We have arrived

Here at last. A good run up on the motorway and arrived with dry weather. Got the tent up with an expected struggle, then went to hit Waitrose in Monmouth. Monmouth is having a week long festuval so the road was blocked.
A quick trip up to Symonds Yat to take a few pics from the viewpoint then back to the tent for some Jack Daniels and a barbecue as you can hopefully see in the attached pic. (yes this is my 1st proper attempt at mobile blogging).
Off for a walk now and hopefully I can get a mobile signal further up the hill. Back tomorrow with more exciting things that we have got up to.
(update: This post failed when I tried to send it as the pic attached was over 1meg and after it had failed my PAYG balance had dropped by £5, although I kept a sort of mini blog while I was away, I shall upload it retrospectively, with photos.)

A holiday experiment.

It's been a long time I know since I last blogged anything half interesting, but now I am officially at the start of a week off and the chance to go camping again. Barnaby and I are off to Symond's Yat first thing Sunday morning. Be great to get away for a few days and plans on doing nice healthy things, canooeing, hiking, stuff like that.
Was a bit of a shock earlier, I was starting to load the car up and amongst all the stuff that accumulates in the boot, I soon realised I had all I need for an impromptu picnic at any time. Nothing like feeling old to realise that you are carrying a selection of tartan rugs, foldable tables and chairs and that sort of stuff. Made me feel a bit like my Dad!
So, onto my experiment. I want to see just how easy it is to blog from the wilds, so with my new Lifedrive I am going to attempt to blog something interesting at least once a day over the next few days. Blogging from my tent, a canoo, a castle, a woodland, or wherever we may find ourselves. However all good plans say that I won't be finding myself a Wifi cafe or a good mobile signal. Recalling last time I went there, we had no signsl on T-Mobile at all.
At least I know that the technology works. This blog was written on the Lifedrive and sent via GPRS. Come back tomorrow eve for the first update and see if we managed to pitch the tent without too much hassle.

Not totally weird

You Are 40% Weird

Normal enough to know that you're weird... But too damn weird to do anything about it!

How Weird Are You?

It all happens on Drury Lane

Firstly, apologies for another delay in my blogging. You know how it is, sometimes there's just too much to report back on that it's difficult to know what to say. London has pretty much got back to normal since the bombings last week. Partly due to the Britishness of "Having a cuppa" and mostly due to the defiance that we will let terrorism destroy our way of life. The 2 minutes silence on Thursday with almost everyone on the streets, certainly showed the terrorists just how defiant we could be.
Seems I now have the new PC in a position that is totally like my old PC, reinstalled all the old software, installed some that the old PC would never run, got myself a Palm Lifedrive with wifi capabilities and so also got a wireless network. I can now blog and Flickr without having to get out of bed!!!
Heard an almighty noise outside about an hour ago, looked out and saw the London Air Ambulance hovering overhead, obviously looking for a place to land. The only open space I could think of was Lincoln's Inn Fields, but no, they decide they can land on the crossroads just a few yards from the flat. Of course, I was out there with the camera as soon as possible, that junction has seen so much lately, filming of Basic Instinct 2, spaceships getting parking tickets etc. etc.
You've really got to hand it to those guys who pilot that thing, landing it with only inches to spare on either side, surrounded by scaffolding poles on one side and street signs all around. No one was carried away in it, although I didn't see any paramedics return before it took off. Overheard that it was to do with a car accident nearby, but not sure where though. I heard it again a few minutes later so perhaps it was trying to land again nearer the scene of the accident.
As usual, click the pic for a slideshow of all the pics I took.

London terrorist blasts

As you probably already seen in the news, there have been a number of terrorist explosions in London this morning. Several on the tube and one on a bus. I'm fine, was at work at the time, and have now made it home. I don't think anyone feels like work today when there's so many more important things happening on their doorsteps.
Here's hoping that anyone I know, and readers of this blog that I don't know are ok.

Oi Chirac!!!

Have you missed me?

I know, it's been over a week since I last blogged, but I've been having a little holiday and took some time away from blogging as well. So here is a little catch up of what's been going on.
Firstly the car went in for it's MOT and I got a full service on it as well. Nearly £500 later and it's in tippity top condition again, with new exhaust and other odds and sods, so ready for our little camping trip at the end of the month.
It's been a busy weekend as well, what with Saturday being the annual Gay Pride march in London and also Bob Geldof's latest venture with Live8.
Barnaby came over for lunch and we watched the beginning of Live8 before heading off to wander the streets and see what Pride had in store for this year. To be honest, we're were both glad that we hadn't planned on joining in, just being bystanders. This year they had separated the march from the festival not only in distance but in time as the festival will be later in the month. This meant that the thousands on the march would end up in Trafalgar Square with not a lot to do other than watch whatever happened to be on the main stage. One of the fun elements of pride day in the past is the drug fuelled queens tripping over each other on the way from the fairground to the Trade Tent. Without a funfair and various dance tents, this Pride day seemed somewhat lacking, and it showed as people milled around with seemingly nowhere to go.
Onto Leicester Square to see what was happening with Drag Idol, only to see the gates to the square being policed by security removing any alcohol from anyone. Don't they realise that half the fun of watching drag is having a pint at the same time. We passed by and came back home.
Spent the rest of the day/evening watching the Live8 concert, and to be honest it had nothing on the original Live Aid (was it really 20 years ago??). I hadn't seen a playlist so had no idea what time the various artists would be expected on, however Robbie Williams seemed to be the first one to get the crowd going. A moving moment when Bob showed us some video of a girl with only 10 mintues t live 1st shown at Live Aid, and then brought her onto the stage, proving that his work had not been in vain. Pink Floyd were worth waiting for to seem them play together again for the first time in 24 years. Let's hope they have settled their differences and decide to do one last concert before they all croak. I saw the Division Bell tour in 1994 in Paris and London and would love to see a concert with the old line-up (sans Sid).
And so the holiday has now ended, back to work tomorrow morning and I shall try and keep the blog going a little more regularly in future.