A Somewhat Better Day
/Well, bodily functions seem to have returned pretty much to normal, which is nice.
Not a good day
/Today has not been a good day. Any day which starts at 3:00 am with a search for a bucket is not going to end well....
And so it has transpired. I must have picked something up on the trip to London. Maybe eating 4 Crispy-Creme donuts in one day is a bad plan. Whatever, I'm certainly paying for it at the moment.
Back from the smoke
/Spent today recovering from the London day trip. We got up bright and early and were in London by 9:30.
We drifted over to Tate Modern, had a look round and a coffee and took in the view over the river.
St. Paul's, wobbly bridge and boat
Then we wandered down to Covent Garden
St. Paul's rear entrance (so to speak)
Then it was on to Harrods for coffee and donuts.
Oh goody, they have a sale on....
And then back to Hull and a lovely sunset
Bowser Man
/Bowser is not just a baddie in a Mario game, it is also a thing for delivering water. My brother in law has just lost his water supply thanks to the floods, and so we filled our car up with water (not literally - that would be stupid) and headed off to Cheltenham on the way home. We drove past bowsers on street corners, and people walking purposely to and from them. We dropped off our load of water (just a few bottles and some containers) and chatted for a while about this and that, before heading guiltily off to our house, where the taps work.
Just as we left we heard news that some parts of the area had got their water supplies back. I hope it is all sorted out soon.
Rain
/It only rained twice today. Once for four hours and once for eight. We are now in the deep south of england, where people talk funny and the beer tastes strange. The flooding here is awful, on a scale with what Hull experienced recently, but with the added twist that a water treatment station has been put out of action by the rising floods. Which means that people are surrounded by water but have nothing to drink or wash in. Truly horrid. I can't imagine life without running water, it is just one of those things that you never expect to break.
In between showers I did manage to take a few photographs though.
Dunno what they are, but they look nice.
Breakdowns
/Headed off down south today for a family visit. I don't know about you, but I'm noticing a lot more broken down cars these days. Time was when during a long-ish journey you would see two or three people stranded forlornly at the side of the road. But until recently you hardly saw any. Nowadays they seem much more frequent. Are cars getting less reliable, or are people not having them serviced as often as they should?
Taking your memories with you
/I've been spending some time scanning old photographs and loading them up onto the computer. It helps to pass the time whilst watching dross TV and I've found some gems in amongst the albums. The thing that has impressed me most is the quality of the results though. Using a fairly modest Canon scanner and 6x4 inch prints I've been able to get some very nice looking results, even when viewed on the big screen telly.
Today I used the Vista Media Centre option to burn a whole bunch of pictures onto a DVD. This is wonderful. It gives you a lovely, ever changing slide show of pictures which works in any DVD player. I've been dishing these out to family members, who have been very impressed. Even though the images include one of me wearing shorts.
An Old Man Writes
/I'm looking at the world through eyes half a century old. I'm also hearing the world through ears half a century old. And so on. In fact all of me is fifty today. Deeply scary. I never really wanted to grow up, let alone grow old. But there you are.
Defying the weather forecast (which mentioned everything but locusts later in the afternoon) we went out to Dalby Forest for the day. After a drive through the lovely countryside we happen to have around here, we found a quiet spot and set off around the Bridestones. And I took the biggish camera, and loads of pictures.
Fair Weather Friends
/Had a BBQ today to celebrate my upcoming annual event. Most surprisingly the weather was very good to me, with a break in the rain just long enough for Tim to cook some burgers and sausages, and us to sit in the garden and drink beer whilst solving the problems of the world.
Folks turned up with presents and cards and I was supplied with a special T shirt to wear, celebrating the fact that tomorrow I'm very old. Unfortunately no photographs were taken of this.. Good stuff and thanks to all.
A great time was had, even though I was beaten at Mario Strikers on the Wii by someone less than a seventh of my age...
Power Mad
/Rechargeable Battery (as owned by Rob): [noun] "An object which fits in the battery compartment of an electrical device. And serves no other purpose."
(does anybody know a manufacturer of good ones?)
Sun, Sea, Sand and Certificates
/Did the Scarborough degree ceremony today. Lovely. The weather was a bit brisk, but it never actually rained. I took the bigish camera and the wide angle lens. And had some fun taking photographs.
There are a bunch more on my Flickr site.
Clifford Stoll Rocks
/You might not have heard of Clifford Stoll. But you should have. He wrote "The Cuckoo's Egg", one of the best books about the Internet and computers that I've ever read. He also maintains a very healthy skepticism about computers and their place in society. He wrote a book some time back, "High Tech Heretic" which should be required reading for people in computing. It was published in 2000, but is still very relevant today. If you think that computers are the answer to everything, the way and the truth, then you should read this book.
Very Brief Film Review
/Went to see "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" tonight. You should too.
Degree Ceremony Wide Angle View
/I took the medium sized camera with the wide angle lens down to City Hall to try and take a picture of the congregation. It sort of came out OK, but I had to turn the speed up to get any kind of picture, and that makes some of the detail a bit noisy. Nevertheless, I'm not too unhappy with the results...
Degrees of Heat, and a Great Joke
/Degree ceremonies today. Gosh it was hot. And humid. And they'd closed the windows of City Hall. So we all broiled gently. The best bit was the speech by Dr John Sentamu, the present Archbishop of York. He was awarded a richly deserved honorary degree in the second ceremony. In the context of having greatness thrust upon himself, he told a really good story, which I will now steal.
A great king had a beautiful daughter. He was very concerned that only the most worthy man should be allowed to marry her. So he built a large pool outside his palace and filled it full of alligators. Then he let it be known that he would grant his daughter's hand in marriage to the first man to swim across the pool. Many people gathered at the waters edge, but all were scared when they saw what happened when some meat was tossed into the pool and the hungry alligators attacked. Then, suddenly a young man was in the pool, swimming his utmost as the alligators chased after him. With a mighty heave the young man pulled himself out of the water and lay gasping at the feet of the king.
"You have done well" said the king. "You have shown great courage and may now marry my daughter".
"I am most grateful" replied the man "But although your daughter is very beautiful I would prefer you to grant me another wish"
"Very well" said the king, surprised at this "What can I do for you instead?"
The man looked at him and said "I would like you to bring me the man who pushed me in the water, so I can put my hands around his neck..."
Sunday Question
/If you see a printer out of the corner of your eye, is that what they call "peripheral vision"?
Confused of Hull
/Since our microwave blew a fuse on Tuesday I've been morosely pricing up replacements. No fun. Today I thought I'd get some more fuses to replace the ones that blew. I picked up a pack in Wilkinsons and noticed something. They were red. Same colour as the one I put in the microwave plug. And they were rated at three amps. Now, for those unfamiliar with the ways of electricity, three amps will run a TV, a lamp and maybe even a mixer. But not a microwave when it tries to cook. I'd replaced the fuse in the microwave with one which will run the clock but will give up the ghost as soon as we actually try to heat something up.
I popped in a 13 amp version (coloured brown) and everything works fine. I guess this makes me an idiot. But a happy one just right now.
Displacement Day
/I was supposed to be getting on with some writing today. Unfortunately this meant watching some progress bars for long periods of time while I made some software work, but I did manage to get my room tidied up a bit, which is always nice. I'm hoping that my subconscious has been beavering away on my behalf.....