Progress

Mother in law is getting better, news is that they are hoping to let her home on Sunday!


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Rain

We have actually had some rain, which is so good as I don't have to water the garden, which I like a lot as it takes ages to water all the plants, as there are rather a lot of them.


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Slides

Found a box of slides that date back to 1989 which I don't even remember taking!

I know even I was surprised what was on the slides, the fun bit was that I decided to use the scanner that we have to scan some of the slides into the computer.

Well to cut a very long story short it took me more than 3 hours to work out how to scan them in as I had to find a part of the scanner that allows you to scan slides and film negatives.

The other problem that I had was working out how to remove a panel so that a secondary light source was made to work so that the scanner could see the slides.


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Donna

This is a picture of Donna my wife. I think its a good picture of her.

Operations

Things on the hospital front have moved on a bit and the good news is that Mother in Law is now off the ventilator and is looking Tobermory discharged from Hospital within 5 days, I believe so as to reduce the risk of her picking up a Hospital acquired infection.


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Operations

Well Mother in law had her operation that went on for more than five hours, the result is not what we wanted with her in intensive care and kept in a medically induced coma.

The reason?

They had to remove her spleen as well as her kidney and she apparently also lost a lot of blood, hence the main reason for the induced coma is to give a body a chance to recover a bit from the Truman of the operation.

I am told that today they will review her and probably all being well take her out of the coma.

Let's hope so.


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Ios5

So Apple have talked about the new operating system that is coming for the iPad called ios5 it seems to have lots of new bits, not sure at this time just how many of the new bits will be of use to me but I will find out when they release it in September or October.


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Icloud

The icloud has been talked about by Apple, and what is very strange that I have just used part of it, and it feels no different than just using the Internet over wifi, so I have to say that so far to me at least it just works, and surly that's all that you want from it?

I don't think I will be able to use the other parts of the cloud until the operating system on the iPad is updated later on this year, by which time when that happens it will just be normal, and it will hopefully just work, so more when all this stuff happens.


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James FOLLETT website

For the first time in a long time I have done some updates to the James FOLLETT website mainly because I finally found the correct username and password to allow me to get in to my own website!

I know, silly thing to do loosing that sort of information but hey that's what happens in the real world.

So I have only changed a few pages, mainly because there is very little new information to add to the site, as James has I think retired form writhing novels, which is sad as I liked what he wrote, I must have as the number of hours I spent doing the website must be in the thousands, and it was one of the very early websites.

So my plan is to update when I have or find any new information. One thing that I did do was to update the software that runs the site, which I hope will keep it working smoothly.


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Operations

The mother in law today goes in for a big operation, which is to remove a kidney that has cancer in it, I understand that the operation will take four or more hours and that recovery will take six or more weeks, as she is also getting on in years it will be an anxious time to see if she comes out of all of this.

I am told that if she gets over the operation then she should be good for at least another ten or more years as the cancer is confined to just her kidney.


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Relationships

It's amazing just how a relationship can have so many ups and downs in it and yet still survive.


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Rain

Just want to record here that it's been raining non stop now for several hours, the rain is not heavy but it's there and enough so that in a car you have to have the wipers on to see where you are going, I think this is the most rain that I have seen in months, I know that the garden needs it, it was just so very strange having to drive in the rain!


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Drinks

So it's nice and warm and it's June so it's Pimms time!

So very nice, only thing is I forget just how strong Pima is an alcoholic drink, but nice anyway.


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Wrong

Is it wrong to still be madly in love with the same person thirty years later and still want to be with her all the time?


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Sunshine

Just a random thought, does the intensity of the light in the Summer because it's higher make you feel better than when in the winter on blue sky days.


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Blue sky

Yet another great start to the day with some great blue sky.


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Cooking

Yesterday as is our want we tried a new recipe.

To say that it was not a success would be an understatement things did not go exactly to plan with one of the ingredients being in the end too small, but these are the sort of things that just make life more interesting.

We were having eggs in baked potato with mushrooms in a butter sauce, the only problem was that the potato's were really too small, but as that is what we had that's what we had to use.

In the end the meal was okay but it did not look very nice, but it did taste great.



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Website update

Managed to do some updates to the main website that I have, I think after about an hour or so I managed to get some ten more pages working correctly, which is good.

It's just sad that some of these pages have been broken for more than a year!

Most have pictures missing or the formatting of tables and text is broken in some way, sometimes the tables don't venter and the text in the boxes dos not line up.

So it goes without saying that it can take some time to sort out each page, trouble is that the website has I think more than two hundred pages, not all of them have pictures but most of them have tables of some kind.

At the current rate of progress I think most of the site will be working in some shape or other by the end of the year.


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Computer programmes

How is it that you can still get software today, that does not have any decent instructions?


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Sunlight

Even after just a few dull days it's nice to see some blue sky and bright sunshine, it always seems that people are in a better mood when the sun is shinning, why is that?


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Blood

Did I say here that I gave blood again for the second time this year and I given 118 donations so far!

I think that I have the right to be very happy that I have managed to get to such a number.

I still hate the bit where they pull off the tape that holds the tube from the needle to the collecting bag, why is that bit so painful?


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Podcasts

Funny thing about all the podcasts that I listen to each week is just how much I miss them when I don't have them to listen to which was a bit of a surprise to me, and it was also a surprise on just how many podcasts I listen to each week.

The longest podcast that I listen to each week last two hours and is just all music, normally trance but sometimes it's other types of music that are just as good, and the best thing of all is that all the podcasts that I listen to are free!



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Reading

Just started to read a book that I have been waiting to come out in paperback by an author that I like a lot. He writes non fiction books that has a gentle humour right through them which I like, and so do a lot of other folks as his books tend to be in the top of the best seller lists.

The book of his that I am reading is called At Home and it's by Bill Bryson, so far it's been good, I really can not say much more than that as I have not read that much of the book so far, but I am sure that the book will be just as good as the other books of his that I have read.

I will report back when I have completed the book.


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Website Updating

I have just done a few more pages of the Dirk Maggs Website, which as you know is the main website that I have and also do a lot of work on.

Well the good news is that I have managed to bring more pages back from the dead and at this rate may have it all back and working by the end of this year.

I have also put back on the pages that I have got working again the images that used to be on each page as well.

So good news

Roast

Had over the bank holiday a roast, which is nothing different from anyone else I suppose, but the small or big difference this time was the fact that the pork was a rare breed, and the amazing thing is that the pork had flavour and the meat itself had texture, which is something you just don't seem to get these days.

So it was worth the money and the time in trying something that possibly my dad had when he was younger.


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Bank holiday

So a no sunshine bank holiday, which what we normally get in this part of the world.


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Rain

So according to the weathermen this has been one of the warmest springs for a long time, but when you check to see when records began you find they are only talking back to the early part of last century !



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Grills

How is it that grilling meat can be so hit and miss?


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Real ale

Just enjoyed some real ale called speckled hen, and very nice it was too.


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Walking

So today we are going for a little walk to go and see something called Rodney's Pillar which is on the top of a hill near to where we are staying, the weather is not too bad in that it looks like it's only going to be cloudy for the day with no rain forecast, which is always good.

I think the walk should take no more the 3 or 4 hours

Will let you know how it goes.


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Hot tub

Well on this holiday we have a hot tub that we can use at any time and for as long as we want, the tub is a big one with room for at least 6 and there are only two of us so there is lots of room.

For some reason which is best known to ourselves we like the tub to be as hot as you can get it.

For gnostic that turns out To be 40 centigrade which is warm or hot depending on how you feel.

Anyway the whole point of this blog was to say that having a session in the hot tub sure does relax you.

The only down side for me is that it does also make you drowsy and that's the last thing you want when water is involved.


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Old tree

Today I saw and oak tress which is listed and protected that dates back to 1372!

Thats 400 years older than the united states!

I know it's hard to believe that you can can see something that dates back to before the start of the industrial revolution that is older than the USA and is older than at least 5 or 6 large wars.

The good news is that the tree looks in good health and should last to it's 800th birthday!

So I will be long gone and forgotten by the time that this tree decides that it is time for it to go.

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Blog

I sometimes wonder if a blog is just an open or public diary of sorts and in my own mind I have yet to decide just what use a blog is.

I me some folk must use it as a way of dumping down stuff, while others must I suppose really do use it as a diary even if it's a public one.

I must admit that I use the blog as a way of storing notes to myself, so that in the years to come I can see what I was doing or thinking about, yes I know that you could also do the same with a diary but that means you have to use paper and you can not search for stuff as easily.

So that's what a blog is to me a notebook come diary.

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Weather

How come the last six weeks the weather has been great with lots of blue sky and as soon as I go away for a well it's overcast all the time?

How does that work?

Ia least it has been dry which is good, still the break has been good and that's all that matters in the end.


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Sauna

The place we are staying at has not only a large hot tub, which I spoke about in an earlier blog post but it also has a sauna, now in my life I have only ever had a sauna twice before, so it's strange that I have a whole sauna to just myself, so I can have it as hot or cold as I like and I can make as much steam as I can stand, as well.

So far I have had about three sessions, which have been okay, the hottest temperature that I have had so far is only sixty centigrade, which for me is as hot as I need it, as I just don't see what benefit you get from having it even hotter, I suppose that there must be a reason else why have the equipment for it to be hotter?

Any way it's nice to be able to have a sun a as and when I want, but it is something that to me is just a different experience and nothing more.


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Music

While on holiday one thing that I seem to miss a lot is the chance to have some one to one time with the type of music that I like, as the wife, Donna does not really like Trance, House or any of the other beat based music that I like, 

Why? I like this kind of music I just don't know

Why,  but it must be important to me as I normally listen to at least a hour or more of music of this type almost every week day and that for some strange reason I find that doing programming or this blog is much easier if I am listening to music, if it is beat based so much the better.

Reading blogs

How come it's so much fun to read other people's blogs?

Why is it?

I mean a lot of the blogs I read I suspect that if I meet these people in a face to face situation I would find myself unable to talk to them.

So how come it's so easy to read what they have written, and more to the point what do they get from doing a blog, as it's a thing that de ing on how often they blog and also how long there blogs are can take up a lot of time and effort.

And just how much feedback do they get for every blog entry that they do?

Do they get any feedback or nothing a tall, with their blogs just disappearing into the blog void?

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I know that my blog as it is described as a note book does not get that many readers but then that's not the reason for my blog, in fact I want only really me to read it, but that's the deal you do to get your blog hosted for free.

So one thing I have decided to do is to reach out to some of the folks that do blogs that I read and just say hi and that I enjoy your blog and the effort you take in writing it.

Maybe it will put a smile on their faces.

Reading

Just started to read a book called Spartan Gold by Clive Cussler this is a book that I am not to sure about even though I am only 45 pages into the book it already to me feels that the story is going to be predicable in what is going to happen and to who, I hope I am wrong as all I want from this kind of book is to be entertained.

So far this book is not doing that for me, normally with this kind of book the story should have grabbed me and all I'm interested in is what's going to happen next, not what page am I on and when will this story start to get a move on!

I will give the book a chance and carry on reading, perhaps it's one of those books that just takes a while to get going and get up to speed.


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Blogging

Can doing blog entrees be relaxing?

It's a good question, I don't have an answer to it as yet as I think that it's something that needs to be thought about, but my very first quick thoughts on it are that yes in a strange way it's nice to be able to put down some notes or thoughts on stuff that has happens to you or to record thoughts that might otherwise be lost forever, at least that way you have to chance to revisit them and see if they where worth keeping or even if they need to be looked at again in greater depth.

I suppose for some people they use their blog as a place to dump stuff while others from what I have seen use it as a place to vent their anger at something that gets them real angry. Others that I have seen have used it as a way to start a writing career.


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Time

Why is it that when you are on holiday time seems to go that much quicker?

It's certain something that appears to be happening to me at this time, it's just strange how quick time is moving for me..


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Reading again

Another book that I am reading at this time while being on holiday is called 42 and is by Peter Gill and it's all about how the number42 keeps appearing in life in some of the most unusual places, that I bet Douglas Adams never heard of.

He died at the age of only 49, and as you know the answer to the life the universe and everything is 42, it comes as a bit of a surprise just who many things have something to do with 42.

The book is a nice easy read and does have mostly lots of stuff that have 42 in them in one way or another.

So the book is entertaining but the one thing that did surprise me was just how much paperback books have gone up to I mean that this book has only 341 pages and cost £8.99!

Why?

Has paper and printing really gone up that much?

Anyway the book is worth a few hours of your time because thats how long it took me to read it.


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Blue sky

Today 18th May is the first blue sky day of the holiday. It's nice to see it would just be great if me and Donna could just work out where we want to go to day.


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Flat tyre

A flat tree is always something that you don't want and more so when on holiday in a place that you have never been to.

Now I have over the years had the pleasure of changing the odd tyre and it's not a very difficult job.

So after spending sometime in working out how one realises the spare on a Clio, the first three bolts came undone with relative ease, the last one was the problem, more so as it's the locking one.

It did not matter what I did it would not move with the equipment that we had.

This is not good!

Lucky I am a member of the AA which in four or so years I have not used, so it was good that I had renewed this year again, a quick phone call and also the use of the help button on the Tom Tom satnav to find out just exactly where were were was all it took.

The lady at the other end said that an engineer would be with you within the hour, fifteen minutes later we get a text message on the phone saying that he should be with you in fifteen minutes and true to there words about fifteen minutes later he does indeed turn up.

After checking that we are who we said we are he gets to work and get the last bolt undone using a very long wrench, the problem he said was that who ever put the tyre on did it up with an air gun, and it's something that the AA get called out to a lot.

A little bit of confusion on that the spare tyre has different bolts and the entire job was carried out in less than ten minutes.

So really good service from the AA and I am pleased that we are members.


Because of where we were a new tyre was also fun but in the end we found a place that could not have been more helpful and had a new tyre on in no time, the replacement is not a top end tyre but will do the job for the next 17000 miles or so, not that I am going to check that sort of thing.

The only bad thing was having to payout for a new tyre.


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Break

Off from work for a few days, which is good.

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Blogger

What's been going on with blogger?

Have not been able to update for most of the day so far


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Birthday

So another birthday is not very far away as you get older the day does not seem to be that important, why is that?

I can remember when my seventh birthday was the most important birthday ever!

Why?

Not a clue now, but it must have been very important for me to remember


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Flowers

Just noticed that the ox eye daisy's are now out in great force nearly everywhere I look, I am sure that they have appeared over night. I know that they are early this year due to the warmer weather that we have had, I am sure that they normally come out in June.

Anyway it's nice to see them.


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Rain

So off for a weeks break soon and looking at the long range weather forecast dos not look good in that it appears at this time that it's going to be wet almost all of the time we are going to be away and to just to add to the fun we did plan on having lots of walking. So it might I suppose be a good idea to think of some other things to do if the weather really is as bad as they are saying it's going to be.



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Websites

Just and up date to me that since I started tore edit and put back the missing pictures on the Dirk Maggs productions website the site has gone from third to first yeah!

The bad news that is attached to that is that accruing to some website logging software I am only get five or six visits a day but still getting 500 to 900 hits a day, not too sure what the real difference is and as I do the website for me and no one else the number of vista is not that much of an issue as I don't make any money from it, in fact it costs me money!

So the thing that I don't understand is why is there such a big difference between hits and visits?

Are they the same thing?

Are they both telling the truth or are they both wrong?

I don't know the answer all that I do know is that the site is steadying to look much better than it did and that at the rate at which I am going sometime in 2012 I may have all back working as it should.

It would be nice I suppose to have some new Dirk Maggs productions to report on but at this time that does not look very likely, which is sad as I have missed hearing his work.


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Books

I am as you know if you have looked at this blog this year also writing a book as I reported last time, I have and am still stuck with draft 2 of the book I am writing as the free software that I am using to write the book keeps crashing, which is to say at the least not very nice and does just annoy the he'll out of me.

I am told that there is an update of the software coming up very soon, like late May so there is a good chance that perhaps in June I will finally be able to get on and start editing the 2nd draft of the book, let's hope so!


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New mobile

So the current mobile phone that I have is now some 18 months old and I now have the chance if I want to update the phone if I want to.

So I have, it's costing me about 3 pounds a month extra but then I get more text and data allowance than I ever had before, so that's a good thing!

The new phone is another Nokia, I know that they are falling out of favour as everyone is either getting an iPhone or a samsung android phone, well I don't want to pay all that kind of money for a phone I want a phone that is built really well and just works. What I mean by that is that I want a phone that just gets on with it, and so far with my previous Nokia phones that is just what they do.

My old phone is a N86 8MP which has been very good, it's been dropped and generally abused but it still works real well and does a good job.

The camera on it which is 8million pixels is very good and so is the lens on it, and that's one of the reasons that I have gone for the N8 by Nokia as the camera on it is 12million pixels which is very high for a camera phone, but as it tends to be one of the features that I use most it stands to reason that it is one of the main reasons for choosing the phone that I have.

I know that the amount of apps for it is not as great as the iPhone, android handsets, but then again I also have an iPad for that sort of stuff and when I look at the software that I have installed on my current phone I find that I don't have very many installed, so having apps on the phone is not the main reason for getting a particular phone.

So it will be interesting to see how the new phone is compared to my old phone, I understand that Nokia are now moving away from the operating system that that have on their phones to a Microsoft one, I wonder if the N8 can be reprogrammed to run on the windows operating system?

In the long run to me it does not matter, as all I want is a well built phone that just works, is built well and takes very good pictures, not much to ask for is it?





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Passwords

It's a pain when you have to change passwords


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London Pride

You had the chance to drink some London Pride all I can say is that it's very nice and it will be a real ale that I shall try again.


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Dirk Maggs Website

Just had a look on Google to see where my main website is today....the good news is at this time I am first... Yeah.....!


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Podcasts

Just a note to me that the Ben Nicky podcasts of which there are only some 6 episodes as I write this are really rather good, the only two things against them are that there are not many of them and the other is that each podcast is only about a hour long which on some of the mixes is too short as I am left feeling cheated somehow!

So the mixes are good some very good track choices and some very good mixing going on most of the mixes flow really well.

I shall have to let you know later as to how his podcasts go, will they be better? Longer? or just about the same?


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New book

I have another new book that for reasons that will become very obvious in a minute I can't claim to have read only use, and have used it on lots of occasions which is good as that's what this book was written for.

The book is called The Cloud Collectors Handbook and it's by Gavin Pretoria-Pinney and I must say it's been a real easy book to use.

It goes through all the differant type of clouds that you a able to see, I am not sure if every cloud type is seen in the UK but it gives you information on the cloud it's Hightower and it also shows you pictures and that's something that has been most useful.

As a reference book worth every penny.


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Rain

So it turns out that the weathermen were correct and it is indeed raining for the first time in about six weeks, I am sure I have heard lots of the plants in the garden sigh!


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Reading

Just completed reading yet another book that I brought on impulse if I have to admit to myself.

The book is called I never knew that about the River Thames by Christopher Winn he has also written other books in the I never knew that about series.

This is a book that can be read two way either from the start to the end or it can also be read by dipping in handout of it as is your want.

I must admit that I enjoyed reading it and did learn lots about place and the River Thames that I never knew, it must have made me a bit more curious about some of the the stuff that he talks about in that I went and looked up stuff in greater detail.

Worth the time and money to read and yes I was entertained while learning!


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Weather

The weatherman have said that this Saturday we will have have some rain for the first time in six weeks, it will be interesting to see if the weathermen are going to get it right for once.


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Rain

I have not seen any rain of any sort for six weeks


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Frost in May

Is it possible to have frost in May in southern England?

It certainly felt like it this morning


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Thriller Live

Went to the theatre last night to see a show called Thriller Live and the good news is that I liked the show, not all of it it must be said but most of it, the show as you can guess from it's name is basically some of Michael Jacksons most famous song set to some good dance routines and light show.

The problem for me is that a lot of his early music I just don't get, what I mean is that it just does not give me a buzz like his later stuff.

As the show has been set up so that it runs almost in chronological order it meant that most of the first have not all of it was songs that I had never heard and did not do any thing for me musically.

The second half of the show was much better for me as it was all songs that I had at least heard and I did get musically.

The only other thing that I did note was the cast did look a bit tiers in parts of the show, which I suspect may have something to do with the fact that they have had a long tour and the fact that the show is very physically demanding and that has to take it's toll.

But was I entertained?

Yes

Would I say it's worth a night out to see?

Yes, it's worth it and there will be songs that you will know and the dancing and the energy that the cast put into the show are catching.


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Gorse

Just notice that the gorse in my area has bloom early this year and that the blooms on it do not last very long but that the brightness of yellow is much brighter this year than I remember it from previous years.


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Pollen

So it's now early May and the trees and plants in my area are producing pollen as if it's going out of fashion.

I know this fact as my car has now developed a light yellow cast to it, when we get some rain it will all go, but as we have not had any for some eight weeks it may be a while before the car stops being two toned.


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Bank holidays

So this is the last bank holiday until august which seems to be an awful long way away, but in fact will come just soon enough.

Although the sun was shinning and there was blue sky all day the wind which has been gusting all day was cold and I am afraid to say rather put the dampers on it being a really outstanding day, but must not complain as it was a mostly restful day and you can't have too many of them.


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Reading part 2

Another book that I read is one that I did not buy it was given to me as a joke as part of a Xmas present, it was not part of the present it was what was inside of the book that was the present, and if you must know the present was a book token.

Any way as we have had some bank holidays here in the UK I had some time while waiting for my old desk top computer to start up I picked this book up and started to read it.

The book is called Stupid white men and it's by Michael Moore, now it's a very American-book it does talk about a lot of American politics which this bloke in northern Europe does not have a clue about it and even with the stuff in the book I am still not sure that to this day America has two political parties because from where I am sitting they look both the same!

Anyway this book caused a bit of a stir in it's day, and so reading it has been interesting in that I did not realise just how dirty American politics is and the lengths that they will go to to get and to hold on to power, but then again this might also be the case else where in the world, it's not something that I take much if any notice of.

The book was a read but I can't say it was a good read as just too many things that Moore talks about jar me.

I suspect that it has made no difference to what happens in the USA, but has made a lot of money for Michael Moore.

So not a book I would read and the subject matter if all that is in the book is true does not matter to me either, but then I am from Europe and we already know that the folks from China will soon own everything in the USA and then not long after Europe!


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Reading

Another book that I read just a short while ago is called Packing for Mars by Mary Roach, for some reason I brought this book in hardback, perhaps because it was on sale, who knows and it was some time ago...

Any way the book is a good read in that for me it was a fun read and it was entertaining and that's all I want for a book these days if I am reading for my pleasure.

It's a book about all those questions that you have had about what the astronauts have to put up with and all that sort of stuff.

Stuff like how you go to the toilet when there is no gravity to help the process, the fact that smells in space linger.

The most interesting thing that I learnt was that most astronauts suffer space sickness at some level and that it is something that can not be predicted on Earth before flight, so an unpleasant time is had not soon after orbit is achieved by most who have got there.

A book that is great to dip into and out of


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Website editing

Well I have had some time to do some editing of my main website that I do, that is the Dirk Maggs Productions Website, which is now getting on in years and is as I type this number two on Google when you search for Dirk Maggs, why Wikipedia is higher I just don't know as my site has far more information and goes into far greater depth. Than they do, but then again as my site is very specialist I suppose it does not get many direct links to it, or if it does I am not aware of them.

Any way I have edited a few more page mainly the Flywheel Shyster ones now the strange thing is that there are 3 pages one for each series two of the pages edited okay and work correctly the pictures that I added show up and look fine and great, the last page that I edited uses the same pictures as the other two but when I go on line to check it it appears complete with no new pictures, I don't know what is going on as it all looked okay when I edited it and also when I saved it, to make matters worse I did exactly the same thing to all three pages, so go figure....

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Writing

I have not done much work on the book that I started earlier in the year, one reason or excuse is that the software package that I was using stopes at random times which is not good and does not help ones temper when you don't know if you are going to loose all the work that you had put into a document of the last several hours or so.

The book is as I said the last time in the stage between first and second draft with it more in the second draft stage.

I have decided to see if the word processing software has had an update, if so I will update mine to the ladder version then try again at doing the second draft.


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Trip out

So as yesterday was a bank holiday and the weather was good we decided to go out, the original idea was to go to a beach on the south coast, well to tell the truth we left it a bit late in the day to set out.

Try 11am! I know but it's a day off the weather was nice and well that's the time we set off, the first order of business of the day was to fill the car with petrol, and if you have been reading this blog then filling the car has and no days always appears to cost more and more money.

So there was no surprise that the cost had gone up again and 78 pounds later the deed was done and the car was ready to go.

So we set off for the coast and hit our first stoppage only 2 miles from home!

After that the roads where very good and we soon hit the coast, we decided to take a random approach to which beach we would go to, so we ended up at Chichester!

I don,t know how we ended up there either, the place was vey busy and I was surprised on just how many shops had decided to be closed on what was a very busy day.

Luck was taken at a pub called The Nags Head, yep straight out of only fools and horses.

The food in the pub was very good the price of a large coke was and is another matter as it would have been cheaper for me to have drunk beer, not that I could as I was driving, but when the soft drink costs more than the beer what's going on?

Any way it was a nice day out and that's all that matters, we did see the sea for about 30 seconds on the way home!

But no beaches perhaps next time.


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Warm

Very warm still, which is nice and I must admit that it is very nice that it is warm at this time of year some 10c warmer than average at this time of year.

Yesterday we had an unplanned BBQ and we were very lucky with the weather as it rained very heavily near to us, but we stayed dry all night, so a result I suppose.

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Dirk Maggs Productions Website

The main website that I do, has suffered over the last few months in that I have not done anything to it, as a result it now appears only to get 10 or so visitors which is down an awful lot when it used to get thousands.

What is also strange is that the site is still in the top three on Google!


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Hot

Today has been I think the hottest day of the year so far. It is also the first time in I don't know how long that I have heard thunder, which is typical as we have planned to have a BBQ tonight, will it be wet or dry?


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Sunrise

Sunrise today was a bit red, well actually very red, not sure if that means bad weather or not as the weather people are saying that it's still going to be a warm day with lots of sunshine.

I suppose that only time will tell.


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Dirk Maggs website

The main Dirk Maggs website has had two or more pages updated, I know! I just don't care!

I have finally updated the programme that drives the site, and lucky for me it all went well and the site is now on the most recent version.

One of the direct benefits of the update has been the fact that I have now been able to start adding back the pictures that I have of the various actors of all the different Dirk Maggs audio productions.

This is good as the website has not had any work carried out on it for a long time and it was mostly complete except for the fact that there where holes left for the pictures on those productions that I have pictures for the actors.

I did look to see where the website appears on the google search and it's currently Third, which is not bad considering that I have not touched the site in such a long time.

I am not promising, but I hope to edit the odd page or two now and then so that I will in a shortish time will have edited every page.


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Semantic web update

The truth is that I have not done any more work on the DIrk Maggs semantic website mainly because I have not had the time to sit down and get my head around it in a way that will allow me to code all the different information so that it is easier to read and also to get at.

I think and from the way things are going that it may be some time before I revisit the semantic website.


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Hot

They say that today it got to 26c I think I have to believe them as it's been rather nice and warm.

Look at weather records for the last fifty years for this day it's some 10c warmer than it normally is, not that I am complaining


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Cold

A bit surprised just how cold it is out there this morning and yet the weathermen or man are saying that it get as high as 26c, it will be interesting to see if they are right.


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Solar lights

The solar lights in the garden are working well and it's so nice to see


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Hot

The weathermen are saying that we could hit 25c today which is 10c above the average which in one way is nice but in another is not so nice as it could suggest that the weather is having something like a hiccup.

I suppose that only time will tell what is going on.


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Cancer

They say that all our lives are affected in some way by cancer and that 1 in 3 of us is directly effected by cancers, so I must be very unlucky in that I have now been touched by it 4 times all are close family members, 2 have died from it 1 is a long term survivor of it and one we don't yet know what the outcome will be.


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Weather

Wonder if the weather will hold out for Easter


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Bluebells

For some reason that I just don't know the answer to the bluebells appear to be out earlier this year.

So to make sure we at least saw some in the way that they should be seen, we went to a near by wood to see them.

The trip was well worth it as they were out and looked very good not only that but we actually had some sunshine in to the bargain.

The wood that we go to has only the real bluebells, that is the English bluebells and I must admit they look really good.


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Kite Jolly Up

Went to a kite jolly up this weekend which was fun and also very relaxing, which is sometimes just what you want and need.

I even flew a kite for the first time this year.

I flew a 4m2 ozone samurai which was fun especially as it was at times the only thing flying in the sky!


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MRI

Wonder how many times a day around the world someone enters and gets scanned by a MRI scanner


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Mobile phones

How come mobile phones stop working correctly just when you need them?

I suspect that it's some unwritten universal law.

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Go karting

Last night went go karting with a bunch of folk from the place that I work at. It was mostly fun until the second session when I got t-boned on a high speed corner.

My kart got life's up in to the air and then back down again and I nearly got thrown out of the cart!

To say that it hurt would be an understatement and I retired from the race, in fact it hurt that much that I walked off the race track, I thought at first I had broken some ribs.

My back then started to hurt, the lower back and pelvis area.

So I thought that this is going to be with me for a while.

Well that's not what happened....

I drove home and when I got out of my car I felt a slight crunching and heard a click, you what?

Yep my back does not hurt!

I don't know what happens I am just glad that it did and that I don't have any back pain.


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Travel

Just been reading a blog where the guy is a service engineer for a company in the states and from my very poor knowledge of the USA seems to have to travel 1000 miles or so to do a service visit, I hate to imagine how many miles he has flown and just how many different hotels he has had to put up with in his travels.

His time with his family must also be in very short supply, how does anyone cope with that sort of life?

I am sure that I would not be able to cope with what he does.

I suppose in a way because the UK is not the States that you just can not compare his way of working with what happens in the UK.

For one thing the UK is much smaller, fly a thousands mules here and two ways you fly you end up over water the other two over land that is not the UK!

So I am in a way glad I am where I am, but it's also interesting just to see how other people live their lives and just how different it is to mine.

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Music

How come when you listen to music on your headphones it's not the same as hearing it from a room speaker system, even if the headphones you listen with are high end 300 pounds noise cancelling type, with extra base?

I suppose that it is just one of life's mysteries

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Car service

So wife's car was serviced yesterday and cost us some 800 pounds as the camm belt had to be changed, due to it's age...

Today my car had to have it's service and the brake fluid changed, cost 250 but I have a service plan with the main dealer and so the final cost out of my pocket was 37 quid still more than I wanted to pay.

At least both cars have now been serviced for another year.


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Paint garden chairs

I had over the weekend the chance to repaint one of the garden chairs, I only painted one and it took me 2 hours.

Hate slats especially the small ones!


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Weather

Well one of the reasons for there not being many blogs posts is that for once the weather and the weather men both agreed with each other and we had wall to wall sunshine and blue skies...


Lovely it was, I enjoyed it.

So you can guess what the weather is going to be like for the rest of the week?


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Painting garden table

I had the pleasure! Of having to repaint the garden table, even with help from Donna it still took us more than 2 hours there was just so much that needed painting.

But I must say that the end result was worth it.


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Cars

So Donnas car needs it's service and MOT, this is always not good and so it was this year, the car has to have it's camm belt changed on a Cilo this is not a small task, the belt is only 20 pounds the labour to fit it 500!

Why?

Why is it so expensive?

Still cheaper than a new engine I know but wow talk about expensive, I said to the service person at this rate it was going to be cheaper getting a new car!


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Cars part 2

Well as you can see from my previous post Donna had here car serviced today and it's the turn of my car tomorrow.

Let's hope that there are no nasty surprises in store.


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Blue sky

Very nice blue sky this morning


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Car service

The joys of servicing a car, it's amazing just how much you realise that you need the car to go about your day to day activities


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Course

Been on a course for the last few days, nice the place that it took place in.


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Stuff

Amazing how your free time can just disappear without a moments notice, so all the things that I wanted to do on Sunday never happened due to other stuff getting in the way.

I suppose there is always next weekend, saying that the garden does look a lot better since I cut the grass.....


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Film Red

Just seen this movie on DVD at the weekend, when not cutting the grass!

All I want to say about it was that it was a good film to watch and that it made the evening go quick, and I did laugh as it's billed as an action comedy.

There is plenty of action and also plenty of comedy well worth a look and a hour or so of your life.


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