April 25th - Not Balmy - Just Perfect

That 'crazy' weekend of 21 degrees came and went. Saturday was about as perfect as it gets. We went out on the bikes, followed the river for about 40 minutes and then found a quiet, shady tree and sate down for a picnic and tranquility. Perfect.

Alright, so it's been grey and wet everyday since then, but we are living in England aren't we!

Anyway...Being about 20 minutes outside of London, I consider my self to beliving in an area of the world which is falry modern. Alright it's quiet, but we are in about as much countryside as you are likely to see 20 minutes outside of London. So it's quiet, fairly modern but obvisouly not good enough to warrant a broadband connection.

I see people living in tin huts in the out back of beyond can download on their 8mb connection, but in this neck of the woods 28.8kps is aout as good as it gets. I thought I would phone BT to find out why.

They told me something about being on an old phone junction or something, but they did say we could get the 512k connection. Woo hoo! Not great, but certaonly adequate. I told my neighbour, he called them, they told him we couldn't get it. He told me about another neighbour who was told they could get it, bought everything they needed to do it and then tried to connect and found out they couldn't.

I called BT again, told them my neighbour couldn't get conected, they said he could and so could I. Great. I called a couple of other broadband providers who said they couldn't provide it for us. So it looks like we might be lucky. We shall see.

Now I know that this little haven where I live has not been forgotten by the outside world of technology as the personal Sat Nav systems are guiding an alarming number of people down a 'road' (mud track) near the house on a daily basis. We've had lorries, cars and vans all gettin gstuck there and even managed to see a couple of mirculous U-turns in about 10 inches of mud by scared/angry motorists desperate to escape the swamp they have been guided into.

It seems like the more we become reliant on technology, the more we realise that it's not all it's cracked up to be.

Oh for the good ol' days of quiet, sunny afternoon picnics by the river...life was so simple then.

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April 22nd - Balmy 21

I apologise in advance for the random, irrelevant, unassociated collection of musings that make up this entry.

First up, best wishes to Martyn and Marie who have (I assumed) arrived safely in Marie's hometown of Montreal and are getting on with life in Canada. It doesn't take much to set my mind to wondering off on thoughts of living in foreign lands and their leaving has certainly done that.

Secondly, a belated happy birthday to our dear Queen, who turned 80 yesterday. I'm sorry I couldn't make the bash (thanks for the invite, by the way) but I'll try my best to make it up for the dinner tonight.

(Now this is where the randomness really begins) Energy saving light bulbs are a great idea. And they seem to work. In our new house we have lots of them. Everywhere. My father is not actively doing his bit to save the environment, but he is actively doing his bit to save his hard earned money.

Now I fuly understand that the purpose of a light is to 'light' the space it is in. But these energy savers seem to go one step further than that and rather than 'light' they tend to 'blind'.

If you're not sure what I mean then imagine when someone takes a flah photo of you indoors at night. You know how the flash light momentarilly blinds you and leaves you seeing white dos for a few seconds because it is so bright? Well that's exactly what energy saving light bulbs do all the time they are on. They genuinely hurt my eyes.

So I got to thinking. My very basic knowledge of all tings electrical and physics tells me that, if you're using the same material under the same conditions (which light buls at home do use) the more electricity you use (i.e. energy), the brighter the light bulb will be.

So why don't the manufacturers of energy saving light bulbs do us all (and the planet) a favour by making their bulbs a little less bright and saving even more energy! Eveyrone would be happy with that, surely?

And so with that problem solved, we return to the title of this entry.

Britain is weather obsessed. Fact. We've just come out of 'The Big Freeze' which, if you believed the papers, was going to be a mini ice age but actually turned out to be a pretty averagely cold winter. According to the same nespapers we are now in the midst of a severe drought due to a lack of rain. But, on a birghter note, today is going to be good.

As I look outside at 9am this fine Saturday morning, I can see the sun coming through and it sure looks like it's going to be nice today.

Yesterday's forecast described today's temperature as being 'a balmy 21 degrees C (77 degrees F)'. Balmy? What is balmy about that? Maybe if we were all camped out in igloos at the top of the world 21 degrees ould seem balmy, but not here. Scratch 'balmy' for 'a welcome 21 degrees'.

And with another wrong righted, time for this energy saving light bulb obsessed weather cirtic to sign off.

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April 14th - She Came, We Saw

So Guildford got its most royal of royal visits yesterday. It was quite an occassion, actually. I thought it was well timed, what with her arrival being bang in the middle of most of the office workers' lunch breaks so their was a bit of a crowd waiting for her.

Mind you, she took her time coming, but then again I guess she's quite a busy lady. And at 80 years old she's entitled to move a little slower.

The walkabout was brief, but even over the many heads in front of us we did manage to see her and shout a quick hello (no response). We were about 2 metres away so I was somewhat worried that the restraing order might be breached, btu I seemed to get away with it.

Anyway, without further ado, here are the lucky snaps I took with my arms at full stretch above my head.

First up, the best one I got, of our monarch breaking into a litle smile.

Compare that with this one, which says to me somthing like "Our God, not more crap flowers," (and they were crap too - 50p for three bunches in North Street - they breed the peasants cheap in Guildford!)

Many a non-royalist would argue that seeing hte queen is no big deal, but there are few people that generate this type of excitement in a crowd of well wishers; a much more respectful tyoe of excitement than kids screaming for a movie star or something:

Probably doesn't mean much to most of you, but Guildford has a clock in the High Street and the flag flying above it shows that the Queen is in the house!:

And finally, the man in the shadow - the Queen's husband, Prince Philip. He didn't say much that I could hear, but that's probably a good thing as when he does talk, he often talks rubbish. Don't believe me, then click here to regain your trust in my honesty:

It was interesting to get Jewel's take on the whole day, being a foreigner to these Isles and all that. So was she impressed by the Queen? Well, yes, actually. Extremely impressed by her skin to be precise. "Even without the make-up," she said "She really has great skin for an 80 year old!"

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April 12th - Like father Like Son

A bit of a mixed bag today. It looks like my friends second attempt to run the Marathon Des Sables has ended with a similar result as the first time. In 2005 he fell down the side of rather large rocky hill and had to be airlifted out by helicopter. In 2006 he has managed to negotiate the rocky hill on stage 1, but it has'ABANDONED' as his stage 2 result. Not got full details yet, but it looks like he'll have to offically retire from running on eyear later than planned.

On a birghter note, the weather is certainly heading towards summer - not hot yet, but it's bright, sunny and the days are getting longer so we're going in the right direction. I'm hoping that it will hold out for at least another day as the most special of special guests is due for a visit of Guildofrd tomorrow (or so the local rumour mill is saying).

Tomorrow is Maundy Thursday (Easter and all that) and The Queen of England is said ot be stopping by Guilford Cathedral for a while before having lunch in the town. I haven't turned my hand to the dark art of paparazzi celebrity photo hunting before, but I think I might have a little stroll into the town tomorrow and see if I can't get a royal portrait for a future Blog.

Changing tack yet again, I've been spending a lot of tie with my father recently. A few das ago I helped him to gate on some land of his and yesterdy I spent the whole day takign down a few tress formour neighbour's garden to try and make the place look a bit better as they try to sell their house. It's been really good to have him pass on his pearls of wisdom and I'm sure he's enjoyed it as much as I have.

But listening to a few of his stories has got me thinking as to how well I actually know him.

The person I've always known is someone I know quite well. But bearing in mind that he was 43 when I was born, I have not even known him for half of his life.

Compare that with one of my best friends who has just had his first son. I've known him for about 10 years and we both have a hundred and one stories we could tell about each other. Arguably the most important person in his life (i.e. his son) is going to have that unique father son relationship and get to know him in a way that no one else ever will. But will he ever get to know the person that his father was before he was born? Is there any value in that?

I once heard someone say that the best gift you can leave your family before you die is a book about your life. Tell your children everything that you've ever done. And I could easily agree with that.

I'm not quite sure if today's philosophising has answered any questions for me, but one thing I am sure of is that one of the ebst things you can do in life is to spend time doing something with your parents. Individually or together, just getting to know them. That doesn't mean sitting down watching TV with them form time to time, or having the occasional dinner with them. But actually DOING something.

You'll get to know people you never knew before.

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April 9th - Is It Something About My Face?

After you've read this I want yo uto be very honest with me. Don't be polite about it or anything like that - just give it to me straight. What impression does my face give you? DO I look distant, boring, funny, boring, nothign at all or am I just plain ugly? Whjatever, please tell me straight.

Why am I asking this? Well, because on my rare excursions away from the relevant comfort and safety of my home, I have been jumped upon by a couple of loons.

More 'geeks' than 'loons' but maybe those 2 categories are hard to sperate anyway.

First up was the bus enthusiast.

Where I live is a pretty quiet and secluded place. Behind the house is a disused airfield surrounded by farms and fields. Last weekend the airfield got it's annual useag, when an Old Busses show came to town. I went over there with my camera looking for soem interesting shots of...well anythign in particular - I just thought it would be a bit different.

I took out said camera and after about 2 seconds a bus-loon pounced.

"Now, you know THIS one was introduced to the service in 19 balh blah blah and was the first of it's kind to blah blah blah..." and so he went on.

I forced a bemused smile and listened, occasionally grunting to acknowledge his ramblings, for about 5 minutes. He then had the audacity to get bored of me and wondered off without so little as a "Goodbye and thanks for not yawning".

Then, just yesterday, I was killing a bit of time waiting for Jewel to finish her exam, when I strolled into a book shop. I was miding my own business looking at a could of books about nothing in particular when...

"You know down in blah blah blah town you can get this book and an 8 inch model soldier, with all the combat gear - plastic - for eight pounds?"

"Uh?" I once again grunted as a form of bemused response

"Yeah!!! Bloody Argos sell them for thrity pounds - IT'S ALL A CON!"

"Erm, yeah, I guess everybody wants to make money when...." I feebly responded before being cut off by a man about to hit top gear.

"It's all plastic. Made in China, not that I blame the Chinese - they make some good stuff - but it's only eight pounds with the book. And I've got the SAS guy, full comabt gear aswell, and the blah blah blah desert vehicle with real rubber tyres, made in China too, with real rubber tyres...jst like the old Dinky's"

My brain said "Call the police,"; my mouth said "Dinky...right!"

"But be careful" he laughed, building up to a crescendo in a packed bookstore on a Saturday afternoon "remember - SAY DINKY NOT KINKY!" he bellowed at the top of his lungs

Me: no words

He continued to laugh and said something about getting his lunch before wondering off, mumbling under his breath "he he - Dinky, not kinky," obviously making a mental note to repeat his new found best joke to any unfortunate within ear shot.

So, after these experiences, that's why I'm asking.

If you've had the misfortune to ever meet me in person or have only seen my mug on thie here Blog, please opine as to what it is you see when you see me.

Help me keep my sanity.

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Wednesday 5th April - A Quick Tidy And Some New Photos

Thanks to the beauty of broadband at my brother's house I finally got round to haveing a bit if a tidy up on this poor old neglected site. Now it probably won't seem much different to anyone, but the sharp eyes amongst you might notice that there is now a 'Blog 2005' button at the top of the page (next to the big yellow 'NEW') which will take you to the archive from last year.

I've also updated the 'Latest Photos' page aswell, so now it slightly resembles what it was initially supposed to - i.e. a place where all the new photos you see first in The Blog but don't have their own page, can be put. And speaking of photos with their own page - take a look at the all new Edinburgh photos taken at the weekend. As mentioned yesterday, the old creatieve juices weren't exactly flowing so they're not my favourite, but at least they are there.

I must admit to being a bit annoyed with myself though as I was with 2 of my best friends and one a new baby and I still didn't get my camera out when they were about. Silly me. Still, there's always next time.

And in case anyone was wondering how my running has been coming along th epast few weeks, well it hasn't. But I did get that lump of lard I call my backside to take to a bike this morning and hurtled round the backlanes of Ockham for a while. And what fu nit wast. So no more marathons, just an odd Tour De Frace or two in the future.

On another note, just because most of the good things in my life have been pretty much served to me on a plate and I generally have an easy/good/comfortable/lucky life compared to a huge number of people, it doesn't mean I have to walk around grinning like a Cheshire cat all day an dnight. Despite all the good in my life, I am only a human, so when I have an off day it is allowed. Not that I am having one, but I'm just pointing that out so as not to seem like an ungrateful gyt when I do have one.

So that's that. Now go see the photos and tell me how bad they are.

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Tuesday 4th April - Weekends Come, Weekends Go

Edinburgh came, Edinburgh went. It was a great weekend which, because of a late arrival on Thursday and early starts both days, seemed much longer than just 2 days but at the same time passed very quickly. Bizarre.

We had a great time up there - a really nice city - and meeting up with old friends from University was really good fun. Unfortunately the old creative juices were not exactly flowing, so my phtos are, to put it bluntly, p1ss poor. But I'll still put a couple of the half decent ones up here very soon.

It's Tuesday now and I'm still feeling a bit out of sync, to be honest, so all that entreprenurial energy that was buzzing through me last week is somewhat missing - it probably didn't check-in on time and has had to catch a later flight back from Scotland. Hopefully it'll arrive some time this week and I'll just pop out to Gatwick to greet it and absorb it all back in.

And, although I'm sure he won't get the chance to see this, I have to give a quick mention to a friend of mine, Mark, who is somewhere in the Sahara right now, getting ready to carry his life onhis back and run about 120 miles through the sand all for the sake of....well, personal satisfaction, I suppose. Good luck to him.