Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Monday, July 30, 2007

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.

Saturday, July 28, 2007

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.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

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.

Saturday, July 21, 2007

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.

Friday, July 20, 2007

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.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

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.

Monday, July 16, 2007

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.

Sunday, July 15, 2007

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

Movie recommendation

Tonight we watched Hot Fuzz





This is a very British, spoof movie in the same genre as Shaun Of The Dead.

Highly recommended.


Friday, July 13, 2007

Join me on the dark side

Just in from watching THE movie.
Must perform magic, kill, drink blood, eat children ....

Why did I not listen, when the signs were so clear ?

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Harry Potter - the antichrist ?

With the release of the movie Harry Potter and Order of the Phoenix expect a deluge of commentary on how evil these books are and how they are corrupting the youth.



These nutters at PawCreek ministries claim - 'The Harry Potter books are just another means of blinding millions to the truth. When people love imagination, superstition, paranormal intrigue, witchcraft, and sorcery better than they love truth, the Creator will allow them to be filled with their own desires. When the cup of sin is full, the King will say, "It is enough."' There is more, just follow the link.

Backing up these beliefs are ChristianAnswers.net.

Are these people serious? These are BOOKS, and children, myself included, love the idea of a magical world where spells and potions are possible and where pictures talk and amazing creatures exist.

Thus far, despite all five of us in this family having read all the books at least a couple of times, the worst side effect I have noticed an intense desire to read. For instance we attempted to read the last one aloud as a family but Stephen, we later discovered, had woken in the middle of the night to read ahead (this was a direct breaking of the commandment "Honour thy father and mother"). Oh and to be fair there is a fair amount of squabbling over the amount of time each person gets reading each book before having to pass it on to the next in line.

Do these people want us to stop reading books dealing with magic and fantasy? Should we burn them? Should we issue a fatwa on J.K. Rowlings as for Salman Rushdie. No of course not. So either read the books and see the movies or get a life and focus on something really important.

Week two without TV signal

The scaffolding is still obscuring the satellite dish, so no TV.

We are coping as follows
  1. Video coverage of topical news via Internet only - me
  2. Lots of Wii fitness tests and practice - Sophie and Emily
  3. Youtube - Stephen
  4. Reading - Annalise and Sophie
  5. Organising of digital pictures - Annalise and me
  6. Catching up on our DVD subscription backlog - all
I think lack of internet access would impact us much more.

Monday, July 09, 2007

Legacy, what legacy ?

So with Tony Blair resigning, and the subsequent talk of the nature of his legacy, I have been giving some thought to my own legacy. What has particularly alarmed me is he speed at which the builders have been at ripping, tearing and generally teasing the wood-work in our attic into a well designed living area.

Compare their work to mine today .....

My current project is adding functionality to a set of eclipse plug-ins that will aid software developers with the incorporation of a specific security framework used in my company into their own software projects. This security framework is also my responsibility. Now if you are a software developer, or at least a software developer using Java and Eclipse, you may have little idea about what I just said but if you aren't I bet you haven't a clue - and this is my point.

The best outcome for this project is that it improves productivity but because security requirements are so diverse even after using the the plug-in manual tweaking will still be required afterwards. Some people will use it while others will choose not to. Within a couple of years technology will have moved on and there will be a good chance it will become redundant.

Developing software can be considered architecture but despite the use of design patterns like facades, factories and singletons none of what we develop has the endurance of a cathedral, a house or even a loft conversion. No future archaeologist is going to be digging and stumble an eclipse plug-in - "thought to be particularly fine specimen of software dating from the early 21st century".

If this wasn't bad enough none of my children have yet sailed solo around the world, climbed Mt Everest or K2 or in fact become child prodigies at anything. This despite all the advantages of genes and environment.

Would some-one please notice me.

Sunday, July 08, 2007

Climbing - Craig yr Ogof

We had a successful days climbing yesterday. Preparation didn't include taking a road map but the navigation system got us as far Llanllyfni (spelling correct) where upon we had to start using our intuition and bland directions to the car park. This process was complicated by the low cloud cover obscuring all the peaks.

This was the road trip




We had to fight our way past these predators on the 60 minute approach route.



One of two lakes below the mountain


Our first sight of the entire climb - it is the peak without cloud cover.



and a few minutes later




View from the base of the climb





Climbing finally - this is first belay position



Despite only starting the climb at mid-day we had a late lunch half way up on a grassy belay stance with beautifully exposed view of the lakes below and the sea in the distance.


Pitch 4 was a complicated by the fact that it was getting late, the wind had come up and I had pushed on past the recommended belay position. Running out of protection and rope I was forced to find a belay stance based on my remaining gear, largely slings and a pair of nuts. The howling wind made communication very difficult and Stephen often mistook the bleating sheep down below as me trying to say something. Thank goodness these were Welsh sheep otherwise they might well have bleated "off belay" or "climbing".

A full six hours and 135 metres later we made it to the top - a most enjoyable climb.



We got back to the car at 7:30pm. During the return trip we stopped off at an Indian and Bangladeshi restaurant that we had noticed 12 hours earlier on the trip. This pushed the estimated arrival time to 2:21AM and feeling really tired, despite stopping often for coffee, we finally gave in to sleep for a couple of hours and subsequently only arrived home at 5:30AM.


The rest of the days pictures are here
Craig yr Ogof

Friday, July 06, 2007

Loft, Skittles and Climbing trip

So the kids are in bed and about to turn in myself. Stephen and I have just completed preparations for a climbing trip tomorrow - The same trip we planned for last weekend. This is a 3.30AM start and a same day, 10PM, return.

I returned home today to discover we now have stairs to a 3rd floor - no need to climb the outside scaffolding, oh and also a note to say we owe the first installment of the building costs from the builders - how touching. I wonder if during the building of the great Cathedrals the Bishop was presentd with a bill each week for the duration of the 100 odd years taken to build them.

Annalise is out partying with work people - supposedly "skittling". Why she can't just settle down and help us with the trip preparations I don't know - something to do with modern decadence and the subsequent decline of the traditional wife.

Good night.

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Croquet - the slippery slope to a wheel-chair

Until a month ago I had never ever lost a game of croquet. In fact I had never even played that game, except for one occasion several years ago when we accidental broke a hoop, by bashing it into hard ground, while on a rural retreat. We then had to secrete the equipment back into the shed so as to not incur the wrath of the surly games keeper.

I am not sure which of the following is the most disturbing:

1. That I am now routinely invited to play the game during lunch times
2. That I have on several occasions I have accepted said invitation
3. That when playing I have a strong desire not just to win but the thrash my opponents.
4. That I have now lost several games of croquet
5. That with my right arm crippled by a repetitive stress injury (mousing), I am now only invited for croquet games. No tennis, no lunch time swimming (as though I would drown), no lunch time run (do I run on my hands ?)
6. That this might be a slippery slope to joining the chess ladder or bridge club.

If only my arm would improve enough so I can push iron over in gym.

I have looked for, but not found, a version of Wii Croquet. It is probably much to dangerous - imagine what might have happened if these people had been playing croquet - Serious Wii Injury

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Checkout competiveness

I am still smarting from a shopping trip this evening where we were beaten so badly in the checkout queue.

We have builders in our house and they need tea and biscuits. While not wanting to stereotype people, we didn't think they would enjoy either the Chai Tea or Lapsang Souchong.

Usually our groceries are delivered, especially the cleaning stuff, but tonight was an emergency shop - cleaning supplies and motivational foods.

The woman in front of us in the queue had

1. Three bottles wine, two white one red.
2. one red pepper
3. Half a cucumber
4. pack of small mushrooms

A high scoring basket I think you will agree.

Stacked up against this we had

1. Tons of cleaning supplies
2. 8 packs of biscuits
3. Toilet paper
4. 4 frozen pizza
5. Two litre organic semi-skimmed milk
6. salmon (not sure if it was wild)

Our only items that had a positive score were #5 and #6, and then only marginally because the milk wasn't skinny and the salmon may not have been wild. This against a very tidy basket of items - all scoring very highly.

I wanted to make eye contact with her, by way of saying "This isn't who we are - we are shopping for others with a lessor taste" - but I think she was to snobbish and consequently pretended not to notice.

I despise snobbery, who does she think she is ? Someone should tell her we are not "what we eat" or "what we buy" !

And to be quite honest some of us are above all this anyway.

Monday, July 02, 2007

Scaffolding

The scaffolding arrived today in preparation for work staring tomorrow on out loft conversion.

It's been put up at the back and is about two stories high. It is just perfectly positioned to obscure our satellite dish - so no TV for the next 8 weeks. It is times like this that make a family either grow stronger or turn in on itself. Sort of like in "Lord of the Flies". I love experiments like this. Stephen is contemplating lifting the wooden flooring to provide a clear line of sight for the satellite signal and I'm waiting for a plank to come crashing through the conservatory roof.

On the up side it looks like we can use the scaffolding as an abseiling platform.

Sunday, July 01, 2007

What to Ask Barbara Kingsolver ?

This wednesday Annalise and I are attending a talk by Barbara Kingsolver about her new book "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" - a book about eating local produce.

I just don't know what to do though. "The Poisonwood Bible" and "Prodigal Summer" are two of my favourite books but my new passion is agriculture.

Should I use to opportunity to ask her to critic a chapter to two of my writing or instead ask her for advice on dealing with the pests that have eaten one of the leaves of my Baby Marrow plant ?

I fear she will only have time to do justice to one of these issues.