 2.7.  Not sure what new features there are, except for the administrators panel which has changed.  I know some, not to be named, who don’t like change, but I do feel this is a move to the better.

Nokia E71

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I bought myself a new toy.  It’s a mobile phone, a Nokia E71.  I have to admit I am really proud of it, and can’t let an hour go by without carressing its tiny keypad, and looking at the new messages that have arrived.  [In other words, he’s become a technobore]

It has a GPS, and with google maps I can walk around the garden using the mobile to navigate with.  [I can walk around the garden using my eyes]

It connects to the wirless wan as well as the mobile network, and has skype support and ipphone support.  So I can make cheap or even free phone calls on the mobile, and receive phone calls from my IPphone number.  It’s a video phone as well.  There is the normal camera and a small video camera on the keyboard side to video me when I am making a call.

Of course it it web enable, so I can browse the web and email on the move.  The email is always running, so I get little sound notifications when a new email arrives.

Finally I have discovered a wealth of applications which run on the phone.  I was really impressed when I found ptty which runs on it.  For those who don’t know, ptty is a secure terminal emulator, and allows me to logon to unix boxes in character mode and run basic editors.  Sad I know but a great tool.

I really just love the build quality of the Nokia E71, the solid cold  feel  of the metal case of the slender phone.  It was love at first sight.  [Humph]

Market and Calpe luncheon

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Flamenco dresses

Flamenco dresses

Flamenco shoes

Flamenco shoes

Today was our last full day in Spain.  Once the menagerie had been sorted out we headed into Jalon for the rastro (aka flea) market.  The market was one large car boot sale along the river bank and the riverside car parks.  A large mix of market stalls, selling goods from Flamenco dresses & shoes, through skimpy panties & anatomy covers (red ones said to be luck on Christmas Eve), records to any old junk.

Piglet

Piglet

Before heading back to the house, a coffee at the Halleluiah bar, and a quick visit to Mas y Mas to buy the evening snack type meal.  Whilst there Steve spotted half a piglet for 25 euro. Carol was taken by this and bought one as an incentive for John to come back and BBQ it.

Quick release of the dogs and cats, then we were back down to Calpe to eat at one of the restaurants on the harbour front.  Today it was definitely tee shirt weather; so sitting outside was a pleasure.  First choosing the restaurant is quite difficult, there is quite a high-pressure sales force pressing you to enter their restaurant, ours plied you with free Sangria and fish cakes.  We went for the inclusive menu, which was a starter, main course and half a bottle of wine for under 10 Euro.  Rosemary chose battered artichoke (she’d half thought it might be buttered), Carol and Steve had

Fish choice

Fish choice

Fan

Fan

the deep fried mini squids.   For mains Steve ate Sole, while Rosemary and Carol ate grilled Hake; all very good.

Only slight problem with the restaurant was the continual visits of the watch, sunglass, belt and purse sales people.  They did make a rather rapid retreat when a policeman appeared.  We watched some Spanish girls try on glasses, inspect the bags and so on.  The one girl attempted to teach the others how to use a fan.

After the meal, we walked down the promenade looking for the mermaids in the rock, Chris had told us

Mermaids

Mermaids

about.  The man of the party ably spotted these again.  Top score for the observation power of man.  Women probably are chatting too much to see anything.

A quick stop of for tea in a local sea front café; proper Tetley tea, and hot, but then it was run by an English women.

Friday Dinner

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Supper, sausages, that’s Sausages, not Walls.  And just for those you look back at this biographical log, a couple of mean eyed cats.

Jake

Jake

Chester

Chester

Dinner a Trois

Dinner a Trois

Sausages

Sausages

Hill side fort

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Today we drove to Alicante airport and dropped John off.  He was having to flying back to England after his mother’s great friend had died very unexpectedly leaving us and Carol.

Guadalest

Guadalest

Guadalest tourist trap

Guadalest tourist trap

On the way back we (ie Carol) negotiated a number of roundabouts out of Benidorm at La Nucia on the way to Guadalest.

Guadalest is a hill top fort and village with wonderful views down the valley towards Benidorm.  It’s a pretty village, a bit touristy, but still well worth the visit.   Beneath the village there is a man made lake.  I do wish the Spanish in these towns spent a little more money trying to hide away their power cables and TV aerials.  There was one street, which looked quite nice, except for the plethora of cables.

Guadalest

Guadalest

Back home again for a late lunch on the terrace in sunshine.  R&C did a spot of gardening until it turned chilly.

Guadalest

Guadalest