Reading now

I am at this actual moment in time reading an actual paperback books, I know scary or what!

The book I am reading is called alphabetical and its written by Michael Rosen. So far I have found the book to be very interesting and I have learnt lots that I did not know and it's also pointed out to me lots that I did know. The book is about each letter of the alphabet and where they come from and how they have changed over time in their use.

What's interesting to me about the book is that I listen to a BBC Radio four programe called word of mouth that Michael also presents and the thing is that he writes as he speaks if that makes sense?

I have to say that he has a great voice for radio it's one of those voices that is just well right for radio it's not too deep not too high pitched just in the right place as voices go. It's also a voice that carries some authority even if at the time he may be telling you a really bad joke. Any way his written voice to me is the same as his spoken voice and so when reading this book all I can hear in my head is him saying the words he has written, which to me is a great trick or I am going around the bend just a bit it's one of those two things.

Anyway back to this book it's worth a read I think if you have some interest in language and words or how people speak and why the English language is always changing. I am lucky that English is my native tongue but I suppose I do suffer what used to be called the English desase of not speaking another language it's something that I am not proud of and I wish that I did speak another language, but what other language to speak?

I don't know the answer to that one yet maybe it's something I should think about and write another blog post about some time.

Hawthorn

I noticed today that hawthorn bushes or trees I can't make my mind which it is has started to sprout leafs and that as I have said many times before they are a lovely light green colour that sadly does not last for very long but it's nice to enjoy their light clour until they change to the darker colour that they will,have for the rest of the summer.

Daylight

So British Summer time is now here but so far have not seen much of the extra daylight that we are supposed to be having on the grounds that it has been very cloudy and wet which I suppose is what you would expect at Easter.

Cherry

So there is cherry blossoms out and it all looks good and it is nice to see again.

Green

So I have just noticed that the grass around here is just starting to change to that light green colour that I love as it means spring is here

Spring

So spring has started and so far the weather has been better than the last few weeks. So with spring now happing it's time to start looking for the spring flowers to start appearing. Today I noticed Daisy's, dandelions not sure if they are early or late in appearing at this time. It goes without saying that the daffodils are now out in force and it's great to see them and when they are in great clumps they are very pretty.

Nothing

It's strange that have not had much to say for lots of days I don't know why but I know have lots to say which was not the case several days ago.

Wow

Wow sunshine and some blue sky at last....

Not much to say

There has been not that much to say just lately.

Snow

Well I guess it had to happen that as it's winter at some point it's going to snow and that is just what it did today, not fun driving in it.

Cold

It's cold here today as it is about-4 which I know for some is not cold but for us is cold, not the coldest it's been but it's certainly not tee shirt weather if you know what I mean.

Eating out

So eating out today and tried a new place to eat in Guildford called Bills. The food is okay but the seating was such that there was little room between tables. They must be doing something thing right as there was a lot of people waiting to get a table when we went.

The food was okay but the menu choices for me were a bit restrictive but that's me not the fault of Bills.

Ideas

Where do ideas come from?

As one minute they are not there and the next they are. Sometimes times it's only seconds or even less for them to appear. You have no idea how they appear but that's what they do just appear out of nowhere, you have no incling as to what they are going to be other than when they have turned up. Strange that!

Reading

The great news is that I have finished the book that I was reading by Stephen Baxter and as I said in my blog before the start is a bit slow the pay off at the end is I suppose worth it. I think that the editor should have been a bit more thorough and that would have made the book a much better book but i suppose that if you are Stephen Baxter then perhaps you don't get edited as much as a new author would.

Hop Book

The Hop Book Idea

I have done some quick research and so far I have found that there are only really two books on hops.

 Both are aimed at the serious brewer with recipes etc. and one goes through all the known varieties, so perhaps my book could have place as it's not being aimed at brewers but at interested drinkers etc..

I think I will have to carry out more research as one book was 300 pages and the other was 130 so my book would have to be some where in between these sizes.

Update 29/03/2025

So this blog post dates back to 2015!

A lot has happened and there are now more books on hops for the more casual reader, but none in the way that I was talking about here in this blog post.

It goes without saying that in 2025 you could use the different AI system to help with the creation of this books.

Question is do you give credit to the AI systems that you use to help create the book?

Is it like traditional research where you list all your references?

I don't know the answer to that question

Perhaps I should ask an AI!!!!!

Blood

Just to record the fact I gave my 131st unit of blood today, I am pleased to have managed so many donations, I just hope I have helped someone with by donations over the years.

Book ideas Hops The Hop Book

I did have an idea on Sunday for a book I don't think it would be a very large book. The idea and I am sure that it's been done before is to do a book on Hops you know the stuff that goes into beer or ales.

So my book idea is not to have a technical tome but to have a book that is of interest to the casual user, eg there you are on a summers day enjoying sitting in the sun and drinking a beer when you notice on the bottle a list of what's in the bottle and one of the ingredients is say Challanger Hops. Now you have no clue what Challanger hops are but you want to know, yes you can surf the net and eventually you will find something on it. Wouldn't it be great if there was a book that told you about all the differant type of hops a bit of history of where they came from and also a list of say the top 50 real ales in the UK and what hops were used in making them? Maybe a picture or two of the differant types of hops?

It's a nice idea not sure who big a book it would be, or how easy it would be to collect the information for it also how big an audience it would be for, I suspect that it would not be a huge audience, but it would be a great little project.

I am going to have think about it a bit more.

Paris 2

Looked on the TV at the events on Sunday in Paris it's nice to see all the rallies ect but how are things going to change to stop these sad events happening agin, what's gone wrong for this sort of thing to happen?

Paris

I really don't know what to say about the events in Paris, other than its a very sad time for the family's effected.

Work

Just want to record here that I am just a bit overloaded at work.

Mum

My mum is 81 which to some is not a great age but what you don't know is that she is now 20 years post throat cancer which also stole her voice, at the time she was expected to die from either the surgery or the cancer, so how and with luck that is not what happend.

Sadly the cancer is back and is getting the better of her, but she is living life how she wants.

2000th Post

This is my 2000th post, its taken a while to get to it but I am pleased that I have got to it.

Work

Only second day back at work and it already feels like I have been back at work forever.

Podcasting software

I like to listen to the odd podcast or more actually it's four or five that I listen to most of the time. I use my I Pad which is what I carry with me every where as I don't have an iPhone as they don't have enough storage and Apple for some commercial reason don't want you to be able to plug in memory cards and increase your storage so I am stuck with the iPad with the largest memory capacity device they currently sell.

On the iPad Apple give you free there pod-casting software which lets you download you casts, but I have had a problem with it now and in the past where for some reason or another it forgets to download and episode or even worse to decides for no reason to delete and episode that you are half way through listening to, which is not good especially if you are trying to listen to the podcast on a car journey and you have no WiFi!

So it goes without saying that I have had a go at finding other apps that do the podcast thing, so far I think I have tried at least four or more apps.

By try, I mean used for several weeks at a time, so far I have yet to find an app that I like 100%, but it has not stopped me from having a good look around, I am still using apples app as I am having a rest from looking around for another app.

Sound cloud

I have a sound cloud account in fact at that time I write this I have some 30 tracks on the site under the artist name Citrus Dreams now I am not doing anything to advertise that I am an artist and that I have tracks on the site, so it a bit of a surprise to see that somehow or other the old track has been listed to by someone, luckily the number of listens is very low so I don't think I am in damage of ever being penalised for band width.

You may ask why put the tracks on the site in the first place and the simple answer is I wanted to store some tracks else where in the world, if somehow I get the odd person finding the tracks I can live with that, I also think I have more fun creating the tracks than the final result, if that makes any kind of sense.

Raspberry PI

Still having fun with my model b+ raspberry PI it's working well I have found out how to get the is to expand in the Sd card I have installed. I have found out how to update it and also how to turn charge it a bit, not so much just a bit and it has made a differance to how it works.

I have not yet decided what I want to do with it apart from learn who to use it so far, I have done a bit of programming on it mainly Python which is okay but as I am using a small media keyboard doing a lot of typing on it really is not on, and do I want to spend money on yet another keyboard that will only clutter up the badly cluttered house?

So the PI is easy to get going and play with I just need to decided what I want to do with it.

Wet

Just a small note to me from me!

It's wet not cold at this time which is good I like wet over cold any day, well most of the time I do.

Blossom

Just a note to me but have just noticed two things. The first is that the bulbs are growing and I have seen several that are now showing green shoots.

The second is that I have now seen several cherry trees flowering type with blossom a lovely pink colour but in January isit a bit early for that sort of thing?

First post

My first post of 2015 wonder how many posts I shall make this year, have I or will I have a lot to say, only time will tell.

Year end

So last day of 2014 and I have had a day full of stuff to do and no time to do it in time to put my feet up and chill out and bring in the new year by watching the events in London.

Reading

ASo I am reading a book by Stephen Baxter its book 2 in the series, but the thing is that it's not as good as I thought it would be, part one was good with some great ideas part two so far does not have many of these great ideas and it's always been my idea that Stephen is better at ideas than characters and that is the case in the book I am reading, trouble is as I said be fore this book just feels like it has a lot of padding in it so far as the story has not moved forward very much, perhaps I should speak about this book when I have completed it.

The book is called ,Ultamia.

Raspberry PI

Still having fun with this small computer the thing I like about it is that it's easy to get it working again if you programme it wrong or install something wrong on it.

Another cold one

Cold yet again -3 or -6 depending on which weather service you look at either way it's cold.

Beer or Real Ale

Trying a new to me real ale called Wolf Rock by Sharps all I can say is that it's a nice easy to drink IPA and it's red!

Cold

It turns out that last night it was the second coldest place in the UK last night, so it's no  wonder that it felt cold last night it was!

The coldest place in the UK was RAF Benson at -7.3 it was -7.1 at Farnbrough and we are just 2 miles if not less than that from where the temperature was recorded on the airfield.

-6c

Yep got to -6c last night not cold for some but for people like me who feel the cold that's to cold, by feel the cold I min in minutes I get intense pain in the hands if I don have gloves on.

Days off

So it's that funny time between Xmas and the new year and due to the company I work for we have compulsory leave for three days this year. So it ends up with me at home without Donna how does have to go to work, so no lie in as someone has to scrape her car for her....

Cold

Wow a cold one today.

End of year

So the end of the year is screaming towards use and there are lots of things I should have done, lots I could have done and lots that I did do so in the end the year was okay.

Cold one

Wow that wind is real cold today. Just thought I would recorded the fact here as I will have forgotten all about the weather today in a few weeks time.

Lazy

It's that time of year when I just do not want to do anything which could be a problem on the 25th.....

Midday

Just a note to me to say that it's all rather dark and it's only midday, must be the very thick cloud cover that we are suffering from here today, still its a mild day weather wise today.

London Pride real ale

I have decided that drinking London Pride out of a plastic glass is just not right and should not be done.

Summer

So summer is on its way wonder how soon I will notice that the days are getting longer?

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.