Matt's Blog

The date for the formal meeting has been set as 17th February according to the Camberley news and Mail. At least it is now going to the full council which should changing the voting a bit.

A petition against the plans is now available for signing. We'll be trying to get it around as many people and places as possible but if you haven't signed it, drop me an email at matt@helliwell.me.uk

I've just been to the planning meeting for Camberley Mosque. Against the recommendations of the planning officer, it was passed. The councillors who spoke in favour of it ignored the fact that it was a conservation area. One of them said that the school was next to a bunch of "old huts" and not what he called a street scene.

It's what I call a street scene and it isn't going to be improved by an overly large and inappropriately designed building.

After the meeting there was a fair bit of milling around going on outside with one of the councillors being applauded by the supporters and others walking around being extremely pissed off. One of the objectors decided he was now going to vote BNP.

On the plus side, I was interviewed by the BBC local news so might be on TV in a bit!

I went for more laser surgery on Wednesday. The first lot of surgery went ok and had left me with a bit of remaining short sightedness (>-0.5 dioptres) and a bit of astigmatism. All would have been fine but the astigmatism caused two focal points so I had double vision. It was especially bad at night with bright lights. So my choices were to live it with, have it corrected with glasses or have more surgery. I chose the latter.

The process is the same as the first lot of surgery but instead of cutting a flap with a laser, they lift the existing flaps. First they put some eye drops in to numb the eye and then mark around the flaps with some sort of sharp needle. The it is off to the surgery where they peel back the flaps and repeat the shiny laser thing.

What I didn't realise was just how much it was going to hurt when the peeled back the flaps. It was like being kicked in the balls, except the pain was in my eyes. I knew it was going to be difficult when the surgeon said "pass me the spear"! Had I realised how much it would hurt, I'm not sure I would've had it done. However, a few days later and the pain has gone away. it's back to the routine of regular eye drops. Vision in my right eye is already excellent - I can read the bottom line of the eye charts. My left eye is still a bit blurry but no double vision.

Haven't seen this much snow down here before, currently 16cm and still falling.

This afternoon we returned from my parents. We decided to go back via Buxton and Bakewell. The photo is of the moors as we went to Buxton. We had to push one car out of the snow and we passed a caravan going no where. By the time we got to Buxton, the police had closed the road. I knew I was justified buyinga 4x4!

Lunch is all ready. Where has that brother of mine got to? We are all starving.

Happy Christmas everyone. We appear to be having 1/2 a pig for lunch (beautifully cooked by the mother in law). Fortunately plenty of relatives turning up to eat it all up.

This morning we went out to Chobham Common with Surrey Wildlife Trust to clear some of the birch and pine. As our reward we were allowed to cut down a Scots Pine to take home. Strangely enough, it didn't look quite this big when it was outside!

We've been to Ascot races today, the first jump meeting of the season. Unlike last year, when it chucked it down, today its been reasonably warm and dry. It didn't help with the betting though, we still lost money. Perhaps if we studied the form, rather than picking horses whose name we like, we'd do better.

Andy gave me two tips. One came in first and one was very near the back.

I appear to have caught a dose of slap cheek from somewhere. I've had it on my face and it is currently making its way down my torso.

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Helliwell.me.uk

I have spent the money i got from selling my motorbike wheels on a new telescope. It's a 10" Newtonion reflector on a Dobsonian mount. I've only had it a couple of days so far and what have I seen - I've seen stars. Lots and lots of stars. I've just aligned the finderscope so hunting things down should be a bit easier now.

I bought my scrummy eife a metal detector for christmas and in return she digs holes in the patio. She found an old oil tin. It must have been there a while as it was well below the level of the top soil.

Last years attempts at strawberry wine didn't go too well as it had a rather bitter after taste. This year I am trying raspberry wine. The recipe is nice and simple:
1 pound of raspberries
1 pound of sugar
1 pint of water
1 sachet of yeast

Put raspberries in blender. Add eveything to demijohn and leave. It started to ferment within 30 minutes.

That's half the normal amount of water from other recipes. My plan is to keep addung sugar until it won't ferment any more. That should hopefully give a sweet itence wine, almost like a liquor.

While moving stuff around the pond in preparation for a new filter, I found what I think is a newt. It was dead, unfortunatley, but it does mean there a probably other in the pond somewhere.

We went to Guilfest this Sunday, so I got a rest from building the decking. We saw quite a few different bands, including the Wailers. Sue didn't seem too keen on the rock bands, still plenty of time to work on her though.

We even had a decent amount of sun. I must remember to apply sun screen to my expanding forehead, it keeps getting burnt.

The old patio is gradually being sorted out. The area outside the lounge now has decking. I've spent the weekend starting on new fountain/paddling pool.

The masonary is done. There's going to be a bench all around the edge so we can sit the in the summer and dangle our feet in.