We've just had a lovely week away in the Southern-most part of Devon, the South Hams. We stayed in a bijou chocolate box cottage in Galmpton, just outside Hope Cove.


Elliots Cottage, our home for the week.

Nathan had his first visit to the beach, and loved it. Thanks to Water-Babies, he wasn't scared of the water; however, he was unsure of the waves when the sea was a bit choppy.


Hope Cove adventures.

We generally chilled out – as much as one can do with an energetic 17 month old – and visited the beach everyday, and had a few trips to Salcombe and Kingsbridge. The weather was glorious, aside from the day we arrived when we were greeted by a thunder and hail storm.


Having fun at Hope Cove.

I read much less than usual (only 4 books), but did a bit of work on a secret RPG project (tm) which was good, and got me back into writing stuff. It was a real shame to have to head back home, and if I have one regret it was that we only had 7 days there.


Rock Pool fun.

The South Hams are a lovely part of the world, and I spent a lot of time there as a child as my parents regularly took a cottage there as our main holiday. I'd recommend it wholeheartedly. Nathan loved it!


Loving it!

The journey back and forth got spread over three days each time to ease things on Nathan, and we stayed at my parents' house in Cheshire and my aunt (and godmother) and uncle's house in Somerset. With the exception of one leg, he was as good as gold! Our only worry on the journey was whether we'd be able to get fuel with the Shell Tanker driver's strike, but we didn't have a problem.

All in all, a lovely break away from things (especially as the mobile signal was poor!).

Currently feeling: Tired but relaxed
Currently listening to: Nothing.
Currently reading: The Wellstone (Wil McCarthy).

Okay, it's been over a month since I last properly put some posts together, but life (at work and home) has been busy, and we've been away to Devon (more on that later, as I'm waiting for the photos to complete uploading to Flickr) on holiday and visiting as well. I'll remedy this drought over the next few days, honest.

I've been pondering something over the last few days; why do I prefer writing stuff on the PowerBook, when I have a gorgeous 20" screen on the iMac G4 coupled with a very nice keyboard? I don't know what it is, but nothing has come close to the tactical feel and focus I get tapping away on either of my PowerBooks over the last decade. The iBook didn't quite match either of them for the same urge to type away.

I've also realise how much little tweaks to your user interface can significantly improve your workflow. I was helping my Dad out with his iMac G5 to try and resolve an email related issue, and although he's on the exactly the same version of the OS as me, I kept on getting frustrated. The big differences were little things – I have Exposé set to my top screen corners to either clear the screen, or drop to all windows available, and the mouse I have (a gorgeous Micro$oft Intellimouse 5) has different set ups with the extra buttons. It's amazing how much difference it makes. Anyway, we fixed the issue, and started the process that will allow him to break free from his current ISP if he needs to.

We had a lovely weekend in the wilds of Wales, with no modern communications, staying at one of my University friends' cottage. Ceri and Nick kindly looked after us for the weekend, and Jon and Becky also came along. We celebrated Jon's birthday, and had a great time relaxing.


Ceri, Nick & Nathan.


Jon, Becky and Nathan.


Ghost Baby - I loved the reflection here.


Jill and Nathan, on a train. Can you spot the tired one?

I got home from work on Wednesday, after one of those days when you're really happy to be away from the place, and was greeted by Nathan who managed to put a smile back on my face pretty quickly. As I got to the door, I was surprised to find him wearing his cardigan and looking very excited. Apparently, he'd demanded that Jill put it on him a few minutes before I got home!

Anyway, on seeing me, he squealed in excitement, and rushed to the side of the room where his reins had been put. Now, we'd had these less than two weeks, but already he associates them with going for a walk. He demanded – vociferously, saying 'Da' – that I put them on him and then took him out for a walk in the close. We were out for 40 minutes and ranged a fair distance. He was determined that he was going to walk, and that he was not going to be picked up.

One of the highlights was Nathan yelling 'hiya' and waving at the next door neighbours when they arrived home from their walk, and the look of surprise on their face as they waved back. It still brings a big grin to my face now!

I'm not sure why, but I realised that I'd not bothered to take off photos from my FZ50 since Easter Sunday. It was quiet a pleasant surprise when I did upload them to iPhoto yesterday, as I'd forgotten some of them completely.

First of all, I'd forgotten we had snow on Easter Day, and I got some lovely pictures of Nathan discovering it properly for the first time. Needless to say he was fascinated!


Nathan and I in the snow.

Jill was far more sensible and avoided actually getting her feet cold and wet!

Nathan running to me from Jill.

He loved it, and was fascinate about the feel of it with his hands. I think that it's great watching him learn how things work and copying. It reminds me what we loose as we get older. If you could bottle it, then you'd make a fortune!

Anyway, later in the afternoon he saw 'The Wizard of Oz' on the television and was transfixed by it! I'd not seen the film for a long time, and I can see why it was a favourite with kids of all ages. Nathan loved it, especially the singing. No doubt he'd love Bollywood films as well as traditional musicals!


Off to see the Wizard...

Last week was pretty good – I came out of it feeling far more positive about life than I have for quite some time.It was a combination of Jill's birthday, and a couple of good days at work when I actually felt I was getting somewhere for the first time in a while. I'd talked to our former next-door neighbour, Vicky, and arranged for her to babysit on Friday whilst I took Jill out. We went to an old haunt – The Muse Ale and Wine Bar – and had a lovely birthday meal. It was one of the first times we'd done this for a long time, and well worth it. We'd stopped going for a while after their letter back to Nathan saying that kid's aren't part of their 'mission statement', but we were just a couple out together, and it was not too far from home. All in all, we were only out for two and a half hours, but it seemed much longer in a good way. We had a great bottle of Pinotage too! A great week, and good for the two of us.

Currently feeling: Chilled out.
Currently listening to: The PowerBook G4 fan.
Currently reading: The Complete Chronicles of Conan (Robert E Howard).

Pretty annoyed, as I've just found out that some bugger has hacked one of the websites that I maintain, and put in a link to a trojan etc. Not seen it myself, as the Mac tends to be blasé about PC viruses and as I've not been asked to do any updates I've had very little reason to visit the site. I do have anti-virus installed, but if the attack doesn't break the firewall, or affect a Mac it doesn't alarm by default. Anyway, I've replaced the corrupted files, and also gone and hardened the site password significantly (not that it was that weak in the first place), but it's still annoying!

As an aside, Rapidweaver has been upgraded to v3.6.7, which is the last non-bugfix version for Tiger. It's improved the export times somewhat, especially with the bigger sites I have. I'm still mulling over whether it's worth switching to OS X 10.5 Leopard or staying with Tiger (OS X 10.4). I never rush to new versions of the OS (because it often takes 2 or 3 patches to get everything to a stable enough level), but there are a couple of big questions I need to answer:

1) Is there a significant speed hit with a G4 processor (1.25GHz+ and 1GB RAM+)?
2) Does Creative Suite CS2 work with Leopard (or it's a £500 premium to upgrade to CS3!)?

Pretty much everything else is clear. Most of my other apps are all Leopard compatible, and those that aren't won't be a big loss. It'd have been nice if the various Mac publications actually covered these kind of questions!

We had a great day today – Nathan was on form, and we took him to the local fish and chip restaurant in Wetherby where he had fish (no batter) and some chips, and stole bread and butter. He really likes the fish! After that, he entertained the shop assistants for 30 mins in one shop (opening every cupboard he could find and generally being cuite) before we went to Harrogate and had more fun in Mothercare.

Currently feeling: Annoyed.
Currently listening to: Suits (Fish)
Currently reading: Yvgenie (CJ Cherryh) (resisting Asher's Hilldiggers!).

Picture swiped from amazon.co.uk, where you can buy a copy!

The last week has seen a number of the great and good pass on, but the one that resonated with me was the news of Sir Arthur C. Clarke's death at the age of 90. Clarke was one of the great visionaries of the 20th Century, and many things that he envisaged have come to pass including geosynchronous satellites, sat-nav, a number of space transport maneuvers, and plenty more – such as the space elevator – sit there in development or as tremendous concepts. Clarke also popularised science, and gave the story that became one of the most acclaimed SF films of all time, 2001 A Space Odyssey. Personally, the latter bored me silly although I admired the imagery.

Anyway, Clarke has great significance to me, along with Andre Norton and Isaac Azimov, as his writings shaped my interest in Science Fiction (especially hard SF) at a young age. I was introduced to him by my Australian second cousin, Kathy Finlay, who bought me a copy of Rendezvous with Rama when I was still a young lad. I loved the tale of scientific exploration, adventure and technology, combined with the shear sense of wonder of first contact with an alien artifact. Sadly, the later sequels didn't match up to the first book, but – like the Highlander films – one can always pretend that the later versions don't exist! This sense of wonder had me reading more of his books, then moving on to other authors and genres. Over Christmas, I re-read a number of his older works and they're still valid today.

I got quite annoyed listening to some of the literary intelligentsia harping on about how he was important, but really 'not very good as a writer'. It seems you have to write turgidly like Atwood's (apparently non-SF) post-apocalyptic novel, Oryx and Crake, to be a good writer. I think that time will prove them wrong, and that his significance will be more recognised as the distance grows.

So, rest well, Sir Arthur, wherever you are.

I'm sitting on the bed on Sunday morning as I type this on the PowerBook, with a storm of energy and excitement running around yelling 'hiya', with the telephone handset clutched against his ear. Fortunately, the phones can be locked, so we're not getting knocks on the door and complaints!

I went to Portugal for three days (or more accurately, I went to Portugal for a day and spent the two days either side travelling) and was shattered when I got back. This was a combination of not sleeping well the first night in a strange bed (which is something I've always suffered with at hotels) and then an 04:30 hr check in at Lisbon Airport the next night. Fortunately, my flight back to Manchester was already off by the time the muppet ran onto the runway with a backpack on, so the travel didn't get extended even more.

Anyway, when I got back, I went to sleep for an hour and was woken by Jill calling me as she got in. I got to the top of the stairs to see Nathan holding the stair-gate and rattling it. When he saw me he yelled 'hiya dada', which made my heart jump! I couldn't believe how much he'd grown in the four days since I'd seen him last. I guess it's something that all parents have to get used to.

I promised some more pictures in the last post, so here they are:


Conducting an imaginary orchestra.


Arriving at his Grandad and Nana's house.


Toddling and running!


With his Grandad!


Holding Court...

As usual, if you click through, there are more pictures on Flickr.

Currently feeling: Relaxed.
Currently listening to: Broadcasting House (Radio 4)
Currently reading: Chernevog (CJ Cherryh).

Bit of a palava today. I was due to fly to Portugal with work, and it all went pear shaped at Manchester when the BA desk told me that my connecting flight from Heathrow to Lisbon was suspended and likely to be cancelled, and that they recommended that I didn't travel down on the shuttle flight. So I turned around, with perhaps 6 hours of the day wasted in getting ready, travelling on the M62 and waiting. What particularly annoys me is that we booked the flight 3 hours before I got there and we got no warning from work's travel broker. And I'm probably going to have to try again tomorrow or the day after. The real downside is that going to Portugal means that I'm going to have to miss TravCon08, which I was really looking forward to.


The view from iChat

Nathan's at his grandpop and grandma's tonight, which is a strange feeling. We watched him on the iSight camera using iChat earlier today, which was cool, even if he was somewhat unimpressed by us doing so! He's back tomorrow for his swimming lesson. He does seem to be enjoying himself at the moment, and is toddling about all over the place causing chaos as he has fun. One of his latest tricks is grabbing a phone, almost saying "hiya" – or at least a very close approximation of it – and then handing it to you with a grin and a giggle.

The weekend was good. On Friday, we went to the Merseyside and North Wales Engineering Dinner, which is organised by Jill and my professional institution, the IMechE, in conjunction with the IChemE. Meeting with the M&NW team is always refreshing, as it gives us new heart in what the engineering institutions can be. That's something we find lacking at the moment in the Yorkshire Region, where there are too many people stopping things moving forward with a negative attitude that is very hard to push against.

Jill and I launched our assault on the craps table in the fun casino, helped by the croupier (?) who had inadvertently set the odds of 30:1 coming up 1 in 6 times. We used our usual system and ended up with even higher than normal returns, ending up top gamblers of the night with a fortune in excess of £500 million. Sadly, it wasn't for real, but we did walk away with a water pistol, a bottle of red, a bottle of champagne (drunk) and a 2 hours session in a Ferrari or a Porsche! Naturally, Jill is getting the driving session as she had the faster car before we became sensible and swapped the Corolla T-Sport and MG ZS for the Avensis estate.


The Dee Estuary Marshes at Parkgate, more if you click through...

We spent the night, and a big chunk of the next day with Phill and Linda, Nathan's Godfather. It was lovely to see them and exchange gossip. I think Jill would have got me to sneak their new kitchen in the car if it was possible, but to no avail! After that, it was Parkgate for ice cream on a windswept, bright and stormy day, then back to my parents in Cheshire before returning to the Wirral on Sunday with Nathan to see his Nana and Grandad. We also saw Nathan's Aunty Paula (Jill's sister) and Phill came to see his Godson. Lunch was a nice meal at The Country Mouse at Brimstage Hall craft centre; good plain fayre that Nathan loved. We had a great time with my in-laws, and it was a shame to leave when we did (around 19:30 or so). The only disappointment I discovered was that Jill's mum escaped from all the photos I took. I'll have to remedy that next time. there are some really nice shots, which I'll upload to Flickr soon.

Currently feeling: Tired, and fed up of motorways.
Currently listening to: The cat purring.
Currently reading: Rusalka (CJ Cherryh).

... or "Dominic, Ready, Go!".

On Tuesday, Jill was on a training course, so wasn't on her usual day off with Nathan. This meant I got to step into the breach with our young swimmer and go to Waterbabies with him. This was quite a daunting prospect, but thanks to some expert advance tuition by Jill using a teddy bear to demonstrate, and Nathan's patience, I survived! The other thing that helped was that the other people on the session had cried off as they were either very pregnant, or their child had a broken limb, so we had 1:2 tuition from the instructor.

Nathan was, as ever, a little star in the water and full of excitement and enthusiasm to chase the little rubber fish they use for encouragement. Me? I was knackered by the end of it, especially when I discovered that the water was far more shallow than I anticipated and as a result I got a great workout. I really enjoyed it, and it was worth the day off! It's a shame I have no pictures of the session.

Here's a shot of the moon I took on a cold windy night on the road between Little Ribston and Spofforth;


The night of the Eclipse.
This is the same location in daylight, some weeks earlier;


Into the mist.
I loved the way the mist created layers into the distance. It also created some nice views of the trees when the sun broke through;


Stand of Trees in Cold Winter Sunshine.

Finally, in case you've been pining for a certain young man to appear here;

In my entry on the Christmas break back in January, I mentioned that I hoped to add some photos into the narrative. I've finally uploaded them into Flickr, and as the entry is so long ago, I've decided that I'd give them their own entry here;


Jill at Horse Guards


The New Model Terracotta Army


The British Museum


Parliament Silhouetted

Clicking through any of these links gets you into the photostream where you can see the other pictures.

Nathan has just got his first pair of proper shoes (size 3G, Start*Rite) rather than his Robeez moccasin style shoes. He looks scarily grown up in them, and is starting to take some tottering steps around with increasing confidence! It's scary how fast he's changing. I most get the Flickr site updated so you can all see.



His shoes are just like this, but navy blue! Image from the Start*Rite site.

The weekend just gone was a fun one, as I got to play games for the first time this year (in honesty, for the first time since I went to Furnace last year). Tom kindly hosted a weekend of gaming, starting with the boardgame Twilight Imperium (second edition) on the Saturday, and following up with me running my Savage 2300AD RPG conversion for the second time. It was great fun, and I really hope to make several of these weekends over the next year, even if it's only for a day at a time.


From Tom's Gaming Weekend album...

The position above (taken by Tom) shows where we where at the start of the End Game period. At this point, Tom's son Matt (white colour) and I (red colour) both started major aggressive moves against our neighbours. The end result was that I won, but only because my technology and trade base outstripped Matt's more expansive empire.

I last played the game around 2000, with Andy Lilly and some of the BITS crew after a Dragonmeet. It was great fun then (except for the fact that I was knocked out very quickly in that game). I'd traded up to 2nd edition after the game, but it had sat around gathering dust for the last five or so years. I'm glad that I got to play it, and would love to do it again. It combines politicking with trade and resource building and major space battles. What more could an SF fan ask for?!

The 2300AD game was also fun, but felt somewhat more like a dungeon crawl than the last time. I'm not certain if that was me, but the more times I've run the scenario, the more frustrated I've become with it. Savage worked like a dream and I was really happy running it.

Tom discusses this some more on his blog if it interests you for a second opinion! He and his wife Ann were absolutely gracious hosts, and I came home feeling more relaxed than I have for a while. It was a great escape from work etc. Now I just need to keep my fingers crossed that Jill's friends finally agree a date for their pamper weekend so she can get away too!

Currently feeling: Happy.
Currently listening to: The Fan on the G4 PowerBook.
Currently reading: Avenues & Alleyways (a|state RPG) and LA Confidential (James Ellroy).

I don't think Jill or I have had so many different colds and infections for a long time! Ever since Nathan has been to nursery, we seem to be magnets for the latest bugs that are going around. The usual cycle is Nathan to Jill to me, and it's been the same with the latest thing. We had two weeks with him off nursery with initially a cold and ear infection and conjunctivitis. The cold and ear infection escalated (by which time Jill had caught the conjunctivitis, also shared with his grandma) and Nathan was sent to hospital, but discharged pretty quickly. He was offered a role as ward mascot as he was ineffably cheerful when he was there. The initial infection was diagnosed as bronchiolitis, but on the wane. He does have a really nasty cough with it.


Nathan at Christmas, ignoring his cold and teething.

Since Monday's hospital visit, Jill has developed the chest infection, and I've developed the conjunctivitis. That's quite annoying, as I've done my best to avoid it so far, including wearing my glasses for most of the week. I suspect that we'll have a weekend of early nights as a result.

Jill's mum and dad are also ill, with nasty flu-like symptoms which sound horrible. As mentioned, my mum has the conjunctivitis badly, but is also suffering with her hip, which seems to have been overloaded following her knee operation. The hospital managed to forget to give her a 3 month follow up appointment (which should have happened) but after some chasing she seems to have finally got a date mid-Feb to see what the damage is and how her knee replacement is doing. I can't wait for this as she's obviously in a lot of pain.

My friend Tom is also on the mend, which gladdens meas otherwise I'd feel like a bit of a Jonah for him. Why so, you ask? Well, every time we try to organise a roleplaying game session something goes badly wrong. We've flooded Sheffield on one occasion to stop a session by Skype, and this time (a planned face-to-face session) he has been struck by a palsy. Fortunately, he seems to be on the mend and has been discharged from hospital. As I couldn't get down to see him, I've sent him some books to read. They're both favourites of mine from recent times - Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space, and Hope Mirrlees' Lud-in-the Mist. I hope he enjoys they as much as I have.

Christmas and New Year was a great break for us, with two weeks of freedom from the daily grind. It's something I was really looking forward to after the last three months, which have been pretty hectic.

We spend the days either side of Christmas at my parents' house, with a brief visit to the Wirral to see some friends (Nathan's godfather) and Jill's parents. It was very relaxing, except for the fact that Nathan started to teeth on some of his back teeth and he really let us know it. It was pretty tiring, but at least it wasn't when we were at work. Fortunately, being at my parents meant that we could pass him on and catch some sleep after we'd been up a lot of the night. On a plus note, I used the late night play sessions to catch up on a number of films on DVD which I hadn't thought I'd get to.


Oops! Did I do that? Nathan discovers his Gran's tuperware cupboard!

Not unsurprisingly, Nathan was as excited with the wrapping paper as he was with his presents. He was a very lucky boy, and I was very glad I had the roofbox on the Avensis when we headed home or we wouldn't have fitted everything in. Amazing how much 'stuff' a small boy has. He had a number of presents he was very taken with, and the simple wooden ones certainly competed strongly with the electronic, noisy ones. I'm sure this will change with time.

Before we left my parents, we had a great little early party for Nathan's birthday on the 9th January as all his cousins were there. Although Sam is in Afghanistan, Alix had brought the kids over from Germany to the UK at Christmas. Pretty brave, doing this on her own, but she does approach it like a military operation which is probably the only way you can do this with 4 kids and remain sane. It was fantastic seeing them all. They travelled over from Germany on the Chunnel on Christmas Day, having done presents etc. inthe German tradition on Christmas Eve. The kids had a special surprise as Sam managed to be back in the UK for 24 hours and turned up to see them unannounced. A brilliant Christmas present for them! As well as Alix, Jill's parents and sister came as well and brought a lovely cake which Nathan was very taken with because of the chocolate buttons it had on it. He's very taken with chocolate buttons and grabbed a handful!

New Year was grim as Nathan announced he had the vomiting virus by being sick over my bedside cabinet and Jill and I both subsequently came down with it. Although it wiped the pair of us out like 'flu, Nathan seemed to weather it far better than we did and recovered far more quickly. It appears to have gone through the family as my dad has had it since, as have some of Alix's kids.

My Dad having it was a bit touch and go, as Jill had some business with the IMechE related to our Region, and went down for a meeting in the started of the New Year. My mum and dad had offered to babysit for us, so we had a long weekend in London for our wedding anniversary. We were getting pretty nervous that my mum and dad wouldn't make it with the virus, but it all ended happily. It was great to get some time together, marred only by the fact that we were so tired after being ill! We stayed at the ever faithful County Hall Premier Inn (where we had the experience of a fire alarm one night) and did some touristy things. We also had a lovely meal for our anniversary at the Italian restaurant – Locale – opposite the County Hall. This showed that we'd become alcohol light-weights as we failed to finish a bottle of nice wine that night!

A highlight of the trip was the visit to The First Emperor at the British Museum. We couldn't pre-book tickets (they've sold out until April when it closes!) so we found ourselves standing in a queue at 9.05 am on the Saturday to hopefully get some of the 500 tickets that they release each day. The queue started to move at 9.15, and by 9.25 when we got to the front the earliest tickets we could get were for 17.10! We took these and the wait was definitely worthwhile. We had a quick look around another gallery, then headed back to go somewhere else. I was also pretty chuffed that I found a games shop immediately opposite the museum, and managed to find some things that I'd been after for a while!

Somewhere Else was the Cabinet War Rooms and Churchill Museum (rather than the last Marillion album!) which was absolutely superb. It really gave a feeling of what the place must have been like in the Blitz and beyond, and I learned far more than I ever expected about Churchill. We happily spent three hours there and I'd recommend it. I found it particularly relevant as I'm involved in playtesting a new game set in the 1960s assuming the Cuban Missile Crisis had gone nuclear; looking at the kind of facility used to run the government was very helpful to get the feel in my head for this.

Anyway, The First Emperor was absolutely excellent. It had less in it than the Persian exhibition we'd seen some years before at the British Museum, but less was definitely more. There was a far stronger narrative here, and less of a feeling that you were looking at a massive collection of bling from ancient times. I'd read a little on Qin, the state that the first Emperor had expanded and used to create the first iteration of China from, ironically in an RPG, and that taster made the exhibition even more worthwhile. I'd love to see it again if I got the chance, but I suspect that won't happen. The follow on exhibition on the Roman Emperor Hadrian looks pretty interesting too, but somehow I can't imagine it being as popular.

So, the Christmas and New Year Break was a good one for us, and we went back to work feeling refreshed. If we didn't catch you at the time, then we'd like to wish you all a happy and prosperous New Year.

Note: I'd hoped to have some pictures here with this, but I may well add them later when I get the connection back up properly as I can't upload anything substantial.

Well, we're off for Christmas now, and it's a great feeling! I'm glad that this year is nearly over with its incredible highs, and terrible lows. It'll be our first Christmas with Nathan, and we intend to enjoy it as much as we can.

The only downside today is the fact that I'm absolutely knackered, as Nathan did not sleep at all well last night. I was up from 1:30 to 5:30 with him and I'm feeling pretty drawn as a result. He just couldn't settle, and it looks like he's threatening another cold

But, looking on the bright side of things, I've even managed to wrap some presents!

We've been quiet here the last three weeks because we've all been poorly sick. Thought we were over it, but then we've all developed tonsillitis. It looks like Nathan is going to miss another week at nursery. He's trying to be happy, but his horrible cough is getting to him. We're all pretty frazzled from lack of sleep.



However, it's not quite this bad... (Man Flu)



However, I do recommend the following solution if you are an adult. Worked for me when I was at home and still does!

My Mum's Kill or Cure Recipe
Ribena
Hot Water
Honey
2 crushed paracetamol (follow dosage instructions), alternatively use a blackcurrant Lemsip.
Shot of Scotch (optional)

1. Put Ribena in mug.
2. Spoonful of honey into the mug.
3. Add Scotch (if needed).
4. Add hot water.
5. Stir well.
6. Mix in paracetamol.

Enjoy. Great for sore throats and fevers!

Currently feeling: Shattered.
Currently listening to: The Silence.
Currently reading: Trail of Cthulhu (RPG) and The Mission Song (John Le Carré.

This is Nathan, dressed up ready for action at a party he went to. It seemed that his cowboy outfit was appropriate, as he decided to snaffle a mini-Jaffa Cake the same weekend and ended up with big grin –and chocolate – all over his face.

I'm going through one of those phases at the moment where I'm getting slightly obsessive about organising things. It's something that has happened over the last few years, mainly as I get busier and have ended up spinning more plates. A number of different things have caught my eye - a combination of articles, software and solutions. I really enjoyed one of the articles on 43folders on managing a paperless office, which resonated with me because I'd previously (about 10 years ago) tried something similar with the then new and trendy Visioneer Paperport scanner. That failed, mainly as the scanner was pretty limited in what and how it handled, and the OCR capabilities around at the time were pretty bad. However, I'm wondering if it may be the time to revisit this, as the filing cabinet is getting far to full.


If your desktop looks like this, then have a look at the article on Kinkless.com linked below.

I also really liked the article on Kinkless.com on ways to avoid a massively cluttered desktop. I just wish that there was a way that I could establish this easily on the work PC (but I guess that I should just be grateful that it's finally working normally again), but the tools beyond the basics are all for OS X. However, i went some way towards this over the weekend with a general clean up of the iMac HDD.

One of my friends refers to this kind of stuff as 'productivity pr0n', as you need to be very careful that you don't just get obsessed with fiddling with new systems. I agree with this up to a point, but I do think you need to try out the various options to see what works for you. I'll probably post some more links and software notes over the next few weeks.

xV> 766=:?8 AC6EEJ 765 FA 2E E96 >@>6?E 2E H@C<] %9 AC6EEJ F?FDF2= 7@C >6[ 2D x ?@C>2==J C62==J 6?;@J E96 492==6?86D 2DD@4:2E65 H:E9 H92E x 5@] qFE E96 =2DE >@?E9 92D 366? AC6EEJ 5:C6] ~?6 @7 >J 4@==628F6D @? E96 >2?286>6?E E62> =67E >:5\=2E6 ~4E@36C[ 2?5 x :?96C:E65 E96:C C@=6 2D H6== 2D >J 4FCC6?E @?6] xV5 ?@E C62==J 8@E E92E >F49 @7 2? DF6 H:E9 E96 492?86 :? AC:?4:A=6[ 3FE xV> DE2CE:?8 E@ H@?56C] $:?46 x DE2CE65[ xVG6 :?96C:E65 2 ?F>36C @7 4C6D] }@H[ x =@G6 2 8@@5 4C[ 3FE :EVD C62==J DE2CE:?8 E@ 86E >6 5@H? ?@H[ >2:?=J 2D :EVD 7@C4:?8 >6 E@ >D E:>6 H:E9 }2E92?]


The lad I'm missing.

}@H[ x 5@?VE >:?5 4@>:?8 9@>6[ 8:G:?8 9:> 9 E62[ 32E9 2?5 E96? E@ 365[ 2?5 E96? 86EE:?8 324< @? H:E9 H@C<[ 3FE ?@[ E92E ;FDE 5@6D?VE D66> E@ 36 2446AE23=6] !=FD[ >J ?@E 86EE:?8 9@>6 AFED >@C6 AC6DDFC6 @? y:==[ 2?5 E92E ?VE 72:C] xV> AC6EEJ 5@H? 2E E96 >@>6?E 2D 2 C6DF=E[ 2?5 xV> ?@E 6?;@J:?8 :E]

About a week ago I mused on the UK government's inability to green light civil nuclear power while they remained happy to build a new generation of nuclear weapons. Seems like they finally got around to moving this forward in the Queen's speech this week.

The BBC reported:

Energy, planning and climate change bills in the Queen's Speech pave the way for new UK nuclear power stations.

Looks like the ball is firmly in EdF and Eon's hands now to see what they can do.


Currently feeling: Chilled.
Currently listening to: The wind outside the house.
Currently reading: Mob Justice (RPG).

Nathan on a walk into Wetherby.

Needless to say, I've added more pictures onto the Flickr account, mainly of Nathan. You can go via the direct link or through the last few thumbnails here. It's a funny time of year, with the mix of young kids getting excited about 'trick-or-treat' and fireworks, and the slightly older kids getting nutty with fireworks. The cat is cowering under the bed (unless we are around, when he snuggles up to us) during the nightly bombardment of fireworks, and Nathan has been woken once or twice.

Never-the-less, I love this time of year, especially as we actually have an autumn (even if it has temporarily gone on hold for a week of abnormally high temperatures). I don't know what it is about autumn, the falling leaves, the damp and crisp mornings and the mists, but it is one of my favourite times of year. I guess I should really try and get some pictures before everything has fallen.

We've just had a great weekend, especially as both Jill and I are pretty tired. Jill's tired because I've not been giving her the support she normally gets as work has been pretty frantic and she's not been well. I've been doing my first proper academic qualification for quite some time, and have spent two weeks in lectures for the NEBOSH General Certificate (a UK Safety Qualification) and then a day in exams. They've been long days, with a fair bit of commitment (the day itself tops out around 12 hours when the bus ride into Leeds is included, and then there's revision and homework after Nathan has gone to bed). On top of this, I've had another two nights out with work (an offsite meeting, and a leaving do) and have also been dealing with my first crisis in my new expanded role. So Jill has been feeling somewhat neglected.

So, we've had a quiet weekend, a shopping trip to Harrogate, Sunday Lunch at the Scott Arms in Sickinghall, and reasonably quiet times and early beds. I'm hoping that the next week at work will be reasonably sane and that things can get back to normal. Fingers crossed, eh?



Currently feeling: Relaxed.
Currently listening to: Nathan snoring (but the last CD was the new Eagles album).
Currently reading: Granbreton (Hawkmoon RPG). Making my mind up what novel to read next.

Just musing here, but how come the UK has a government happy to commit to building new nuclear bombs for the next 30 years, but not new nuclear power stations, but at the same time claims that climate change is one of the big things they are concerned about! Surely a nuclear / renewable future makes sense if that's your big concern...?

Confused.

Letter from The Wetherby News.

Nathan has been campaigning for infant's rights, or more specifically, for infant's changing facilities here in Wetherby. In reality, with the exceptions of the new Costa Coffee, the Morrisons Café, and Café Aprés (in Boston Spa) none of the local cafés and eateries have decent changing facilities. When asked, there was quite a variety of responses from the landlords and owners; The Scott Arms in Sicklinghall already have a changing mat and great child facilities, but are considering a proper changing stand. Thr3 in Wetherby is also planning to get a changing stand.


Our Campaigner Out and About in Wetherby.

The Muse was less forthcoming – apparently, children are not in their mission statement and not wanted. Le Bon Appetit, whilst a great place for a meal, have the view that you can change the baby on the floor. That's the floor which is filthy, with no mat and generally very low hygiene standards.

To put this in context, a proper changing stand takes very little space, and can be fitted into most existing rooms. They aren't expensive, only £150 or so. Nathan plans to continue his campaign so we'll report if the places that promised better facilities have delivered.

I didn't really get a chance to finish updating this while we were away, so I'll quickly summarise the rest of the holiday here.

On Tuesday, we went on the Eskdale and Ravenglass Railway, otherwise known locally as La'al Ratty. It's a small steam line (3 foot gauge) which runs up the Esk Valley and conveniently stops just down the road from Boot. We got Nathan into his new Bush Baby carrier and headed off on our expedition to Ravenglass. The first 25 minutes of him in the carrier were killers, as I rediscovered muscles that I haven't used for a long time.


Nathan waiting for the train to start.

I'd taken the OS maps of the area with me (more awkward than usual as the valley runs on the edge of two maps) and followed the journey as we went. It was great fun, although I recommend a jumper if you are in an open coach! The views were great.


Arriving in Ravenglass.

Jill was looking for Thomas the Tank Engine when she took the picture above! Once we arrived in Ravenglass, we headed off out of town along the road to the Roman Bath House Ruin that's there, at the edge of the site of an old fort. Back in Roman Britain, Ravenglass was quite an active port. Nathan had great fun as we went along, grabbing my shoulders and trying to steer me along.


Nathan riding his Daddy's back!

The bath house was quite a substantial ruin, in a state similar to some older castles I've visited in the past, but beyond a plaque and a space to walk about there wasn't an awful lot to do except use your imagination. Now, Roman times were one of the periods of history that fascinated me (I'd have done a Classics A-Level had the school not stopped me) so it wasn't too hard to do, especially as you could clearly see the edge of the old fort from the trench and rampart that ran around it in the adjacent field. However, it was the kind of place that you spend thirty minutes at (maybe more with a picnic) rather than the full on Roman experience like Herculaneum or even the fort in the Hardknott Pass.


This picture shows all the ruins of the Roman Bath House.

The trip back was great, and Nathan managed to fall asleep. We were sitting just in front of a group of rail enthusiasts who were cycling the old rail routes to see where everything used to go. I was fascinated to hear some of the technical details. They also took a lovely picture of Nathan showing his new interest in ice cream.


Moments after he made a grab for my Magnum Classic!

The next day saw us travelling across to Windermere, via Sawtry and Beatrix Potter's old farm Hill Top, and the ferry. When we got to Bowness we visited the Beatrix Potter Experience, which was great and is definitely the place that I would recommend if you;ve got children who are into Beatrix Potter. Fortunately, Nathan and I managed to guide Jill through without her getting too excited. The café here was much better that the one on the railway, although the setting was a little less attractive.

Thursday saw us in Whitehaven, which was my old stamping ground when I was up in the Lakes working. It isn't much to look at, and even the improvement activities seem to have gone a little shabby, but there are real gems here. The place used to be one of the major ports in the UK (indeed, Cunard started here and moved to Liverpool later) and it's one of the few places to have been attacked by a foreign power in the guise of the US Navy during the War of Independence. One of their great heroes, John Paul Jones, led the raid here. There are other links, but you need to look below the surface rather than take the place at face value. I'm guessing the closure of one of the town's two main employers in 2005 hasn't helped the place.


An old Churchyard in Whitehaven, showing the spiral created for the Millennium celebrations.

Anyway, the really good reason to visit Whitehaven still remains; Michael Moon's Antiquarian bookshop on Lowther Street. The place is fantastic, a deceptive in size like Doctor Who's TARDIS. If you like books, you should visit this place. There's a great review of it here in Sam Jordison's blog. After we finished at Michael Moon's we went for a walk around Whitehaven, and then we headed out of town to nearby Cleator Moor, where we met up with some old friends, Howard, Paula and their daughter Mary-Jane. They're a little ahead of us (MJ is 16 months old), so we had a great time catching up and exchanging tips. Nathan behaved himself, and we got him into the car asleep when we headed back to the cottage and the effective end of the enjoyable holiday.


The Ulpha Fell road on the way back to Yorkshire.

It's worth mentioning that we had two very nice meals on the journey from and to home at a pub called The Plough, at Lupton. This is the end of the A65 just between Kirkby Lonsdale and the M6, near Kendal.

Well, it's Day 3 in the Boot Village House, sorry, Cottage and much has happened. Sunday dawned overcast after heavy rain during the night, but we didn't let that put us off! It was Roy's (Jill's father) 60th Birthday and we'd booked a table across the road at the Boot Inn for a slap up lunch to celebrate. However, before that we started with cards and dangly 60th birthday signs that Nathan loved. He loved them for perhaps the wrong reason (for pulling off the numbers when he was on his walker) but he loved them never-the-less.


Roy's 60th Cake supervised by Nathan and his Aunty Paula.

The meal was fantastic, with high points being Nathan singing, Nathan being introduced to Simba the Ginger Cat, and the meal itself. Mine – the infamous Boot Pie – nearly didn't make it as it tumbled to the floor on the way to our table, but fortunately, they had one in reserve. I took pictures, but had the usual challenge with Jill's family all trying to avoid the camera and the chance of a decent group shot was somewhat minimal. The food was fantastic, with great taste, flavour and serving size, and fine beer to accompany it. I was nearly in trouble when I bought Roy a half of Guinness as well as his Sherry, but fortunately it dodn't set his stomach off.


Eskdale Mill in Boot Village.

After the meal, we went for a walk to Eskdale Mill, which is a working flour mill driven by water just up the road from the cottage. It was fascinating, as the technology is pretty much as it was a hundred years ago. The Miller was scathing about the National Trust's approach to preservation – preferring a working route himself – and the fact that teachers seem to want to take kids around places like this. Personally, I thought it was great, but I can understand why younger children would be a liability around the place. It'd be perfect for for older kids doing CDT to set off a project. Unfortunately, demonstrating that they meet current hygiene legislation would be near impossible so they can't actually do anything with the flour they make. We left to walk some more to the church near-by, while I pondered whether they had to meet lifting gear and machinery guarding regulations or if there was some kind of exemption.


The view from the fort in the Hardknott Pass.

Next day (Monday), we had a mini-drama with water leaking from the ceiling. Hopefully resolved by the agent, but we'll find out tomorrow. The afternoon saw us traveling up the Hardknott Pass, stopping off at the Roman Fort. The views were gorgeous, as for once it was brilliant sunshine. Usually when we get there it's raining! We visited the place we always do and got some wonderful pictures of Nathan with windswept hair. After that, it was over the pass to the bleak valley between the Wrynose and Hardknott Passes, and on through Wrynose to Ambleside. We'd planned to go to Keswick, but it was getting late, so we stopped in Ambleside.


It was windy up the pass!

We had a mini-expedition to get a baby rucksack carrier from a shop that actually knew about them, and ended up walking away with a 'bush baby' carrier and some sound advice. The shop was called The Outdoor Family for Kids and I heartily recommend it. Great advice, opportunities to try the carriers and patience as we made up our mind. After this, we had a meal at a Cinema and Jazz Club and Restaurant called Zefferilli's. It did get a little embarrassing when Nathan started to sing to the songs, but I'm sure they preferred that to him crying. After that, we headed back over the Passes to take some pictures of the sun setting and return home.

The day ended with a call from a friend I first met 16 years ago when I was working up at Sellafield during my year out. We'd called in to see them on Saturday, but they weren't around, but we'd left the cottage number. We're planning to meet up on Thursday, which will be a great finish to the holiday.

Currently feeling: Happy
Currently listening to: Nothing
Currently reading: The Wicker Man by Robert Hardy & Anthony Shaffer

We're away in the Lake District for a week, in what is best described as a communications desert. No broadband, no mobile signal, no outgoing phones. Even the TV has to be satellite to get a signal! Fantastic! As a result, this is going to be posted somewhat retrospectively!


Jill and Nathan at Wasdale Head.

We've taken a cottage in Eskdale, in the village of Boot, called Orange Hill Cottage. There aren't any oranges, and it's surrounded by hills rather than being on one, but it's rather nice. Jill found it on the internet. As well as the three of us, Jill's Mum and Dad, and her sister Paula and her fiancé Mark have come along. The cottage has a fantastic kitchen, and a lovely living area.

We got here around 5 o'clock last night, ahead of everyone else, so got the pick of the rooms and a chance to settle Nathan down properly. It did show how times have changed though. In the past, had we arrived and unloaded the car at a place like this with an excellent looking pub opposite we would have probably headed over the road and got a meal and a few drinks. However, now we're responsible adults (!), Nathan insisted that we stay in feed, bath and put him to bed. He went to sleep like a dream.

Everyone else arrived around eight thirty after a nightmare journey, which I suppose was to be expected on the last weekend of the school holidays. They'd just missed the smoke alarm drama (we'd had to disable the mains alarms as they were on the blink and replace them with battery based ones that were delivered by the owner's agent last night) and had also missed the turning for the village (something we'd done in daylight earlier on).

We were up again at 3 AM, as Nathan is teething again. We found two upper front teeth erupting last night and he was in lot of pain. We got back to sleep by 4 AM, and mercifully got a thirty minute lie in to 7:30 as he was tired. I'm not certain what today will bring, but I'm sure it'll be a great change to normal. I'm hoping we can catch up with some of my friends I made when I worked up here mumble 16 mumble years ago!

As an aside, I've just finished The English Patient, following its name-check in Pulp Egypt. I've never seen the film, and the book was interesting as it only really came together towards the end. I don't think its one I'll keep, but I will check out the film. Sadly, had I known it I couid have programmed the PVR at home to snag it as FilmFour has it on this week. That's the perils of getting the listings magazines later on!

Currently feeling: Tired but relaxed.
Currently listening to: Radio 4 via the Sky Box.