Solstice

So its Winter Solstice here today, and I am rather pleased that the Earth has made almost all the way around the sun again, not that I did not think that it would not happen, but hey let's not give it any ideas ah?

So summer is coming shorter nights

 This is always good.

Me (2021)

The above is still go with me glad that I have spent another year on Earth being carried around the Sun, can't believe how many times so far I have managed this feat, long may it go on.....

Me getting a trip around the Sun that is....

Song lyrics Just The Two of Us

Just the two of us

Just the two us together at last

Only the two of us having a dance

You dance so well, you dance so neat

I really love your feet

Just the two of us

Only the two of us

So goes our dance

Are feet in a trance

But at last it's just the two of us

Dancing at last

Just the two of us

Only the two of us

Our dance is together

Our hearts beat as one

Just the two of us

Only the two of us

Copyright Citrus Dreams 2014, 2021

So this is a song that I started to write in 2014, this is me in 2021 finally finding the words to complete it, now all I need is someone who can sing to have a go at singing it and then telling me it's not singable...

Ascot

Did something differant for me in that we went to Ascot to see the horse racing it was fun even if it was a bit cold.

Canned beer

Just trying a 5 liter can of old speckled hen real ale all I can say is they getting the cask to let me have some of the beer has been a learning experance, it has proved to be just a bit interesting, as at one stage I thought I was only going to get a thimble full of beer to try!

But in the endit appears I have got the castbworkingbsuch that I have managed to get a full pint of Specled hen to drink without too much trouble. 

Solstice

Glad to see that the winter solstice is with us this Sunday, which I suppose means that summer is on its way!

Sword and the stone

Just watching the sword and the stone DVD it's one of the Disney early films that I have never seen.

Heating

It's nice to report after the second visit from the gas board that are boiler has now been fixed and we are very happy that we are warm again.

Raspberry pi

I have just got me a raspberry pi to have a play with so far it's fun.

Boiler

Boiler at home failed and had gas people out to fix it, week later and it looks like it's failed again!

London

Went to London to do a bear hunt!

Paddington bear is in the cinema at this time here in the UK and to mark the event there are 54 differant Paddington bear designs in and around London.

We went on Saturday and Got 22 out of the 54 and walked 18 miles....

Lots of pictures tired feet but have seen bits of London I have not seen before and I am glad that we did it.

December

It's the last month of this year already!

Where has the time gone?

I don't know where it has gone but it has to me gone very quickly much quicker than I expected, I suppose part of the reason for that is that there has been a lot of things going on in my life over the last few months and when you are busy time can just fly by.

The good news is that the winter solstice is not to far away and then the nights will slowly start to get shorter again, this is alway good as far as I am concerned.

But December already!

Cold snap

Wow just had a bit of a cold snap here it's a bit of a shock to the system I can tell you. Having to sit and wait for the car to clear is not fun and you forget just how long it can take.

Sunset

Rather a good sunset tonight looked like a Turner sky to me, just sorry could not safely stop the car to take a picture.

Missing

Been missing from this blog as real life has been very busy will say more here later

Read 9

Not to much to say about a book of facts other than its a great book to dip in and out of this fact book is called the discreetly plumper second book of general ignorance by John Lloyd and John mitchinson its a book that I have on my shelf and I find myself taking it down at odd moments and dipping in and out of it.

Worth room on anyone's book shelve.

Read 8

This book is called map of the nation by Rachel Hewitt and it's the biography of the ordnance survey it's a deep book and I think the reason for this is because it's based on her thesis, I am nevertheless impressed with the sheer amount of work that must have gone into this book and I have to admit that I learned a lot that I never knew before about maps and how they are made and the problems that the early map makers had.

Sadly for me I found some parts heavy going but then that's just me it might be that you have no problem with reading this book. One thing that was a surprise to me was the sheer amout of notes and references in the back of the book it runs to over 100 pages!

Worth the time but a book that for me was a bit tight in places.

Read 7

Yes this is a book I read in the last couple of weeks and I just want to record that fact here. The book is called Brunel the man who built the world it's written by Steven brindle it's a nice easy read that does tell you with out too much depth the life of Brunel and talks about some of his more famous works, well worth a few hours of your time to read it.

I suppose that one day someone will write the biography of Brunel this is not that book but it would be one that you would reference.

Read 6

Another book that I finish just today but that I have been reading for some 4 months is called the a303 highway to the sun by Tom Fort it's a book that should be about the road the A303 but it wanders off the road to talk about transport policy and stuff like that befoe it goes back to talking about the road and the route that it takes.

I did write an earlier blog post about this book when I starting reading it so do look that post up.

Otherwise it's not a bad book to read and I did learn stuff about a road I have driven on many times.

Read 5

Yep still the list of books that I have read in the last few weeks.

This book is a little unusual but it did show me what the world is like of people who are to this day treated badly just because they are differant and it also opened my eyes to just how much the world has changed but not changed in the 100 plus years that this book talks about.

The book is called fanny and Stella by Neil McKenna and it's about the young men who shocked Victorian England. 

Worth a read although parts of it are for me a bit of a hard read but you may find it an easier read than me.

Read 4

Yes yet another book read in the last couple of weeks, did I mention that I have gone through a reading boom of some kind in that last few weeks?

It makes a change from the weeks where I have not managed to read any books or even wanted to read any books.

I perfur the reading phase much better.

So this is the next book I read it's called the secret life of Bletchley park and it's by Sinclair McKay and it a book about the men and women who worked there during WW2 it does open your eyes to just what sort of lives they had to lead during the war and also I think some of the effort that went into the code breaking, it's also sad to note that some of the efforts that these people made went unnoticed then and still I think today.

The most amazing thing to me is that a lot of people worked there and until the late seventies it was a secure as to just how we broke the codes and also just how much we broke, but the book is about some of the people who worked there and how it effected them the effects are wide ranging with some never getting over it.

Book is worth a read just to see the human side of code breaking.

Read 3

Yet another book that I have managed to read in the last few weeks that I want to note here. This book is still in hardback there is as I write this no paperback version of this book out there.

The book is called what if? And it's by Randall Monroe it's a great read and also a fun read it's all about serious scientific answers to absurd hypothetical questions and boy are some of the questions asked good or what.

How about this for a question?

Is it possible to build a jet pack using downward firing machine guns?

Or how about this one?

When if ever will Facebook contain more profiles of dead people than of living ones?

Good questions and there are loads more like that in the book, so for me it was an interesting read.

Read 2

This is book that I have recently it's called on the map and it's by Simon Garfield it's all about why the world looks they way it does basically it's about maps. Sadly for me this read like a series of notes collected over time that just happen to have something to do with maps and was then sort of lumped together.

It's not a bad book, it's well written and the topics chosen are all of interest but for me it comes across as disjointed, maybe I was looking for something else from this book but it's a good read and worth your time as you are bound to learn something and that's always good.

It's not a book I personally would read again but then that's just me.

Read 1

This is a book that I have read veni vidi vici by Peter Jones very interesting book on the Romans it turns out their world was just as complicated as ours is but there view of the world and their place in it was and is very differant to ours.

New car

A note to me new car!

Got myself a turbo Astra  and its surpisly quick 0 to 60 less than 8 seconds.

Reading

It's amazing but I am still reading I think in the last few weeks I am reading a book a week this is something I have not done for many months and I have not a clue why I am saddlery reading, all I can say it's nice that I am.

Reading

Just a note to me that some how I have in the last two weeks managed to read 3 books.

I know even I am surprised at that, I will in a later post say which ones it is that I have read just so I don't try and retread them and also as a way of recording what I have read.

Cloud

Why is there so much cloud ?

I don't know the answer but I can say that I miss seeing the sun.

Bank holiday

So it's the last bank holiday before Xmas would you believe?

I know I just don't know where the time has gone, but gone it has.

So I expect that the weather will be pant which is what you would expect as it's a bank holiday.

Reading

Read a book again, and for some reason most of the book has been an easy read but I have got to page 270 and it's hard going, is it me or the author also found it hard going in this bit of the book?

Any way what ever it is it's hard going.

The book is Mathematics of life by Ian Stewart.

Other than the bits around pages 270 it's not been a bad read.

Colder

Not sure if it's colder today than it was yesterday but either way for August it's cold, I expect that on the news it will soon be saying it's the coldest august since records began or something like that, as it's also august it's normally a slow time for the new orgianasations to have anything to talk about.

Cold

Wow it's a bit cold out there for an august morning.

Power kites

Got a chance to have a fly of my power kite as the weather was nice and also the fact that I have not flown a kite for a long time was also a reason to have a go.

After the joy of untangling 4 lines for some fifteen minutes and actually flew for about an hour. Boy was it a work out.

I have not had a work out like that in a long time.

The good news is that I still fly a power kite like I used to.

I was flying an Ozone Samurai 4 meter.

It was fun I has a big grin on my face when doing power dives. 

Sunrise

So a nice sunrise toady, and as I type this there is blue sky.

Robbin williams

So Robin Williams is dead.

I think this is so sad, he must have been very ill to take this course of action.
It must have just been a moment of time where he was on his own and things overwhelmed him and in a moment of not really thinking he took his own life.

Over worked

What does being over worked feel like?

I think that's what is happening at this time at work.

I don't have a clue what to do about it.....

Talking on twitter

I am not the most social person in that I am by my nature an introvert so being on twitter is not something you would expect.

But I am on there and some how I have even managed a conversation with someone else on twitter. To say that I am surprised is an understatement.

The person I am talking to lives in the area I know this because the only reason that I had a conversation with them was when I mentioned during the farnbrough airshow that the Vulcan bomber was flying and bring on the noise, as the Vulcan is known for being just a bit noisy, this person on twitter responde that they could hear it and that it was setting off car alarms new the airfield.

So this extrovert talking on a social media site! What ever next?

Twitter

I use twitter not a lot and when I do it's mainly retwitts of something normally to do with science, and sometimes I will say something about the weather or a dink I am having. So it's com as a bit of a surprise that suddenly I have loads of followers, but loads 100 which for an account like mine is lots.

So what's going on?

I don't have a clue.

I shall update this if anything else happens.

Update July 2015

My followers have dropped to 88 which for a Twitter account that does not get a lot of use is to me amazing.

Weather

So August weather here in the uk, so it's wet.

What to eat

So it's happend again not a clue what to have for tea.....

Happy

So what is happy?

How do you know when someone is happy?

Not all people smile when they are happy.

New

New month will I have more to say about my world my thoughts?

Who knows but let's wait an see.

July

End of July and I really have not had that much I want to record here.

Humid

So it's a bit humid tonight.

Dead websites

I have just looked at my main website which as you know is on the great radio director Dirk Maggs, and I noticed that I have not done any work on it for a year!

This is rather a surprise to me as I am sure that I was working on it just the other day! Dut the logs on the server don't lie and yes I have not done any work on it for that amount of time the more important question is why?

The answer is I am sad to say not that Dirk is dead, he is I am glad to say alive and kicking, even still drumming like he does.  Not the real reason for the lack of updates is work and family commitments, sadly both of these have and are taking up most of my time, so I just don't have time to update the website, I want to but I never get time to do it, and when I do get some free time I am so tied that I just don't want to do anything.

I am going to keep the site, even if it is out of date and one day when I have time which will be in the next few years update it and add the stuff that I have got that needs to be added to the site. I may even get it so thT I can up date online, as this should be quicker than what I currently do which is to edit all the HTML files that make up the web pages offline and then upload them to the server.

Perhaps that is one of the reasons that I don't do any updating the fact that it takes twice as long to update than it should?

Who knows the answer ?

Cornwall

Have just in the last few days come back from Cornwall and I have to say that most of the time the weather has been good with only one day where it just rained all day, but it did not matter as I was on holiday.

Thing is I got used to the idea of a lie in, which for me is 7am!

Twitter

I have been on twitter for a long time, I noticed that I do more retwitts than new posts not sure why I do this but that what I do. Most of the twitters or posts are for some reason to do with science.

Summer

It does not feel that much like summer, not sure why but that's how it is to me.

New to me

New to me is that a town near to me called Basingstoke is being called by some people on the internet Amazingstoke!

I have yet to work out if they are taking the piss out of Basingstoke or not. It's not that bad a place as it even has shops that you can buy things from!

Drink of the day

The drink of the day today is....

Bishops finger it sounds rude but it's a real ale from Kent and it's just a nice drink for a summers evening.

Summer solstice

So it's summer solstice here today, and it's a blue sky day and very warm.

Farther day

Farther day or that should read furthers day, iPad and apples crap keyboard with no cursor keys why?

Football world up

It apparently the world up in Brazil, now I have to state here that I don't follow football as I think there is too much gamesmanship going on, when they start to referee it like rugby then it will be a game of skill and also a team game.

June

As it's June I suppose you should expect it to be warm and today that's just what we have had, and very nice it is to.

Drink of the day

Today there are two drinks of the day!

The first is Doombar and very nice easy drink it is.

The second drink of the day is Greene King IPA and it's also very nice and drunk cool it does just the job.

Sunshine

Lots and lots of sunshine today which was nice, sadly I did not see much of it.

Hot

So the weather people are saying that it could be rather hot today, which is what it's supposed to be at this time of year so this should not really be news.

Reading part 2

I know a part 2!

It's because I also have managed to read a book that I saw in hardback that I wanted to read but knew that I would have to wait for the paperback, and in this case it was worth the wait.

The book is by an author that I do happen to like and I have I think read most of the books that he has written, this is in one way good and in another way bad, the good because I have read an author, the bad is that he has not written that many books, but what he does write are in my mind worth reading.

The book that I have read in a week is by Bill Bryson and it's called One Summer America 1927 and it's just a great read about what happend in 1927 it's history but put in a way that's well just great to read, the expression page turner, well for me it was, could be said here.

Worth a look I enjoy Bill's writing and such is the skill in his writing that pages just fly by.

Reading part 1

So I have managed some how to do some reading of actual paper books as aposed from ebooks. One book that I have finally finished reading after some weeks is Seven Elements that changed the world by John Browne, what I did not like about this book was the politics in it even thought it's part of the story of how these seven elements have shaped the modern world.

I am to blame for not looking at the book more closely as I though it was going to talk more about the actual elements and not what humans have done with them.

The funny thing is the endnotes to the book I found more interesting than some of the text in the main chapters of the book, yeah go figure!

Worth a look if you don't mind the politics.

Drink of the day

The drink of the day today is IPA by Greene King not more to say other than it's nice.

Thunder storm

So the weather people having been saying for the last few days that Saturday expect a thunder storm or two.

So far?

One rumble of thunder in the distance and that's it!

Weather go figure.....

Training

Have to do some training which will mean I have to be away from home, as I have got older this is something I don't like. I don't like being apart from the wife, and being apart at night is even more painful.

Why ? I don't know the answer it just is.

June

June should be hot?

So it's no surprise that it's wet very wet....

Blue sky

Some blue sky at last this week, was beginning to think that blue sky was a myth.

Bank holiday

Bank holiday so it's raining and cold....

Lie in monday

As it's a bank holiday on Monday I have decided that a lie in till 9am would be good. So you know it's not going to happen but at least I can dream!

Mycloud

Just another note to me that I have brought and installed a my cloud had drive from wd with 4TB of memory, so far all is well, it work with the PC and the iPad and works well remotely.

Music software on iPad

As you know I have an iPad Air which has become the most used it bit of kit I own. 

Apart from the iPad being overpriced and that I can't expand the memory on it I have found it a great bit of kit to own and use.

One of the things that I use it for is making music, the music is for my fun and I do enjoy making it, it's my music my style and so I would suspect that if I made it available for Joe public to listen to it most if not all would not be that interested or impressed with it, and that does not matter in the least.

Anyway the point of this blog was to record the fact that I am having fun with launch pad on the iPad.

Lack of posts

There has been a lack posts on this blog because I did not have anything that I wanted to say or recorded for future me to read. Just thought I would record that here so that future me knows the reason.

Bank holiday

So the last bank holiday until august here in the UK and so it goes without saying that Monday will be wet....

Drink of the day

The drink of the day is old speckled hen real ale and very nice it is too. Got it in a 750ml bottle with 50'percent free.

Chilling

Chilling out not sure what it means to you but to mean it means doing nothing but reading listening to music and not watching a clock, having a drink if I want and just laying out and well chilling.

Hols

Enjoying the break a week in mid Wales and the weather sunshine!

How about that!

Birthday

Birthday today, nice hot day, beer and a lovely walk in deepest wales in the sunshine.

Big Daisy's

Just seen my first big Daisy's .

Not sure if they are early or late, but nice to see them.

Drink of the day

The drink of the day today is Pepsi max ice cold.

Dessert Ales

Have you heards of such a thing as dessert ales?

Nor had I until today this is something that I shall have to investigate.

I suspect it's only been on the market as an idea for only a short times because I am sure that I would have heard about before now.

I wonder if it's going to be a growing trend like IPA's are?

I hope so anything that increase choice and taste is always in my mind a good idea.

So I shall look out for dessert real ales and report back when I have tried some.

Steak

Had steak cooked at home today and some how managed to cook it just right!

Horse chestnut

See the horse chestnut trees are already in flower, most of the ones I have seen have been white, but I have seen on my travels the odd red one.

I can only assume that the red ones are a differant species.

Oak trees

Where did the leaves for the oak trees suddenly come from, I am sure they were not visible last week!

Google box

Google box is a TV programme here in the UK and very funny to watch.

M and m s

Trying cherry cordial M&M'sfrom USA

Fog

Can you have fog in May and is this weird weather?

I don't know the answer but it's what we have been having.

Blackthorn

I am sure that today on the way into work that I saw blackthorn and that it was in flower, then  again it might also have been hawthorn, as I could not stop to have a look I am not sure. All I can say is that it was a green tree.shrub that had loads and loads of white flowers. I suspect in sunshine, some thing we don't have at this time it would look really great.

Bad times

Bad times are never good especially when they smack you on the back of the head without warning.

Back at work

Back at work after the 4 day weekend, hard work....

Wheels day

Wheels day was held on Good Friday and this year it's 40 years old. They held it on at dunsfold airfield which is huge!

And yes it's where they film top gear and has the race track they use.

It was fun seeing all the differant types of cars old and new.

When I win the lottery my Tuesday car is an Ac cobra selby blue with chrome bumpers.

Chromecast

As you know I have a chromecast and it's works well, it has a lack of apps on IOS but apart from that it's good. So I get an email from Google giving me 5pounds to spend in the play store on anything I want!

Cool or what!

Long weekend

So far the long weekend has been good.

Sunshine

Lots of sunshine which is always nice, blue sky, green grass and trees and a very nice real ale called Specled Hen and some music to listen to.

Nice is a word I could use or even great!

Just wish I was very rich did not have to work and could just relax and enjoy nature at its most busy part of the year spring!

Green is the colour

I rather like this time of year when the weather is good. The fact that the growing season is now upon us is one of the things that I like. There is some much closure and things going on!

One thing that I always like is the fact that there are so many differant hues of green at this time of year, some of the greens are very light and some are very dark but all look great on a nice sunney day.

The sad thing is that all these wonderful greens soon disappear I assume because as the sunlight and the temperatures get hight the trees or plants have to protect themselves against heat UV and water loss. But that does not matter as this short time when they are all the differant light greens is just nice to see and enjoy 

Wood pecker

So today for the first time this year I heard our local woodpecker. I think it's a green one, I am not sure as it's very rare to see it only hear what it's doing to the local trees, I can't say that we have only one woodpecker as they all look a like.

ISS

Saw ISS last night at ten in the evening if the moon had not been so bright it would have been even better as it was it was very bright and well up in the sky.

Chromecast

Well as you know I have a chromecast and it's been okay to use and I can use it on my iPad and the mobile phone and what apps that are out there work. Some of the apps have been set up in such a way so as to just make money and I suppose that's alright.

The one thing that I managed to do is to crash chromecast completely and I did it using of all things u tube!

It was rather s surprise that I managed to break it, but it was a quick power on and off that corrected the problem. So far I have not managed to break it the same way yet but given change I suppose I might manage it.

Drink of the day

Drink of the day today is....Tea!

Yes it's good you know that and that all that counts in my book.

Colder

So I am just getting use to the idea that it's getting warmer outside and what happens?

Yep you guessed it it turns cold again why?

I want to enjoy some time outside in the sunshine, I want to gaze up at the clouds as they float by.

Come on weather sort it out.

Chromecast

As you know I got myself a chromecast just a couple of weeks ago. It works rather well and it seems to do the job. One thing I have yet to work how to do is to set it running on say u tube the use my iPad for something else while it plays out on the TV. So far every time I have tried this as soon as I start to try and do something else the video stops. From reading on Google's website on chromecast that is not what is supposed to happen.

So I don't know doing a search has not given me a solution.

Oak trees

I think in the area where I live and travel that we have several differant species of oak tree, I say this because I think that as the trees are just starting to break into leaf the colours of the leaves is very differant and the rate at which the leaves are growing is also differant.

If I get the chance I want to just see if my theory is correct and that the differant oak trees are differant in how they cope with spring.

I also wonder if they are all using the same type of photosynthesis the same type of chemicals to create sugar from sunlight air and water. 

Spring Grass

Just a note to me that grass at this time is a lovely light green colour I wonder if it's because the light levels are not very high and the grass needs as much light energy as possible, I suppose that in the summer when the sunlight is that much stronger the leves are a much darker colour so that they are not damaged or the grass makes to much food.

Not sure if that is the reason for the colour change, but it is a nice idea.

Drink of the day

I know I have already said what my drink of the day is but I can change the rules as this is my blog.

So my second drink of the day is Pepsi Max which is low sugar and tastes okay.

Sand

So due to the way the wind is blowing we are getting sand from the sarhra I must say it's not proper sand like we have on the beaches here.

I wonder just how much sarhra sand the UK has had dusted on it over the millions of years? Or is it a new thing that has only happened in the last couple of thousand years or so?

I suppose this is one question we will never know the answer to.