Matt's Blog

Local Elections

2011-05-10T20:54:00.003+01:00

Sue stood as a Labour candidate for St Michaels (Camberley) in the recent elections. She didn't win but she did have some concerns about the behaviour of some of tellers at the polling booths - nothing earth shattering, just things like the large number of Tory tellers at some polling stations, Tory literature at the polling station etc. So off she went today to discuss her concerns with the returning officer.

8:30pm tonight who should come around our house but the Colin Dougan (the Tory councillor who Sue was standing against) saying that he's been told that Sue has accussed the Tories of cheating. Its bad enough that Sue was door stepped but how did he find out?

According to Dougan, the returning officer told the Chief Executive (Karen Whelan) who told Dougan. Surely the returning officer and the Chief Executive should keep such conversation private until there is a formal complaint and not go around tipping off the local Tory party. How is Sue meant to have an open and honest conversation with the returning officer if they go and tip off the Tories as soon as she leaves the office.

In my opinion, it is the supposedly non-political members of the borough council doing their best to support and help the Tories and quash anything that might upset or embarrass them.

Council tax - where it all goes

2011-02-08T11:31:00.001Z

Have you ever wondered what Surrey Heath Borough Council spends all your council tax on? Well I can tell you - its mainly salaries and overheads.

They have now published their planned budget for 2011/12: http://www.surreyheath.gov.uk/Surrey%20Heath%20Borough%20Council/eScene/Finance/Revenueestimates201112v1.pdf. It makes very interesting reading if you have the time to dig down into some of the details. Here are a few more interesting items I've extracted:

Camberley Theatre
£66k on employees salaries. Sounds fair enough, presumably that's the box office staff who provide a good service. But then we have
£377k operational management salaries,
£106k on corporate services
£160k on operational management overheads and support.
That's £644k of management costs to run a local theatre.

Museum
Management costs £194k

Parks and Open Spaces
Management direct salaries £254k
Total management costs £412k.

Bear in mind over half a million pounds is paid to contracted services so presumably most of the work is actually contracted out so what exactly are they doing to earn their quarter of a million pounds in salaries?

Car parks
Management direct salaries £78k
Total management costs £132k.

Its a car park for goodness sake, how hard are they to manage? These are just the management costs: maintenance, power, security, repair etc are not included in the management costs.

Civil Parking Enforcement and Controller Parking Zone
Management costs are £502k
Total expenditure of £554k

ie over 90% is management costs.

Centres of Older People
Management costs of £468k
Total expenditure of £658k.

At least now we know why they couldn't afford to keep the Ian Goodchild centre open. It wasn't the running costs of the centre, it was the management costs.

Community Alarms
£157k on supplies and services
£261k on management costs, including £166k on direct salaries to managers.

So they spend more on the salaries of managers than they do providing the service

Corporate Communications
They spend £81k doing whatever a corporate communications department does and then £222k paying managers to manage it.

And the list goes on. So next time the council claim they can't afford to keep the library open or need to cut back on service because they can't afford it, you know they can easily afford it, and a lot more, if they weren't so hugely inefficient.

Camberley Mosque Appeal

2011-01-30T12:17:00.003Z

The Camberley Mosque debacle is slowly lumbering towards its appeal on April 4th. The Camberley News has an interesting comment on the article about it where they state that Bengali Welfare Association are paying about £80K per day on legal advise for the appeal. I've had independent verification that that amount is accurate.

So we have the BWA in the last planning hearing stating that they could not build the originally planned extension at the back of the school as they could only get funding for an Arabic style mosque. Now they are saying they can't afford to heat or maintain the building but they can afford hundreds of thousands of pounds on legal advice.

If you look at the accounts submitted to the Charity Commision you can see that they are not a rich charity. So clearly they have some form of external funding and whoever is funding them are only prepared to give them money towards a large Arabic style mosque in that location.

My guess would be that the money is coming from Saudi Arabia, it certainly wouldn't be the first time this has happened, eg see these comments by our local MP.

89 Gordon Road and Longacres

2010-09-21T15:07:00.000+01:00

The good news is that, after an excellent presentation from Sue, the councillors rejects the plans to demolish 89 Gordon Road. Hoorah. However we also had to sit through several other planning applications. One was from Longacres nursery to extend the size of their building by about 250 square metres. Bearing in mind that this is in the green belt I thought it would be obvious that they would follow the planning officers recommendations and reject the proposal. But no, nearly all over them tried to make out that it wasn't proper green belt because there were roads and railways surrounding it, not to mention a car park so allowing Longacres to extend even further was just fine. The fact the Longacres has a history of building and selling what they want, regardless of planning restrictions didn't seem to bother them either.

There was another application in Bagshot which fell within 400m of the Special Protected Area so it would be illegal for them to grant planning permission. They still did their best though. One of them asked why they couldn't just approve it anyway. Another asked if they couldn't move the SPA a bit further away.

All these pesky restrictions on green belt development and SPAs must be such a nuisance for them. Or would be if they took them seriously.

Camberley Mosque Planning Appeal

2010-09-10T12:25:00.001+01:00

I'm reliably informed that a planning appeal has been launched over Camberley mosque. I've no idea on what grounds so it will be interesting to see if there is an award for costs.

Do you trust your councillor?

2010-04-28T20:02:00.003+01:00

I'm not sure I trust my councillors which is why I've voted to have an elected mayor. If the councillors can appoint who they like as mayor then there will be even less independent oversight of them.

Either way you can have your vote here: http://www.surreyheath.gov.uk/survey/decisionmaking.htm

I notice the choices are "strong leader" or "elected mayor" like someone who is elected can't also be a strong leader.

Muslims and Bedfordshire police

2010-03-29T20:12:00.002+01:00

There is a email doing the rounds about Bedfordshire police policy of entering Muslim households. I've reproduced it below. Bedfordshire police have responded to this here. Unfortunately, they fail to address the real issue. The issue is not whether they have a policy when entering a Muslim household but whether they have a similar policy respect for any non-Muslim groups. Reading their response it looks like they don't.

BEDFORDSHIRE (U.K) POLICE FORCE'S

RULES REGARDING TERRORISTS AND DANGEROUS CRIMINALS

If they are non-Muslim

• Consider the most opportune time of day to be able to arrest suspects with minimum resistance
• Apply all necessary force to enter the premises and arrest suspects accordingly.

If they are Muslim:

Community leaders must be consulted before raids into Muslim houses.

Officers must not search occupied bedrooms and bathrooms before dawn.

Use of police dogs will be considered serious desecration of the premises.
Cameras and camcorders should not be used in case capturing women in inappropriate dress.
If people are praying at home officers should stand aside and not disrupt the prayer -they should be allowed the opportunity to finish.
Officers should take their shoes off before raiding a Muslim house.
The reasons for pre-dawn raids on Muslim houses needs to be clear and transparent.
Officers must not touch holy books or religious artefacts without permission.
Muslim prisoners should be allowed to take additional clothing to the station.

With this continuing appeasement, no wonder it’s now predicted that Britain will become an

Islamic State by 2070.

Cheeky sods

2010-03-16T19:39:00.002Z

Romans, the estate agents, have just put in a planning application for a huge 3m illuminated sign stuck next to the A30. Bit of a cheek given that they wrote in support of the mosque planning application on the grounds that it would improve the street scene.

This is what it will look like: https://www.public.surreyheath-online.gov.uk/whalecom60b1ef305f59f921/whalecom0/Scripts/DocsOnLine/47399_6.pdf

I think I will engage in my new found hobby of writing to the council.

Dr Taj Hargey and the MCB

2010-03-14T19:42:00.003Z

Having heard Dr Hargey speak at the council meeting I've been reading various article by and about him. This is one of the interesting ones, if only because of the poor light it throw on the MCB.

In other news, the Camberley Mosque website has been updated to say that the "rundown building that we use as a place of worship is too precious to be replaced by a new modern building so please continue your worship in the existing rundown building as normal"

Mrs Chaudhry has said that "in the meantime (waiting for the appeal process) the building is going to be as it is, in a terrible state"

The new plan appear to be to let the building fall into disrepair. Hopefully the council won't let them and will issue a repair notice, something it sounds like they should've done a while ago.

We won!

2010-03-11T07:39:00.002Z

I was at the extraordinary council meeting last night to decide on the mosque application. I'm glad to say, nearly all of the councillors voted against the plan. Why it had to go to these length I don't know. There was little in the way new information. My suspicion is that previously the planning committee hadn't given the matter much thought and allowed themselves to be led by Councillor Bell. Perhaps next time they'll actually bother to read all the available documents. And if someone could chivvy them along as well; I've never seen so many people take so long to say so little.

I think we won in the end because we focused on the planning issues. When the other side spoke, most of them talked about their needs for a suitable place to pray and meet. No-one was denying that. What they failed to do was justify why it had to be on that site with that particular design.

We had Taj Hargey speaking on our behalf. He made the very good points that the proposed design wasn't a global mosque design but specific to certain parts of Asia: there is no need to have domes and minarets. And having separate prayer facilities for men and women (and the women's only about 25% of the size) isn't part of moderate Muslim belief.

The evening took at nasty turn at the end when someone threatening to kill Dr Hargey and he had to have a police escort away from the venue.

In the papers

2010-03-10T10:35:00.002Z

The mosque is now in the Telegraph and The Times.

People have been gathering outside Camberley Theatre already but the police have moved them on.

Final meeting

2010-03-07T09:16:00.002Z

For anyone going to the meeting on Wednesday, it is worth reading the council's final report: http://www.surreyheath.gov.uk/council/committees/meetings.htm?pk_meeting=949&comid=4

Alan Hilliar and Camberley Mosque

2010-03-06T21:05:00.002Z

Alan Hillier has posted an article about the mosque of the LibDem website. It's almost as if he hasn't read the English Heritage report. I've sent them my comments but who knows if they'll make it through moderation. If not, here they are:

In response to reflections on the Camberley Mosque planning application (by Alan Hilliar on 3rd March 2010):

> I've visited the London Road site and studied the plans the plans for the proposed traditional mosque carefully.

Comparing these comments with the English Heritage report makes interesting readings. Your statements about what you state EH think and what they have actually written seem to diverge somewhat. The EH report is at https://www.public.surreyheath-online.gov.uk/whalecom60b1ef305f59f921/whalecom0/Scripts/DocsOnLine/39807_15.pdf

> As regards the value or character of the existing buildings, in my view it's only the old 1906 infants' school that is more interesting architecturally, and that would be retained with the current application.

But EH state that "the crowding of the Infants' School denies it the space usually desirable for this size of building" They also say that "it is wrong to deny that the building is part of a group and wrong to deny that it is related to other buildings".

> The Council has (in 2002) already granted permission to knock down most of the main school building, retaining only the front wall and Surrey County Council and

About the previous plan EH say "the permission granted in 2003 would not, if full implemented, affect this interest very significantly, as the shape and evolution of the building would continue to be legible". This is completely different to the new plan.

> English Heritage have said they think the main school building doesn't contribute significantly to the character of the area.

EH say that the building is "significant in its own right" and that "the building as it stands makes a positive contribution to the conservation area".

> Having read the other comments on the various web sites very carefully, I don't think the issues are around the size and shape of the proposed new building. It sounds as if the main points are that a traditional mosque feels out of place in a very public location like the London Road and that it seems to symbolise an intrusion into our traditional English culture. Perhaps also it seems to jar that a Victorian school should be replaced by a traditional Mosque.

I am tempted not to attempt to respond to the issues other than the design aspect because it is difficult to do so without being accused of racism. However, I will attempt to do so.

Is fighting to preserve visible aspects of your culture and history wrong?

> In terms of the making the appearance of the proposed new mosque building more acceptable, we could perhaps ask the applicants to soften the impact of the new building by putting more tree planting along the London Road, so that you would see very little of the traditional mosque as you drove along the road. We could ask that they cover the outside of the building in (say) traditional Victorian red brick, so that the colour would blend in with the TA centre next door.

Perhaps if they'd stated in the plans what they were going to build it with, we could discuss it. As it stands, we've no idea what materials it will use which seems unreasonable for a conservation area.

> But beyond specific design issues, I don't think that in reality, a traditional mosque would represent a threat to our culture. We have plenty of traditions of our own which underpin our sense of identity as a country and a community.

One of those traditions is our architecture so demolishing our historic buildings is a threat to our culture. Yes we have plenty of other areas of culture but that doesn't mean we should be happy about part of our heritage and culture being destroyed.

Perhaps if it was a well designed mosque, more people might agree with you. Again quoting from the EH report "the submitted design does not have have enough architectural quality" and "it is hard to see how the character of the area ... could have been a key factor that informed the design"

> I don't think we need to feel in any way threatened by this application, and I don't feel that it holds the symbolic value that some would suggest.

The fact that you don't see a symbolic value in the design does not mean that there isn't a strong symbolism in it. Having a traditional mosque so close to the RMA will be seen by people of both sides of the debate as symbolic. Therefore the symbolism of the design has to be considered. It doesn't matter whether the symbolism is intentional, that symbolism still exists. Even you agree that there is a significant symbolism when you say "it seems to symbolise (to others) an intrusion into our traditional English culture".

Sexism and the mosque

2010-02-28T08:24:00.004Z

I've been trawling through some of the details of the planning application and they make very interesting reading. For example, have a look at appendix 1, statement of community involvement page 19. Look at how little space is given to the women's locker and changing space.

Also look at the planning statement page 30: "Muslim women wear the veil and gown to conceal themselves from men". I see plenty of Muslim women just wearing a headscarf. This implies the mosque is going to require women to be fully veiled.

And on page 17 "One of the interesting issues and design features in contemporary mosques is the space of prayer for women. Typically around 15% of the prayer space is given to women who are usually housed to the sides, separated from the men"

By using the word "contemporary", they are implying that their particular brand of Tablighi Jamaat Islam is the normal one and we should all accept it. Its not and we shouldn't accept it. Muslim women are no less religious than the men and shouldn't have to wear a veil to attend a mosque. Nor should they have reduced facilities than the men. Or is the mosque going to be male dominated and they'd really much prefer it is the women stayed at home?

Going National

2010-02-22T18:52:00.002Z

As well as the News of the World, the mosque application has also made it into the Daily Mail and the Telegraph. The Daily Mail article seems to be a copy of the New of the World article with the odd inaccuracy thrown in. The Telegraph then copies pretty much word for word what the Mail said, including the mistake about the application being approved.

The BBC have been in Camberley as well so we've just appeared on the BBC London News. It was no more accurate than the newspaper articles. Apparently the plans have been altered to restrict access to the towers. They failed to mention that happened ages ago when the MOD first raised the security issue. They didn't mention the wider issues around the planning applications.

News of the World

2010-02-21T07:44:00.001Z

Camberley Mosque had already been blogged about by the BNP. It has now made it into the New of the World.

More Mosque stuff

2010-02-15T19:32:00.002Z

It looks like the liberal democrats are in favour of the mosque being built. Alan Hiliar has written a somewhat inaccurate article in the Guardian. Apparently anyone who disagrees with the application hates muslims: "he (Gove) seems to want to placate those whose opposition stems from a deep antipathy to Muslims generally". Nice.

Camberley Mosque part 2

2010-02-01T20:10:00.003Z

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

Camberley Mosque

2010-01-25T21:03:00.002Z

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!

More eye surgery

2010-01-25T20:56:00.002Z

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.

Snow

2010-01-06T08:48:00.000Z

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

Home time

2009-12-27T19:19:00.000Z

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!

2009-12-25T13:31:00.000Z

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

Happy Christmas

2009-12-25T12:19:00.000Z

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.

Christmas

2009-12-20T13:00:00.000Z

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!

Ascot

2009-10-31T17:52:00.001Z

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.

Viruses

2009-10-31T17:46:00.000Z

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.

Xmas presents

2009-10-25T17:13:00.000Z

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Helliwell.me.uk

Telescopes

2009-09-12T09:53:00.002+01:00

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.

Archeology

2009-08-09T21:33:00.000+01:00

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.

Raspberry wine

2009-08-07T09:50:00.000+01:00

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.

Newts

2009-07-21T12:49:00.000+01:00

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.

Guilfest

2009-07-13T17:24:00.001+01:00

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.

Patio

2009-07-05T19:51:00.000+01:00

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.

Eyes

2009-05-13T16:53:00.002+01:00

I had my eyes lasered this morning by Mr Anderson. It all seemed to go smoothly enough. They start of taping your eye open and adding some anaesthetic drops. Then they push some sort of suction device on your eye to hold it still whilst the first laser cuts the flap. I couldn't feel the laser at all but the pressure from the vacuum device was painful. Then they take that off and swing you across to the second laser which does the eye correction. I could make out the surgeon as he pushed the flap around but there was no pain at all.

Total laser time was about 60 seconds and after a check by the surgeon and a cup of tea, I caught the train home.

My eyes watered like nobody's business for the first few hours but are ok now. They are a little sore (it feel a bit like wearing an uncomfortable contact lens) but my vision is already pretty good - not good enough to drive yet but it should be in a day or two.

Repointing?

2009-05-13T16:31:00.000+01:00

I was cleaning out the gutters yesterday and had the chance to get sight of the wall above next door's garage. The pointing is a mess, looks like it needs redoing to me before it lets in the rain.

Radio 1 Big Weekend

2009-05-11T13:27:00.001+01:00

Sue, clever girl that she is, won tickets to the Radio 1 Big Weekend this Sunday. We saw lots of bands I would never normally see. N-Dubz were pretty good, Tinchy Strider had so much base I thought my nose was going to bleed but Akon gave the best performance (though he was miming for a lot of it!).

Decking

2009-05-03T19:18:00.001+01:00

This weekend I have mainly been putting down decking at the end of the garden. One end is a semi-circle so it took quite a while to get the frame cut properly to support the deck. I've now got to run a skirt around the edging and trim the weed membrane back. However I've ran out of screws so that will have to wait.

I got the decking and timber for the frame from these AVS fencing. Best price I could find and they even carried it around the back for me (with a little help from Sue).

2009-04-24T09:28:00.000+01:00

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Helliwell.me.uk

Anyone want a sofa?

2009-04-22T19:24:00.000+01:00

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Helliwell.me.uk

Geevor tin mines

2009-04-14T08:13:00.000+01:00

Yesterday it rained most of the day. We had a very brief walk around St Just and then went off too a couple of mining things. The first was Levant steam engine, owned by the NT. Like most steam things, it was a bit dull, made worst by the fact that the engine broke down last Wednesday so we couldnt see it steaming. The location was spectacular though.

The second place was Geevor tin mines. This was fascinating. It was a more modern mine with a lot of the equipment still there. They even had all the locker rooms pretty much left as they were when they closed, complete with clothes.

There was also a short underground tour which we enjoyed as I do find big holes in the ground interesting for some reason!

This morning the sun is shining and I'm watching the early surfers whilst I drink my tea.

2009-04-13T16:21:00.000+01:00

Not quite so sunny today, in fact its chucking it down.

2009-04-12T16:46:00.000+01:00

Sue and i have been married one year today! We are spending it in a static caravan near St Ives. This is a picture of the beach directly outside the caravan. The sun is shining, we've been body boarding this morning and a walk along the beach this afternoon. Tonight we are having champagne and fish and chips over looking the beach. Over all, i think we're pretty lucky.

Anyone want a spare TV?

2009-03-15T14:31:00.000Z

Sunrise on the train

2009-03-06T07:51:00.000Z

The sun was rising when i was on the train going into work so i grabbed this photo.

Compost

2009-03-01T08:22:00.000Z

The compost bin has taken shape, all built from bits of scrap wood. Next i just need to shove all the half composted stuff back in it.

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Helliwell.me.uk

Worms

2009-02-28T08:03:00.001Z

Whilst moving the compost around in readyness for building the new compost, i found this lot. They were all in the discarded apple pulp from the cider making for some reason.

Prosopagnosia

2009-02-13T19:39:00.002Z

I think this link describes me with a fair degree of accuracy.
http://www.prosopagnosia.com/main/likewhat/index.asp

As published in Current Archaeology issue 228

2009-02-13T19:36:00.001Z

I spotted this on the train this morning. I'm easily pleased.

Bikes

2009-01-10T11:32:00.002Z

Well it looks like I shan't be riding on the road any more. We've decided the best thing to do, that keeps us both happy, is to drive to the station and change the KTM for a small dirt bike of some sort.

I quite fancy a Scorpa Long Ride though don't know if I could make it road legal.

Bang!

2009-01-09T19:16:00.002Z

I had a bit of an accident on the way home last night. I woman pulled out of a T-junction to my left and managed to hit me. I almost managed to avoid her. My front wheel missed her car but then the left hand side of my bike caught the front of her car. I went over the bars and the bike went on its side.

I was a bit sore and stiff this morning but all my gear did its job. My knees are sore - I think my armour moved but hands, hips, arm and shoulder are all fine, though I can see the marks from where I hit the ground.

The handlebar snapped on the bike when it hit the ground and the impact with the car smashed the petrol tank and broke the fairing on the left hand side. The right hand side just has scratches on the crash guards so they did there job.

The bike has now been shipped off to Premier Bikes for a quote for repair. The tanks are expensive but if nothing else is bend it shouldn't be a write off.

The woman involved as admitted it liability so the insurance companies and solicitors can sort it out between them.

Sue, unsurprisingly, now wants me to stop riding the bike. Regardless of how I feel about that, the cost of parking a car at Woking is very expensive.

instanceof or getClass?

2009-01-07T19:09:00.006Z

During a code review at work today, we diverged and started talking about whether you should use instanceof or getClass to compare types in the equals function of a class (well anything is better than doing code reviews).

Suppose we have a class A:



public class A {
    public int i;
    public boolean equals(Object other) {
        if ( this.getClass() == other.getClass() {
            A o = (A) other;
            if ( this.i == o.i ) {
                return true;
            }
        }

        return false;
   }
}

and a class B which derives from A:


public class B: A {

public class B {
    public int j;
    public boolean equals(Object other) {
        if ( this.getClass() == other.getClass() {
            B o = (B) other;
            if ( this.j == o.j && super.equals(other) ) {
                return true;
            }
        }

        return false;
}
}

All simple enough so far so decare and compare a couple of instances of these classes:

A a = new A();
a.i =10;
B b = new B();
b.i = 10;
b.j= 99;

What do the .equals methods now return?

a.equals(b) returns false
b.equals(a) return false

In both cases, getClass() is returning the runtime type which is different for A and B so equals returns false. This makes sense but violates Liskov substitution principle because if you replace so instances of A in your application with B your equals methods will suddenly start to fail.

So we can change the equals methods to look like:


    public boolean equals(Object other) {
        if ( other instanceof this {
            A o = (A) other;
            if ( this.i == o.i ) {
                return true;
            }
        }

        return false;
    }

If we re-write equals for both A and B to use instanceof we'll get:
a.equals(b) returns true (because b is an instance of a) but
b.equals(a) returns false (because a is not an instance of b)

which isn't symetric and therefore not really an improvement on the first case. So basically you're stuffed unless you avoid inheritance where you have an equals method or go for something much more complicated, eg as described here. Frankly I just use the first option of avoiding inheritance and get on with something more useful instead.

Boots

2008-12-22T08:39:00.003Z

My quest for the ideal pair of motorbike boots continues. I bought a pair of Altberg boots in the summer. I can't say I was particularly impressed with them. Comfort wise they were ok, though the toe box was a bit small. However protection wise they didn't seem to offer any more protection than any other bog-standard boot. A problem with buying motorbike clothing is that it doesn't meet any standards for personal protective equipment so you are left replying on hearsay or trusting what the manufacturer says.

Anyway, this time around I've bought a pair of chainsaw boots. The people at Honey Bros were very helpful and apparently I'm not the first to buy chainsaw boots for riding on the motorbike. At least now I'll be safe when attached by chainsaw wielding zombies.

Carb icing

2008-12-08T20:54:00.003Z

I've finally found a cure for the carb icing which has been plaguing me every winter on my KTM 950 Adventure. As soon as the temperature dropping being 10 degrees C and their is a bit of humidity in the air, the bike starts playing up. It stalls at junctions, it stalls when changing down if I'm not careful, it back fires at 6:30am whilst riding through Chobham, it misfires etc etc. The last couple of years I've had the fuel pump go and holes in the exhaust which gave similar symptoms at times. By the time they were fixed, it was spring and all the problems went away.

This year, the bike has no other problems (it even past its MOT last month) and I've had chance to experience the unadulterated carb icing symptoms. The solution is Silkolene Pro-FST. Remarkably enough, it actually does what it claims. I've just finished the first tank full with it, added at 1.5% and all the problems has disappeared!

Now I just need to solve the problem of the alarm going off at 5:30am.

Fame at last!

2008-12-08T20:53:00.000Z

Not perhaps the most flattering photo though.

My new PC

2008-11-16T08:09:00.002Z

Exciting stuff - after 10 or 15 years of commuting to London and reading books every day, I've decided I need a change. There's not much chance of a change of job at the moment so I've bought an Asus 901 to entertain me on the train instead of trying to find yet another book to read. It's a tiny little notebook with a 9" screen and a 20GB ssd.

I wasn't about to pay for XP so I got the version with Linux on it instead. The default interface Asus provide is fine, basically fixed sets of big icons for all the usual things like email and web browsing. However it was no good if you wanted to do anything else so the first thing I did was install enabled the more usual menu-based desktop.

The next problem was that the Xandros version of Linux supplied is based around, but not necessarily compatible with, debian. So you are either stuck with the very limited repositories provided by Asus or risk breaking something using debian repositories. Even something as simple as getting Firefox 3 installed looked non-trivial.

The solution was to install a cut down version of Ubuntu. This has certainly improved the PC (though the boot times have increased a bit) but wasn't as easy to install as it might have been. The first problem was getting the software onto an SD card and making it bootable. You can't do this on the Asus itself as the program to do it complains about needing GLIB_2.4, which you can't install without breaking something as its not available in the standard repositories. So you need another PC to create the bootable SD card.

Once you've done that you have the funn of getting the Asus to boot from it. Despite bios updates and playing around with the bios config to change the boot device order, I managed to boot once and then it refused to boot again from the SD card. The solution was to press ESC and not F2 as this brings up special "boot from device" menu.

Finally I had to get the wireless connection working. Toggling it on or off using F2 freezes the PC so don't do that. Even when it was on, it refused to connect. After playing around with all the various possible parameters, I found that you had to explicitly select ITEK in the connection dialog rather than leaving it on automatic.

So that's it, I finally have a working Asus and can start doing what I wanted to do in the the place, though I'll start with listening to the Archers podcasts.

Cider Making

2008-10-04T19:45:00.002+01:00

I've been cider making again today. The person who lent me the apple mill last time generously offered to let me borrow it again. However, I decided to give the garden shredder ago, mainly of the grounds that I thought it might be less effort than a hand mill!

After a bit of experimentation, I worked out the best way to capture the pulp, and avoid it being blown about all over the garden, was to wrap some net curtains around the outlet to make a tube and then out a big bucket under them.

The results are in the photos. Some pulp seeped out and ended up over the shredder but most of it was caught in the tub and ended up the consistency of porridge. The yield was up as well, around 10 gallons, 45 litres, from about 65kg of apples.

Cleaning the shredder was easy: turn it on and spray water down it.

Oh yes, the ciderkin I made the other week has finished fermenting and so has been transfered to a manucube for drinking. It's quite watery and weak but pleasant enough to drink. Apparently the stuff doesn't keep so there is no point waiting to see if the flavour matures.

Legoland

2008-10-03T19:54:00.000+01:00

On Friday, we decided we'd all go to Legoland. After the endless hours of queuing when we went in the summer, we were all pleased to see the a Friday in October didn't have all the same queues. We had to queue for about 40 minutes for one of the rides and other than that, no queues at all (apart from at the really, really slow coffee shop).

My favourite ride was the going-down-a-shoot-in-a-boat ride. I'd just got the hang of leaning the boat over in the corners, when we reached the bottom. Judging by the photo, Will seemed to enjoy it too.

Sue claims she enjoyed the dragon roller coaster the best, though if that was the case, why did she leave bruises on my arm from gripping onto me?

Cider

2008-09-21T16:16:00.000+01:00

I've just finished my first cider pressing of the season. I've no scratter so have had to resort to hitting the apples with a big stick before pressing. Consequently, the yield is down - only about 9 or 10 litres from at least 20kg of apples. I pressed half of my Lord Lambourne today so have got that in a couple of demijohns, either to blend or to make a single variety cider, depending on how it tastes. The apple is related to Katy and Thatchers manage to make a single variety cider from that ok so I'm hopeful.

The SG was only 1042 so it'll only be about 5.5% - I might have to add some sugar to bring the ABV up enough to make sure it keeps.

The bucket is full of the pressed apples covered in water. I'm going to leave it and repress to see if it makes a weak but tasty cider.

Berkshire County Show

2008-09-21T16:09:00.001+01:00

We went to the Berkshire Country Show on Saturday. I've never been before. Loads of people there but still plenty of space to move around. There was loads to do; all sorts of stalls, livestock competitions, chariot racing etc. Sue's mum lives near by so we met her there and walked around together (or more or less together, at least one person at a time would wander off and have to be phoned).

I watched the pig competition for a while. Sure enough, most of the pigs seemed to want to ignore their handler and root around in the grass. I also got to stroke the Sadle Back piglets but I wasn't allowed to take any home, worst luck.

The cows in the photo are Dexters. I've never heard of them before but they really are as short as they look and aren't kneeling down.

Val and Patrick's Wedding

2008-09-16T20:49:00.001+01:00

At the weekend we went off to Bradford on Avon for Val and Patrick's wedding. The wedding itself was a few minutes walk from the town centre in a medieval barn (run by English heritage). Val looked stunning in a deep purple dress and Patrick even managed to get matching tie and lining. The ceremony was short and beautiful and the weather stayed warm and sunny for the photos after Friday's rain.

Afterwards it was off the the Swan Hotel for the reception. I sat next to a wealth manager, who was quite interesting, there we some CAMRA people there who I hadn't seen for quite a while and even someone who worked for Barclays.

The evening reception was a quiet cruise down the canal - lots of scenary on the outbound trip (including a heron stalking down the towpath like it was out for a stroll) and then bats and a huge moon after we turned around.

On the way back I made Sue and Amelia visit Avebury as I haven't been there for years. Not convinced they were as impressed with it as they should've been!

Wisely

2008-08-26T16:36:00.000+01:00

We've been to Wisley RHS gardens. Lots of ideas for plants and garden plans. Time to start some serious replanning of the garden I think.

Strawberry Wine

2008-08-24T16:32:00.000+01:00

I've been making strawberry wine this weekend. We picked 19lbs of strawberries from Gray's Farm. I never even the knew the place existed until I was searching for PYO strawberries. We plan to go back and try out their veg as well as the fruit.

The strawberries were washed and then crushed (which is what the big thing of the right was for!). I'm building a new tray for the cider press so I couldn't use that. All the pulp was then chucked in a 5 gallon brewing vessel with 4 1/2 bags of sugar, the juice from a couple of lemons (as they happened to be in the fridge) and hot water. Once it was cooled I added some general purpose wine yeast and some yeast nutrients. The nutrients seemed to make a big difference as it started to ferment on the same day.

It needs to be stirred every day for a week (to mix up the pulp for maximum flavour). Then I can filter out the pulp and leave it to ferment. The press should be back in action by then to I'll give the pulp a pressing.

I'm not sure about racking off to help clear it. I don't think I'll bother and just bottle it around 1005-1010 sg.

I'm not sure what the original gravity was: around 1060 but it was difficult to measure because of all the pulp. Still, that'll give about 8 or 9% alchohol if I don't add any more sugar.

Holidays

2008-08-03T17:52:00.001+01:00

We're back from our holidays. I spent the first week decorating and then we spent the second week away (leaving Will at home) in Cheshire with my parents. We had a few very nice days out, walking along the canal, going to Chester, going to Buxton etc. Sue had her hair done and now sports a very attractive bob with a fringe.

We finally stopped off at the ice cream farm on the way to Buxton that we've driven passed loads of times. The ice cream was delicious (though Sue is still looking for the ice cream trees) and there were a variety of cute farm animals hanging around which you could stroke.

On the way back home yesterday we stopped off at an animal sanctuary not far from Chipping Norton. Now we all want to have some more pets. If only we could agree what sort of pets we wanted we'd be ok.

It's back to work and decorating tomorrow. Hopefully the kitchen fitters will get a move on so I can have a cooked dinner when I get home from work!

Marriage

2008-07-16T20:50:00.002+01:00

I've just noticed - 3 months and 4 days since I got married. The time's flown by. And I'm very, very happy (and that's not just because I've a tankard of 5% ginger beer in my hand). Very content as well.

Ginger Beer

2008-07-16T20:44:00.000+01:00

The ginger beer was ready for bottling this weekend, now the sg has got down to the 1005 level. It's now sitting around in the utility room in a variety of bottles. The fermentation should carry on in the bottles and give it a reasonable fizz.

I've tried some of it already and it tastes quite good, definitely tastes like ginger beer (and not at all like cough medicine) though obviously no fizz to it yet and not at all sweet.

The Vikings have Landed

2008-07-12T20:39:00.000+01:00

We've been down to Portsmouth to have a look at the replica Viking longboat that's been sailing around the UK. It's tiny, only 30m long and has 60 people on board when sailing. Apparently they work 4 hours on and then 4 hours off, sleeping on the floor in between the rowing benches.

Interestingly, one of the crew was saying that the top half of the boat was a bit of a guess when it was constructed and they're not sure they've got the oar arrangement correct. If all 60 people try and row at the same time then they find their heads in the lap of the person behind them. They can row as fast with 30 people as with 60. However it could just be that they need to practice.

Lashings Of Ginger Beer

2008-06-21T08:29:00.003+01:00

Having watched Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall making elder flower champagne last week, I decided I'd make use of my cider brewing vessels and try and make up something interesting. The ride to Woking each morning didn't reveal any elder flowers so I plumped for ginger beer instead.

After a certain amount of googling, I decided not to bother making a ginger beer plant. Instead my recipe is:
A large chunk of ginger root (about 240 grammes)
Juice and zest from 8 lemons
2.5kg of sugar (I used a mixture of brown and white sugars)
200g of cream of tartar.

Peel and grate the ginger. Add the ingredients to a large pan of water and bring to the boil. I couldn't find a large enough sauce pan so ending up boiling three lots of three pints at a time. Simmer for a few minutes and then tip into the brewing tub.

Leave to cool for half and hour and then top up to the five gallon mark with cold water. Check the specific gravity. Mine came out at 1040 so should give about 5% alcohol.

Dissolve a sachet or two of general purpose wine yeast in water and stir in.

It only took a few hours before it was fermenting away.

To avoid exploding bottles, I plan to let it ferment to about 1005 and then filter and bottle (assuming it tastes ok!). That should give a light sparkle to it as it continues to ferment.

I've still got a couple of other brewing tubs, wonder what else I can make...

House Clearance

2008-04-27T18:54:00.000+01:00

Well the ex moved out yesterday so today Sue and I were around starting to clean up and clear out. There was an aweful lot of stuff to clean and equally large amounts to get rid off. We've cleared most of the upstairs and I managed to get one dump run in, leaving me with this pile of stuff (and 15 bin bags inside, ready to go to the charity shop). Just the loft, downstairs and outside to do now then!

Needless to say, Sue was a star cleaning the bathroom, toilet and showroom (only took her 4 hours to get the shower reasonably clean).

We've got the removals men booked for this Friday. If we both weren't so knackered, I think we'd be quite excited.

Wedding and Honeymoon

2008-04-20T09:31:00.005+01:00

Well we're back! No photos from the wedding yet but I've got some from the honeymoon. The wedding itself was pretty much perfect. Everyone we invited turned up and behaved themselves. Will coped with playing the music and didn't seem to weirded out by being at his Father's wedding.

Sue turned up a polite ten minutes late and looked stunning in her dress. We were both a bit tearful during the ceremony but made it through ok. We had sunshine on the day so were able to get lots of photos outside. We didn't want anything too posed to had the photographers snapping away.

After a quiet drive in the wedding car, it was dinner followed by live music by a superb band Your Mum. It got a bit cold later on in the evening so I was able to light one of the fires, which satisfied the pyromaniac in me.

Everybody was gone by midnight and Sue and I got to sleep in a four-poster bed.

For the honeymoon it was off to Malta. It didn't get off to a great start when we were late boarding the plane, delayed on the plane, somebody took Sue's luggage by mistake and then the taxi driver had given up waiting for us as it all took so long! We finally got to bed around 3:30am.

Neither of us had been to Malta before so we split our time between doing the usual touristy stuff and just wandering around enjoying the weather.

The new wife:

This is the island of Comono we went to on a boat trip. Looks nice but the water was a bit chilly.

Valleta, from the harbour.

I'm getting married in the morning

2008-04-11T07:37:00.002+01:00

Well in the afternoon. We're all packed, just got to get Sue's dress out of the loft and remember where I put my camera. The cider is ordered and I'm picking it up this afternoon. I've learnt out to tie my cravat and my brother has organised a stag night for tonight.

Sue had her hen night last night and came back completely pissed. I'll try and avoid doing the same tonight.

So looks like we're already!

It's done!

2008-04-04T09:25:00.003+01:00

I applied to start ancillary relief proceedings a few months ago and Tuesday (April 1st!) was the date set for us to appear at the Principle Registry of the Family Division in Holborn. The day was pretty much like I'd read about it in the various divorce forums. We turned up an hour before the time we were due in court to meet our barrister (Sue came up with me to offer me moral support). We discussed the situation with him and then he started to negotiate. At 11:30 before we were due in court we asked the judge to give us more time and then we had an agreement an hour or so later.

My barrister then wrote up the consent order by hand and we took it to the judge at just after 2pm. She approved it, we signed it and that was it, all done in the space of a few hours.

So Val moves out in the 26th April, which fits on nicely with Sue and me coming back from our honeymoon, giving us a week to sort out moving Sue out of her place and into Gordon Road.

I'm really looking forward to feeling like I have a home again and living with Sue and Amelia full time (not to mention getting stuck into the decorating). Will is planning to stay in Gordon Road so I'm sure we'll have an entertaining time sorting out how we'll live together as it's something new for us all.

I just hope Sue can feel like it's her home as well.

Spot the deer

2008-03-24T16:08:00.001Z

We've just come back from a long weekend away in Exmoor. I booked a place through lastminute.com only to find when we got there that it was closed until further notice. Sue thought it was funny - I was distinctly unimpressed. Anyway, after a bit of driving around and with some help from the locals, we found a room at the Anchor in Exebridge.

Not surprisingly for March in Exmoor, we had sunshine, wind, rain, hailstones and snow - in sequence pretty much every hour.

We did all the usual touristy things like walking along the river, going to the seaside and visiting castles. For a change we also took a Landrover tour over the moor to see what wildlife we could spot. Our driver kept telling us there were deer all over the place - they looked like tufts of grass to us. After the tour and driving around myself, we did see these deer, if you can make them out!

A long queue at the shoe shop

2008-03-02T20:31:00.000Z

I seem to have spent half the weekend visiting various shoe shops trying to get childrens. The photo was from a shoe shop in Shrewsbury who decided to have a medieval display for reasons not immediately clear.

Much more exciting though was all the wedding preperations: venue, menu, music, rings and photographer are all now sorted out. 5 weeks, 6 days to go and counting.

Folk Lore

2008-02-25T21:57:00.002Z

For a change, this entry is nothing to do with divorce or marriage or motorbikes. I read an interesting article today in "Time and Mind" about Dartmoor folklore. To quote from the abstract: "Visitors to Devon are offered tales of the Devil on Dartmoor as if these were timeless, sinister tradition of the moor folk. Historical analysis shows instead that the legends were worked into their present form by folklorists creating guidebook literature for the new phenomenon of Dartmoor tourism. From 1840 onward, the stories took on an imaginative life which was irrelevant to the lived experience of Dartmoor people".

"The Stations of the Sun" makes a similar point about the fanciful inventions of folklorists. For example, on the May Day hobby horse dance through Padstow the official pamphlet printed by the town states that the dance is celtic in origin and 4000 years old. The oldest known recorded date is actually 1803.

Busy weekend

2008-02-25T12:28:00.002Z

Another busy weekend has flown by. On Friday the KTM was in the bike shop (again!) to have its fork seals sorted out. They also told me the exhaust is rotting and I either need a new Y-section or a whole new system. On the plus side, I went into Oxford whilst they were fixing the bike to look for a dress shirt for the wedding. I didn't find anything the right colour but I did find a very nice gentleman's outfitters who had a sale on. I think I might have been watching to much of Saville Row on the TV, as I bought a wool and cashmere jacket and a new pair of trousers. The jacket is a superbly tweady blue.

On Friday night Sue and I went into London to meet up with John and Lisa. As I haven't been for a while I booked a table at the Oxo Tower. The views and food were fantastic, though paying for it was a bit less pleasant. The waiters were great as well, very friendly and welcoming, happy to talk about the food and not at all stuffy. I had rabbit ballotine to start, followed by roast fillet of beef, cep purée, oxtail and truffle cream bon-bon and something involving cinnamon ice cream for pudding.

Saturday was less happy though. Poor old jess the cat had to be put down. He had fluid on his lungs and heart problems so his time had come. He was a soft old thing who never meant anyone any harm and just wanted a bit of love and affection. At least he enjoyed his last couple of years of life once Sue took him in.

I cheered up on Sunday though as I posted out the wedding invites!

It's happened

2008-02-18T13:52:00.003Z

My decree absolute has come through! It was served last Friday but solicitors being what they are, I didn't get to hear about it until this morning. So I am now officially a free man, at least for a few weeks as I'm getting married again on the 12th April.

I've wondered what I'd put in my blog when this day finally happened. In the end, I'm just very happy and smiley that it's happened. My life is coming together and I'm looking forward to spending the rest of it with Sue.

Hello Sailor!

2008-02-10T20:14:00.000Z

We went down to Portsmouth again for the day yesterday. No particular reason other than the sun was shining and the tickets to the historic boatyard were valid for a year and I do like to get value for my money!

We went around HMS Warrior this time. Remarkably similar layout to Victory, they just seem to have added some steam engine and breach loading cannons (and some tin baths).

When we tried to leave Portsmouth, we saw how big the traffic jams were before we left the carpark and decided to walk back into town to get a meal. It took us a while to find somewhere which served food we'd all eat and actually had space - the place was heaving.

Divorce Party!

2008-01-31T21:49:00.001Z

No, not my divorce party - looks like that's going to drag on a while longer yet - but Val and Patrick's. Sue cooked us a lovely dinner and then we spent the rest of the evening drinking champagne and wine! I have to say that I did feel a bit rough this morning. It's the first time I've gone into work with a hang over for a long time.

Portsmouth

2008-01-25T22:13:00.001Z

We spent today in Portsmouth, doing a bit of shopping (I've got a nice pair of jeans and Sue and Amelia have both got very nice dresses), going up the big tower thingy (largest suspended glass floor in Europe apparently, though it didn't seem particularly large) and then taking a tour around HMS Victory. All very entertaining.

On the downside I have Pilates at 8am tomorrow morning so I must get to bed at a reasonable time.

Glastonbury

2008-01-20T20:12:00.000Z

We've just come back from a very nice weekend in Glastonbury. It was a bit of a last minute decision but we phoned around, found a nice pub to stay at and drove down. The pub was a bit run down but very clean and friendly. We ate dinner there and the curries they served were the nicest I've had for a while. They also served very nice bottled Thatchers organic cider which made it even more attractive.

Glastonbury itself seemed to have more dreadlocks per head of population than is reasonable. However, it wasn't all graffiti and hippies. The Abbey ruins were still as evocative as ever.

After the Glastonbury and Wells on Saturday, on Sunday we went for a bit of anti-culture (ie shopping) at the Clarks shopping village and then slowly made our way home via Salisbury and Stone Henge.

Now it's back to real life for the usual hectic round of ironing, cooking (the organic veg turned up) and work.

Divorce

2008-01-18T16:22:00.000Z

It looks like the wife of the man with whom my wife was having an affair (ie Val T!) has finally been able to get her life sorted out. She's got the consent order for the finances as is applying for her decree absolute. I'm quite jealous - I haven't even got a completed financial statement from my wife. It should all have been done and dusted by now. It's nearly a year since she told me she was leaving me (and a year and a half since she took up with Kevin, but that's a different story). You'd think she would be in more of a hurry to get on with things but there doesn't seem much evidence of it so far.

Ad blocker

2008-01-14T10:28:00.000Z

Apparently I was more worn out from the weekend than I thought as I've got a cold. So I've been playing around installing adblocker on my browser. Obviously if everybody blocked out all the adverts on the internet, we'd be a bit stuck as that's how much of it is funded. And occasionally adverts are useful. However too many adverts are annoying and a pain so I've decided to block:

Anything that downloads scripts to run due to the performance hit (so goodbye google-analytics.com)
Anything that shows the advert on top of the text I'm trying to read
Anything where the advert insists of loading before the main content. I don't mind the adverts but making me wait for the ad servers before I can see the main page seems a bit poor.

Another busy weekend

2008-01-13T19:40:00.000Z

I'll be glad to go back to work to recover. On Friday Sue and I went to the gym and then I went to Pilates. Then it was the weekly shop. On Saturday we went to Windsor and I got to play with my new camera. Look! Windsor castle!
On Sunday it was down the gym again and then we went over for a stroll around Chawton, famous for being the residence of Jane Austen, though we were able to resist the temptation to pay to go around her house. We were able to see Chawton House from the distance but must try and arrange a visit on day. The church on the estate was also interesting, though the pews didn't look particularly comfortable.

After that, we went back up to Alton to use the tickets we won to go on the Watercress Line. Whilst steam trains aren't really my thing, it was quite interesting. We saw a model for Home and Country having her photo taken outside the train in the steam. Unfortunately we were shooed away from taking a snap of her and I couldn't be bothered to argue the point with them. She did look freezing cold though, so rather her than me.

Here's the obligatory picture of a steam train.

Ooo shiny!

2008-01-10T21:43:00.000Z

Having nearly broken my camera phone before xmas by taking pictures in the pouring rain, I've been out and bought myself and shiny new waterproof and shock proof camera: an Olympus mju 790SW from Cameras2u. It's all turned up ok and was quite a bit cheaper than the local Jessops, even though cameras2u are now owned by Jessops.

The gym

2007-12-30T21:25:00.000Z

Sue and I have just joined Fitness First - no doubt like quite a large proportion of the population after Christmas. At least we didn't have to pay a joining fee anyway. I used to go down the gym quite a bit but fell out of the habit as I didn't feel inspired to go there any more.

In the sales I also bought one a set of those bathroom scales that measure your body fat etc. Apparently, I'm 10st 9 lbs, 13% body fat and 33% muscle mass. I'll have to see if that change significantly when I use the gym regularly.

Christmas

2007-12-30T21:11:00.001Z

I spent Christmas this year with the in-laws to be, in Kintbury. As you can see, we managed to fill the entire back of the pick up with Christmas stuff!

Anyway I was made very welcome by Sue's eldest and mum with lots of food and champagne, especially imported from Spain.

The house is next to the Kennet and Avon canal so we were able to take a walk around the village and along the canal on boxing day. I got to see Terence Conran's house (Barton Court)!

Ubuntu

2007-12-21T20:58:00.000Z

I've given up on Windows XP and installed Ubuntu on a spare disk I had. Everything seems to work just fine. I can even run a virtual windows PC on the odd occasion I need to. At least now the PC doesn't get slower and slower the old it gets like an XP box.

More bikes

2007-12-21T20:48:00.000Z

A couple of weeks ago I went up to the Peak District for the xrv xmas meeting. I went up on the Friday night and stayed with my parents so I was well rested and breakfasted when I rolled up to the Wild boar Inn at the appointed time. All I can say is that it was a good job I had my heated jacket and handlebar muffs as it was snowing! Having lived in Surrey for so long, I was somewhat taken by surprise.

Once we all got going, we soon got warm. Lunch was, apparently, in Whaley Bridge. However, it was a bit disconcerting to hear the man with the map walk up to one of the locals and ask "So, which town are we in". In his defence, he did have a very soggy map as when it wasn't snowing, it was raining.

I have to admit that I did wuss out of the last lane and went back to the pub. It was late, the lane looked like a medium sized river and I was tired. The rest of them gave it a try, but had to give up in the end and came back to find a very smug me hogging the pub fire.

Marwell Zoo

2007-11-28T22:03:00.000Z

Last Friday we went over to Marwell zoo for day. Being a work day, the zoo was quite so we got to wander around in the bright sunshine taking our time looking at all the animals. It was a bit chilly for a lot of them so, conveniently, they were all in their stalls, making close up viewing easier. As there weren't any pigs, my favourite animals were the ridiculous fighting tortoise.

After that entertainment we went to Winchester for a late lunch and a general mooch around the shops. I bought Sue a rather snazzy pair of winter boots from Fat Face. If only I could find myself a pair of winter boots so easily.

Bike maintenance

2007-11-23T07:58:00.000Z

My Rox risers finally turned up from the states so I've set up and fitted them. As well as being higher I've moved the bars forwards to get my weight more over the front when standing. A quick blast up and down the road shows they certainly feel better initially. I'll have to wait for the next off trip (which should be camping in Derbyshire next weekend!) to see how they really go. All the cables were long enough to reach without any re-routing, which was a bit of relief. The gps mount now completely obscures the speedo though. Never mind.

Also just to the left of the forks, you can see a new switch and a bit of cabling - I've finally forked out for a heated jacket. It's all lovely and warm and snuggly in the mornings now.

Fireworks!

2007-11-12T22:41:00.000Z

More fireworks than you can shake a stick at this year! We went to St Michaels church before my birthday for fireworks and a barbacue. And last Saturday we met up with Sue's Mum and daughters for more fireworks, this time at Newbury racecourse. They all seemed so much more spectacular than they appear in my photos. Never mind, I enjoyed them anyway and spending time with Sue's eldest was fun, even if she did pick up shirts and suggest I might like them because they look at bit camp. Pah, the youth of today.

House prices

2007-11-06T14:28:00.000Z

I don't seem to have had much time to update my blog recently. I'm not sure if that is a good or bad thing! As I'm about to do a demo at work in a few minutes, I can't touch the software in case I break it so I've been doing a bit of surfing about house prices. I'm still at Gordon Road so it's obviously a subject close to my heart.

According to the BBC, the average cost of a detached house in Surrey Heath is now £575k with house prices in general in Surrey Heath up 7.8% this quarter and up 18.5% on the year. Have a look for yourself at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/in_depth/uk_house_prices/html/houses.stm

So whilst I may be in a situation I'd rather not be in, at least the price of my house is going up by a decent amount :-)

Mow Cop

2007-10-27T22:32:00.000+01:00

My Father's not too well at the moment so we've been up to see him. Whilst we were there, I took the chance to show Sue around the localility, in the case Mow Cop. Nice views, but it isn't half cold up there, and I did have trouble getting the Hi-lux up the narrow lanes!

Another day on the bike

2007-10-21T22:00:00.000+01:00

As ever, I was riding around Salisbury Plain. This time we took an old drovers' road just north of Salisbury. It was about 30 miles long so it was a chance for an uninterrupted but of riding. It was only spoilt by me falling off three times in the first 200m! The grass was wet and slippy, I had a full tank of petrol and tyres I was using were Michelin Deserts so it's not surprising they struggled in the wet.

The picture is at the end of the day when we were riding towards the hordes of tourist around Stone Henge.

Holidays are here again

2007-10-19T08:58:00.000+01:00

Half term is upon us again and I've got a week off work. I seem to have timed it at work so the last minute rush on the project is whilst I'm away, which is good for me but less good for the my team. Never mind, I'm sure they'll cope.

Now we just need to decide what to do with ourselves. The weather's looking good so may be a day in London - I fancy having a mooch around Borough Market, visit a National Trust property before they close for the winter season and of course a bit of motorbiking on Salisbury Plain.

Firing Blanks

2007-10-03T14:01:00.000+01:00

I've now received offical notication from Marie Stopes that I am now firing blanks. Unfortunatly, I'm also stuck at home with the flu feeling sorry for myself so I'm not feeling particularly inclined to take advantage of my new status just yet.

Off in the mud

2007-09-23T19:11:00.000+01:00

Well I'm back from Rhayader (in Wales, for the geographically challenged amongst you) after the 2nd UK Adventure Rider weekend. That sounds more professional than it actually was. In reality it was 47 people on bikes from www.advrider.com meeting up for a weekend's offroading.

I had the privilege of being the first person to fall off, or at least the first person to fall off whilst moving - our glorious leader Ella managed to fall off whilst stationary. I'm just glad I managed not to fall off down the side. Lots more photos at http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=241697&page=29

The man with flowers in his hair

2007-09-16T20:18:00.000+01:00

As my Father is non too well, Will and I took a brief trip up to visit my parents over the weekend. They all seemed fit and well enough and we had a very nice dinner with Andy and Julie. It was made all the better by drinking my Father's wine and eating my Mother's trifle. Afterward dinner and a lot of persuassion, Will played is a tune on his guitar. I thought my video of him was quite good until I noticed that it looks like the flowers are some of sort wierd hippy hat.

A walk in the woods

2007-09-16T20:07:00.000+01:00

I went for a walk around the back of the Old Dean this morning. I'd forgotten just how much space there is and how few people there are in the area. I saw two cyclists for the whole time I was out.

By careful navigation by the sun, I just about managed to avoid getting lost, though next time I'll take a map and drink.