Rain

I suspect I am sick. Left home in the rain this morning, got to work in the rain, had hot shower then noticed that my change of clothes from my backpack was also wet. Hand dryers only go as far as to warm wet clothes up for a brief instant. Got even wetter running from change rooms to office building. Coming home was a treat a well - more rain, pitch black by 4:30pm and maniacal white vans seeing how close they can force me into the gutter.

In case you hadn't noticed I am feeling a little sorry for myself. The irony is that it is probably my carbon neutral life-style that is delaying global warming and thus responsible for this dismal turn of events.

What does the queen carry in her handbag ?

So the Queen of England has been in the news a lot recently. Is she the only one left who insists on wearing clothes that went out of date in the 1950's?

Watching her entertaining the Saudi Royal family brought home to me just how stupid the whole royal thing is. Does she know that she would have to wear a Burka in Saudia Arabia and would be banned from driving there? Just what are the shared values she speaks of between Britain and Saudi Arabia, a love of oil, fighter jets and corrupt arms deals or is it their human rights record?

Oh, and what does she carry in that handbag of hers - surely not a credit card or cash - has she ever used either in her life? I just can't imagine her needing bus fare or money for a newspaper.

Watching her reading the Queens Speech tonight begs the question how she would handle a paragraph proposing the abolition of the monarch or increased taxation on herself.

GuyFawkes weekend

We had my nephew and niece spent the week-end with us.

Some pictures from this week-end.

Stroll in the park, making most of the sunny weather.

I had to throw Sophie into this bracken in order to get this one



On Saturday evening we went to the bonfire and fireworks display in a nearby village of Brockham.


During the torch-lit parade, We felt quite a mob.



The Bonfire, what a bizarre custom burning someone like this.





And the fireworks display itself





And finally some shots of the flying field, I love the light when the sun is so low in sky. Today I did my first spins although the mist cover before the sun came out along with the predominantly white model caused me to loose track of the plane on a few occasions.



Wonderful week-end, even got some painting done of the loft.

Terracotta Army

With the tiling complete on the loft and a lick of paint applied I cleaned the brushes and spent Saturday afternoon flying my radio controlled plane. The wind was to little to strong for comfort and trying to land in a cross wind tends to focus the mind with visions of wrecked model. It was however immensely enjoyable though now that I have enough confident at attempt various aerobatic maneuvers.

It is currently pouring with rain - doesn't augur well for cycling to work tomorrow. Monday is my no "no park" day so no option but to cycle and with the loss of daylight savings it is sure to be dark when I leave work. Rain is bad, cold is bad, windy is bad, dark is bad - all four together is horrible.

Today we went to see the exhibition on the Terracotta Army at the British Museum. Sophie took a friend along and they spent the morning following various activities in the Ancient Egypt section. The Terracotta Army exhibit itself was very impressive. It includes a dozen or so the soldiers placed above the reading room of the museum. We did leave wondering why the Chinese haven't opened the tomb itself, or if indeed they have but what they found was ... well nothing.

Old friends

This weekend we met up with some old friends we haven't seen in a long time.

We traveled down to Devon early Sunday morning and stopped to stretch next to Stonehenge.



We stayed here, in a beautiful cottage with Sheep grazing outside.





This is as heated as the Croquet got - makes a change from the Rugby on Saturday night.


Yes they can rip your stomach out



We went on walks during which small children learnt that gum boot fill with water when walking in deep water.


It was a really enjoyable weekend.

Black Sheep

Annalise and I went to see two movies last week, in addition to the vagina monologues. The first was "Black Sheep" - a New Zealand movie with mutant sheep. Think "Shaun of the Dead" but replace the zombies with sheep. I have always suspected that Sheep could turn bad and savage people.

The second movie was Ratatouille - this was supposed to be a family outing but both Stephen and Emily bailed on us. It was nice watching Sophie enjoy it and seeing Paris again - even if it was through the eyes and nose of a rat.

Monologues

We saw the vagina monologues together in the end.

It was interesting being one of four other men in an audience of around 400.

Glad I saw it - to be recommended and lots less cringe making and angry than I expected.

The monologues

So Annalise is going to see the Vagina Monologues tomorrow night with some friends. I am gutted and hurt that I am not invited.

It's a one night showing so no chance of going to see it on another night and the idea of going by myself just cries out "desperate and looking to meet women".

So the best I can hope for is a second hand account, and one filtered through a woman's perspective. No scope for intelligent, open minded discussion there then!

Would I have interpreted the collective work as a "blast of hatred against men and heterosexuality" or something more revealing of the what is means to be a woman?

Will they censor the line "Is was a good rape"?

Will those monologues dealing with violence and oppression outweigh those dealing with loving relationships (both heterosexual and lesbian).

But no it seems the absence of a vagina means that I'll never know the answers to these questions.

Oh did I mention that I am gutted and hurt ......

Theory of tiling and everything

While attempting to arrange the jigsaw constituted by the tiles on the bathroom floor I came to the realization that none of the truly great works of human endeavor have been tiled. Not the pyramids of Egypt, not Stonehenge, not the giant cathedrals of the middle ages.

There is a reason, it is almost an impossible task. Didn't tiles fall from the space shuttle - the modern equivalent of these historical feats. How arrogant NASA was to believe that they could succeed where everyone else has failed.

I have a theory, not yet provable but I'm sure it is just a matter to time before others find supporting evident that Qin Shi Huangdi actually commissioned a large area tiled in terracotta tiles but his subjects pleaded with him, "no anything but tiles, give us another task". And so they ended up building an entire army of Terracotta warriors, a much easier feat and something his enemies probably mocked him for afterwards

Also during the construction of Stonehenge the Druids originally asked for a paved area, made with Italian tiles - as even in these times the best tiles came from Italy, with good drainage where they could relax, read and catch up on the latest advances in herbal medicine. Again the impossibility of the task would have soon led to them giving up and instead dragging lumps of rock from hundreds of miles away.

I call this the theory of "Anything but not tiling". I believe this has been a great shaper of our history. Entire populations have fled when rulers have required them to tile and foolish kings and queens been overthrown over this issue.

It will likely be the tiling of the White house lawns that is the downfall of George Bush, not the fiasco of Iraq, his stupidity or his arrogance. Although who except the arrogant would commission such a thing in the first place.

I've been thinking a tiles a lot recently ...

Three dead squirrels

Cyclists tend to be pushed to the margins of the road. It seems that we share this thin, precarious sliver of road surface with squirrels who no longer scurry, gamble and play - largely, in fact entirely, because they are very dead.

Today I came across three such individuals, two while heading north and one while heading south. Time of deaths - sometime between Friday afternoon and this morning. I could be more precise but I'd have to enroll on a course in pathology and then perform multiple autopsies - so let's just leave it as sometime this weekend.

What is up ? Is there inter cine gang warfare amongst these squirrels ? Is it the blue tongue disease getting into the squirrel population ? Perhaps the foot and mouth from the Surrey area has jumped species ? Bird flu ? Or is it simply a case of panic pre-winter nut collection leading to reckless and careless behavior,

Inquiring minds want to know!

This weekend

I laid zero tiles although I did do some painting and skirting fitting. Why is it the the tiles look the best in the one orientation requiring the most cutting ?
Bled a little due to sawed finger.
Flew one new radio controlled plane.

Landed above plane a little roughly requiring a later 5 minute patch-up

Spent several hours at the beach

Found a tennis ball

Lost a tennis ball



Soaked up some sun



Had a lazy lunch in a beautiful cottage built AD 1536.

Watched some rugby, yes finally watched some TV.

The rest of the weekend's pictures here

New plane ready to fly

Almost ready to fly tomorrow if the weather is good.

This afternoon I have

1. Test run the previously crashed engine
2. Setup throws all controls
   
3. Configured computer mixing for flaps/airolin
4. Placed tx and rx on to charge over night
   

Still need to

1. check centre of gravity
2. Make/buy bung for fuel tubing (currently using a large nail)
   

Fastest time to work

33 minutes - fastest time since moving 5 minutes further away from work. Also thrashed the bus on the way home this afternoon.

Testosterone ?

Further evidence for lack of testosterone

On Sunday Annalise and I visited the bridge where Winnie the Pooh played Pooh sticks.

This is the bridge

No I felt no desire to race, let along win, by dropping said Pooh sticks in slow moving current - how sad is that.

Has anything happened in the last two months?

On July 02 I posted about how we had lost TV reception with the erection of scaffolding behind our house. Well the enforced experiment is coming to an end. This Thursday the scaffolding will be removed and once again our satellite dish will have an un-obscured line of sight with the appropriate geo-synchronous satellite.

This will be almost exactly two months without seeing a single TV picture. Has anything happened in the world in these last two months?

It brings to mind the movie Goodbye Lenin

Now should the kids be re-introduced to the medium slowly, can they overdose on it or will they even notice if I don't tell them?

Looking for Testosterone

Strange things have been happening to me

1. The other day on riding home from work I decided to take "the scenic route", along the north down through some National Trust property. What is more - I lingered, taking in the view of Surrey country side enjoying the solitude and feeling the wind wiping up the hill-side. I noticed the birds, greeted the odd dog walker and otherwise behaved in a totally uncharacteristic manner. Typically my trips to and from work are competitive affairs, either improving on my own time, beating the bus or luring unsuspecting cars into a wedge opportunity in a narrow lane around an old church.
2. I have a heightened sense of smell. The other day I could smell the odorless moisturizer Annalise was wearing. This in addition the almost constant smell of "what might be coffee." (See my post regarding pending insanity)
3. I am sick and tired of the upstairs tiling - I honesty think I would sooner be part of a sewing circle.
4. If I shut my eyes during my shower each morning, after my cycle into work, I can believe that I am washing my hair in the Amazon rain-forest, in the purest of water surrounded by butterflies and orchids.
   

This all begs the questions:

1. Do I have an Estrogen/Testosterone imbalance ?
2. Am I turning into a collaborative woman and eschewing mindless competitiveness ?
3. Will I be wearing roses and perfume shortly ?
4. Should any of this worry me ?
5. If I am turning into a woman - will I be a lesbian ?
6. Who does one turn to for help and will they take "excuse me but I can now smell things and I don't compete with buses" seriously.
   

It is now a total wreck

What are the chances ? Today another mid-air collision.

The remains



The other plane

No chance of a repair, although the engine, receiver and 3 out of 4 servos seem intact. I spent the rest of the afternoon doing more tiling.

Thursday I did place an order for a new aerobatic model so hopefully I should be flying again next week-end.

Hmmm .....

I wonder if my tutor 40 committed suicide knowing that it was about to be replaced.

*&^*&^*^%$££$"$£" Tiling

The DVD never mentioned what to do when they fall of the wall, it didn't mention that while it will take evening after evening and leave one's hands and nails caked with tiling cement.

No the DVD showed a sterile room with tiles that fall apart along the "cut mark" and then almost stick themselves to the wall.

Mid-air

I got a real rush from flying on Saturday ...

I felt relaxed enough to try acrobatics I had never tried before and then felt brave enough to add the video camera to the plane for some aerial video photography. This time I was expecting an unstable plane and managed to re-trim the model. The result - some somewhat interesting footage. I'm currently fighting my computer and am unable to convert the mpeg-2 stream from the camera into something suitable for upload to youtube to that will have to wait.

The day did end in disaster however. On the last flight of an otherwise perfect day, I ran out of fuel, called "dead stick" and glided in for my final approach, lined up dead centre of the runway about 40 metres high when another model flew straight through me, the model that is. The model in two pieces, a tail piece - cruelly severed 4 fifths of the way down the fuselage and the rest, plummeted into the ground. The damage was pretty bad - broken tail, fuselage, engine mounts, propeller, wing servo and wing leading edge.

Later on Saturday night, after everyone had gone to bed, I looked over the damage and started gluing, replacing and improvising fixes such that by 4:15am I went to bed with some hope that it may possibly fly again.

Sunday it did fly, like a wounded phoenix it limped skyward held together with tape, a healthy dollop of glue and all the will I could muster. After landing and making a few adjustments it was flying similar to how it had before the crash. I say "similar" because knowing what it has been though I can't get rid of the feeling that it is going to fall apart in the air and come crashing to the ground again.

Fighting insanity

My olfactory hallucinations are back ...

They started about 7 years ago on a trip to San Francisco. I could smell this smell that can best be described as "almost but not quite like coffee". They returned on a handful of occasions since then and most recently returned two days ago and are still with me.

The smell is not unpleasant, or worrying, just weird.

I can't really explain it any better than "coffee" although it is more of a sensation of smelling coffee. When I smell real coffee it doesn't compare very well. I have done smell tests on my skin, my clothes, at home and at work, no one else smells it - am I going insane ? Perhaps the part of my brain responsible for smell is slowly decaying.

Oh well, there must be worse way to go than along with the smell of coffee.

This weekend I ......

1. Terrified myself by flying a video camera in my airplane. The model was out of trim and required all my skill to get it down in one piece. The video makes me airsick to watch. I will try again next weekend as I think I know now what went wrong.

2. Finally signed up to facebook. It was fear that if I didn't I'll be ostracized and placed on an ice-flow to die a slow and lonely death.

3. Resisted spending any money, despite incredible temptation, at a model air show I went to today.

4. Did some work on my bike to ensure it was ready for next week. I noticed that my tyres are very worn, checked my cycle computer and estimate that I have ridden about 3700 km in the last 18 months.

5. Washed the car

6. Got the car dirty again by driving it in dirt.

Michelangelo

I can empathise with Michelangelo during the painting of the Sistine Chapel as I am busy on a project of my own - the loft ceiling.

I am aiming for this effect



only in pure, solid white.

I fear for my eye-sight due to the dripping paint.

Ramadan

A work colleague is fasting for Ramadan. Today he was downright obnoxious. I suspect low blood sugar levels - either that or he is a jerk.

To bad Ramadan doesn't fall in the middle of winter as there would only be 4 hours of sunlight.

Time will tell if it gets better or worse over the course of the next month.

Aerial Photography

I managed to mount the video camera inside the fuselage, right on the centre of gravity. It does add 300g to the weight. This is 16% weight increase. My rudimentry knowledge of aerodynamics tells me I need a 4% increase in speed to compensate.

Either I'm correct or I'll be fishing a soggy plane, with video camera on board out of the Mole river.

Flight exam

Today I passed by 'A' test. One month and one one day after my first flight. Now I can rack up much more flight time. I spent my immediate freedom from supervision by doing some loops and rolls - at least thats what I called them - purests would probabily disagree.

Next up

a) Master some simple, clean aerobatics
b) Do some aerial photography - I need to experiment with methods of mounting the video camera underneath the aircraft

Pink (Salmon) Mobile Phone

This week saw me hand over my pink mobile phone to Annalise. She prefers it and I didn't think I felt strongly about it either way.

Now I miss this phone. Many was the time when at work, around the drinks machine, someone would come up to me and say something along the lines of "Is that a PINK phone?". To which I might respond "Aggggh, oh my gosh your're right" and drop it or "No it is actually Salmon". Such are the moments in which new acquaintances or forged or of the realisation that some people are just not worth the effort of trying to get to know any further.

I can remember the first cell phone I owned in Durban, South Africa. I carried it along with a pager because the battery would often be flat and it made me a prime mugging target when called into work at 3am in the morning. These, cell phone facilitated, early morning trips to the downtown office was also made more interesting by the prostitutes who never believed that I was also there for work purposes. Soon the freedom provided by being able to travel more while on call was exceeded by the ability to be called when-ever and where -ever. I remember the dread and the stress associated with the ring tone. Good news was never delivered via the cell phone.

In the US it was the same although spotty GSM coverage in our area meant that there were islands of "refuge".

Nowadays the mobile is just for texting and calling family and for the odd picture unless it is PINK and can act as an ice breaker.

Weekend activities

Today we went climbing in Portland, Dorset.

We've climbed there frequently, it is mostly (perhaps all) sport climbing on short 20-30 meter cliffs with the waves crashing below. Not much of an adrenaline rush, more "soak up the sun" kind of climbing. The worst the kids can do is fall in the sea while they are not climbing.

The rest of the pictures from today are here

On Saturday I went flying. There was some really good discuss launch gliders being flown - similar to these. I was kindly given a Zagi flying wing which I hope to use for slope flying although it needs additional harware and some work before it is ready.

Regarding the the powered flying I added another 2 flights to my flight log, practising dead-stick landings and figure 8's. I hope I'll be able to take the "A" test soon and so be able to fly without needing some-one watching over my shoulder.

My Dad

Picture from 2001

It is almost two years since my father died, struck down by a heart attack. Hearing the news was unbelievably devastating. Even now with time having passed there is so much I want to show him. We have always had very different interests - he wanting to build and fix things while I was more partial to computer software but these days I am constantly reminded of things he would like to see, and I would enjoy showing him, - a steam train, a vintage car, a construction technique, a documentary or any one of hundreds of small things I think he would like to see.

It always seems like a miracle to me each time I start the lawn mower with a couple of pulls on the starter cord because one of the enduring memories of my childhood includes him replacing points, spark plugs and other bits on the mower before the lawn could be mowed. In fact he would usually build something to "assist" in the fixing of other things. Did he do this because he enjoyed it or did we just not have the money to buy a new one ?

Mom and Dad visited us on two occasions while we were in Florida but I wish he could have visited us here in the UK - I am sure he would have really enjoyed it - the shared history and the fact that the UK is littered with people with similar interests as him. They spend hours in the rain noting passing trains, they build and drive model trains, full size trains and historical railways.

Bizarrely I find myself drawn to things just because I can remember the affection he had for them - am I turning into my father ? I wonder what emotions moulded his interests stretching back before I was even born.

His ashes were scattered on the site of this model railway.

Miss you dad.

Spare screws and missing keys

This eveninng my notebook screen went "fuzzy" and then it died. On restart it would run for about 2 minutes before hanging, fuzzying or running really slowly. After cursing it, turning it upside-down and threatening to bin it to no avail and thus proceeded to dismantle it.

Lessons

• Don't use a high powered vacuum cleaning unless you are prepared to rummage through other bits of "stuff" deap in the bowels of said vacuum cleaner in order to retrieve sucked-off keys.
• Pay attention to where the screws all came from - I have two left over.
• A battery can hurt when dropped on your foot.

The good news it has now been running for 10 minutes now - no fuzz, no hang and as a bonus my touch-pad is working for the first time in 2 years. I had thought it was a Linux driver problem and so had not paid any attention to possible hardware causes - in this case a disconnected touch-pad ribbon cable. Ah well explains the "software" in "software engineer".

Bank Holiday

We aborted the planned climbing trip today on account of Annalise's dizziness and instead went into London to see the photo exhibition "how we are - Photographing Britain" at the Tate Britain.

The train was packed with people returning from the Reading Music festival. In fact everyone seemed to be out and about - a result of weeks of rain now broken with some summer weather.

After the exhibition, we picnicked next o the river and then walked the couple of miles to London Bridge.

I tried to stop Annalise taking pictures of the unelected (House of Lords) half of the Houses parliament building but something about balance and composure forced her to add legitimacy to the entire institution by rendering them whole.

The rest of pictures are here

Flying

This afternoon was perfect flying weather. I took my camera and aircraft out to the flying field.

I loved watching this amble around the sky while soaking up the sun.

My first landing was a little rough but I think it was caused a broken nose wheel linkage - or did it work loose as a result of bad landing ?

During my next flight I was practicing landing approaches when I decided to abort a landing so I could go round again. It must have looked quite chaotic from the side lines. A perfect approach and then from less than a metre above the runway I applied full throttle and full up on the elevator, followed by hard down on the elevator to prevent the stall, hit the runway hard, cut the engine, bounced a couple of metres high before "landing" very hard. Only damage was a bent undercarriage and dented ego.

These aircraft were a little harder to catch within the camera viewfinder.

I spent half an hour this evening getting the plane air worthy for either tomorrow or for the Bank holiday Monday. We are also trying get a climbing trip in this weekend as well.

The rest of the pictures are here

Picking Blackberries

This morning we went blackberry picking. For me the blackberries were more of a vehicle to get out outside and tack some pictures. Annalise and Sophie enjoyed the picking though.

It was so good to be in the sun again.

The rest of the pictures are here

5 Billion Slugs

The UK has 5 Billion slugs.

They are on our driveway and they eat our vegetables. Someone described how to get rid of them you need to get up at night, take a touch into the veggie-patch and pick them all up.

There are then two methods of killing them

• Feed them to the chickens
• Cut them in half with a pair of scissors

Seems hopeless 5 billion slugs, snip, 4999 999 999 more, snip, 4999 999 998 .....

Why has evolution not created slug-eaters - mutant cannibalistic slugs that feast on vegetarian slugs ?

Almost won 35 Million Pounds

I had it 35 million and then it was all taken away :-(

I was on my way home from work and listening to the story of a woman who had won 35 million on the lottery. I started thinking what I would spend it on:

• Some to my favourite charities to start with
  
• a farm close by with green fields and space for chickens and wind powered generator
• another farm on the Welsh or Cornish coast with mountains or sea cliffs close by,
  
• a small light air-craft
• a boat to potter around the coast with and to get to the south of France.

Then just as I was getting home I realised and hadn't won it, someone else had. A bit of a downer that.

Lessons of the day

• When coming in to land at the local model flying club use the large oak tree to line up for the final cross-wind turn before landing.
• When making fudge pour the fudge into the tray before it starts to set - it pours easier and sets evenly.

I soloed this morning - ie a take off and landing without assistance. I had three flights Wednesday, another three yesterday afternoon and today I was determined to land without help. Oddly after completing this milestone the world remained much the same as before - the birds still chirped, the clouds continued to drift across sky and there were no choirs of angles nor throngs of groupies wanting an autograph. Was this a hollow goal all along ?

Tonight was my turn to cook as part of the cooking competition. Curry with fudge for desert. Finally I produced fudge that looked like fudge and not pieces of mud scrapped off the ground. The curry is a dish I often make although because recipes are tedious, like "colouring in between the lines" it never tastes quite the same.

Voting is on Monday night after Annalise's dish.

Back at work tomorrow :-(

Bike is pumped, just need to locate my security pass.

Beachy Head

Friday we went to beachy head - it is a "magical place" only marred by the fact that the cliffs are chalk and thus unclimbable, at least by the sane.

Click through for the other pictures

We picnicked above the cliffs and then walked below, discovered rock pools and shady holes to read in and generally spent a lazy afternoon.

Oh and i disturbed a nude sun bather in a very remote corner. He seemed flustered and self conscious but how does one gesture "I don't care that you are naked, I am just minding my own business, pretend I am not here" without making things worse.

Sophie's version

Flying, hearts and happy times

Today I had three flights of about 6 minutes duration each. Very cool. The flying field seems to have grown a bit larger and the trees are now a little lower.

The foot and mouth outbreak makes overflying the surrounding farmland a little more risky as the farmer would be unhappy with people tramping across the fields to effect a recovery. I had only one scary moment when the wind seemed to blow the plane overhead as it approached me with the sun behind it. I recovered but only because I had enough height to recover from the resulting stall. The next fly pass revealed that I had lost a wheel. At this point I handed back control to my instructor who effected a "crash landing" on two of the three wheels. No harm done except that an additional wheel came off in the process. I paid so much attention to the flight controls that the wheels had seemed kind of cosmetic. Ah well we learn from mistakes.

Earlier in the day Annalise and I spent some time at the hospital where she had a ultra-sound of her heart. Now I know hearts, we've all seen them on valentines day cards, and what she had was not in the distinctive heart shape or red colour - it was black and white and rather grainy, almost but not quite like each of our children on their last ultra-sound scan before we met them in person. That the radiologist did not pick up on this alarmed me - she seemed to think everything was normal. We await the doctors opinion as to whether her heart is several sizes to small - like the Grinch.

Tomorrow we, me as the policy holder and Stephen as the dropper, have a telephonic interview with the insurance company over the claim for the broken camera lens.

After this we will likely either walk or drive around the country-side until we find a picturesque pub and them "waste" the lazy afternoon reading the paper or a book and having a drink. Four days of holiday remaining.

Tonight we started the our festival of "five nights, five chefs and five meals". Each member of the family gets 10 pounds to spend in ingredients and prepares a meal of their choice - nutritional constraints apply. We all vote on the best meal at the end of it. Emily produced marinated chicken kebabs with a peanut-butter based sauce and brownies for desert. Yummy. Tomorrow is Sophies turn.

Alternate view of lakes

Sophie's take on the same experience

The lakes

With reference to the previous post - It rained.

The tents held out for 36 hours of continuous rain, sometimes light but oftentimes torrential until they started to admit drops of water that in time accumulated into mini-lakes on the floor until they were absorbed by the sleeping bags.

Stephen slipped on a path, dropping the camera and smashing the zoom lens in the process. The subsequent pictures are all wide-angle although we took precious few pictures in the rain.
On a less overcast note - last week I updated my insurance policy to include the camera - will they be suspicious ?

The climbing involved a one and half hour to two hour hike into the mountain. This was punctuated by periods when the sun shone until we crested a spur or rounded a corner and we presented with wind carrying horizontal rain and storm clouds. The climb itself was a little tame with some exposure but not very much adrenaline. We were clustered on a ledge when the wind strengthened and despite a slab of shared chocolate I realised that no-one except me was particularly enjoying the prospect of the additional pitches required to enable a "walk off" from the summit.

We took a vote, qualified with a "no sulk" condition, that only I would complete the next pitch and we would then abseil back down the route and take a direct descent down the mountain to the valley - about 400 metres below the base of the climb. The climbing was easy, finding a abseil point was not. The best I could do was to use an unlikely looking block way off the line and right at the limit of the rope length.

I knew what would happen before I had even returned to the others. The wet rope would not pull around to block and thus could not be retrieved - apart from the value of the rope, this was our only means of safe descent having left the second rope below. My pre-constructed prusik loop is currently serving as an anchor line for my model air-plane, don't ask!, so the only option was a sling based prusik and an aided climb back up to retrieve the rope. This time I left a sling and a pair of carabiners to ensure the rope could be pulled through.

I hate leaving equipment behind but looking down on the rest of the family below I couldn't help thinking that they were nesting eagles waiting for their next rabbit to be brought to them. What I needed to do was bump them off the cliff and catch them on the wing a few times until they had the confidence to fly.

The direct descent followed a stream straight down the mountain side. Usually one slips when not paying attention but the rocks were green with lichen, the grass over run with running streamlets and the ground was soft and spongy underfoot so that we all fell - frontwards, backwards and sidewards many times. Often we all fell in the same spot even when forewarned.

By the time we reclaimed the car we were filthy dirty and soaking wet but miraculously unhurt and in surprisingly good spirits. Also my GPS that I had forgotten in the excitement of the departure was still sitting on the roof of the car - a happy surprise. A quick change of clothes, another family vote and we broke camp in record time, re-packed the car and headed home to the perfect weather in the south-east. It was a 2:30 AM arrival home but the beds were dry and our roof didn't leak.

The rest of the pictures are here

Packing for trip

So I woke up this morning and could not locate the bicycle pump. Annalise needed the car today but no problem I'll catch the bus. Except no bus arrives. It turns out that due to road-works related to a gas main repair has caused the buses to route around my stop :-( By the time I realised this I had missed my bus. I walked to the next stop and wait. Spend 10 minutes trying to get real-time bus information on my mobile phone before I sheepishly notice that this bus stop has it already displayed on a built in screen - this just as the next bus arrives.

By this time I am so late that I figure I might as well try a "short-cut" for the one mile walk at the the other end of the journey. This involves walking through farm land and public foot paths in ankle deep mud. At least I met some very nice horses who didn't seem to think it at all odd that someone should be dressed for work cutting across their field. Needless to say it was a good deal longer than usual.

I spent the evening packing the car in preparation for the trip tomorrow. Today at work I had more calls for help than usual and so I will need to go into work around 6am tomorrow in order to get my code released. Hopefully things will go so well that I can get away around lunch time - 5 hour trip to lake district. Looking forward to it.

Things that could go wrong

• Rain
• Roof box could blow off, smash on the road, destroy the contents and cause an accident
• We could run out of petrol
• We could crash
• It could rain
  
• We could get injured or killed climbing
• Software might not get released before lunch - if only I was a lumberjack.
• It could rain
  
• Forget any of a million things
• Sophie is still sick
• and oh it could rain
  

More on Genesis

This is a follow up to the post on Genesis

Ricky Gervais.

Sunday - Sophie's birthday

Yesterday we enjoyed watching The Simpson's as part of Sophie's birthday.

Sophie on her birthday

The rest of here birthday pictures are here including some of the troop of monsters that slept over last week.

Stephen and I hung out in the bookstore and coffee shop while Sophie shopped with Annalise and Emily before the movie stared. We did find the Sushi bar mesmerising - all the brightly coloured bowls travelling around on the conveyor belt.

A very relaxing day.

This evening we purchased a roof box for our trip to the lake district at the end of this week - not very exciting unless you are into carrying corpses around but it will allow us to carry the camping and climbing equipment on the roof and make the trip I little more comfortable. In the past we have tried duffel sacks on the roof but as these aren't water proof we have to bring them inside in the event of rain - an all to often occurrence this summer.

The plan is that we will climb on two days and the rest of the time go for walks and chill out around the camp site.

On the topic of boring purchases - tomorrow the bathroom stuff arrives for the loft.

It flies

This morning at around 8:23am I read the last page of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

This afternoon at around 3:10pm my plane flew.

It took off did several circuits before landing. This is a trainer - the aircraft equivalent of riding a bike with training wheels attached but it seemed miraculous that something I had constructed could fly.

Picture of plane

This is the airfield of the Leatherhead model flying club. The trees and the river seem much more menacing and the field much smaller when an aeroplane is at stake.

I now have my life back - no need at stay up until 2am each night.

Tomorrow is Sophie's birthday - Lunch, Shopping, ears pieced (it was either this or sky diving and turns out she needs to be 18), Simpson's movie, dinner and family board games with DVD. Seems like a lifetime since her party last Friday night.

Sleep always gets in the way

There is something wrong with me - each night between 1 and 2 am in the morning I get so tired that I am just literally falling asleep.

Now usually this wouldn't be to much of a problem but my last several nights have consisted of radio control (r/c) airplane construction until after midnight followed some time with Harry Potter. Everyone else in the family has now finished the book and moved on. I haven't seen a TV or surfed the net since the weekend.

With the kids and Annalise on holiday we were woken by the plumber this morning. He arrived to fix a leak caused by the loft alterations - we have a noticable wet patch on the kitchen ceiling.

The plane is now complete and ready for crashing. I tried a r/c flight simulator with it today - first flight 3 seconds working up to a good 30 seconds. Not very promising.

I can't focus at work - to tired, I am wearing a wider and wider range of clothes as the laundry backs up. Something has to give and I think it should be work. We are still planning our trip to the Lake district in a couple of weeks but have identified several climbs and will find a campsite close by.

My arm is in agony and despite now having completed the set of physio appointments it is worse than ever. Gotta nurse it better for the climbing.

All is well

Annalise is home - since lunch. All the tests have failed to find anything. As we have been watching the complete series of House M.D. the consensus opinion, at last between Stephen and me, is that it is either tape worm, they never explicitly checked for it, or her heart is a few sizes to small, this was the problem with the Grinch.

We are the owners of three copies of Harry Potter. One purchased at midnight and two more copies this morning. Stephen intends to complete one tonight - he is in the lounge with duvet and book. Annalise and Sophie are in bed together with the other two copies. Emily looses out because she has just got in from a movie and dinner out - nice that she can walk to these.

I am busy constructing a Radio Control Aeroplane that I bought this afternoon. After the noise and mayhem of last night it looks like the Cat-in-the-hat has cleaned up and it is like Christmas eve.

I am happy.

Worry and Fear

Annalise called me at work today - the doctor had referred her to the hospital for tests. I didn't have the car so she fetched me en route to the hospital. Turns out she is scheduled for a CT scan tonight and will be in hospital overnight - this in addition to the afternoon's chest X-rays and blood tests.

Tonight is also Sophie's birthday party and she has four loud, excitable friends over for a sleep-over - they are pretty much chocolated-out after a chocolate fondue. We didn't know all the phone numbers or we would have cancelled. Did I mention they are noisy and excitable. I am cowering in the kitchen.

I am thinking of trying to pick up a Harry Potter book at mid-night and smuggle it into the hospital to Annalise but this would mean leaving the monsters, sorry girls, by themselves. Perhaps I can convince them to all come with - that way we can get five books (one per customer).

Emily and Stephen are strangely united tonight - a combination of shared fear of the guests and their Mom being in hospital.

Ruined crop

Our crop is ruined !

Something has destroyed it almost entirely. All is lost.

This seems to have happened on Annalise's watch while she was on leave yesterday. I wish I had married into better farming stock. Less tolerant people might blame her.

Current status of crop

1. Aubergine - eaten off or broken 1/3 of way up stem - one small leaf remains
2. Chilli plant - 50% of leaves eaten or yellowed - looks like it will have "passed on" by the weekend.
3. Sun Flower plant - lets just say no oil will come from this plant.
4. Baby marrow - touch and go. Two stems snapped off - one remaining.
5. Red/Green pepper - we may loose this before it reveals it's true colour.

Who or what would do this ? There are no tracks and no sign of insects.

I suspect BIRDS - how i hate them.

We have no crop insurance.

Genesis

I have finished Genesis, my intention is to read a chapter a month in the hope that I'll gain an better understanding, of what exactly I am not sure.

I couldn't find a review of this on amazon nor establish conclusive authorship.

Some observations

1. Genesis is poorly written, includes repetition, some very poor characterisation, muddled plot and in need of some major editing. Are the lists of family trees really needed for instance ?

2. People start off living 900 plus years, enough time to have several children. Later off they are living to a mere 120 years during which time they are able to have the same number of children. Is this a translation mistake or have medical advances taken us backwards and given us shorter life spans.

3. Punishing entire families or clans, for generations sometimes, because of an individual isn't fair.

4. These are not nice people. The good guys indulge in rape, plunder, murder and incest. Abraham twice passes his wife off as his sister so that she is taken by another man and offers his own virgin daughters up for sex to protect two visiting angels (can't they protect themselves ?)

I would rate this 18 for violence, Sex and content.

The end of the Internet

It had to happen some-time, but why tonight ?

We are still without TV and I had read everything from our bookcase that appealed to me and so I found myself catching up on email and surfing the usual places; news channels (BBC, CNN, NY Times), Slashdot.org, www.theonion.com and a few others - To save you the trouble I can summarise these for you - Russian diplomats expelled from UK (I think they will think twice before subjecting anyone else to radiation poisoning), a nuclear reactor leaked in Japan, the US department of Lost and found has found a Slip-Slop and MIT has developed fearless mice (gee these are going to be useful - perhaps they will be brave enough to roam around the kitchen after dark)

Anyway after reading ALL this I realised I had seen the entire INTERNET, I frantically re-visited all my bookmarks (been there), also my http://del.icio.us bookmarks but sadly I had seen them all.

If only I had rationed my use of this resource. We can't go on like this every day consuming more and more of the INTERNET. Part of the problem is caused by ADSL lines instead of DSL broadband - people are reading far more than they are writing.

It is a sad, sad day. Please use the precious resource sparingly.

Loft and window cleaning

Many is the time, when things are going badly at work and the weather is good, that I look outside and long for the apparently carefree existence of the window washers. Well this evening Sophie and I lived out this fantasy. Making effective use of the scaffolding we rappelled to just above the roof of the conservatory in order to clean the roof as it had some moss growing on it. Sophie dropped down first, just to make sure the top anchor was secure, no sense in me falling through pains of glass.

Mind where you point the hose Sophie...

I've just wet myself, no not from fear.


Some pictures as the loft has progressed









The view from the loft windows