A Busy Few Days

This last week has been a hive of activity in the TWBrit bunker… Much of this has been around doing various amounts of artwork for a Café Press shop which is still very basic. The thing that kills me about Café Press and all of these online print shops is while for a one-off item things are “ok” in pricing – they’re unique etc… But the mark up on the basic items is practically daylight robbery!!  Items like mugs cost in excess or $10 before you even put a logo on – which after a quick scout around Chinese suppliers online turn up to cost little more than 0.35c !! But then there is what will and will not work as artwork.. I did this for a fun if not crazy mug print (click to make it bigger), it looks great as a hi-def image, on the site – it looks dire… So the weekend is here and I’ll take a break from it. As and when it’s ready there will be a shop link over in the right hand column –>

Also this week, Bill Gates… Now here is a guy I have a little time for… no, not because he has more money than several countries put together (he earned it, he deserves it!!) but he did a couple of things this week; firstly he said on BBC News  – he should pay more tax… Tax should feel to have the same impact on me as it does on the rest of society – it’s only fair… Well that I can respect… in another interview he told of how they had all but eradicated Polio in India – Polio (thanks to the Gates Foundation) is a heartbeat from being the 2nd ever disease to be entirely eradicated – Rockin!! Then at a south London school, students looked on with jaws hanging open as the guest speaker stepped up to talk to them – yep, the very  same Bill Gates!! The guy is a friggin rock star!

I have been enjoying a blog recently, I started getting hits from somewhere in California and then some WordPress “Likes” tags…. So I went to look at Lesley Carter’s blog…   and apart from a bit of baby talk, she runs a truly great blog about her travels and adventures – it’s really is enough to take your mind off the daily grind and well worth a read. I should re-do all my Blog Roll listings and include hers.

On the subject of blogs – @Ritchhh has decided to give the blogasphere a hefty kick with his new blog. Now, it’s early days and there is a little “feet finding” going on… but he’ll be kicking it real soon enough…

Big talks this week about going to SXSW… if so – when? And then how long for? And so on… It all started when Sue Black of the infamous “Mustang Sue’s Wreckin Crew” asked if and when we’re going… Well the real question is can I survive a Mustang Sue’s hard-assed partying, the other is sheer cost – we’ll see ;)

Fenny this week sounds like she has fought on the battlefields of apprenticeships and employment… well my answer to this is – you’re only here once… kill’em all ;)

The blogs help and hindrance @Gabsatrucker has not only chalked up some good fitness mileage of late but has also started her road in tech know-how and professionally qualified genius status – and good for her…

In other news, we had a solar storm! A large one, but not a monster thankfully, but they’re still expecting a huge one at some point. As yet, the total damage is unknown, but we’ll know soon enough… if you don’t know about solar storms – HERE is a post I did in 2009 that has been referenced by many including the media.

And last but not least – Monty Python :) Yep the boys are coming back to do a CGI Sci-Fi movie and I for one can’t wait!! No doubt it’ll cause offence to the weak of mind…. But who needs them anyway ;)

Published in: on 28 January, 2012 at 10:07  Comments (2)  
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Austin… the saving grace of Texas

Now I could go into the history of this City, the capital of Texas – but that is what Wikipedia is for… so go there to read it ;-)

I on the other hand will write of my brief experience of this Oasis of a city and one I’d like to return to. Beyond the complaints of the I-35, a little known parking lot that runs the entire length of Austin. As you approach Austin at night it looks like an oasis of high-tech and modern living. Indeed, Andrew Baron of Rocketboom even called this city “The saving grace of Texas” and for the most part I can see why.

Oh, it is an oasis… but furthermore it’s also a city of culture and has a “cosmopolitan feel” if you like. Like all modern cities though, the concept of skyscrapers in the centre have not escaped Austin, crushing much of it’s history into oblivion. Yet down there in the heart of it is the famed and acclaimed 6th Street and if you add in 4th, 5th and Congress Avenue… then there is more than a heart beat or pulse of this city’s history and entertainment right there.

These days, the area of South Austin seems to have a greater vibe, open parks, restaurants, leafy suburbs and a greater “wellbeing” feel. Something I found very attractive and yes from what I could see, it’s obvious the town planners have long term goals for making the city greener and healthier than most.

Austin like any large city has its good and bad, the first day we walked down 6th Street (2nd Jan) around 2pm and a full on brawl broke out in front of us. Two guys punching the living daylights out of each other without a care in the world of who they bounced into, or where in the world they were from.. No police presence, and while I sidestepped them as they flew past – this blogs buddy @Gabsatrucker got fully barged out of the way by them, just before skulls met the concrete sidewalk. This was certainly, how should I say… interesting… We went to Starbucks and I said “soooo, this is Austin huh?” Gabby on the other hand was really not happy either… This was on the back of the news that on New Years morning 3 people had been shot, one to death and someone was killed trying to cross the I-35… Kinda leaves you with a cheery feel… That and the fact that Austin has oh so many people begging on street corners in the 4th,5th and 6th street areas at night.

But nevertheless… there is a vibe to the city as a whole you can’t quite put your finger on, the south is awesome and the club names like Antone’s, reverberate through the music scene globally. In fact one night in Antone’s made up for a lot of the misgivings we had earlier.

Yes Austin does have it’s many sides, but it’s this mix that probably makes it so intriguing and apart from having to change hotels due to rather unpleasant smell at the first one – it is a city I will definitely spend more time to explore.

Austin also has quite a few interesting slogans “Keep Austin Weird” is something you’ll see just about everywhere and then the “Austin, Live Music Capitol of the World” and it’s fair to say they’re not wrong! It’s a city of modern culture, hi-tech industries, fitness and fresh air – heck they even name the flight between Silicon Valley and Austin the “Nerd Bird”… It also has to be right up there with as one of the biggest conference venues in the world along side cities like Dubai and with it being home to South by South West (SXSW) there are hotels galore – some better than others, but the closer you get to downtown the prices go from reasonable to extortionate.

This is one of the major centres of entrepreneurship in the US and certainly with regards to technology, but it’s frankly stunning that Dell computers does not seem to have anything for the public, nerds and geeks to visit or see… In fact I was seriously surprised there was little in the way of Dell’s visibility at all – certainly an opportunity lost on Dell’s part. A “Dell Technology Showcase” or “Experience” is seriously needed.

With so much going on I think the city will grow, continue cleaning its image. But if you want to enjoy a fitness lifestyle, then look no further than this awesome city with the Lance Armstrong cycle way, large parks and running areas and even a park on the water front with a special area to allow dogs to run freely.

Yes, it’s right to keep Austin weird, but it’s also right to redesign and build for future tourism, future-tech transportation systems and greener more hi-tech lifestyle and I really think Austin will…. Because if it doesn’t, it’ll just grow more monolithic buildings and increase its number of tourist t-shirt shops that will be more about a “has-been” city than the heart and soul of the great state of Texas… I some how doubt that will happen though :-)

Austin is (with insight from; Andrew Baron, Gabsatrucker and Mary Hennig and adored by Dr Sue Black )

100% TWBrit Highly recommended

I guess I should make an actual TWBrit approved logo now then lol…

Published in: on 13 January, 2012 at 02:27  Leave a Comment  
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The Eagle City and watching the generation of Pain

(do click on pics to expand – most pics taken with a Motorola Atrix 2 phone)

So… after my face finally tried to explode then got better, I jumped on a 747 for DC, thanks to finally having a decent Dentist and his assistant. Into Dulles and transport into DC was straight forward: for the exact fare of $6 (no change given) the 5A bus on the far right of the upper level gets you to the Rosslyn Metro Station… for the Blue and Orange Metro lines..In my case, I was heading to Foggy Bottom and where my first frustration of DC took place. My sense of direction is good in the very worse case… so how did I end up outside the Saudi Arabian Embassy? :(

Well DC Metro could better their “You are here” directional maps and maybe even put a North, East, South, West mosaic on the pavement outside the stations – because it seemed every one was getting lost lol….

Kit dumped, and off in search of food, beer and delights that this city had in… which yielded results in the form of Marshalls Bar and Grill – wonder why I chose that place lol.
The Following day, sunshine was gone and in its place sleet and snow and the presence of the one I’d come to trip up – @gabsatrucker on the 36th USMC Marathon… Then on to apparently pick up what they call “The Packet” in Marathon circles – aka sign in, get your t-shirt and loads of freebies. This took place right across the other side of town at the Stadium Armory.

And what a Marathon…. 30,000 people willing to suffer, including a load of guys from 3 Rifles and 16 Air Assualt..
The 16 Air Assault guys were staying at the same hotel and the locals were bemused to see 12 guys getting ready to run 26 miles with beers and cigarettes… I pointed out that it was just the way things are in the British Army, if you can’t run a marathon drunk – where’s the fun of running a marathon at all  ;)

Washington DC is a bland city in many respects, there aren’t shops obviously located, Malls are so hidden, you walk right by. If it wasn’t for the amazing monuments and its historical and political heart, I fear it’d be boring…

But amongst the bland grey limestone, DC is incredibly colourful… with autumn kicking in fast, the sun rising and illuminating the features of a city known throughout the world… it was a majestic sight and a place of real presence.

The Marathon was getting underway, and the sheer numbers were impressive if not retarding by the sheer mass. In fact I would say that because of it, no one could seriously consider making a good time. The amount of people out cheering was stunning and the support, totally outstanding.

I headed from Arlington Cemetery across the Arlington Memorial Bridge to the Lincoln Memorial…


Cheering crowds behind me I started to come across memorials which for some reason I thought were elsewhere.

First was the Korean War memorial… the statues here tell their own story, and while fantastic to see in this light, I kinda wish there had been a ground mist or mild fog to enhance the atmosphere of it… Awesome…

So I walked on and came across the one memorial you can’t not have heard of… The Vietnam War Memorial.
With so few people around I took my time, looking at the simplicity of this slit in the ground, bearing witness to a hard fought fight for what many believe was a bullshit war… So much so, the veterans had to fight tooth and nail for this memorial and the fact that this place exists at all. It is witness to the determination of those whom witnessed this war first hand and knew it must not be forgotten.

Here the names mean nothing to me at all… (other than the names of the 7th Cavalry) here, a monument that had nothing to do with my own nation and a war that has seen the inside of Hollywood and the butt of much sarcasm… but I can’t help but say that when I drew close to the centre of this place, I became choked…

It’s powerful to stand in the shadow of monolithic black slabs bearing the names that few truly care about.
It’s a message as well as a remembrance… and one we today are so ready to ignore…

The Nam memorial to me – was indeed a moving experience and something a nation should be and is proud of… for every name, there is deep suffering, and you start to feel it standing there. As many of my regular readers may have noted, I have immense respect for the retired Lt General Hal Moore… It is through his experiences and the testimony of his men that I have come to learn so much more about this war and what it was truly about. Yet I cannot, not even for one minute, imagine what these men went through, or how the living must feel when standing here.

On then… and walking east I noticed that in the sun it was warm and in the shade – bloody freezing.. And if I stayed in the sun in any one place too long, I suddenly got cold again… the reason was this…

I never really thought about how big this sucker was – but it’s Bloody HUGE!!!!!

Also with the help of a park ranger we managed to hold my new phone steady enough to zoom in half a mile to grab a pic of the White House – so I didn’t have to walk the mile there and back to get it ;-)

Back to the Marathon and noticing that the USMC really like to fly their helicopters low – at tree top level (especially when it’s a Huey)…
The stream of colour and encouragement that was the marathon, was broken intermittently by the hard punching sound of rock in the form of live bands and on this occasion – the School of Rock itself.. In other areas, there was Blue Grass and just about every style of music being performed live!

Another pic I only just got was of two marines running, one was blind and being chaperoned by his buddy – that to me is dedication and the force of will to carry on, be a part of society and something I just felt moved by.

Gabby stopped by for a photo opportunity (show off) and I headed towards the Metro…
Seriously… The DC Metro, dark, dingy and VERY badly sign posted and probably the worse ticket machines on the planet – lol… If you go, here’s the trick – shove your cash in first ;-)

Off to the finish line where I met loads of amazing people, most looking salty and crusty… I spoke to one guy who was trying to stretch his muscles out. He had come in from Nashville for the race and the night before had proposed to his GF, who also came over – now having a “Just Engaged” label covering her back… Of course as a guy I do know to ask to see her ring ;-) and frankly I can honestly say I really don’t think I’ve seen a rock that large that wasn’t fitted to a royal crown… I can only assume that guy owns a carrot farm ;-)

With @Gabsatrucker finishing I couldn’t help notice the sheer number of US Marines limping…. But being fair, they were accompanied by 30,000 others whom all seemed to have learned the same dance – this is apparently called the MCM Shuffle :-)

One thing I will also add, the Medal for this Marathon was stunning!! Seriously!! even the little blue globe thing spins around – other marathon organisers should take note!!

Well the numbers were large, the organisation was good, the long walk around the Pentagon to the start line yielded some things of interest… a couple of Osprey’s flew over and everyone took pics. It was all very Sci-Fi really with a thought of – that’s the future of modern policing right there..
Another thing was, they apparently don’t like you taking pictures of the Pentagon.. except from the memorial side… But the thing is, no one went past that side and we were far enough from the building to honestly state that all sides look exactly the same – but apparently it’s ok to to take pics of the prime area of where terrorists prefer to attack…
Basically, in Washington I became all too aware (as did some of the 16 Air Assault guys) that they are paranoid about security and frankly know fk-all about it… I would elaborate, but that would be just wrong.

But in no way is this a whinge, DC is great… the people are fantastic and true to fine American hospitality at its very best; Gabsatrucker got booted and suited after the Marathon and took me to dinner and showed me around and got me to see and do all I wanted.

A great weekend, good to catch up with Gabby again (after all, she bought the food – yet…. no cake) and the one thing i’ll remember is DC is a city of bright colours :-)

Back to Dulles for me, sit staring at the BA 777 until such time to board… It turned out we had a helluva following wind and hit London in 5.5hrs!! doing 760 mph only to sit in a stack for what seemed like an eternity…

I was brought to the attention of this when I heard someone state “but a 777 can’t go this fast”  We soon reduced speed – but it left me wondering what the structural limit of the 777 truly is.

Hey ho, life’s like that lol…

Especially after Gabby posted this picture of me looking bewildered around Rosslyn when I really try to stay anonymous ;-)

Published in: on 3 November, 2011 at 01:30  Comments (3)  
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The Visit of Gabsatrucker…

Yep, it’s true… our colonial friend finally made her way back to the UK…
And somehow I got to be tour guide extraordinaire :-(
She came, she saw and I made sure she didn’t get the t’shirt…
Her last visit was apparently very short lived in the UK so I made sure she’d be seeing a lot in a very short space of time indeed..
First up Bladon (pron. Blay-don) and the grave of Sir Winston Churchill (there will be a theme here) then on to the stunning village of Shilton and even went past the Mini factory…
Next up – Hathersage and the grave of Little John… Yes!! Robin (of Loxley) Hood was a real dude and John Little was his Lieutenant… It is here, between Sheffield and the Hope Valley of the Derbyshire Peak District you’ll find their old stomping ground – or in this case; Gabby’s new one…
Bashed on to Stonehenge, Avebury, missed out the grave of Pocahontas.
Most of the tour guiding was very high speed and I’m guessing a bit of a blurr… so I’ll refer you to her blog to see what she writes about her visit…
I know she got to see a few Twitter friends and it was great to see her…
Was a little sad she didn’t get to see some of the people she’d reserved time to see and in some cases got no reply from tweets or anything… But some people are just like that I guess…

So do go to : http://www.gabsatrucker.com/

Published in: on 8 October, 2011 at 00:07  Leave a Comment  
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A lot has happened in the past year…

So yup… a lot has…
Just over a year ago I attended the Riphay Scuffle, it was an enlightening experience too, even after just under 4 hrs sleep (boy did I look rough lol)… A truly fun event! I met wonderful people too and yet went on my way. I was certainly thinking about running in this years event but for two things – the ladies on this blog would undoubtedly have removed me from the vehicle and taken it over completely!!
And yes, I did indeed move away completely too, as such I have relied on this blogs very own White Knuckle Driver a.k.a WKD to keep me up to speed on events.
Now WKD, like Gabsatrucker is a trucker… and they have a disturbing amount in common – trucks, both are women, cycling, being jolly and very, VERY sharp witted!! Thankfully they both are used to the fact that when I ‘think’ I’m saying something in a particular way – it *never* comes out the way I think it does and therefore sound callous and arrogant… oh wait……. So when I try to sound callous and – nevermind ;-)
WKD informed me that the event did happen but wasn’t anywhere near as good as the last few years on account they were not allowed a beer tent.. This is because last year two young lads decided to drive home totally pissed and died in the process…
This is where the whole thing fell down badly… and I must thank someone whom I often refer to as Lady K and/or Kate McAndersen (neither are her real name)for bringing this event to my attention when she did – I saw it for real and it’ll never be the same again now sadly.

Yes I moved away a few months ago and there are things I miss and things I seriously don’t – but above all in Devon, I miss the people… and the odd pint of old Otter… Hell, Honiton even has a Costa Coffee now :-/ But I will say my time there was somewhat of a rejuvenation of my spirit and while I’m still a bit of a beast in the eyes of most, everyone I met added another layer to this onion I call my life.

In this past 12 months twitter star and crazy friend @CareyLouisa actually went through the whole torturous process of buying her first home and while I know she had support from a most excellent person in the field, she did come through the process quite triumphantly I must say – and very good for her (even if she did start breeding pigeons in the process). In fact I’d go as far to say that Carey is a changed person since then and has her feet firmly planted on the ground.

Gabsatrucker came to the UK and promptly left again – straight to Malta!! Malta is of course a small island in the Mediterranean Sea just off the coast of Libya – and guess what – as she arrived war broke out! Then after kicking the life out of the Land Rover Maltese Marathon, she promptly legged it back to Arkansas after a total of 10 flights!!

Further more, this blog and my friend Sue Black aka Mustang Sue, went off to South by South West in Austin, Texas… and we managed to get her hooked up with Gabsatrucker who gave her a ride around Austin in her big-rig aka Lola… along with Elsie the dog.

My mother had a lung out and they removed the right one ;-)

Buddy Kev took his first ever flight and spent his time making the other passengers nervous through his perpetual knowledge of air crashes etc – rocking ! :-)

I caught up with six of the best guys in the form of Hammy, Dean, Charlie, Squeezy, Gary and Ray. Then there was bumping in to old buddy Alan Shearer by total accident… A story I should tell when I eventually get around to writing up the Google Garden Party post.

Basically there is a hell of a lot more to write here and I seriously could turn this into a very long post – but needless to say the year has been short but very interesting indeed!
For those I offended when I wasn’t joking, tough – to those I offended when I was joking, chin up :-) oh… and tough also :D

So… what enlightening thing should I leave you all with…. Hmmmm tough one this…
I know, an informative video on looking after and maintaining your guitar by Taylor Guitars
No, I’m not kidding :p

Published in: on 4 September, 2011 at 19:21  Leave a Comment  
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General Stuff (pt 467-ish)

It’s been a strange old few days…

This blogs resident mountain biking expert Eric McWhirter has finally left hospital and making a good recovery after a spot of lung and blood bother… Keep going Eric (you don’t have permission to die) ;-)
Gabsatrucker has had a workout from hell after sitting around on the US/Mexico border for days…
This blogs resident pianist Alex Elwood got stung by a wasp and whinged about it on Facebook (buy wasp-eze mate). :-D
Wooton Bassett became Royal Wooton Basset in honour of welcoming home our war dead.
The RAF has flown £1 Billion in cash to Libya – if you said that to me a year ago I would have slapped you for being stupid…. Strange old world..

Land Rover have announced they’re redesigning the Defender 90, 110 and 130 from scratch to be ready for production in 2015… Really not sure how I feel about that, but something has been needing to be done for a long time – but it’s vital it’s designed as a giant Meccano kit!!
This in it’s self is a tough call… the vehicle must be able to be maintained in the middle of nowhere – places you can’t find a garage or main dealer!
Guy’s talk to Peter Troop, need to be able to pop any kind of winch on – front and rear!!

The AMAZING Tony Sale has died…
Tony rebuilt the Colossus computer with little more than old Strowger telephone exchange parts…
It’s a truly stunning accomplishment as Colossus was the worlds first programmable digital computer and was used to help decipher the German Enigma code during WW2.
The very same Colossus can be found up, running and working at the place Tony started – The National Museum of Computing based at Bletchley Park.

The National Museum of Computing relies purely on donations to keep it going!! It gets nothing from the ticket value of entering Bletchley Park and even has to pay rent to the park for people to see what made Bletchley so vital and ultimately successful during the war…
If you get chance to go – do!! The people there are amazing, knowledgeable and friendly! And they have just about every known computer you’ve heard of – all up and running and you can play with them too!!

WARNING : Boys toys alert!!!

Friend, buddy, property mogul and keeper of slush funds over in Sioux Falls aka BigDog aka Dave has been shopping and I’m a little jealous…

He has acquired a Daniel Defense M4 Carbine, v1!!
Yes, just as the M4 hints at – it is a M16 variant with lots of goodies

Oh course I immediately fired off saying  he needs 8 x 30 rd magazines and throw in a 100 rds mag for good measure…
Then the weapon length… well I’d be tempted (as I told him) to stick a bipod on the front for distance shooting.. However, here lays a problem…
Doing that means you want a good scope, the M4 is a great close quarter weapon and for up close and personal – you want a red dot sight… but what about the middle distance? While a fan of the SUSAT sight, there is one inherent problem… You see the susat is designed to rest on the eyebrow and this cuts down the peripheral vision. As such there has been a NATO wide hunt for a new scope, one that works in close quarters and out to the main battle range – and this comes in the form of the ELCAN LDS (Specter)… This sight sits further away from the eye, a long way! And has advanced reticle and a secondary feature – it’s also a red dot sight for close up work! However, I think it’d cost more that the rifle lol

This blogs friend/torment aka Gabsatrucker has moved on in the web world…
With a newly acquired url of Gabsatrucker.com… things are changing quickly as with her web presence.
Along with new url’s and email accounts Gabby has also taken the opportunity to sort out and revitalise her twitter presence too.

Twitter account @gabsatrucker is newly born and an open and unlocked presence, but the old account is presently still running as @Dueforachange instead…
Some may get a little confused at first and will think she’s blocked and un-followed people, but of course this isn’t true.
Gabby tells me she plans to kill the original and renamed “@dueforachange” around the morning of 20th Sept.

 

Published in: on 2 September, 2011 at 01:37  Comments (1)  
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General things

I have been writing something that’s not of this blog (shock!) though it will take the name sake and hopefully be the first of many things in that vein, it is designed to be an easy read, with typical TWBrit humour etc and typically stuff with out the fluff…

This Blog’s (and her own blog) Gabsatrucker has given up on iPhone and opted for the Motorola Atrix… A dual core processed phone with a kicking 1 gig of ram and fully Flash enabled. Now while this 4G super phone is pretty smart and cool, it totally leaves iPhone back in the dark ages AND has a replaceable battery, memory and other commonsense things the iPhone (as all Apple products) will NOT let the owner tamper with – I say owner very loosely when referring to Apple…. This all causes many problems when trying to get your information out of an iPhone because technically you no longer own it. Nevertheless, with the aid of Google Apps (of which some are astounding) she was able to finally suck her information from the iPhone in part and get up and running again.  Oh and the best part… she left the WiFi, Flash video and GPS switched on and 12 hrs later the phone still had life!!!  On top of all this is the complete Webtop…. if you’re wanting to do some everyday computing, this little sucker is all you need!! It’s a complete desktop if you want it to be…. No I’m not saying you’re going to be playing high-end games and making a 14 foot Photoshop image, but it’s all here in this package and it’s a damn fine bundle if I say so myself!

While in London last Tuesday to deal with things regarding the old St.George’s and Finborough School saga, I was walking along and after having a smoke thought to have one of those extra strong mint things. I don’t know quite what possessed me to do it, but I crunched it up…. And as I did so I thought – hmmm, interesting crunch…. As two large chunks of tooth fell from my mouth… bugger!!

Funny thing about anything to do with the school, I felt blank before I went, strange during and knocked sideways after…

Anyway, I met and had lunch with the ever smiling and great buddy Sue Black (the now known name sake of Mustang Sue’s Wreckin Crew) at a place called Planet Organic… who knew that growing things that way would be so popular!!

In other news and leading straight on from Sue is that HM the Queen visited Bletchley Park yesterday. She came to offer her thanks to the Code Breakers themselves, to unveil a plaque and said the following:

The papers and hacking scandal has gone as far as Mr Murdoch wants it to as Rebekah Brooks finally leaves his side… You see, Murdock wanted to capitalise on this and refused her resignation twice… Now with share prices plummeting and as much money from it all he could muster… Rebekah leaves and Mr Murdoch starts giving out “sincere” apologies… the obvious concept is that the news machine with then move on… Not So as the FBI start investigating the hacking of 911 victims families..
It’s possibly going to end in the downfall of the worlds largest media operation and if these accusations do hold true, then what questions of integrity will land on the shoulders of people in these News Corp companies.. The plot thickens :-)

Fenny aka Hooloovoo42 heads out stateside this coming week, so at last I can rest from all the loud music, wild parties and general ruckus that she doesn’t make, though I maybe taking her to Heathrow on Tuesday.

Managed to spend a good while talking the guys in the Asia Pacific region this week which was great! Emailed with Gary up on Nth Island NZ and Skyped for a good few hours with both Hammy and Dean, respectively Sth Island NZ and of course Dean in Australia… who is due to send me a photo of something (hint) so I can sort him a web logo and icon/avatar like most other people. That said, I’m at a loss what to do for some of them, but i’m sure imagination will eventually come up with something…

Finally, this Monday….  I’m getting my eyes checked, I have squinted long enough and it’s time to go four-eyed… so we’ll see how this sucker pans out. It wont improve my looks, but may in turn help to mask them.

Published in: on 16 July, 2011 at 14:35  Comments (2)  
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lately

So….. what’s new?
Well it’s fair to say I’m starting to settle a little, things are starting improve somewhat.
The place I’m renting is sufficient to say the very least and the landlady asked if I could pop a new electric shower in, no problem…. Except the stud wall supporting it wasn’t in the best of shapes. So after ripping that out, along with the entire bathroom, tiles and everything else, it’s in and the finishing touches are being applied… I also gave it my own special touch about half way through…

Work wise, things are a little slow but getting there for sure.
It’s been great to go down to Bletchley Park, very weird from how I remember it, but feel I have done or said all I can about it – especially after being interrogated as to why I wasn’t wearing a sticker… strange but true…

Had the odd call from old Devonian friends which has been good, even WKD is out and about and in none other than Edinburgh this weekend painting the town red – and good for her…


Over in New Zealand, Hammy came face to face with a 4 inch thick file of his military records which read more like an encyclopedic reference manual of the damned… no surprise there then.
Actually had a really good chat with him the other day and yes I did complete a write-up for him in the Who’s Who.
Dean has been a little quiet since moving to his new coastal mansion and Charlie is keeping the streets safe (or so he claims) Steve – just complains I spell his name wrong – which I do (on purpose – shhhh!) :-)

Talking of  the Who’s Who section, giving it a bit of an overhaul at the moment, some names going, new ones appearing, but this is taking longer than I wished – Sue Black has gained a write-up too and just click on the logo for the page to open in a new window.

Today it is six months since I last drove a 44 ton truck… and hope it’s the first of many more. Which brings me finally to the trials and tribulations of my buddy and this blogs 2iC Gabsatrucker over this last 14 days…
I’m not kidding, if it could go wrong, it has gone wrong;
Two blowouts, nail damage to drive tyres requiring their replacement, AC failures, truck going into limp home mode, more electrical faults than a city full of Christmas Tree lights, queue jumpers and ALL this is way before – the weirdo’s…
I don’t know what constitutes Sexual Harassment in the USA, but when a woman cannot go about her basic work without getting drivers following them, calling out their truck numbers on the CB, offering to actually kidnap them, and even try to pull off on to an off-ramp when they’ve effectively past to follow her is not just insane but down right scary….
To be touched without permission because she has tattoos on her arms by people she doesn’t know, and then have people walk up and just open her truck door even when they can see she’s on the phone…
Well before one person says “It’s a male industry” – wind your necks right in… A woman has no less rights than anybody in ANY work place… and who said trucking was a guy’s job?!
No….it’s wrong, in most places 100% illegal and a complete and total violation of an individual’s human rights to be able not to only work, but to feel safe and secure in their place of work… NOT to have to get up and move their truck to a place miles away to feel safe after they’ve already parked up for the night in a truck park… Not all US male truckers are like this at all, in fact, most show a level of professionalism to rival any white-collar professional, but it’s about time they either brought these idiots  to book and at the very least police officers and trucking companies should not only know what is going on (and they do) but start getting to grips with doing their jobs properly too… Protect their employees and a whole segment of working America…

Published in: on 24 June, 2011 at 21:14  Comments (4)  
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Sadness for a friend

The other day I was heading to bed when the letters appeared in the Direct Message column of TweetDeck “Mike just died”…
It took less that 120 minutes from the time of his death for that news to flash around the entire globe, Europe, Asia, America, Canada and more…

I don’t know or never knew and will obviously now never know Mike… but I understood the impact these words had…

I’m not gonna start getting all soppy here, but I will say what needs to be said;

Life is a passage of experiences, often brought about by needs or moreover – wants…
We lose all normal thought when a heart becomes involved and as such, we humans are and always will be flawed.
We all deal with the downside of our experiences differently; I simply laugh a lot of mine away. But this in no way states I feel any less than the next person – how others interpret that is up to them.
As too, when older we understand our mistakes, we become too long in the tooth and as we get older, we may lose some of our ‘fight and fire’ but it’s only tempered my how inappropriately we my have used it in the past.

Mike was a dad; he had two amazing daughters who are also amazingly different people.
He wasn’t around for many years but had over more recent years and months come home, rebuilt the bridges, started on the long and lost road of his heart to make amends….
Not in an “oh I’m sorry way”, but in a way that meant something.
You see in his absence others took his place and they were not good people… Mike as a man had come to realise his absence had been the catalyst for many things untold and in this it sapped his spirit of life right from him…

Today, those children are fully grown… They too had found it hard slowly rebuilding the bridges… Yet at the same time they also witnessed what time and suffering had done to a man…

They thought there’d be years to get it all sorted, they wanted to finally cut through the BS, pain, hurt and one day find their true peace with him as he so desperately wanted to do with them.
In every moment he was with them, his self misguidance tortured him, his soul seemly extracted from his heart… Yet he came, he made himself a better man every day by doing so and in this he changed just that little bit more each time.

But, it was lost last week and to the children of this man the sadness of not being able to conclude this road is indeed a painful one.
There will always remain the questions/statements: I should’ve, but why didn’t I? and so on…

Well it’s like this:
Life is not about the petty, it is not about what your preacher says… It is not about the horizon you can see, it’s not about your boss, mortgage or the job you have – it is about those around you, those whom you may not see – it’s about what IS beyond your horizon… It’s not about what you may be or want to be – but the people you touch on your journey and how they in turn touch you.

On the 31st May Mike concluded that journey, he had laid the foundations, he had his contact and he knew that his daughters had both finally found their right paths…
The work was done, thought, imagination and heart would do the rest and his time to leave this life came to him.

I do not care who is your God, but I do care about seeing the effort in others (no matter how seemingly small) that when it is sincere, it will always carry great weight and impact on the future of others – Mike did this…

To many, he was a shell of his former self  – to me, he was a man who took the responsibility for his actions and did (while it appeared small or even possibly a hindrance) what he had to do to make things right.

And that my friends, is enough to know that whatever happens in life, when you leave this world, make sure you have rebuilt your bridges appropriately.

It is only in death sometimes we understand a persons meaning, for me this has been true many times. It is the way of things, and we learn that looking back is useless – and that’s why Mike wanted to know his girls were settled and they had all they needed – this he did.

Today the ashes of Mike may fall freely through the air… but his impact to so many by the end of his time was and is real.

On the 31st of May Mike, a man I never knew – became a man I respected and to those daughters, his burden in heart was you both –  it is now lifted…
He gave you all he could and while his pride or manner may have hidden much – it was done.

Mike left this world alone….  He knew he was in trouble too, his body had come to the end of it’s time and he left to be alone.
But in his heart and mind (while he would have wished to have done and been so much more) he knew he had done all that was needed – he knew he didn’t need more time – and he knew, finally, he had the love of his daughters…

‡

Michael  ”Mike”  H. 
April 1945 – May 2011
A man, a father – who found his way home

∞

Published in: on 8 June, 2011 at 15:21  Comments (2)  
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Wow… hopefully a new week brings better days

I went back to work the other day and regretted it almost immediately. I was fine until about 10 minutes into the drive of a 15hr day…
The run, while a long day was simple – run down to the Roddas clotted cream factory, load up with cream and then make all haste to Westbury in Wiltshire before returning home.
Well things didn’t go quite according to plan, but I made it home in one piece – almost was surprised after they over charged the tank with steam raising it’s temperature to 120 oC thus cooking the last 400lts into a solid mass. A further screw up on the CIP ended up with having 20000lts of Caustic Soda to get rid of and I can tell you – the moment I opened the rear valve, you’d be shocked how fast truckers can run (myself included).
 
Then of course we had Valentines day….

Valentine’s day has two benefits;
1 you can slightly cross certain lines in the work place.
2 it makes a fortune!!
However, as it was a Sunday, it was lost on most logical people. After all, if you know your heart, you’re hardly going to allow a 3rd party depict how you act, when you and how you feel.
The greatest Valentine gift a guy can give to a woman is this the shopping spree for all the reduced priced chocolate the day after – that’s a result!
 
Vancouver Winter Olympics have started,  but not with out the sad death of one of the participants.
It was funny how everyone was pointing fingers at everyone else about the whys and wherefores of this tragedy… So let the commonsense of TWBrit tell you who’s fault it was…
It is the fault of the design and placement of the support pillars!! They simply should not have been there – just in the same way that any over sport i.e. Formula 1 removes nearly all ‘spin-off’ obstacles.
So basically – they should test for these things over every inch of the track…pure and simple eh?
At least while I watched the horrific collision, I didn’t hear the “Whoooooaaaaaarghhhhhh-SPLAT”
 
Returning to my car for the first time in over a month, I have received a fixed penalty notice for the none displayment of road tax… nice! I was just so able to run about and sort that our over the last four weeks!!
I finally finished my complete paper and sent it off… this time with a basic action plan on the end.
I would like to think something would come of this, but frankly I doubt anything will.
So with the arrival of my HGV1 (truck license) renewal forms and the need to pay for a medical etc, I seriously doubt that I will pursue my present paths.
In this my friends, I’m not happy, but we pick ourselves up and get on with it I guess – Can’t believe I took the test back in 88 and it’s only been renewed once in 94!
Need to take some new pictures this week for my Passport – should be interesting as I’ll be tacking them myself LOL
 
Terry aka Little Trucker has been driving in some tough snow conditions stateside and Gabby has spent the last month keeping me on my toes.
 
WKD is someone I don’t think I’ve now seen since Christmas, but we do communicate.
 
Fenny is busy as ever working away, she also posted an article about the subject of my paper which can be seen HERE. The response on her blog just shows how much feeling there is about this subject – she can also write better than I can lol.
 
I contacted Worthy Farm at Pilton the other day. If you don’t know, I’m talking about the Glastonbury music festival. I asked if I could have some of the official artwork to do an article on the blog rather than nabbing their logo from the web.
I went on to tell them I wished to write about not only the festival and the announced final line for this year, but also that the site is still and will always remain and active dairy farm and an important part of the local community.
the reply was this:


Not quite sure what to make of their response other than, well ok – it’s their logo, choice and lack of write up.
 
So, lets see how this week pans out eh?
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Published in: on 15 February, 2010 at 16:21  Comments (13)  
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