Peter's Blog

UKGovCamp 2010

2010-01-25T10:30:00.002Z

Writing this blog whilst on the train to work on a cold Monday morning. Normally I'll still be quite dead to the world and running on auto-pilot. But this morning I have a strange buzz about me. The reason for the buzz was an event I went to on Saturday. UKGovCamp was billed as an un-conference and it certainly lived up to its billing. With most conferences you attend, you are given a fixed agenda before hand. You can see exactly what you are going to get out of it and which part of the day you could have a quiet nap in whilst you wait for the bit you are really interested in. We'll this is not like that at all. To start off all delegates were given the opportunity to 'host a session' and talk about some aspect of Local Gov web that interested them or they were having issues with and wanted to chat about it with others that have been or are going through the same stuff. Talks about the future were also discussed. The session leaders then added their sessions to the agenda (post it notes stuck on the wall to you and me ) and off we went. You picked a session you wanted to attend off you went. Laptop in hand so we could tweet about the session, record notes etc. The sessions I went to were

Local Gov Web group - Hosted by Jan from Lancashire Council, seems she was just starting on the Web 2.0 route and was daunted by the road ahead and trying to persude the council that it was correct was to go. Hopefully the advise we gave her was useful.

Then off to one about gov data, but wasn't quite what I expected so off I went and joined one on social Internal Comms, not really my area but interesting to hear that other councils can make a good go at social internal comms.

Goggle Wave - I made a point of attending this session as I feel I should know more about it, but don't. Didn't get as much out of this as I hoped. The session leader was obviously a fan of Google Wave. Another thought it was 'crap', where as most were in the middle. Yes it can be useful but it's too complicated to use, and if us geeks are having trouble with it then what chance have normal people got of using it.

Then off to a session where Michele from Cambridgeshire talked about one of their project to help communities in the north of the county, where there is high unemployment, those that are in employment are in low paid agricultural work. The project is trying to connect communities on-line and raise the status of the area. Interesting stuff.

Finally, how to made Local Gov Web more exciting. Hosted by Liz from Camden Council, who is the most passionate person about Local Gov web of anyone I've ever met. Her enthusiast was infectious. A lively debate ensured about the rights and wrongs of page design, reaching out to the local community etc. It was great to see that others think like me and are facing and have overcome similar issues. We all agreed that the SOCITM reports are good but only look at one aspect of Local Gov Web, data, but don't look at design at all.

To me there were also two other sessions that were equally as important as those mentions about. Lunch and in the pub after the event. Now I know that those of you who know me well will think that I like the former due to food and the latter due to beer, especially as I now write my Beer Blog. But no its wasn't like that. Lunch time I chatted with two guys who I've tweeted with before but never met and we has a great conversation and the ideas for projects I got from them were great. Ideas that I can also use in my other capacity as webmaster for the Bournemouth Aviation Museum. Many thanks to Dan from Walsall and Al from Newcastle. Great stuff.

The evening session in the pub was good. Finally caught up with Sarah from Derbyshire, who again I tweet with but never met, together with Dan and Al again there was more inspitring stuff and just a generally chin wag about council stuff. The beer was nice, Doom Bar (4% ABV) from the Sharps Brewery in Cornwall. A 'perfectly balanced and complex blend of succulent dried fruit, lightly roasted malty notes and a subtle yet assertive bitterness' , so says their head brewer. I agree this, well nice beer, subtle yet assertive bitterness.

But that's not the end of it. Not by a long way and maybe that's what's giving me a slight buzz. I know that when I get to work there will be messages tweeted about the event, blogs written, photos and videos published etc. And those excellent conversations we had on Saturday will continue. I'm sure you are like me and after a conference think of some question you wish you could put to someone at the event. Well I have such questions and now, thanks to the way the event was set up, with blogs, twitter and its own website I can ask those questions, so the conversations will go on and that I what I think I'll gain most from this event. The networking side, cementing friendships I already had on twitter and meeting new people. There is a great community spirit in the group. Thanks to all who organised and took part in the event.

Videos from yesterday

2009-12-06T19:09:00.005Z

Sorry for the long time since I bloged last. Did get a telling off from Lady S-I-L and quite rightly. Sue's blog will give more details of the fabby weekend. One pressie she got me was a video camera. Results are below.

My writing career starts now.

2009-11-13T22:29:00.005Z

Just a quick update. Had a chat with the Bournemouth Echo last weekend. The result, I am now their 'new beer columist' - great job title eh? First article at http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/blogs/blogs/4736442.What_is_Beer_/?ref=rss. Please leave a comment on thier site. I really want to make a go of this. Thanks

Yougov and the internet

2009-10-22T08:59:00.002Z

Long time since I've blogged folks. Sorry about that. I'll have to do a catch up blog soon.

Reason for this blog is that I'm currently watching the Government 2010 conference being broadcast live from London via the internet. Great use of technology. I can watch the action and post feedback via twitter and see what other twitter users are saying. It's the future.

However a couple of things have got me annoyed. First speaker was the president of YouGov, you know the online polling people. Been a member for ages, spent ages working doing their surveys etc. Now they pay out at £50, so far I got to £46 and guess what? Yes, haven't been ased to do a paid survey for months. And during the talk, he said that YouGov must 'doing things right' otherwise there will be adverse comments on blogs... you mean like this one? (Must point out the there are other online polling companies

He also talked about colleges. Asking why students attend lectures by second rate lectures when they can be taught on-line from a Nobel prize winning lecturer. Couple of points

1) Huge slur there on college lecturers.
2) Is Obama be able to teach all students?
3) What about the one-to-one service college lectures offer, feedback, gearing the lesions to fit the students. Running at their pace, Adding the personal touch.
4) I'd like to see them do some of the courses at Sue’s college on-line. Dog grooming on-line… nah mate, can't be done.

Aviation Museum and SBS

2009-06-25T11:42:00.000Z

Was chatting to my friend Mark the other day and the subject of my blog came up. I said to him that I didn’t know he read my blog. He said that he would if I updated it a bit more often, or words to that effect. So here we are. Grabbing some time on the train heading to work as I type this. At Southampton passed another friends Paul Gottle’s train heading the other way. Paul you must tell me where you sit on the train. I’m in the front carriage of mine. Maybe we could wave to each other every morning. Wouldn’t that be fun. Might get a few strange looks though.

So what have I been up to? Well quite a lot. Working on the new website for the Bournemouth Aviation Museum, which I hope to put live in the next week. Been fun, the museum is an exciting project and it’s great to be able to contribute to it.

As you may have read on Sue’s blog, we had a day out to the Spinnaker Tower, which I highly recommend to everyone. Pick a nice clear day and the view is fantastic. Then off to see Chicago with Jimmy Osmond and Emma Burton (her from Eastenders) WOW both were outstandingly good, as was the rest of the cast. Great show.

Bought myself two new toys recently. On Sunday a new (to me) drum kit. My current one has served me well. It wasn’t that expensive and with it I’ve learnt the basics, admittedly I should be more advanced than I am at the moment, so hopefully the new kit will help. For a start it’s full sized and I’ve now got what I consider the minimum needed to drum, gaining a ride cymbal and now having two rack toms, The kit is also good enough to gig with, not that we ever do,

My second new toy is an SBS box. Basically this picks up signals from aircraft fitted with certain equipment that broadcast their flight number, location and a unique hexadecimal code (yes I knew all the binary and base 16 rubbish we did at school would come in useful one day). This box picks these signals up and displays them on a PC screen, With those broadcasting their location appearing on a radar type display. So I can sit in the back garden looking at the aircraft flying over and know what they are and via the Hex code, which is unique to the aircraft, know which aircraft I’m looking at. Has made spotting easier. But is it too easy? Currently on an average evening I’m making at least 10 new aircraft. Lots of Easyjet and Ryanair, and I’m sure that one day I will get close to fleeting them (ie seeing them all). Which is what I bought the box for - to see planes as it always frustrated me see an airliner trail across the sky and not know what it is. But am I on a level playing field with other spotters. Those with SBS boxes yes. But those without? Ok it is not a competition. We are not trying to out do each other all the time. We all have slightly different rules as to what we count and what we don’t. I would count a lot more that my aforementioned friend Mark. But it is up to us what we count, it’s our hobby and we do it only for ourselves, I guess that it’s no different to those that live close to a main airport and those that don’t. The former will see a lot more than the latter. Anyway, I love my SBS box. Just wish it wasn’t so cloudy so much of the time and more frustration is when I sit at work looking out over blue skies all day and then for it to cloud over in the evening..

Still approaching Bournemouth now, where I get off. Blog entry done, Hope this makes Mark happy, he should be he got three mentions in it!

YouTube

2009-05-07T21:03:00.001Z

YouTube. Well in this case it is MeTube... my first video on the web...

Easter and a few days away

2009-04-20T07:59:00.001Z

Gosh it has been a long time since I blogged hasn’t it dear readers. But I’m back. Good Friday I went off to Barnet to see the mighty AFC Bournemouth play. Though they weren’t so mighty and lost 1-0. Still got some spotting in and it’s a new ground for me. So far I’ve watched matches at 18 football grounds.

Had most of last week off as it was Sue’s birthday. Went and stayed in a Travelodge near Eastbourne. On route we stopped off at a Nature Reserve to see if we could see a rare bird that had been spotted there. Only info I had was that it was sighted near the car park. However and 10-15 bird watchers had set up their scopes/cameras near by and were all looking in one direction. This did make it easy for me. However it was 45 mins until the White Throated Sparrow made an appearance. Nice one. One to add to my life list and in some ways more importantly, it added to my Hampshire list. Whilst waiting for the sparrow also made a blackcap and a marsh tit. Nice one.

Stopped off at Midhurst on route to Eastbourne area and a look at someone’s garden that they had opened as part of the National Garden Scheme. Always nice to look at good looking gardens. Poke around their potting sheds and compost heaps. See how other people do it and I always leave with ideas.

Next day (Thursday) did a little driving tour of Sussex villages. Stopped off to look at five historic churches, one of which was locked (boo), saw the Long Man of Wilmington and the Litlington White Horse.. Both hillside chalk figures. Then the evening spend near a reservoir, just sat taking in the evening sun, watching the birds and the fisherman out on the water. Lovely.

Next day it was a bit rainy, so at Sue’s insistence (well she suggested it) we went to the Bluebell railway. Managed to get on the footplate of two steam locos, whilst they were in steam. A first for me. Really nice of them to allow people up on the footplate. Lovely railway. Would recommend a visit if you are ever down that way.

Back home on the Saturday via Shoreham airport. Which seems to have improved its viewing facilities. Which some airports would take note. Then home. Spend the rest of the weekend in the garden. Really bust at this time of year. I feel that we’ve had the last of the frosts, I hope, so was planting out in Ernest. Spuds, lettuce, onions, spring onions, cabbage, parsnips, runner beans, peas etc. More stuff in the green house. By Sunday evening I was pooped. But really glad that the growing season is finally here. We’ve even started to harvest some of the items as Sue made a lovely omelette with chives from the garden. Nice.

Monday morning now, and back on the train to work. Most of the regulars on board but I notice that one or two are missing. Wonder if any of them notice when I’m not around..

Not my normal blog!

2009-03-12T13:33:00.004Z

Break from my normal blog - Just knocked up a quick table showing how many councils have twitter feeds of their news stories and the number of people that are following those feeds. This is th enew version which updates

Bournemouth Aviation Museum

2009-03-03T17:42:00.001Z

Oh what a good weekend. Sue and I spent most of Saturday afternoon in the Garden. Got some good work done. Clearing out the borders. Weeding. Trying to get my holly bush to have baby holly bushes. I’ve got some cuttings in pots from a branch that I accidentally snipped off and I’ve got another branch, part of which I’ve buried , which I’m hoping will root like one of my other bushes have. The other bush has produced four others, the smallest one I have potted up and hope to grow on.

Sown my first seeds of the season. Might be a bit early but Carol Klein told me to do it (via an article in the Guardian) Fifteen broad bean seeds are now in compost filled toilet rolls in the greenhouse. If they grow they grow, if they don’t well I’ve always got some spare seeds.

Now some of you will know that I used to be on the committee of the Bournemouth Passenger Transport Association, aka the Bournemouth bus museum and was involved in organising their annual rally. Well Sunday I relived those days by helping out my mate Steve and the Bournemouth Aviation Museum. They held their First annual Vintage Transport Day and what a good day it was. I was in two minds as to whether I should help out with the event, doing odd jobs and trying to help the event run smoothly and sort out any problems or to take my stall down there and help out the museum by donating some cash to them from any money I might make. It was really a tough call and I was debating about it right up to when I left home. But I chose to help out with odd jobs and there was quite a few to do in the morning. All skillfully organised by Steve. Yeah it was fun. The museum project is one I would really like to get more involved in. They have a wonderful museum there, which really looks like its heading in the right direction, all they need is a half-decent website. Anyway, the museum itself is all down to the hard work of a handful of volunteers. Well done lads, Roll on the next project?

DC-9 with winglets

2009-03-03T17:39:00.000Z

Gosh I did leave you all on tender hooks last time, didn’t I? I know that you are all dying to know about my six month review thingy with my boss Charlie. Well it went OK. See I told you he was a nice boss. And I’m sure he’s going to be an excellent dad. His wife giving birth to their first child, a son James, last week. Congrats to them both.

So what have I been up to? Last Thursday I went off with a couple of good mates to have a tour of RAF Shawbury and RAF Cosford. A good time was had by all. I would tell you about the hilarious incident coming back at Birmingham when I tried to convince the other lads that the SAS that had just landed looked like a DC-9 with winglets. But I doubt that most of you would get the joke. It turned out to be a Regional Jet on its first visit to Brum. The lads were grateful in the end that I pointed put the aircraft to them.

Friday, I went to Doncaster again for the train. I lived up to its hype. So much so that I stayed all day at the station, leaving briefly to get a KFC for my tea.

Saturday, I went down to the new Bournemouth Aviation Museum site at Bournemouth Airport. They have a bus on site now for use by the spotters. You see, the airport authorities are building a bank of earth all along the perimeter of the airport. There has been some quite bad traffic accidents along that stretch caused by people being distracted by the aircraft. Hence the bank to block their view. So the museum has bought a double decker bus and so we are able to sit upstairs and look over the bank. They have done a lot of work at the museum and it starting to look really good. But, hey why not see for yourself, they are holding a Vintage Transport day next Sunday (1st March). Normal admission rates apply. Lots of old buses, vintage military vehicles, old cars. Going to be a good day out for all the family. Hope to see you there.

birds, snow and nice bosses (creep creep)

2009-02-05T19:13:00.004Z

OK, quick catch up blog here.

Last Friday – Went to Doncaster to do a bit of train spotting. Nice day out, used a free weekend ticket that I get with South West Trains to go up to London. Across on the underground to Kings Cross and then to sample National Expresses service to Doncaster. They have just celebrated their first 'birthday' i.e. they have operated the route for a year. They had some single tickets on offer for just a fiver and I took advantage of this to have a day in Doncaster for just £10 return plus underground fares. Now for the underground I acted like a proper Londoner and used an oyster card. Normally when I go to London I get a travel card but it wasn’t worth it for just two trips across town. So I got an Oyster card. It's cheaper than paying by cash.

Doncaster was good but very cold. Added a couple of churches to my list. St Peterswhich was close to the station and Doncaster Minster which is also just a short walk away. There are a coupled of more churches a bit further away that you can see. I might do these on my next visit to here in a couple of weeks.

Saturday and Sunday – Did a bit in the garden. As much as the cold would let me. Clearing of the border is going well. I also moved the rose buses from the front of garden to the back and made a little display of them.

Monday – Tried to get to work in the snow, but failed. Walked down town and waited for an hour at the train station for a train. When the station announcer said that they were operating a very limited service and that we should listen to local radio for updates I thought that was it. If he doesn’t know when the trains are what hope do they rest of us. I walked home. Visiting Tesco on the way. Buying amongst other things doughnuts. They thought of spending a quiet day at home eating doughnuts seemed too good an opportunity to miss. Just settling down when the door went. Sue couldn’t get to work either. Oh well I guess it would be bad if I ate all the doughnuts anyway. Not that I would have done. Would have saved a couple for Sue. It was nice to have her safe at home rather than trying to drive through all the snow. Doughnuts are for sharing anyway, but was hugely disappointed in the amount of jam in them… You hardly noticed in some of them that they were supposed to be jam doughnuts. Shame on you Tesco.

Monday evening received an e-mail from my boss, telling me not to struggle trying to get into work on Tuesday. Sue had mixed emotions. Pleased that I didn’t have to try to get to work and get into trouble. Not quite sure that I should be given carte-blanch to have a another day at home but realising that Charlie is such a lovely boss to think of me like this… He is a good boss… One could not wish for a better boss…. Top leadership, Wish all the bosses there could be more like him. Yeap – he reads my blog and that I have my 6 month review tomorrow!

Whilst spending time working from home I sat in the conservatory looking out at the bird life, whilst still working hard. Put out plenty of food for them and this seemed to encourage the birds in. Them being unable to get any due to the snow. We had two wagtails in the garden, a species I have seen before in the garden but only on a rare occasion. Two new birds seen in the garden were a Chiff-chaff (a life tick for me) and a Green Woodpecker (a year tick for me) But most importantly they added to the garden birds list as well. It’s great to have birds in the garden. Sit and watch them for hours and I don’t have to travel to see them.

Wednesday was off on compassionate leave to attend the funeral of Sue’s Aunt Marion,. A lovely lady Sue is blogging about that right now on our laptop.

Thursday – back to work – boo hiss..’

What a match!

2009-01-25T13:04:00.003Z

AFC Bournemouth - a team on the brink over being relegated to the football league. A new manager comes in. Well he's an ex-player who was on the coaching staff anyway. He becomes the leagues youngest manager. He makes a signing. Big Steve Fletcher. A player we released a couple of seasons ago, even though he was our longest serving player. He's been playing at Crawly Town in some non-league that will soon include AFC Bournemouth if they don't do something and soon. Could this guy be the spark to re-ignite our season. Well if yesterday's match was something to go by. Yes he can!! I entered the ground about 15 mins after kick off, after selling my half time draw tickets. We were already one-nil down, to top of the table Wycombe Wanderers. You could hear a pin drop in the Bournemouth end. We all knew that if the fact of a new manager and star player returning wasn't going to do anything then that would be it. We might as well give up. Even goading from the Wycombe supporters didn't bring the Bournemouth end to life.

Luckily the players didn't give up. Are these the same players that have been playing so badly of late? They seemed, well interested in playing football again. They wanted to win and a superb free kick, made even better by the booking of a Wycombe player when he was lining up the wall, made it one all.

Goal mouth action again, and joy of joys were two-one up. Now it was our turn to sing. Wycombe just seem to fall apart. Then it was half-time.

Comeon lads we've got to win the second half. Wycombe soon made a double substitution. Sending a message from the bench. Quite what that message was I'm not really sure. But it made no difference. From my angle it was a superb lob that made it 3-1 to Bournemouth, later BBC Sport gave it as a deflected cross that happened to beat the keeper. That was it. Wycombe huffed and they puffed by they could not break down the Bournemouth defence. Who were for once, playing a full 90 minutes of football, rather than the normal 80. Well be played a 4 minutes of 'injury time', don't know how as the trainers weren't on the pitch once during the second half. But final whistle came. We shouted. We clapped. We were happy. Oh it felt good. You know those who don't go to football regulary won't get it. Yes we have had some rubbish games of late. But when you eat nothing but spam all the time. You really appreciate when you have steak one in a while.

My entry for Stu's Weekly photo Challange

2009-01-18T21:42:00.000Z

Good Weekend

2009-01-18T20:57:00.003Z

Gosh, its been such a long time since I last blogged. Sorry about that folks.

Having a good weekend, yesterday was spend mostly in the garden. Got my plan sorted out for the veg plots for the summer. I'll have to blog about that later. Anyway yesterday was spend most clearing areas of the garden. Gave the fir tree a bit of a chop to let more light into the bed below it and visited homebase for spinach seed and another pair of secetours. I've no idea where my original pair have got to.

Today been up to Blashford Lakes to do some bird watching. Highlight must have been the Iceland Gull. First one ever for Blashford apparently. Also saw the Black Necked Grebes together with my favourite grebe, the Little Grebe.

great day

2008-12-13T21:52:00.000Z

Good day today seeing Lady S-I-L, Anne (she writes books you know – and good ones) and my brother Keith. Had a really good day. Good birding and good company. Went down to Titchfield Haven. Saw my 100th different species of bird in Hampshire today. A marsh Harrier. Saw lots of nice birds and really used my scope, which I love. Taken spotting to the next level.

Interview with Sir Alan

2008-12-09T21:48:00.000Z

Took the day off today to go to London. Spent the day doing some train spotting, having a good day. But the main reason for my trip to London was that I had a interview booked with Sir Alan. No, I’m not going on the apprentice, its not that Sir Alan, but Sir Alan Greengross who is chairman of the South West Trains Passenger Panel. Been trying to get on the panel for a while. Would be so interesting to see their work and get to know the workings of a train company better. And of course to try to get South West Trains to give me a better service. Sir Alan seemed a really nice chap. Friendly and passionate about his work. I just hope that I did enough to impress him. He seemed keen especially when I talked about websites, seemed like the passenger panel might want one.

Birthday

2008-12-05T21:41:00.003Z

Yeap its my birthday today. Had lots of books, a brid watching in Norfolk DVD. A hedge trimmer from Sue's parents but my main present was a brid watchers scope. Tried it out this afternoon. Its great. Spotted a scaup today. First time ever. Wouldn't have seen it if it wasn't for my new scope. Doesn't count to my Hampshire list though as we were at Langford Lakes in Wiltshire. Good venue. Good day today.

Book Review

2008-11-26T21:12:00.000Z

First time I have read one of Anne Brookes books and I wasn't disappointed. Rape isn't the nicest of subjects but it how Kate copes afterwards that is the main thrust of this story. She is sometimes her own worst enemy but you really know where she is coming from. She has your sympathy, well most of the time. You do get frustrated with her at times. But the story flows well and you just hope that it all ends happily, but you do wonder at times whether Kate will find peace.

The story questions the friendship between Kate, her best friend Nicky and Nicky’s husband . It explores how close people do get to each other. No matter how close THINK you are to someone, you never completely know them and never completely open up to them.

Thanks Anne for a great read, great story and for making me think.

Quick Catchup

2008-11-10T10:20:00.001Z

Well I hope you are all well. I am. Been a busy chap of late. Seen sister in Norfolk, went to Penshorpe Nature Reserve, lots of nice birds. Went to Norwich beer festival, Drank lots of beer. Very nice. Had a nice weekend. AFB Bournemouth match was good, best for ages. Popped down to Blashford lakes yesterday. Added a couple more birds to my Hampshire list for 2009 (now on 98).

You are feeling sleepy

2008-10-16T13:33:00.001Z

Have work laptop, so blogging on the train. The reason for me taking the work laptop home is that I've been to an Ordnance Survey conference for the last couple of days up in the Midlands. Good event it was too and it was good to see how other councils, plus the emergence services are using geographic data.

However, what I will remember most from this conference and what most people will remember me for(!!) is what happened in the evening after the Gala Dinner. The post dinner entertainment was a hypnotist. I always been a bit sceptical of these sort of acts and to satisfy my own curiosity and to what it was like to be involved in such an act, I was one of 6 to volunteer to be put under the spell. I closed my eyes and it started.

I milked a lovely cow for all I was worth. I rode that horse and won the race. My victory dance was quite a sight apparently. Then I used my shoe as a mobile phone. I got a laugh and a small round of applause for using a shoe lace as an aerial. And that was it, I think. I know I didn't take off any clothes before you ask, apart from the shoe. Apparently I was the star of the show and the reaction I got off stage and the next morning from everyone was fantastic. All wanted to congratulate me. They all wanted to know how it felt. There was at least one person who recorded some of it on his mobile phone. I'll post it on here if I get a copy of it.

So how did it feel. Well the best way I can describe it is that it felt like I was in a dream. I knew where I was. I knew what I was doing. My inhabitations would have still stopped me doing anything dangerous or obscene. But when the hypnotist made a suggestion, you thought, yeah that silly but I'll do it. When I got back to my seat it did take me a couple of minutes to get ‘back to normal', but then I was fine.

Now I hadn't texted or phone Sue all day, mainly because there was no phone signal in the hotel at all. So about midnight I went outside. To the side of the hotel, they have a lake in their grounds with reeds, ducks etc Plus a small seating area. Whilst sat there I received a couple of texts and a voicemail message from Sue that she had sent that day. I sent her a text knowing that if she wasn't awake she'll get it in the morning. I did wait around for a few minutes to see if I would get a response. The hotel was quite hot and stuffy so it was great to sit out in the fresh cool air. It was lovely.

I was soon joined by Roger, one of my bosses. We had a quick chat about the hypnotise and a bit of a laugh. I did ask him when he came out.. Did he see me outside? Did he just fancy a walk in the fresh air or what? He said that one of his ex-work colleagues and someone we met earlier that day had seen me go outside and towards the lake. She went to him worried that something was wrong and I was suffering from being hypnotised that evening, I assured him that I was OK and I promised him that I wouldn't jump into the lake.

Lovely Tits

2008-10-08T18:14:00.003Z

Was sat in the conservatry today having been off work sick, yes I'm feeling a lot better but think Sue might be going down with it. Anyway, Robin normally has the garden largely to himself, plus the odd Collard Dove, pidgeon and blackbird. However today we had a flock of various tits decend on the garden. Robin was going mad trying to chase them off his patch. He even had a go at the collard doves who were taken by surpise.

The tits contained at least 3 long tailed tits, 2 coal tit and some great and blue tits. This was the first time long tailed and coal tits have been seen in our garden. Lovely.

Going to do somecatch up blogs at somepoint, as I haven't bloged for ages. I haven't told you all about my holiday in Austria. It was great. Apologies to all for not getting a postcard. I did buy them and buy stamps but didn't get around to writing them out etc.

Web 2.0

2008-09-11T10:41:00.000Z

Went to a Web 2.0 Conference yesterday in London. Wow, mind blowing. So much to think about both at work and in my non-work life. I can see the way we use the web changing. More social ineteraction. Main speaker for the day was Ewan McIntosh. He's from Edinburgh. Don't know if I siad before but I've started reading, what Sue calls 'proper' books i.e. Novels. Working my way through Ian Rankin books at the moment. Yesterday Ewan made a joke with refernce to Ian Rankin's books and I got the reference. Something I wouldn't have done just a couple of weeks ago...

Ruby, Ruby, Ruby Ruby, Ruuubyyyyy*

2008-09-06T21:27:00.002Z

Apologies to the Kaiser Chiefs for the blog title.

Been a quiet couple of days. Sue's been away at her brothers. I’m sure she'll tell you all about that in her blog. Watched 'Lost in Austin' which Sue recorded on Wednesday night whilst I was at band practice. The other day we read an article in the paper on Janine Duvitski. Apparently, she has made lots of money on property in addition to all her TV work. She always seems to on the box, having appeared in lots and lots of stuff. The article mentioned that her eldest daughter was going to be in 'Lost in Austin'. We thought we spotted her, a young actress who looked like a younger version of Janine. But we had to establish the characters name so we could check that we had the right actress. I initially thought that she was playing Kitty, but the Radio Times said that this was Florence Hoath. Then Sue pointed out that she thought she was playing Mary, but that's an actress called Ruby Bentall. We were expecting someone called Duvitski. Then it stuck me, according to a web site I read the other day - Janine has an English mother and a Polish father, So her maiden name is Duvitski and must have married a Bentall. Sue then Googled away and found a site that confirms it. Phew!!! What we saw of the remaining programme look very good, we missed the first part trying to work out all this stuff with Janine's daughter. Its such hard work watching TV programmes these days.

So to recap, 'Lost in Austin' stars Florence Hoath, we did make it to my actresses website and Ruby Bentall who is the daughter of Janine Duvitski, who so nearly made my actress website but didn't. Also Pippa Haywood is in the series as well. She did make my actresses list. Talking of which, another actress on my website, Rebecca Callard sent me a note via Facebook the other day. First time I've heard from her for a while, I really must get around to replying to her and updating all these webpages with new info!

Ruby Bentall as Mary Benent in 'Lost in Austin'

Busy Weekend

2008-08-17T17:48:00.000Z

On Saturday went to Aldershot for a AFC Bournemouth match. We got a draw. It was a relief to come back from 1-0 down, but we should have made the chances when we had them in the first half. Used one of my free train tickets I get with my annual season tickets. Made the most of it by travelling on some lines that I’ve never travelled on before, namely Aldershot-Guildford and the two lines from Guildford up to London via Effingham Junction. Didn’t think much of Aldershot as a town. Neither did my friend Gill who was hoping to get some shopping in.

Today Sue and I decided to have a day together and went down to Titchfield Haven. Added a couple of birds to my 2008 Hampshire List, namely Sandwich Tern and an Osprey. Both of which went into my Life List as well. Unusual sighting of the day must go to one of the Kestrels who was attacking a couple of magpies. No idea why it was doing that.

Good weekend

2008-07-20T20:13:00.002Z

Saturday, met up with with some mates for a pub lunch. Met up with guys and gals, some of which I've met in real life before and others have only been on line. After the meal went off with one of the guys and did a geocache. Something I haven't done for ages.

Today, Sunday, been up to Popham airfield and had my stall there. Took a bit of money but not as much as usual. However seeing the lack of people up there today, I'm surprised we made anything at all.