Tuesday May 31, 2005

Three pubs and churches , a telephone box and a lorry.

During the long weekend we stayed at this pub, the Three horseshoes at Bennett End in the Chilterns not far from High Wycombe. In its garden is a duck pond with an usual house for the ducks.

The ducks are protected against foxes who have diminished their number already. The females have lost of a lot of their feathers on the back of their necks, I was told this is due to the male ducks being a bit rough during mating!

In the morning before getting to the pub we did a great walk mainly under trees in nearby Great Hampden. We went past its pretty church (space precludes inclusion in this weblog entry). Part of the walk took as along Grim's dyke and the beech trees were full of new lime green coloured leaves rustling in the strong winds. Several rabbits scampered across our path as we disturbed them. During the walk we went past a very ugly gothic style house owned by John Hampden who like many others refused to pay the dubious ship tax levied by Charles 1st. A lot of that walk trail was divided into two, one for horses the other for us walkers. So often a bridleway is churned up by horses hooves, quite reasonably of course but it makes it hard to walk on. We then had an excellent lunch in the pub in Great Hampden where on the bar were 'free' olives both green and black. Quite unusual to see that, although some pubs have cheese and pickles or crisps on the bar on Sundays. In the afternoon we drove to Claydon house.

We walked around inside the house and saw the strange but magnificiant Chinese room. A large sofa was surrounded by a very intricate Chinese sculpture which dominated one of the walls. The main staircase has a lovely parquetry finish to the steps. Loads of books were in the rooms, a very odd small piano ( might have been called a box piano). A lot of the rooms had wonderful ceilings, very ornate.

Florrie's Lorry. This was the carriage used by Florence Nightingale in the Crimean war. She was a pioneer of modern nursing carrying out her first work in that war ( 1854-56) on horseback. She was offered the carriage after an accident with a mule cart. The connection between Florence and Claydon house where we saw the carriage is that her sister married Sir Harry Verney who owned Claydon. She was a regular visitor to the house.

The evening in the pub was excellent with two very good main meals with a very nice liver parfait for me as a starter. My wife had a very nice half roasted duck (not one of the ones out of the pond!), myself I just love scampi and chips however boring it might seem. We had a quick walk further down into Bennett End between courses to enjoy the pleasant views in the eveing.

On the following day we did a proper walk around Bennett End itself and found ourselves at this pretty church with its windows open so you could hear the organ playing during the Sunday service. The church is actually in Radnage, a nearby village. Before we got to the church we past a bird sitting on an electric cable. Turned out it was a very small baby owl. Overhead the Red kites that you get in this area were not so much in evidence, this is because like other birds it is their nesting season. Near the end of the walk the famous tower of West Wycombe's St Lawrence's church was clear to see (not pictured).

On the Monday now back home, we did a local walk around our village, the weather still sunny and dry. The walk was one I did on my own earlier in the year around the south end of our village. We started by walking along the river Loddon and then after a mile crossing fields to Hurst. As we crossed the fields full of lambs and their mothers we saw the church in Hurst in the distance. It has a very attractive steeple. Through the village we passed some Almshouses built in 1682 as a hospital for the maintenance of eight poor persons at 6d (2.5 of today pence) a day, stopping for a coffee and a baguette at the Green Man before finally wending our way back home - a nice five mile walk.

Monday May 30, 2005

European race

Well after a thrilling end in which Kimi and Mclaren made the wrong call Alonso won. Heidfeld a crediable second and Rubens netted a third place for Ferrari. Coultard got a brilliant fourth despite an avoidable penalty for speeding in the pit lane, Schumi bags fifth, Fisi sixth, the monster seventh and Trulli got the last point again after having to deal with drive through penalty. The start was slow for the William's duo again, meaning Kimi snatched first place off Heidfeld. Webber lost out at the first corner ( so often this corner causes problems) and admitted fault when he banged cars with the monster. The track was clearly tough on tyres and drivers with many falling off the track.

Teams who did well:

RBR. Coultard might have got a podium had he not fallen foul of pit speeding. He did well on the first lap making up loads of places and showing very good race pace. Luzzi also drive well.

Williams. Heidfeld again showing good form getting pole but was on a different strategy to Webber. I think this team is making good progress. Webber was right to admit fault but he needs to 'chill'.

Teams who did as well as expected

Renault. Alonso must have a big smile on his face but he did very well in difficult circumstances. Fisi had what I am going to call Briatore luck as usual when his car failed to undertake the parade lap.

Teams who had a bad weekend

BAR. The promise of good testing while they were out of real racing was not fulfilled. The engines they used were from Imola and clearly they were worried about an engine that had been lying in a garage unused for five weeks. But they clearly had no race pace.

Mclaren. Wrong tyre call for Kimi. He could have swapped that type and got third place but the team threw it all way. The monster although 'not guilty' of the first corner punch up with Webber hardly impressed. The wheel tethers did an excellent job hanging onto Kimi's wheel though.

Other stuff

This is the first race where the one tyre for the race really did make a big difference in the end to a race result. Several people had problems with tyres including Kimi. Massa lost out too. I think in the event of a tyre really being unsafe and Kimi's was like a fifty pence piece, they should come in else all the other changes to improve safety amount to a fat zero. Rubens is playing the I won't be a second driver to Schumi any more after the final lap at Monaco where he lost a place to his team leader.. I think BAR are keeping an eye on him. We now have two races in North America before returning to Europe and France. Bridgestone and Ferrari's claim to produce better race pace did not materialise although Rubens did ok with his three stopping strategy. JV seemed to be struggling big time, racing Jordans and Minardi's.

Friday May 27, 2005

Devils and dust

Bruce's new album is here . I think it is a bit like his Nebraska

The album is good and the title track is awsome and builds UP as it goes on - very clever. I find myself best liking the even numbered tracks which are the faster tracks. I think this is a late night album after a meal, a few too many glasses of wine just before going to bed ! The version we purchased has a companion DVD that we have not watched yet. So apart from the title track my favourites are; All the way home, Long time coming, Maria's bed, (sounded like a Ronnie Lane track) Leah and All I am thinkin' about.

PS the album has a parental guidance for the track called 'Reno'. There's plenty of talent in Bruce still it seems.

Flashing !

Ok I admit it for the first time in the weblog's history I am using a title to attract people's attention. Sorry you are to be disapointed.

I think the use of headights except to help see where you are going in the dark is for one reason only.

From This page tells us more..

90: Flashing headlights. Only flash your headlights to let other road users know that you are there. Do not flash your headlights in an attempt to intimidate other road users.

91: If another driver flashes his headlights never assume that it is a signal to go. Use your own judgement and proceed carefully.

So it is really difficult. I try where possible to wave my arms instead of flashing my lights. But when a vehicle you are letting out is a long way off they are not going to see me do this. So I try and completely stop not just slow down to really show it is ok for them to move out.

Thursday May 26, 2005

Wysteria

This is a lovely climber. In our area it seems popular and does well. The most abundant is this, the purple type. Some of the houses round here have a Wysteria which have really old and twisted trunks. The plants need a lot of pruning twice a year is the norm. A sunny position is vital else they just do not grow at all. On our pergola we have two, the purple and the white one. The perfume of the latter is like a strong jasmine. The bees go bonkers on either type. The only problem with them is when the petals fall you end up with a mess on the ground.

Fun @ Sun

Sun has an employee benefit called Fun @ Sun. It organises events both within a team and company wide. I recently got a budget for an event. How to spend the money wisely and make a great event which was unusual but fun. So we booked ourselves into see the star wars latest film. But after a hard day in the office/lab I knew some food was going to be needed first. Six of us were going so I had a plan to cook them a meal and use the Fun @ Sun money to buy the ingredients. I made a lasagne - two in fact as we had vegetarians on board. My wife was out that evening ( I felt a bit like Captain Mainwaring and others on TV who's wives you never see). We all met at my house and we had a great meal and then drove to Bracknell to watch the film. It might seem strange cooking your team a meal but why not ? One of my full time staff who organised this event had recently won an award in Sun that gave him vouchers to see films. He donated these to us as he felt his award although given to him should be shared out as it was down to everyones hard work in the lab that he got it. A lovely gesture.

How was the film? well I think it is the best of all of the series. I guess we all know what is going to happen it is just how it transpires that provides the interest. The effects are stunning; for me the blur between reality and 'cgi' narrows again. I wonder if Lucas knew or had any idea he could produce such a film when he started on the first many years ago. While eating our meal we all worked out what when the first film came out none of the students were even born !

Wednesday May 25, 2005

What power blip?

The campus had a power blip a short while ago. It did not last long but as soon as the the lights came back on we were working again on our sunrays. No need to login again, pop in the smartcard and you are back where you left off. Unfortunates with desktops may have got away with it if they had beefy power supplies but the longer the power cut the less likelyhood of them surviving it of course. Impressive display of the technology.

Holes in the road

It annoys me to see the local councils having to repair roads after utilities have dug them out. Very often the utilities dig their hole, fill it and make a half decent job of repairing the surface. Of course over time two things happen:

The earth in the hole settles and the hole becomes sunken.

The edges round the holes where the patched tarmac meets the original surface seperate and then small holes appear as the tarmac breaks up.

It seems to me that utilities are responsible for this. I think some kind of temporary cover should be put in place ( that could perhaps be reused) and after a set time the proper surface is replaced. The other annoying thing is some utilities seem to be able to dig up roads and effect proper repairs. In Bracknell a new gas main has left a scar on the road but it is perfectly flat. However in Binfield where a series of road works had left an uneven surface this was recently repaired and seems as bad as it was before!

Stuck on the Beatles

Well as you can see the coloured areas of the puzzle are complete. I am now on the black bits. I tried my usual way of doing jigsaw puzzles, sift through the pieces and fit them in. I then discovered bits appeared to fit but were wrong (as they did not match up with other 'correct' bits). So my second strategy was to only put pieces in IF they fitted perfectly on two edges of an existing puzzle piece. All went well until as in the patience ard game no more bits would fit. So there are some pieces in the wrong place but the pieces appear to fit 100% right. It must be the other edges of them that are wrong. So I am thinking of another strategy. If I fail to finish it this way I'll put the puzzle up in its incomplete state in a clip frame of shame...

My strategy is to break the black section down until only the black bits with words on are left. I then start again. However this time I do the black section upside down. This way I will get a better idea if the pieces really match exactley. If anyone has any other ideas do let me know.

Tuesday May 24, 2005

One tank of fuel...

So no walks or trips to pubs for us last weekend. A drive to visit one of my father in law who lives on the Wirral. This is a journey we have been doing for close on twenty years. In those years the two hundred mile journey has seen several changes; the car we drive in, the completion of the M40 which meant the crawl through Banbury is now missed and of course the M6 toll road and more. The journey length increased after moving to Twyford (from Oxford) and I now find (although I was being silly by not taking a break) that I cannot do the journey non stop without a stop. We also go on the NorthWest route of the M42 from the M40 to then join the M5 and finally get to the M6 by the RAC controlroom. This seems a better journey than taking the M42 the other way and picking up the M6 further down. We finish the journey on the M56 and then taking the Chester high road. We have only used the M6 toll road a couple of times. I would rather keep off it as it seems to be turning into a racetrack . The M40 thankfully has service stations now, when its last section opened there were none. On one section a sign used to read "Tiredness can kill take a break", followed within yards with another "No services on the M40". I observed services are charging about five pence (per litre) more for diesel than their counterparts not on motorways. The services are a lot better than they used to be, the "Moto" ones are best offering no quibble money back if you are not happy. In the eating area they had baby stuff, nappies etc which in an emergency might be useful! A microwave and sterile bottles were also available. Compare us to the French motorways where break areas with just toilets seem to be in abundance every few kilometres. The motorways there also have the larger places which serve food and drink etc.

The reason for writing this is that we used to have to fill up during the return journey. With the Golf achieving 48MPG on this run, we can do the journey on one tankful of diesel. The visit was worthwhile and my father in law was pleased to see us and be taken out to a local pub narrowly missing the rainstorm, thunder and lightening.

It would be interesting to see how many miles we have done and hours used up on the journey to see my wife's parents over the years. This weekend the roads were clear but some journeys have been an endless nightmare of being stationary on the M6 tarmac.

I feel it is kind of sad to remember the early years when we used to stay in the house and be cooked food, now he has a carer and is very infirm. They used to come and see us at home that will never happen again. The realisation of this aging process was added to by the death of my wife's sister's husbands mother this weekend. She died in her sleep peacefully was quite old but it is still a sad event to hear of.

Monday May 23, 2005

Monaco F1 race

Interesting race this one. Over the years the great and the good have made unforced errors ( Schumi, Senna ) and others have had appalling luck. Damon Hill was on target to win when his Renault engine blew in his Williams. Panis won when anyone in the lead were doomed not to finish in a Ligier. If Monaco tried to get a place on the F1 circus it would be refused but who would eliminate it now ? It is said if F1 cars entered the tunnel upside down they would stick to its roof because of the downforce they generate even now. You only need to look at the Arnco after a race to see where tyres have brushed against them, courting disaster.

The race was one of the better ones with Kimi taking a well deserved win with the William's boys of Heidfeld and Webber taking P2 and P3. Alonso struggled but just survived to keep P4. The monster recovered well to take P5 and Ralph too with P6 both having started at the back of the grid. Schumi and Rubens took the final two points paying positions.

Teams who did better than expected

William's with a P2/P3. Heidfeld overtaking his teamate in the stop did very well. It took Webber two goes to repeat his teamates overtaking move on Alonso but Frank will be pleased.

Teams who did as well as expected

Mclaren with another win and the monster bagging points after being pushed to the back of the grid for causing an accident in qualifying. Kimi thanked the William's drivers for pushing Alonso backwards closing the gap between him and Alonso even more.

Teams who failed to flatter

Renault who clearly were on the back foot with a slow pace and nasty handling once the tyres lost their grooves. Amazing difference between the wear on their and Mclaren's tyres.

RBR through no fault of their own lost out when Schumi wacked the back of DC's car. DC was full of fuel and could have got a podium.

Ferrari also on the back foot with spurious bursts of pace from Schumi which he then seemed to lose. Back to the drawing board boys. Rubens with a drive through penalty for speeding in the pit lane did not help.

Sauber lost points due to JV making a mess of a corner and knocking his teamate out of position.

Other stuff

Kimi and Alonso were stunning in qualifying being 1.5s faster than the folks behind them. Jenson Button did an excellent job in the commentary box; a job for him when he retires. There was one funny bit when someone said there are still eighteen cars in the race. Button replied " I'd rather it was twenty". I think the ITV F1 commentators would benefit from one of the teams test or third drivers being in the box with them. The on board shots were very special at this track and it blows your mind to see what the drivers see and how fast they have to react. Webber got his first podium, well deserved but over shadowed in my opinion by his teamate. If BMW supply engines for Sauber next year Heidfeld will surely follow them. In the news, Toyota avoided a penalty despite not having all their licences to race up to date. BAR will be back next week in Germany and will be fresh after their break and also not having had to attend Monaco and deal with its peculiarities.

Friday May 20, 2005

Choisya

This shrub is at its best in late spring - now. It has lovely white flowers on it that have a nice honey smell to them. This one is in our front garden and on a sunny day walking up to the front door the air is full of that lovely perfume. The shrubs can get quite big and you need to be careful when you prune them else you are left with big ugly gaps in the shrub's shape. The leaves are also pretty a nice light shade of green. It is also evergreen and quite hardy. This one took a couple of years before it really for going.

What car do YOU drive ?

I thought it would be interesting to think about why people choose cars for themselves. I am going to make fun of myself to show good grace in this.

So I chose this car. My wife would not allow me to have what I really want which is a Golf GTI. The reason is because for whatever reason she does not trust me with this rollerskate. So we bargain and I am lucky in that she does not know too much about cars so I can get away with a fair amount here. A bright red car with the word GTI on the back is not going to get the approval but a 2.0 TDI is going to be ok. The fact that the GTI only has 60 BHP (I think) more than the TDI is ok with her. The TDI has sports suspension and the loud pedal reacts in an impressive way. So the car we have here is typically driven by those men whoes wives have an influence on their car choice and this is one way of being a boy racer and getting away with it.

Jaguar cars . Now very affordable with the new X and S type. The X type is a Ford Mondeo with a Jaguar designed bodyshell. The drivers of these cars have a pipe and slippers waiting for them at home. They have forgotten how to use a gearbox so choose an auto box.

Renault / Citroen are chosen by people with either a late rebellion instead of the usual teenage years or are trying to make a very suspect fashion statement. The cars with all sorts of gismo's and car safety awards are just ugly to look at.

Ford Mondeo ( mundane ) or Vauxhall Vectras are not chosen by these drivers. It is their companies decision to use these cards using large purchase numbers to get hefty discounts. The company car drivers, usually salesmen are left with one of these which they drag up and down the motorways usually on the red line of the rev counter on the dash. The cars are then cleaned up and sold to unsuspecting second users..

4X4 (SUV) vehicles. These are driven by people who like the woman in the Keeping up Appearances BBC series are trying to be part of the gentry or above their place in the world. The elevated driving position adds to the effect of being 'above' everyone else on the road. Green wellies (unused) will be in the boot of the car. The wellies of course are as mud free as the 4X4 will be...

Soft tops or rag tops like Audi's, Beemers and Mercs are often driven by the ladies who like to have the top down and show off their latest expensive hair cut. They then have to drive very slowwwwlllyyy to avoid messing it up. They hold the steering wheel with their fingertips to show off their well manicured nails in the 'ten to two' position of course for maximum visibility.

English sports cars like Lotus, TVR's( Lots Of Trouble Usually Serious ) are driven by upwardly mobile men with nothing better to spend their money on. These cars frequently break down or fail to start leaving their owners greatly embarrassed as they try to impress their friends.

Well that my summary , remember this was written in jest so if you match one of these descriptions I apologise but it is for fun ! Any corrolation between the above descriptions and real people who I may or may not know is pure coincidence.

Thursday May 19, 2005

A strange monument

While driving back from a walk we passed through Fawley.It has this pretty church in the village.

In the churchyard is this monument.

It is huge and nearly dwarfs the pretty church and is a big too big in my opinion. The top of the monument has an inscription on it that reads :

GUIL FREEMAN

Bene Merenti

I. Freeman P.

Et fibi 26 yuis ( the y is upside down)

A.D. 1750.

So I did some searching and it turns out it is a mausoleum built by John Freeman for his family around 1750. John Freeman took 'over' the nearby Fawley Court . He was the nephew of William Freeman's who Fawley court was built for.

On the Beach - Nevil Shute

I read Nevil Shute's books when I was at school. I read "No Highway" where a nutty scientist is predicting a plane's tail will fall off, "Trustee from the Toolroom", "In the wet" and of course "A Town like Alice". "On the Beach" has been remembered to me as an engineer on our campus lent me the DVD of the film. The sum total of his books are an awsome collection and I fear he might be seen as a bit old fashioned nowadays. Back to the book however. Shute creates a nightmare scenario where a nuclear third world war has destroyed the Northern hemisphere's population. The south is as yet untouched. But an unfriendly wind is steadily bringing the deadly radioactive fallout to our Southern Hemisphere cousins. The main characters of the book are an American submarine commander , his boat and crew - orphans in this brave new world, a young Australian Naval officer his wife and young child. Also is a friend of theirs ( in the film her sister) and her ex boyfriend. The US sub comes to Australia and is seconded by the Aussie navy to discover if the fallout in the Northern half of the world is diminishing or if there is a 'safe area'. Before they go a radio signal is found coming from the North indicating the possibility survivors are still alive.

To avoid destroying the possibility of you enjoying the book I will leave it there. Suffice to say however Shute unravels several threads of "ordinary people doing extraordinary things.". Perhaps his books will stage a comeback.