Sally's Site

The Poppies 002

2011-04-06T06:39:00.001Z

The Poppies 002
Originally uploaded by judithincalgary.

This canvas is one of my prints which has just been sold to a lady in Canada.

Brac Gets Axed

2011-04-01T07:10:00.002Z

Brac Exclusive Axed by Sun

Brac had been hired by Game Stores for a spoof editorial about a dog playing on a Wii. They had sold the story to the Sun as an exclusive and the Sun came and filmed it. It looked very convincing but sore some reason the story has been dropped. Possibly because there is a story about a gorilla playing with an iPod running. Still, at least it was paid employment. Never mind Brac, Better luck next time.

Breaking News

2011-03-30T19:12:00.001Z

Breaking News
Originally uploaded by SallyT..

Brac gets an exclusive in the Sun this Friday. You can also view it on-line with a video by going to http://www.thesun.co.uk

McAfee's Anti-Spam failiure with Thunderbird 3

2010-08-14T09:40:00.026Z

I've had my PC for about 18 months now and it came with a 3 year subscription to McAfee Security suite which was brilliant. My mail client is Thunderbird and at the time I was using Thunderbird v2x and McAfee had a plug-in that worked with it that would filter out spam. It was extremely good as I have a business e-mail account that is linked to my web site so I was getting tons of spam. McAfee seemed to get 99% of it and if any did get missed there was a useful little feature that allowed you to mark any missed spam mails as spam and then report it to McAfee for evaluation. Great, I was really impressed and happy.

Last March I upgraded my version of Tbird to version 3. The new version of this mail client was brilliant but I quickly realised that my spam was not being filtered any more by McAfee. Not to worry, I just need to highlight the spam mails and click on the McAfee Anti-Spam button and they will be dealt with...or not as the case turned out. The McAfee anti spam plug-in was not working at all.

Now you might think this is a bit irrelevant considering that Thunderbird comes with it's own junk filter but if you are a thunderbird user who gets flooded with spam as I do you will know that the Tbird junk filter is not really that good. It only gets about 80% which still leaves me with 30 or more spam mails to manually weed out each day. Added to that, marking mails as spam only effects how you filter your mails where as the McAfee system would take this data and if the mails were indeed found to be spam they would place a block on the server sending them out, thus helping to combat the problem at source.

My first thought was to un-install McAfee and re-install it as I knew that is what their support guys would get me to do. I didn't work so on 31st March 2010 I contacted McAfee support to report the problem. Straight away they asked me to un-install it and re-install it again. They insisted on this even though I had told them I had already done that. I did it again but it still didn't work. They checked all my settings and then told me the problem would be escalated and I'd get a call back.

I was called back by McAfee a few days later by the Tier 2 support team who promised they would be able to fix this issue there and then. The guy got me to un-install McAfee and re-install it again and guess what? It didn't work.

This went on for several weeks and I lost count of the amount of times the product was re-installed and my PC re-booted but needless to say there was no change. Eventually I was told that a new version of McAfee was being rolled out and that when it eventually got to me and I had installed it the problem would be fixed once and for all...promise.

Last Wednesday 11th August 2010 I got the new version of McAfee and it was installed straight away. I checked thunderbird - no change, the McAfee Anti-Spam was still not working. I closed down Tbird and restarted it again but still no change. I contacted McAfee support. They sent me a link to their uninstall application that was supposed to remove all traces of McAfee from my system which I followed. I rebooted my PC. Re-installed McAfee. Re-booted my PC and started Tbird and guess what?...It still didn't work. The support guy said he would 'Escalate' the problem and I would get a call back. (Strong feeling of de ja vu). I got a call back on Friday and once again the guy told me he would fix this problem. He took control of my screen but didn't seem to do anything much other than aimlessly click on a few things now and then. He set up a filter to filter out e-mails containing a specific word in the title and then sent me a mail with that word and proved to himself that the filter really wasn't working. He then said...you guessed it...you need to un-install the produce and re-install it again. I protested this time saying that it would not work as the previous support agent had already got me to do just that. This guy simply told me that it would work and I must do it again. Hey ho! so I un-installed it and re-installed it and re-booted as requested and the support guy comes back on line and tell me the problem is fixed even without checking Thunderbird. I tell him he can't possibly know that and open Thunderbird up and prove to him that nothing has changed and McAfee anti-spam was still not doing anything. There is a long pause then...a very long pause. By this time I had been in conversation with him for 1 hour and 40 minutes and it was getting late. Hence I told him I had to start getting the dinner ready and he agreed to call me back on Monday 14th.

I won't be holding my breath for a result but i really do think McAfee need to get this issue sorted. I have run a search on Google and it seems I'm not alone with this problem. I am getting particularly frustrated with their support service as they are simply wasting my time and theirs by constantly going over the same ground. They need to spend their time working out a fix for the problem rather than simply asking their clients to keep doing something that doesn't have any effect.

I will let you know what happens from here on but I suspect I'll be asked to re-install McAfee again, and again, and ag...

Monday 16th Aug

No calls received between 8am and 10am as arranged. I did get a call at 11am from someone but as I was driving at the time I could not answer it. There was no number listed so i could not phone back so it might have been them.

Tuesday 17th Aug

Got called at precisely 8am but this was not a day I had arranged for a call back. Tuesdays are always busy days for me and I was getting ready to go out. They apologised for not contacting my on Monday and said it was due to technical reasons. The guy arranged to call me back at 5.30pm that day.

I did not get called until 6.20pm. The guy asked me if the problem was still there? (As if it might just go away by itself after all this time!) I told him, No. He asked if it was convenient to take control of my computer now. I said I could give him half an hour. He told me he would need at least an hour to sort this matter out we arranged for him to call me back in the morning between 8am and 10am. This is really a bit of a nuisance as if he doesn't call until just before 10am I going to run out of time again if he really does need an hour but I do need to get to the bottom of this. Although, to be honest, I can't see as this new guy will do anything different from the technicians that have said they would sort the problem out before. Still, I might be wrong. I'll let you know tomorrow.

Wednesday 18th Aug - 10.37am

No phone call received. Have to go out now anyway.

Saturday 21st august - 8.25am

Finally got a call from McAfee. The guy said they had technical problems so could he please arrange a time for a call back! I won't be available now until the 1st Sept so a call back has been arranged for then between 8 and 10am. I told him that there is no point if all they are going to do is un-install McAfee and then re-install it. He wouldn't comment.

Wednesday 1st Sept

McAfee called me at 08.30pm! I was eating a late dinner so there was no way I was going to take that call then. They arranged to ring back on Monday morning between 8 and 10 am.

Monday 6th Sept

McAfee rang at 10.05 am just as I had given up on them and was in my car taking my dog to the vet. Having stayed in waiting for them to ring again I was not too impressed. They have arranged to ring back between 8 & 10 am on Thursday. Umm, I wonder.

Thursday 9th Sept

No call came despite waiting in. At lunchtime I got an e-mail from them saying they called but didn't get a reply. Well I don't know who they called because all calls on the number I gave them are logged even if I don't answer and there were no calls at all. I've now told them they will have to take pot luck in calling me as I simply can't keep waiting in for them.

Wednesday 17th Sept

McAfee called me at 12 noon but I was out riding. I arranged for them to call me back at 14.30 which the caller accepted. I waited in by my PC from 14.15 to 15.45 before finally giving up. No further calls came at all that day so I was quite annoyed when they sent me another e-mail to say they had tried but been unable to get in touch with me by phone. My reply was quite curt. I reminded them my phone is with me and switched on 24/7 and all calls are logged. I have also informed them that I will be unlikely to renew my subscription once it expires. They have not responded.

Thurdsday 16th Sept

Got a call from McAfee at 17:30 today. I was home so was able to let the agent take control of my computer remotely while I watched. He initially did not seem up to speed with my problem as asked me to explain it again. I told him there was no point un-installing the product and re-installing it again as it had been tried countless times before. He tested the Anti-spam feature on an e-mail and discovered for himself that it was not working. He said he would need some time to research the problem and asked me if it was OK to be placed on hold which I accepted. After about 10 minutes he came back and tried the anti-spam feature again. Still not working. He then looked at the Thunderbird version information and then seemed to do nothing for quite some time. Eventually he said he would need to seek further advice and call me back. I arranged for him to call me back before 9:30 am on Monday and told him I had an appointment at 10:30 so would need to go out before then. He agreed and the call ended after 45 minutes.

Monday 20th Sept

No call came in the morning - now there's a surprise. Finally got a call at 7pm just as I was in the middle of cooking my dinner. Arranged for him to call back before 09:30 hrs on Wednesday. He promised the call would be made. Ha!

Wednesday 22nd Sept

No call came in the morning. Got a call at 22:30 hrs after I had gone to bed! Didn't answer it and no message was left.

Thursday 23rd Sept

Got an e-mail from McAfee Support to say that they had been unable to contact me and would I please provide them with a convenient time for them to call! Told them it was a waste of effort providing them with a convenient time as they never stick to it anyway.
14:00 hrs I got a phone call from McAfee while I was having lunch with a friend in a pup. Clearly I couldn't give them control of my PC then. The guy insisted I provide a convenient time for him to call back so I told him it was pointless as they never stuck to it. He apologised yet again and once again promised to call at the allotted time. I suggested they called BEFORE 09:30 bst on Wednesday next (29th). We shall see.

Wednesday 29th Sept

No phone call. That afternoon I got another e-mail to say they had been unable to contact me. Yeh, right! they wanted me to provide another time for them to call back...again. I suggested between 0800 and 0930 am on Friday 1st Oct.

Thursday 30th Sept 08:04 am

It's our wedding anniversary and I'm manhandling (or should I say woman handling) a very large bouquet of flowers into a vase. My mobile rings, I can't take it. I later see there was no number recorded so probably McAfee. An hour or so later I get another e-mail from McAfee to say they had been unable to contact me. Well there's a surprise. I told them in bold letters they should read my previous reply and stick to the time arranged. Still, at least this time they were telling the truth about making the call.
10:00 am - obtained a UK phone number from their web site that I thought might be for their head office. Rang it but got put through to the Philippines! Oh well, at least it wasn't India so I'm probably speaking to a different team. I explained the problem that I was having with the Indian tech support team and was advised that if the phone call didn't come through tomorrow morning I should call the Philippines team back and they would deal with it.

Friday 1st October 08:10 am

Got a call from BinuS from McAfee. I mention his name because this guy was particularly useless. I gave him full access to my PC and he looked at the McAfee settings, changed the security level from Balanced to Aggressive, closed down Thunderbird and them told me it was all fixed and I should have no further problems. He was ready to sign off saying I should just monitor the situation so I replied by telling him he had made no difference at all and promptly proved it.   I told him that if there was no fix for this problem at present then fine, they should just say so, as long as they promise to get back to me once a fix is found. He didn't respond to this but instead turned off the anti-spam spam toolbar for all e-mail clients and rebooted my PC. When my PC booted up again I got a message to say the session had ended. Initially I thought he would restart it or phone me back to restart the session with me but no, nothing happened, not even an e-mail. I opened Thunderbird and the Anti-spam toolbar was still there and not working. I sent McAfee support and e-mail asking what happened.

09:26 got a phone call from BinuS asking to reconnect the session. He checked Thunderbird and the McAfee settings and saw it was still not working. There was then a long pause of about 7 minutes so I asked what was happening. He didn't say but went to my browser, Firefox, and closed it down without saving my tabs that I had open or even giving me a chance to do so. I was not happy as one of the web sites I had been viewing contained details of a monitor and printer calibrator that was being sold cheaper than anywhere else and I had spent ages hunting for for it. Who knows, maybe he saved me from spending £390 or maybe he cost me an extra £50 which would have been my saving. Anyway, he apologised and then started trying to hunt for it again but i had to stop him as I really wanted him to fix the McAfee problem. He told me he would have to ask the advice of a higher team and get back to me. Another phone back has been arranged for Monday between 0800 & 0930. Heyho!

Monday 4th October

No phone call this morning. Got a call at 12.11pm from McAfee while I was out walking my dog. The guy said he had been unable to access my file this morning as they had had a server problem. I do not have a clear schedule this week so I was unable to make a call back appointment with any certainty. I provisionally told them they could call me between 0800 and 0930 on Wednesday morning but that I could not guarantee being in when they did.

Wednesday 6th October
No phone call came in the morning but I got called in the afternoon while I was once again walking my dog. Arrangement made for them to phone me back between )800 & 9.30am next Wednesday 13th.

Thursday 7th october
3pm. Got a call from McAfee while I was driving (on the hands free). Told them this was certainly not a convenient time to call me and suggested they stuck to the prearranged time.

Wednesday 13th October
Well it would be the 13th! McAfee rang just before 9am but my phone decided to develope a fault and would not allow me to answer it. Phone now been sent to Nokia for repair and sim card placed in a spare phone. E-mail received from McAfee to say they had been unable to contact me. Apology sent.

Thursday 14th October
08.42am, call received from McAfee to say a supervisor would now be dealing with this case and asking me to arrange a call back time. Call arranged for Monday morning between 08.00 and 09.30am.

Monday 18th October
09:30am - Got a call from McAfee but not from the supervisor as promised. This was another agent wanting to ask me for a convenient time for a supervisor to call me back! I told him the convenient time 'as arranged' was now but he said no supervisor was available and I would have to make another time available. I told him I was getting extremely fed up with all this and that they clearly had no idea when 'convenient' meant. I gave him the url of this blog so he could read for himself just how fed up with all this I am. New 'convenient time' arranged for Thursday 21st between 0800 and 0930am.

10.00am - Sods law, a meeting I had planned for Wednesday morning has just been changed to Thursday when McAfee are due to call. I have now sent McAffee an e-mail asking for their call to be made to me on Wednesday morning (same time as before) instead. I have asked them to acknowledge the e-mail so I know to expect the call.

Wednesday 20th October
0717am - got a call from McAfee - I wasn't even fully dressed and hadn't had any breakfast! I asked the guy if he could phone back at 8 but he said it would be 12pm. I told him 12pm was no good as I would be out so he said he needed to arrange a convenient time for a call back tomorrow. I told him the convenient time was this morning between 0800 and 0930 as arranged and I'm afraid I lost my temper at this point. He insisted it could not be dealt with then and I would have to make another appointment as the situation was complicated and would have to be escalated to a higher level. I told him there was no convenient time and hung up. Let's face it, they never wanted to fix this problem, they were simply trying to get me to this stage where I told them not to bother. But, I'm not done, I still have plan 'B' so I shall take it higher myself although to be honest, it would be far simpler to just ditch McAfee and get some decent software.

0855am - Further call received from McAfee to apologise. They had just read this blog and were very sorry for the inconvenience caused and offered me a 3 months extension on my McAfee service by way of compensation. The guy explained that only their researchers would be able to deal with this problem with Thunderbird 3 so the case needed to be escalated. I was persuaded once again to provide a 'convenient time' for a call back from the researchers. Call arranged for between 0800 and 0930 on Monday 25th Oct. (Not sure when the clocks go back, think it might be this weekend but I explained that to them.)

Monday 25th October (Day of temporary closure)
0935 - Got a call from McAfee to say the problem had been escalated to the team of research engineers. I was informed the problem was with the Thunderbird update (I knew that) and that as yet they did not have a fix for it (I had been waiting for them to confirm that). I was assured that they were working on a patch to resolve the issue and that once it was ready for release I would be notified. He also said this case would remain open in the mean time so I would not be forgotten.
This is what I was hoping they would have told me months ago. It was pretty clear to me that they didn't have a fix for it right from the start so why they had to keep stringing me on is beyond me. It has cost me a fortune in lost time and seriously dented my faith in the company. Hopefully now they will get this patch working and eventually fix the problem but at least in the mean time I don't have to keep hanging and waiting in for phone calls.

Saturday 18th Decenber 2010 (Result!)
I have just noticed that McAfee anti-spam is now working in Thunderbird! Probably as a result of an update that came through last night. Wow, finally. I'm sure McAfee will contact me soon just to make sure it's all OK but even if they don't I'm just pleased it's finally resolved.

Monday 20th December 2010 - spoke too soon :-(
Seems like it's only partially fixed as it is only working on one account. I have two set up in thunderbird; one is a standard pop3 account and the other is an imap account. McAfee anti spam is not working with the imap account for some reason. I just keep getting a warning message which states "You cannot perform this action in the current Thunderbird folder" Oh well, at least there is some progress.

US Visa Application Scam

2010-06-09T21:39:00.003Z

When it comes to scams there are some people or companies you you expect to be scammed by but a government run organisation you might not trust but you wouldn't expect them to run a scam. Well, the US embassy certainly seems to be doing just that right now with it's new visa application system.

I don't think it started out with the intention of being a scam but, as it has been going on for quite a while now and they know people are losing loads of money in their system and they have not done anything about it, it clearly is now a scam.

If you want to enter the country or transit it and you don't qualify for the visa waiver program you have to get a visa. Fair enough so far. We are (were) to be going to Miami on 30th of this month to meet a friend who has his own twin engine aircraft. The next day we were going with him to the Caribbean and then on to Brazil. Our return to the UK would be via a commercial flight out of Rio. As we were not returning to the UK from the US we apparently require a visa. To get a visa you have to fill out an application form on-line and send it off to them. There is a really cheesy YouTube video trying to sell the idea of how easy the new system is on the Embassy web site. We did that about 6 weeks ago as soon as we had had the holiday confirmed. We waited for a week and didn't hear anything so I checked the Embassy web site again and discovered you have to phone the Embassy to book an appointment. The phone number you HAVE to use is a premium rate number and by premium I'm talking £1.20 per minute! I rang it as soon as I realised but first I wanted to confirm we would definitely require a visa. I was put on hold for over 6 minutes while they discussed the matter and the guy I was speaking to finally confirmed I would. He then said I'd have to ring back on this number to book an appointment. I asked him if he could put me through but he told me that there were no appointments and none would be available for booking until after the 7th June. I informed him we were hoping to fly on the 30th and asked if he could check and see if there would be an opportunity to book anything in time or if all the dates up till then were already booked. He said he couldn't check that and I'd just have to ring back. That was the end of that call, 10 minutes.

Another friend who was also joining the trip said he had managed to get a visa by going to the Belfast Embassy. So I phoned the premium rate visa line number again and asked about getting an appointment there instead. I was told that both the Belfast and London Embassy appointments are dealt with by the same department and neither had any appointments available. This time I was told the try again after the 4th June. That was a 5 minute call.

On the 4th June I rang at 9am. I got the initial recording warning me how much the call was costing and then the options to press for booking a visa appointment (Optio 1). I pressed option 1 and got another recorded message saying "We are currently experiencing very high call volumes at the moment and cannot answer your call. Please ring back later" and the line is cut off. At least £1.20 wasted. I rang again an hour later - ditto. I rang the Embassy switchboard and the spoke to a receptionist who just told me that as they had changed the system and the lines had only just reopened they were getting a very large number of calls and I should just try again later. She said it would be quieter between 4 & 5. She would not give me any idea as to the likely hood of getting an appointment in time for our trip. I rang the appointment line at lunchtime, at 4.59 and just before the lines closed at 8.30pm but still the same result.

Oh, and between the lines closing for appointments and them reopening the cost of each individual visa appointment has gone up from $131 to $140. This is non refundable and has to be paid up front once you get through for each visa applied for.

Saturday 5th - lines opened at 9 and I rang on the dot. Same result. I phoned 3 more times that day up to 4 when they closed and no change. Each time this is costing at least £1.20. Sunday they are not open. Monday 7th, lines opened at 8 and I rang at 8 to the second. I was a fraction too quick and the lines were still closed. I rang straight back and got the 'We are currently too busy' message again. 5 minutes later I tried again. I rang the switchboard again and this time spoke with a very sympathetic lady who understood my problem and said she would put in a report as there were a number of people in my situation and it wasn't good enough. She also thought it was unlikely that if I did get through that there would be an appointment available in time. I asked if it would be possible to go to the Embassy in person to book the appointment but she told me that phoning that premium rate number was the ONLY way to book an appointment, nothing else would be acceptable.I tried appointments line again that lunchtime, at 4.30, 6.15 and 8.45 but no change.

Tuesday 8th. Once again I rang dead on 8am, same result. I rang at lunchtime and now there is an additional recorded message straight after the first one warning of the cost that states that due to 'Unprecedented call volumes waiting times to speak with an agent were between 8 and 10 minutes1. OK I thought, it'll cost me £12 but at least I'll get an answer and hopefully an appointment. The next recorded message comes on for the options to press and I select 1 thinking I'll be on hold for a while but should get answered. No, the same old recorded message came on saying how they cannot take your call and please ring back later! I rang again that evening but it was just the same.

Today, Wednesday 9th. I ring again at 8am on the dot and get the same message complete with the extra bit and still don't get through. I have tried 3 more times since then. I left a message on their blog but it got scrubbed, no surprises there. If I could be told there was no hope of getting an appointment in time for our trip at least I could stop calling and try and salvage what we can of our holiday. We will lose all the money we paid for our flights as they are non refundable.

The Embassy must be creaming in the money on this phone line as I am clearly not the only one desperate to get through. Each time someone calls it is at least £1.20 which is more than a lottery ticket and for me at least, I would have more of a chance if I did do the lottery than I have of getting a visa appointment. I don't gamble and I don't normally ring premium number ever. If it was a first come first serve system it would be fairer but the chances of getting through are just based purely on luck. What are they doing with all the money they are making on this scam? I'm sure it's just going to the Embassy coffers. I wouldn't mind so much if it was donated back to the British people to help pay of some of our huge debt seeing as it is Brits they have conned the money from but I think that is extremely unlikely.

Thursday 8.am - same old story.
I finally got through this afternoon as they changed the system to allow people to queue. Unfortunately the earliest appointment they could offer was next Wednesday 16th but the processing time for the visa should my interview be successful is currently 5 - 10 working days and we only have nine. The risk that our passports and visas might not arrive in time for our flights on the 30th is too much of a risk and too much worry. Better to cut our losses now and try and work on a fall back holiday than spend the next couple of weeks stressing about it and find we have nothing at the end.

This is one experience I am not gong to be able to forget.

Excel Communication - excel in deception

2010-05-28T14:40:00.002Z

I don’t normally take any notice of cold callers either from phone calls or at the door. Yesterday I got called by an lady with an Asian accent who gave her name a Sarah and said she was calling from T-mobile, who is my network provider. Instead of a phone number being displayed on my phone when she called I just had the word 'call'. She asked me to confirm my name which she gave so I did and then asked me to verify who I was by supplying my post code, house number and the make of my phone. I said she should already have these details on the account but she again said she needed them to varify my identity so she could check and see if I was due an upgrade to a better deal and new phone on a business account. I finally gave her the details. She then asked if my business was Sally Jane Photographic Art, a detail I know T-mobile does not have. I was now very suspicious but she seemed to already have all the information she needed. She then said I should expect a call back tomorrow with an offer.
I contacted T-mobile and they told me they would never call with details of better offers and if ever they called for any reason their phone number would be displayed.
Today I got a call from a man who said he was calling from T-mobile. the number displayed was 01952211670. He wanted to offer me an upgrade to a business account that would only cost £15 per month and give me tons more free calls, texts and also voice mail as well as a new handset. He said it didn't matter that my contract was still fairly new as it was with the same company. Still suspecting this might be a scam I suggested he e-mailed me the details. He told me his e-mail was not currently working but if I gave him an e-mail address he would try and do so later tonight.
After the call I phoned the number back and it was answered by an automatic answering service for Excel communications.
Should he e-mail me I shall report him and his company to Trading Standards but I doubt he will, somehow.
I have since checked the Excel-communications web site and they don't even deal with T-mobile in the first place.

See http://www.webologist.co.uk/2010/05/consumer-warning-excell-communications-and-orange-mobile.html for a review from someone who wasn't so lucky

European Health Insurance Card EHIC

2010-05-17T13:09:00.000Z

The European Health Insurance Card is required by all UK citizens when travelling through Europe in the event they require emergency medical treatment. It replaced the E111 form that used to be required. The cards are valid for 5 years after which they can be renewed either on-line, by phone (tel 0845 6062030) or at a post office.
If you are thinking of renewing or applying for an EHIC on-line my advice to you is don't unless you like wasting money. If you renew or apply for your card on-line you will be asked to pay nearly £10 for each card when you can get it done for free over the phone or by going into your post office. Although the fee is made clear on the web site it is not mentioned that it is free if you use the other methods.
The downside - The only downside is the time it takes to process the application but it's barely worth worrying about. If you apply on-line and pay the fee you are told to expect the card to take up to 7 days to arrive. By phone it is between 7 & 10 days so not a lot of difference. OK, if you go into a post office then it can take up to 21 days but as long as your application is in the system it doesn't matter if your card doesn't arrive on time for your date of travel. You are given a phone number you can use should you need to in the event you requiring emergency treatment whilst you are abroad.

Volcanic dust over Kent

2010-04-19T08:03:00.001Z

Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day on the ground and as we needed to go to the hangar for a maintenance job we decided to go for a quick evening flight. At only 2,000' we could start to see the murkiness of the volcanic dust cloud above us. OK so it's not unusual to have haze cutting down the visibility, nor is it unusual to have a dark smudge in the sky at the *inversion level especially this close to London, but this did seem excessively grotty for want of a better term, particularly as you don't normally see the inversion layer when looking towards the sun. I know some countries, and even some parts of our country have it far worse than this as we are just on the edge here.

*The inversion is a level in the atmosphere where two masses of air sit on top of each other. The layer below will be warmer air trapped my a layer of colder air on top. You often get a layer of cloud here but on blue cloudless days you can often see a dirty smudge just below this layer when looking away from the sun. This is all the dirt, dust and pollutants that get mixed up in the air and have risen in the warm air to the top of this level just like smoke floating to the ceiling of a room. You don't normally see it looking towards the sun even though it's there due to an optical illusion just like you can't see a rainbow in that direction, but on this flight we could see it in all directions.

Film Scanner

2010-03-24T11:02:00.000Z

I now have a film scanner which will allow me to work from negatives supplied by clients where I am otherwise unable to take the photographs myself and the client does not have access to a digital camera. 35mm or medium format film only. All negatives will be returned once scanned.

National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP)

2010-03-10T09:06:00.000Z

NAPP is an association for Photoshop users run by the Photoshop guru Scott Kelby. It allows members access to a comprehensive range of training videos and tutorials as well as tons of other benefits. There is a help desk to answer any questions or resolve any problems with Photoshop or Lightroom, members forum, discounts on purchasing hardware and software including Adobe software, a magazine produced 8 times a year and much much more. It's even recognised by Adobe themselves. Interested? just click on the image below to find out more.

Sabadell Airport, Ideal for Barcelona GA

2010-03-01T08:35:00.001Z

After our trip to Futuroscope we flew off in search of some sun. The only place in Europe that had any decent weather at the time was Barcelona. Previously when visiting Barcelona we had used the main airport but that is horrendously expensive for general aviation (GA) so we decided to go to a smaller airfield about 12 miles west of Barcelona called Sabadell.

Sabadell airport turned out to be the perfect choice for GA wishing to visit Barcelona. Landing fees and parking fees are dirt cheap. We paid less than 6 Euros for landing and 3 days parking! Avgas is available and supplied by BP. There is a restaurant on the airfield and vending machines in the terminal. A taxi into Barcelona will cost you 35 Euros and take about 20-25 minutes but the railway line runs right next to the airfield with Sadabell Sud station almost touching the fence. Unfortunately it is on the wrong side of the airfield but a taxi to the station will only cost about 5 Euros and a single ticket into Barcelona just over 4 Euros. (I'm not sure what a return cost) The journey by train took about 25 minutes to Catalonia Square which is just at the top of the famous Ramblas in Barcelona. You can just make out the railway line in these photos although the station isn't quite visible.

Flying to Futuroscope

2010-02-27T10:45:00.003Z

For anyone who has not been there Futuroscope is similar to the Epcot centre in Florida, USA. It comprises of numerous IMAX cinemas in 2D, 3D and 4D as well as various rides and an outdoor water park. The ticket is all inclusive of rides but don't expect that to be the end of your paying out as food, typically, is expensive inside and not very good plus there are loads of boutiques aimed at selling toys to your kids. To be honest, although some of the attractions were very good I'm not sure they are worth the cost and certainly not worth the long queues. We went in the last week of February when some schools were on half term admittedly but the weather was not brilliant. Even so, for some attractions we had to wait 45 minutes in a very boring and uncomfortable queue. Some attractions only had about a 5 minute running time as well. I would hate to think what the queues would be like in summer!
The French, being French, are not very helpful when it comes to people who don't speak their language. There are audio guides available for English and Spanish speakers but you have to ask for them as they are not well advertised. If you don't get one you won't have a clue what is going on in the attractions. Much of the safety advice is also announced on these audio sets and although they are images depicting safety information it is far from comprehensive.
Accommodation around the park is very formulaic. The hotels vary in price but all appeared much-over-muchness with buffet style restaurants and little atmosphere.

Travelling to Futuroscope - Poitiers Airport

There are many way to get there but typically for us we flew ourselves. There is an airport at Poitiers open for general aviation which is about 15 minutes drive from Futuroscope however the taxi fare is around 40 Euros.
If you are thinking of flying yourself to Poitiers there are a few things you might like to know. There is Avgas available but you really need a Total card. If you don't have one you have to find the refueller who speaks no English and is hard to find. It is also difficult to pay landing and parking fees, you have to leave your details and they send you a bill. As yet we have no idea how much this will be. Exit and entry is via the flying club but they shut at lunchtime for 2 hours on Sunday. There is a restaurant available in the main terminal.

PG Tips Decaffeinated - Not Such a Good Choice

2010-02-19T11:06:00.026Z

Some of you will know that I had to give up caffeine about a year ago because I discovered I was sensitive to it and it was the cause of chronic indigestion. Having given it up I thought everything was fine, no more indigestion and I had found some decaf products I was perfectly happy with. That is until someone mentioned to me that certain methods of decaffeination were actually harmful to health. I took this initially with a pinch of salt but decided to research it for myself anyway. Wikipedia was most helpful on this listing all the various ways caffeine could be extracted from tea and coffee http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decaffeination and true enough there were some very bad ways as well as healthy ways such as the Swiss Water Process.
Next I decided to look at the labels on my products. For instant coffee I use Nescafé Gold Blend Decaf and I was very relieved to see they proudly claim to use the water process for removing the caffeine from their beans. Full marks to Nescafé but I only have one cup a day of that so it wasn't the most important. In the evenings after my main meal I have a cup of ground coffee and for that I use Lavazza Decaffeinated Caffe Espresso. There was nothing on the label about the decaffeination process and nothing on their web site. As there is no e-mail contact information I have had to write to them for details. I'll let you know if they reply.
The most important drink for me however, is tea. I drink 6 mugs of tea a day, two mugs at a time made from 1 bag so 3 tea bags a day. The brand I used was PG Tips Decaf as that had the best flavour, hardly any difference from the non decaf version. Once again there was nothing on the packet to say how the tea was decaffeinated and nothing on their web site. There was a contact form on their web site so I e-mailed them asking about the process. This was the initial response -

Dear Sally,

Thank you for your email.

The solvent extraction process for decaffeination involves the tea leaves being 'washed' in a solvent that removes almost all of the caffeine. The tea leaves are then dried and packed in the ordinary fashion.

If steam treatment is used to remove the caffeine, it is inevitable that some of the other water soluble components will be removed at the same time, notably the water soluble antioxidant flavonoids which contribute to the taste and the leaves' antioxidant activity. We intend that the black tea leaf blend in PG Decaf provides you with a tea infusion that has the taste you would expect to find in cup of standard PG tips tea. Similarly, we intend that PG Decaf continues to give you a brew that is rich in antioxidant flavonoids. While taste is obviously a matter of personal preference, we know we could not make any claim about antioxidant flavonoids if the caffeine had been removed from the leaves using a water based steam treatment.

As I am sure that you will appreciate, the exact process carried out by PG is commercially sensitive but I do hope that this gives you a better understanding of the methodology and our reasoning.

Kind regards,

Zaheed Khan
Careline Advisor

I then e-mailed back asking them which solvent was used in the process and the reply was as follows -

Dear Sally,

Thank you for your continued correspondence.

I can confirm that the the typical solvent of choice for PG tips is Dichloromethane.

If I can be of any further help or assistance, then please do not hesitate to contact me.

Kind regards,

Christopher Fortune
Careline Advisor

Dichloromethane is a carcinogen. There are loads of references to it so it seems strange that they would use it to remove caffeine on the grounds it saved the anti-oxidants when at the same time it could potentially cause cancer itself. I am now searching for a new brew and would welcome any suggestions. In the mean time I will revert to normal tea and try steeping the bags for 30 seconds to remove the caffeine myself, throwing that water away and re-steeping the bags to make my tea.

In fairness, at least PG were honest and did reply; I've yet to hear from Lavazza.

References...
http://healthmad.com/nutrition/why-buying-decaffeinated-tea-bags-may-not-be-the-best-choice/
http://antoine.frostburg.edu/chem/senese/101/consumer/faq/decaffeinating-coffee.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methylene_chloride
http://teahousekuanyin.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/
http://www-teahousekuanyin-comearl-grey-decaffienated-htmlfeinating-tea/
http://imsdd.meb.uni-bonn.de/cancernet/600316.html
http://www.teeccino.com/decaf.aspx
...the list goes on and on.

P.s.
I tried the seeping method as a DIY method for removing caffeine from normal tea at lunchtime today and so far it seems to have worked...no indigestion...yet!

Tuesday 2nd March 2010 - Tetley and Typhoo Decaf Teas
I've been checking around for other brands of decaf tea. most manufacturers don't say how they process their tea on the packets so it is a matter of contacting the companies concerned and asking them direct. today I got replies from Tetley and Typho who also both use the same solvent as PG. Here is their response to my enquiry.

Tetley

Dear Sally

Thanks for your email.  In answer to your query, we decaffeinate our teas using dichloromethane, which is removed by heating the tea leaves to 40°C.  It's checked by our labs and the level of residue left is well below 5 parts per million, the level required by legislation. We believe this method delivers the best tasting decaf blend.

Dichloromethane is still widely used in the food and drink industry because it can so effectively be removed from products due to its volatile nature. Product safety and consumer concerns are a top priority for us at Tetley and we regularly review our methods and look at alternative processes of decaffeination.

Kind regards

Sue
Tetley GB Consumer Services

Typhoo

Dear Ms Turner

I am writing in response to your query regarding the decaffeination method that we use.

Typhoo currently use the widely used method known as Methylene Chloride for decaffeination. During this process the tea is 'washed' with Methylene Chloride, which is highly selective for caffeine, and is therefore thought to give a better flavoured decaffeinated tea than by using some other methods.

The caffeine is dissolved into the solvent. Tea is treated to remove the solvent by gentle heating - Methylene Chloride has a low boiling point of approximately 41 C and is therefore evaporated off and collected separately. Caffeine can be recovered from this solvent and purified for re-use.

All teas are made with hot water (70 C-80 C or more), ensuring that any minute traces of solvent remaining in the decaffeinated tea (normally less than 1 mg per kg of dry tea) will evaporate before the tea is drunk.

Recent research has shown that the healthy antioxidants in tea are not removed during decaffeination using Methylene Chloride.

Kind Regards

Lynsey
Consumer Relations Advisor

N.B. Dichloromethane and Methylene Chloride are the same thing. The references listed above say that this chemical cannot be fully removed from the tea and so will be ingested.

On the plus side I have discovered, but not yet tried, a decaffeinated tea by Taylors of Harrogate who claim their tea is decaffeinated using CO2, perfectly harmless.
I am currently trying Clipper Organic Decaf Tea Having e-mailed them asking about their decaffeination process they informed me they use CO2 aswell. Here is their reply.

Thank you for contacting clipper

It was good to hear that you are interested in our Decaffeinated products and would like to know which process we use to decaffeinate them.

The information is as follows:

How is Clipper tea and coffee decaffeinated?

There are essentially two types of decaffeination process: one that uses solvents such as ethyl acetate, and one that uses harmless carbon dioxide gas and water.  All Clipper decaffeinated products use natural spring water and supercritical Carbon Dioxide (CO2) - the same natural gas used to add bubbles to mineral water, but pressurised.  This method does not use any harmful chemicals and is approved by the Soil Association.

Thank you for contacting us; if you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact us again

Kind regards
Penny Knapman
Customer Relations
Tel: 01308 863344
Fax: 01308 861249

Thursday 4th March - Response from Lavazza Coffee

Lavazza got back to me today to say they use the CO2 method of decaffeination. This response was via a scanned document so instead of attaching the e-mail I've inserted an image of the document sent to me here. Just click on it to see it large.

New Blog

2009-11-10T09:28:00.000Z

I now have a blog on my web site. It taken me a long time to work out how to do it but I think I've finally got it working. All I need now are some bloggers. Mind you, it's mainly there so visitors to my web site can make comments and suggestions although I think I need to improve links and access as I'm not sure many people will find it. Still, it's a start.

Bl**dy Royal Mail!

2009-11-05T15:47:00.003Z

I'm not a fan of our postal service as one of my earlier blogs might have let on but now they have dropped to an all time low in my opinion. We have been waiting for a package from the US for over a month now. Such items normally only take 7 - 10 days max but i gusee this got held up in the postal strike. Yesterday I got a card through the door to say I owed the Royal Mail £12.56 in duty. I thought that seemed a bit steep as the product value was only about £40. I went to the sorting office to collect it today and discovered the duty was just £4.56 and the rest was a handling charged levied by the Post Office. "for what purpose?" I asked, and was told it getds levied on all international mail. "funny" I said, "I've never had to pay it before. Surely the cost of postage is the handling charge?" "Well that's what catches people out, you might think you are buying something cheap from abroad but then you have to pay import charges." Of all the cheek, this guy is now making an assumption on the contents of my package and my mentality. I glared at him which resulted in him saying "If you want to know more you'll have to phone this number" while pointing to a telephone number on the label.
I went home and phoned it. I needed to negotiate 6 different switching options before I actually managed to speak to a human who, unfortunately, was very polite and nicely spoken. it's very difficult being annoyed with someone when you really feel like taking him a cup of tea, giving him a hug and saying "There, there I'm sure it will be alright." No doubt that was why he had that job. Anyway this guy informed me that the charge was because the Royal Mail had had to pay Customs the £4.56 out of their own funds and the remaining £8 was a charge to cover that service! SERVICE, you've got to be kidding. I told him that and he at first blamed it on Customs and Excise so I politely pointed out that I was not the least bit concerned about paying the £4.56 duty and they were only doing what was right. Having realised I wasn't going to take that piece of bait he then decided to try and blame it on the banks, after all everyone wants to hang them out to dry these days don't they? Wrong again, I was not having that either, Bank charges might seem excessive in some instances but charging £12.56 for a £4.56 outlay amounts to almost 300% and I don't know any bank that outrageous. In the end all he could say is that was how things were done at the Royal Mail.
I feel like I have been fleeced. After all, it's not as if I had a choice, OK I could have refused to pay it but then the package would have been sent back and we would have lost out completely as the company who sent it would not have been liable to give us a refund on those grounds. At least if it's an upfront postal charge you know what you are paying there and then but this was a totally hidden one. the sooner another company has the right to handle small items of post in competition with the Royal Mail the better. the way things stand at present we are at their mercy and can't do a thing about it.

My Hunting Rant

2009-11-02T08:16:00.004Z

With the national election fast approaching the pro hunting lobbyists have been raising their voices again like a pack of baying hounds. Apparently the Conservatives have promised to over turn the ban. Great, isn’t there more important things to be fighting this election on? I happen to feel they would be the best party to get this country out of it’s current mess but I’m not in favour of over turning this particular ban. I do agree that it is a pig’s ear of the law and need refining but I see no reason to throw the baby out with the bath water. Apparently 75% of the nation agrees.

It’s not that I’m totally anti-hunting. In principle I can’t see much wrong with hunting foxes in this manner to a point. If it was just a matter of chasing foxes caught out in the open and killing them with the hounds then it is little different from any natural predator / prey hunt found in the wild. Where I draw the line is in the digging out of foxes that have gone to ground and the throwing of them to the hounds. Surely once the fox has outwitted the pack they should be left in peace. This is supposed to be a sport after all and digging them out or chasing them out with terriers is not being very sportsman like, is it?

As for the argument that the hunt is providing a service in keeping the fox number down, well that’s a total joke. Far more foxes get killed on the road by cars than any hunt could knock off. Then there are people who go out shooting them. They also take more than the hunts. The hunts response is they only take the weakest as the strongest get away. Well that might be true if they didn’t dig them out.

Foxes are very successful and adaptable animals and like any animal that is clever and successful we human tend to hate them. They are indigenous to the UK and have every right to a life just as much as we do. They pose no serious threat to our survival. Their numbers are high only because there is plenty of food available. Killing a handful of foxes only allows a better opportunity for the next generation to take their place. Foxes actually provide a very useful service as they help to keep the rabbit population down.

Persecuting the fox in the countryside has encouraged them to take up residence in out towns. The hunt can’t get them there and here they have found a much easier and wormer living. We humans are very untidy and leave scraps of food all over the place, especially around fast food joints. All the fox needs to do is to overcome its natural fear of man to get at it. Something it has done very easily. Added to that, raiding gardens of pet rabbits and chickens is easier in towns than chasing them in the open. In the countryside the fox poses little threat but in a town it can be a real pest, although personally I find them quite endearing. Hunting has helped to create this problem and can’t do anything to put it right.

So why do people hunt? Because it’s jolly good fun. There is no other sport that allows such freedom to gallop en-mass over such a variety of private land. There’s the thrill of not knowing where the hunt will take you and what obstacles you and your horse will need to negotiate. Then there is the sheer adrenaline of the chase. Added to that, many humans have a blood lust, a desire to kill. It's a remnant left over from when we were hunter gatherers and no different from the actions of our pet cats when they kill birds they don't eat. I love to ride and would love the opportunity to join in something that exhilarating provided there was no actual living quarry. None of this is ever admitted to as a reason for keeping the hunt going but it is the only true reason.

When the ban was first being brought in the hunting community said it would see hundreds of people out of work and thousands of hounds would have to be destroyed. Well none of that has happened. Hunts can still hunt by drag hunting. The hounds just follow an artificially laid scent. Hunting is now more popular than it was before. The hunt leaders say this is in support of hunting as it was but it could also be that equestrians with an aversion to killing foxes now feel free to join in the fun.

The law as it is needs improving as it is very difficult to bring a conviction if a hunt does break the ban. Hence, few cases get to court. Most laws are refined by case law but that requires cases being prosecuted in court first and then going to appeal. If cases are not being brought in the first place there cannot be any appeals so the law won’t get refined. Something needs to be sorted out here but I don’t see a need to completely throw it out just because a minority of people think it’s wrong.

In a Rut

2009-10-29T16:44:00.007Z

Now that the evenings are drawing in and weatehr is not always up to much it is easy to get into a rut and let the just days slip away. It's easy to get motivated in spring and summer as the lengthening days almost seem to make us want to do stuff but once the clocks go back it seems to put me in winter mode. This year I decided to change all that. I'm determined to try and make the most of any good days that are offered. Autumn can be glorious if the weather holds. Today was one such day so I packed up my camera, grabbed Brac, and headed off for Knowle Park to watch the Fallow deer.

It's actually a bit late in the season for the rut these Fallow deer were still at it. All was calm until one of these stags suddenly appeared almost from out of nowhere chasing a doe. He stumbled straight into another herd and was instantly challenged.

Next year I want to make a point of going to Richmond Park for the Red deer rut, I still tempted to go this year as even with the rut virtually at an end the stags will still be looking impressive.

The Selfishness of Unions

2009-10-22T16:46:00.002Z

All the post office workers in the UK went on strike today. They will be on strike again tomorrow and threatening to go on strike on several more days in the near future unless the Post Office agrees to their terms over conditions and pay. We, like the rest of the world are in a recession and there are currently 3 million unemployed in the UK; a number that is growing by the day. These strikers ought to think themselves lucky they still have a job. How selfish can they be? While they are on strike many small businesses are missing out on cheques and deliveries vital for keeping them going. Personally I'm not that effected as yet, touch wood, but as Christmas orders for portraits increase it will no doubt be a different story.
I hope the Post Office and the Government don't give in to the Unions demands because I don't agree with bully techniques and am really annoyed that the Unions state that they are doing it to "protect services for the nation". What a cheek. I wish the Government would legislate to open the postal service up to competition so that we could send our letters via some other company. As it is, if they don't go back to work as normal, I simply won't bother sending any Christmas cards this year...after all, what's the point, they won't get there in time?

Adobe Photoshop Tutorials on You Tube

2009-10-09T22:54:00.003Z

I am gradually replacing the video tutorials on one of my web sites with better quality ones. These are the tutorial videos I created for using Adobe Photoshop which go with the step-by-step guides you will find on my web site here http://www.sally-jane.co.uk/tutorials/adobe-photoshop.html . The new videos will be uploaded to You Tube and can be seen there at this url http://www.youtube.com/user/SallyTsVideos of viewed as normal embedded into my tutorial pages on my web site as previously listed. I've only done 4 so far dealing with fairly basic stuff but as I get through them they will become more complex. The original videos they replace were silent and relied on viewers downloading the file before they could be viewed. I hope these new videos will be of more use to viewers.
If anyone have any requests for topics to be covered do let me know.

New Web Sites

2009-09-14T21:05:00.002Z

I now have 3 satellite web sites supporting my main site at www.sally-jane.com One purely for pet portraiture which is http://www.petportraitsbysally-jane.co.uk/index.html, one purely for pet cards here www.petportraitsbysallyjane.co.uk and one for other forms of photography including human portraiture and still life images here www.sally-jane.co.uk
As the new sites were purpose built rather than simply evolved like my main site, I am hoping they will be easier for viewers to navigate. The main web site needs some work to tidy it up as it has turned into a sprawling mass of pages but I don't want to lose any inbound links so weeding out the rubbish won't be easy. Any tip would be welcome.

Sally Jane Photographic Art video

2009-09-11T07:52:00.003Z

I thought about this long and hard before I finally managed to pluck up the courage to make this video but I was assured by my friend, Mike, of MKlink.com that YouTube ads are a good way to increase sales. Umm, lets hope so. As you will see by the heavy swallowing, I found speaking to a camera felt very strange and unnatural.

2009-06-05T10:33:00.006Z

When I first spotted this distant poppy filed I was impressed. Normally only part of a filed gets a concentration like this. I had to find the filed to take a closer look. I love poppies. When i got to the filed I was in for a surprise. Rather than these poppies growing up amongst a regular crop the poppies were the crop. Initially I assumed it was a filed that had been left fallow and the poppies had taken over as early colonisers. Even so, that didn't account for such an even spread. The give away was the fact that there were crop lines present where an irrigator had been pulled through the field and also, the poppies were planted in rows. You can see this clearly from this shot below.

How wonderful to be able to see fields like this. I can't imagine there will be a big call for such fields though as the only commercial use I can think of for this crop would be for poppy seeds used for toppings on breads. I must admit, though, I didn't realise they used filed poppies for that. anyway, I hope this is a success for the farmer so that maybe we shall see a repeat in following years.

Microsoft User-Mode Driver Framework Install-v1.0-WinXP.exe

2009-05-28T09:37:00.004Z

I hate it when my PC, or more correctly, software on my PC starts acting erratically. Today I noticed the hard drive seemed to be chugging through something even when nothing other than my browser was open. Added to that my mouse cursor kept flicking between normal and an hour glass symbol. I called up the task manager and in the processes window noticed a program kept popping up and disappearing again on my in time with the hour glass appearing. It was 'Microsoft User-Mode Driver Framework Install-v1.0-WinXP.exe'. I quick search in the internet showed me this had something to do with Nokia PC Suite. I looked at my device manager which can be found under My Computer > Properties > Hardware > Device Manager. It showed me that there was a problem with a connection to my mobile phone. Of course there would be a problem, it wasn't connected and so no connection was required however Nokia PC Suite seemed to think it should be connected. Nothing I did seemed to be able to sort the problem out. I didn't want to unistall the phone or PC Suite as I do use it regularly but I certainly don't want it running all the time, it doesn't normally. I tried a system restore but that had no effect either. Problem still remained. In the end I decided if you can't beat them, join them so I connected my phone. Initially Windows went through a 'New Hardware Found' routine and returned a fault but that cleared and the phone connected fine. I synchronised it just to make sure it was all working properly and then disconnected it. Hey presto the original problem cleared and everything was working normally again. No more 'Microsoft User-Mode Driver Framework Install-v1.0-WinXP.exe' problems...or at least for today. I have no idea why this started and no doubt it will return but at least I now know a way to fix it.

2009-04-30T11:51:00.002Z

Last week I broke the LCD on my mobile :-( I loved that mobile so I was gutted. I tried making some enquiries about getting it repaired first at my phone dealers and second at a mobile phone spares shop and they wanted shed loads of money to do it. I thought it might have to be consigned to the bin. In a last hope attempt I tried searching on Google for a repair and low and behold I found my saviour on e-bay. Spectrum Mobiles based in Barking, Essex, UK were happy to do it for just £20 including postage. I hurriedly sent it off and 6 days later my phone has been restored. I can't say it's perfect as there is a small amount of flare at the bottom of the screen but I'm more than happy and it comes with a 6 month guarantee so what more can I ask? If any of you suffer a similar problem just drop me a line here and I'll pass on their details to you.

Facebook

2009-01-09T19:04:00.000Z

Christmas Wishes

2008-12-24T16:53:00.002Z

A Christmas card for all of my Blogger friends. I hope Christmas brings you all an abundance of love and happiness that stays with you throughout the New Year.

Christmas countdown

2008-12-13T14:21:00.003Z

It's only when I reach mid December that I really begin to get into the feel for Christmas. I simply can't stand thinking about it before December and even once December starts it still feels too early. It's not that Christmas feels a long way off, far from it, it's more that it simply doesn't feel that long ago since the last Christmas! Consequently I start to feel pressured, that I've not allowed myself enough time to get things done and that has an even greater dampening effect on my Christmas spirit. Still, for all that, I have finally finished writing my Christmas cards and got most of my present shopping done so maybe now I can start to look forward to it a bit. I probably won't be putting these deccies up today though, still too soon for that..."bar hunbug" :-)

Bad day

2008-11-14T09:36:00.004Z

I had a bad day again yesterday. seems I'm not quite over the caffeine withdrawal after all. I had a headache all day despite regularly taking paracetamol to combat it at the advice of my GP. They made no difference. To be honest, it wasn't a thumper but I was concious of it and found it hard to concentrate on anything much because of it. What if really hate about such niggling headaches is how they seem to affect my whole day. I couldn't find anything to smile about and everything seemed to go wrong. OK, I know that's just a warped perception of the day building negative energy and causing me to look at the black side of things rather than the seeing the positives but knowing that didn't help.
I could have just grabbed a cup of normal tea of coffee and cleared my head but I was determined to stretch it out longer. I knew I had gone 72 hours before between caffeine fixes so I needed to make sure I went at least that this time. the trouble was that would mean the next time I could have a caffeine fix would be my after diner coffee and that would likely cause me another sleepless night. There was nothing for it but to stick it out until this morning making it a good 80 hours between 'fixes'. As I woke this morning my headache was nestled in well behind my left eye and throbbed at me as I sat up. No matter, I was going to have two mugs of normal tea with my breakfast...Yes!
Breakfast was 2 hours ago now and my headache is 90% better. Not totally banished I have to say but I'm sure it will be soon. At least I feel more positive today which is good because I have a lot of work to get through.

Downside of being caffeine free

2008-11-11T11:26:00.002Z

Yes, that's right, I can now claim to have beaten the caffeine thing. Once I got the hang of it, it was all quite painless really. The downside is that last night I made a cup of filter coffee after my dinner as usual only I accidentally used the wrong coffee. Normal coffee rather then decaf. I didn't think much of it at the time as one cup of caffeinated coffee wasn't going to kill me and probably wouldn't make much difference to my digestion. It was not until I went to bed that I realised the difference. It took me at least 3 hours before I finally went to sleep. I couldn't believe it, I'd never had problems sleeping after coffee before and always thought people who said coffee kept them awake were exaggerating but there I was wide awake and concious that I was going to have to get up in another 4 hours. Best not make that mistake again.

Sciatica & Caffeine Withdrawal

2008-11-05T10:28:00.005Z

OK, enough was enough, I still have the 'Sciatica' or what ever it is so I went to see my GP this morning. He didn't know what was causing it but has ordered some x-rays but he thinks what ever it is I've had it a long time but the pain has been masked by the caffeine I'd been taking in my tea as caffeine is an analgesic. This is why it has become a problem now I'm almost totally decaf. I'm beginning to feel like I'm falling apart.
It will be over a week before I can get the x-rays done and then another 3 weeks before my GP has the results. Hey Ho!

Addendum

2008-11-04T08:23:00.002Z

I had to have a normal cup of tea this morning as I woke up with the beginnings of another headache. Still, that's OK because it was 45 hours since I last had a caffeinated drink. I must be almost there.

Caffeine...who needs it?

2008-11-03T20:37:00.003Z

We spent the weekend in the New Forest visiting my mother-in-law. I managed on just normal tea on Saturday morning and a normal coffee Sunday mid morning when the first signs of a headache returned. Apart from sciatica that came on Friday night and which I don't think is connected, I've not had any other adverse effects. I have not had any caffeinated drinks since the coffee on Sunday so I think I've probably got this sorted now although I did fall asleep after lunch today. I simply could not keep my eyes open. My indigestion has improved since being off the caffeine so now I just need to get rid of this sciatica!

A little of what you fancy

2008-10-31T07:53:00.005Z

07.55 am
Didn't sleep that well last night. Kept waking up with my headache. Not only that but now my right eye aches as well and both feel sore. I'm now having a normal cup of tea in the hope that the caffeine in it will abate my headache and allow me to get on with my day. I'll be back on the decaf for the rest of the day or at least until my headache returns, assuming it goes away in the first place. I can feel my stomach objecting to the caffeine already but if it is going to be a battle between my head and my stomach I'm afraid my head wins, at least temporarily.
Mind you, I have to say, this normal tea that I have enjoyed all my life, suddenly doesn't taste that nice any more.

09.20am
OK my headache has gone, my eyes are no longer sore and I generally feel fine. Even my indigestion only got to a 'low simmer' for the present. All-in-all the trade off was fine. I'm sure if I can keep off the caffeine for the rest of the day I should be able to keep both my head and stomach happy. Fingers crossed :-)

10.50pm
Well I got through the day without any more caffeine. My indigestion kept niggling me but nothing too serious. I do have very achy joints and my head ache is just beginning to return but all that can wait until the morning when I may have another cup of proper tea. If I can leave it a little longer still I will as it will likely increase my indigestion to a more uncomfortable level if I do.

Caffeine withdrawal is no fun

2008-10-30T21:47:00.004Z

I was diagnosed with a hiatus hernia a few months back which had been causing me constant indigestion. Since then I've been taking some medication to help but little had changed, I still had indigestion. On returning to my GP I was told I would need to give up caffeine. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a coffee addict but I do like tea and have about 6 mugs of it a day. No worries, I thought, I'll buy decaf. That was two days ago and today I have had a headache all day despite taking analgesics to get rid of it. Not only that but I feel listless but restless as well. Foggy in the head (I know there are some that would think that was normal) and blurry eyed. I can't concentrate on anything much and I'm either cold or flushed.
I assumed it was due to the medication I was on being increased but then, as I was about to make myself an after dinner coffee I suddenly realised it was the lack of caffeine that was the most likely culprit.
I Googled caffeine withdrawal and to my dismay discovered these symptoms can last a week of more. I don't know why my GP didn't warn me of this. I'm now thinking that going cold turkey on caffeine is not the right way to go about this and think I will allow myself one cup of proper tea tomorrow even if it does result in the return of my indigestion which, btw, has improved.

Lido Airport, Venice

2008-10-11T13:42:00.004Z

When I suggested Venice as a destination on our Italian flying holiday, Paul was not overly impressed. "Landing and parking charges at Venice will be prohibitive and they probably won't have parking for GA aircraft anyway." was his response. That set me a challenge and much to my surpirse it didn't take too much digging on Google before I came across a discussion thread for an airfield on the Venice Lido. The more we looked at it the more it seemed too good to be true but true it was. Paul was now totally committed to the idea so our plans were set and after leaving Bergamo we headed off for Venice.

St Nicolo Airport is situated at the far north end of the Lido and was the first airport for Venice being opened by Moussellini in 1930. It has no special instrument approach so landing there is weather dependant. Our approach took us over the lagoon of Venice and up the west side of the Lido. You can't fly over Venice itself due to noise abatement. The airfield is a grass strip of 750m and kept in perfect condition and it was like landing on a very large golf tee, it was so smooth.

The terminal building is typical Art Deco and was fully restored last year. There is fuel available next to the terminal with prices consistent for most of Italy at 2.6 euros per litre. There is also a bar and restaurant.
Despite being in Venice the landing and parking fees were very cheap at just 35.59 euros including 3 days parking and tax. Not bad for Venice.
St Nicolo airport is open 7 days a week through the summer but as of the 15th October and through the winter it is closed on Mondays. Telephone number for the airport is +39 (0)41 770300 Fax +39 (0)2428714 e-mail nicellispa@veniceairport.it

Being on the Lido meant it was about as close as we could get to Venice itself. There is a bus stop outside the airport and a short ride on this took us to the main water bus terminal where water buses run regular trips the the rest of the islands and up the Grand canal. Here we were able to buy a 3 day bus pass that covered us for as many bus rides as we wished on both water and land buses. We could have got a Water taxi from directly outside the airport but as we needed to get right to the far end of the Grand canal the cost of one journey with luggage on that would have been about 1/2 of what we paid for our two 3 day bus passes so we gave the taxis a miss.
There are two water bus routes, No.1 which is slow as it stops at every stop on route and takes an hour to go all the way from Lido to the far end of the Grand canal. The other is the No.52 with does it in half the time but only stops at a few stops. The buses run very regularly but they are crowded. Still, very good value for money if you buy a bus pass.

Bergamo - Italy

2008-10-06T20:37:00.002Z

Well we have been off on our travels again. 12 days touring Italy by plane and car. We started off by flying to Bergamo, near Milan. Initially, in the planning stage, we had thought of going to Milan and only found Bergamo when we looked for a suitable airfield to land at near-bye. Bergamo airport is where Ryan air flights land for Milan but Bergamo is a wonderful destination in it's own right. It is a Medieval city perched high on the top of a hill and surrounded by it's original city wall. Everything within the wall is either Medieval or Renaissance. There is a larger, more modern city below the hill but once in the old city, or City Alta, as it is referred to locally, you become isolated from that part. Bergamo is full of character and surrounded by wonderful views. Getting there from the airport is simple too as there is a regular and very cheap bus service from the airport right up to the top of the old city.
If you click on this image to see it large you can see the airport in the distance. It is the green area top right.
We stayed two nights here in a B&B just outside the city walls to the North East of the city. Accommodation is limited in the old city so B&Bs make good alternatives if you don't want to stay in the modern part.
From Bergamo we flew on to Venice and I'll talk about that later.

Brac, the aquaphobe

2008-09-19T08:31:00.007Z

Brac is fascinated by water but finds it difficult to pluck up the courage to go in. At best he will only paddle. The water here is only about 6" deep.
Click on the image to view large.

Reaping Rewards

2008-09-05T21:46:00.002Z

There is a long story to this photo so I hope you are sitting comfortably with a cup of tea or something a bit stronger :-)

The fields behind our house have been bought by a new farmer who intends to grow just salad stuffs but as he wanted to get them planted quickly he planted wheat in all but a few. The land is transected by a road and the fields on the far side are more picturesque as they are gently undulating. As the wheat ripened this year I hoped to get a good shot of them reaping in these fields with the north downs in the background. I walked Brac over there every day as the time approached but on a day when I walked in the morning, they managed to cut all of that side in the afternoon! They must have had several machines going at once to get it done. Anyway, there were still the fields on my side of the road and as our house backs right onto them I would be sure to hear if any reaping was going on.

The weather turned bad from that point on. Barely a day went by without some amount of rain or if not it was damp. No reaping could take place until the crop dried out or it would rot. As the weeks went by a black mould started to appear on the husks so something had to happen soon. Finally we had a dry day followed by another but it was not until that night that the combines moved in. I laid in bed listening to them working through the night.

The forecast was for more rain in the morning. When I woke up it was raining and had been for some time. I took Brac over the fields and was relieved to see that there were still two fields they had not managed to get done. I was still in with a chance.

Ok, so back to walking Brac over the fields every day with camera in hand only now, as the fields left were the least interesting photographically, I was only taking my little sony P&S camera as I didn't feel it was worth the effort of carrying my very heavy D300. Another week went by and nothing happened. Then, one day I went out with my Sony in my pocket and as I entered the fields I could see the dust rising in the distance. They were reaping. At last I could get some shots. I walked over to the field they were working on and got my camera ready only to discover I had left the memory stick in my PC! AAAAH! That's it, it's just not meant to be. I finished Brac's walk in disgust.

When I got in I thought about it some more. that was likely to be my last best chance of getting such a shot as from now on they will only be growing onions and lettuce over there. I had to go back. I grabbed my D300 and headed out knowing that they were 2/3rds finished when I saw them last.

Brac couldn't believe his luck; two walks straight after each-other!

As I headed out in a hurry now a neighbour who's wife had not been well for some time was in his garden. I knew it would be rude of me to just pass by so I had to stop and ask after her. It was a longer conversation than I really wanted but what could I do?

Finally I head off into the fields. By the time I got to where the combine was there was only a few strips of wheat left to reap. No matter, it would be enough. The tractor was parked at the end of the rows and the combine was going to it to unload the grain into its trailer as the field was quite small so no need for them to work in formation. I positioned myself at the other end of a row and waited for the combine to come towards me. As it approached I started snapping moving around for a different angle. I than saw the combine extend its arm and to my express delight the tractor pulled up along side. They decided to transfer the grain in formation and I'm sure it was for my benefit. To make matters even better the sun decided to poke it face out for those few minutes too. When they got to the end of the row the combine driver gave me a wave as he turned to go back.

If I had remembered to check the memory stick in my Sony I'd never have got these shots. I guess it was meant to be after all.

My Garden Visitors

2008-08-29T10:14:00.005Z

I never told you guys about my garden visitors. Very remiss of me. Well about 2 weeks ago I was doing some weeding and heard some rustling that wasn't caused by me under a bush beneath my kitchen window. It was very difficult to see what was making the noise but eventually I saw a hedgehog curled up in the leaf litter. As I looked a couple of tiny heads appeared. The babies were trying to suckle which was what was causing the noise. I didn't disturb them but left some food out for them overnight. The next morning most of the food had gone and they were tightly curled up asleep. When I took Brac out for his walk just before lunch I again heard the rustling from the bush. I looked in and saw all the babies were on walk-about while mum was still trying to get some sleep. I counted 6 but it was hard to see for sure if that was all because of the dense foliage they were under. They seemed totally unconcerned about me so I picked this little chappie or chapess up to get a photo.
After I returned from my walk I checked in on them again. They were all back in the nest deeply asleep again.
They were about 1/3rd grown at this time.
After about 4 or 5 days they suddenly disappeared. I had no idea where they went but hoped they were safe and hadn't got themselves run over which is the normal hedgehog demise. Then, last night I was watching TV when I heard some very odd noises in the garden. Brac got concerned too so I switched of the telly and listened. The noises stopped. I continued watching telly and they started up again. I went to the French windows and turned the lights on the patio. There was mum hedgehog and she was making the most peculiar noise. It was loud and the effort she was putting into it made her look like she was convulsing. I opened the door and stepped out. She stopped the noise and frose. I took a few photos and then went looking for the babies who from the rustling noises seemed to be at the other side of the lawn. I located two. when I returned to mum she had resumed her chorus. I recorded some of it and you can hear this by going to my Utube site here Audio of hedgehog calling
Here is mum rolled up in a ball. My hand is there to give you some idea of her size.
Here is one of the babies. Grown a little in the last couple of weeks.

Our Return Home

2008-08-22T10:06:00.002Z

Stockholm was harder to leave than we imagined. We were originally informed that there would be no aircraft movements before 10am on a Sunday and as Biggin Hill (our home airfield) closes at 8pm on Sundays we didn't have a lot of spare time. As it turned out Stockholm had since changed to time to no aircraft movements before noon. We were stuffed especially as there was an extremely strong headwind all the way home. We were going to have to stop somewhere on route for another night. We settled on Groningen in the Netherlands. I shot this windmill on the approach to the airfield as it is so far the only windmill I have ever seen in this country!
By the time we had booked into a hotel and got a bus into Groningen town centre it was getting quite late, and, being a Sunday night the town was very quiet. In fact, there were more gulls and crows in the precinct than people. The town centre was a typical mix of old and modern but apart from searching out a restaurant we had little time to look around.
Back home to Dartford and the weather was awful. Before our decent we had flown through a thick snow shower at 7000' at the mouth of the Thames estuary. Come on, it doesn't snow in July! Our landing at Biggin was uneventful, thankfully, but as we transferred our luggage to our car the heavens opened and it rained. What a wonderful homecoming. Hey Ho!

A Slow Meander Back

2008-08-21T08:14:00.003Z

Outside the Vasa museum was a tram stop but when we asked where it went we discovered it didn't actually go anywhere useful as it was just run for the tourists!!! Hey ho. We were two tourists that did want to go somewhere so we decided it was easier to walk.
Our walk back from the museum took us through one of the many parks. The laws were busy being grazed by a flock of barnacle geese many of whom had chicks. The chicks varied in size from newly hatched to almost fledging.
We walked around the harbour along Raoul Wallenbergs torg. This particular quay was popular with vintage vessels which were moored often two or three abreast. I love these old boats, they are so full of character I could spend hours taking photos.Finally we left the waterside and headed back through the town to our hotel wishing we had a few more days in Stockholm.

Vasa Museum, Stockholm

2008-08-20T07:31:00.010Z

After visiting the Palace we left the tour and made our way to the Vasa Museum. The Vasa was commissioned by the King of Sweden in 1626. It was to be a ship like no other at the time with two gun decks instead of one. It was launched on 10th august 1628 from her ship yard in Stockholm and sank after the first mile. seems she was top heavy. She sank into the mud and although attempts were made to try and raise her at the time that is where she stayed until 1961 when a recovery team successfully refloated her and set about her restoration. She is the most complete ship of her time with over 90% of her original timbers intact. Apart from the rigging here what you see here is all original.
This is a scale model showing the Vasa in her original colours and discovered from tiny paint fragments still surviving on the wood.
As the ship set sail on it's maiden voyage it only had half it's sails set. Despite this as it caught the wind it keeled over too far. The water rushed in through the gun ports and it sank like a stone. Archaeologists have studied the ship and discovered the area where the ballast was placed was not big enough and so even though it was full it was not heavy enough to hold the ship upright under sail.
Waxwork of a seaman from the Vasa. Many of those who would have been on the deck survived the sinking but those trapped below decks had no time to escape. This waxwork was reconstructed from studying the bone structure of one of those who died and clothing fragments found on the ship. They do not know who he was.
Apart from the fact that the Vasa settled in the soft mud where there was little oxygen to start the rotting process the other main reason why she is in such good condition is because she sank in brackish water rather than the salt water of the sea. Most wooden wrecks are eaten away by something called ship worms which live in salt water. The brackish water around the Vasa could not support these worms so her timbers remained intact. As I said, 90% of the ship original timbers were recovered more of less in one piece. In the restoration missing timbers have been replaced but these have been polished smooth and left light in colour so you can clearly see what is original. In this shot you can see the bowsprit is new is the rail and some of the treads on the steps on the star port side. All the rigging and ropes are obviously also new.Here you can see most of the top deck. The boards here have all largely been replaced, you might notice they are paler and very smooth.
When they recovered the ship her hull was in such good condition that by simply plugging the gun ports with pieces of wood they were able to pump the water out of her hull and float her into dock. OK, it was all far more complicated than that but in essence, that is what they did.

The Royal Palace, Stockholm

2008-08-17T15:57:00.005Z

After coffee we walked around the corner to see the royal Palace. Architecturally speaking I found this building to be the least interesting in the Old Town from the outside anyway. It appears as a square block with a square courtyard and hardly any garden. OK it's not actually square but it has a flat appearance that just gives me the impression of a cube. I am sure there are loads of people that would hold their hands up in despair to read this but as Palaces from this era go, this has got to be the dullest. I'm sure inside it would be a different story but we didn't have time to go in. The building in it's current state was commissioned in 1997 by Charles XII but it virtually bankrupted the Royal family of the time and as a result the completion 30 years while funds were scraped together and by then a new king had taken the throne. Now, royalty live mainly outside of Stockholm. Probably for a bit of peace and quiet.
Beyond the Palace you can see the main Stockholm church where many of the Royal weddings have been held.
The garden is not open to the public however, having said that, this is all there is to it which you can see easily from the gate. Considering the size of the building this is just a postage stamp. Clearly King Frederick I (ruler when the building was finished) wasn't into horticulture.

Stockholm on foot

2008-08-13T21:33:00.012Z

Back in the old town and we are shown around some of the quieter areas away from the main streets. Everywhere we turned there were cobbled streets lined with tell terraced houses all painted in warm earthy tones. when the sun shone they glowed and when they were in the shade they took on a cosy feel. Above them there was an azure blue sky. This place was idyllic.

Around another corner and we were surprised by a large statue of St George. Seems old St George got around a bit.Here was me thinking he was England's patron saint but it turns our we share him. Seems there are just not enough saints to go around.
I loved the detail in this statue, it is quite a flight of fancy but the one thing I think lets it down is that it has no passion. St George looks more like he is in a trance than fighting for his life and is gazing off into the distance. Perhaps that is the essence of being a saint, to be calm in the face of adversity.
The time came for a coffee break so our guide ushered us all along another narrow street. suddenly it opened out into a very handsome square with and extremely ornate water pump in the centre. The buildings huddled together in three sides with the National Academy building making up the forth. There were plenty of coffee shops but we settled for this terracotta coloured place where we sat outside and watched the world go bye.

A Nobel Venture

2008-08-12T21:35:00.005Z

This was our second day in Stockholm and a tour has been laid on for us. First stop was the city hall. Not just any city hall but the building where the annual Nobel dinner and awards take place.
This building was commissioned in 1907. It is built in the Venetian style as a result of a competition and took 12 years to complete. The bricks were all specially made as they are twice the size of normal bricks. Money, as ever, became a problem as the costs of the building spiralled so changes to the original design were made as it progressed. There are however, still some wonderful details to be discovered like the relief of an artist figure on one of the columns see here. He appears to be carrying a small child. Unfortunately I have no idea who he was meant to be.

Stockholm continued

2008-08-10T07:24:00.008Z

Back on dry land and one of the first things that greets us is an equine statue of King Carlos II (or was it III?). One of the Swedish Kings. His imposing statue looks down on the main quay area as if he is saying to all the visitors who alight here "This is my country".
We wandered back through the old town along different streets. The warm colours of the buildings really impressed me. They were all different but all blended so well. Apparently the planing regulations are extremely strict here and everything the is done to any of these buildings has to be approved and only traditional materials can be used. It sounds a bit like the grade 1 listed building status in the UK but here it applies to the whole town.

The lion is used as an heraldic symbol of Sweden just as it is for England. But in Sweden it is mainly the head of the lion that is used as in this beautiful knocker. I saw many of these as I wandered around. Not just door knockers either. There were lion head mooring rings and similar for tethering your horse. This symbol also appeared on flags.

The main church towers over the old town in Stockholm allowing tantalising glimpses of it's bell tower between the narrow streets. Despite it's size it is not a cathedral. It is located next to the Royal palace and has been the site of many royal weddings.

Chramed by Stockholm

2008-08-09T10:32:00.010Z

Stockholm old town was totally charming. OK so it was busy with tourists but apart from them I doubt it had changed much for a couple centuries. The main street was narrow by modern standards but the side street were pencil thin. These were havens of quiet as no one seemed to notice them yet alone wander in their cool shadows. All the houses were painted in these warm earthy tones which just glowed when the sun hit them. Even in the shade, the colours just gave the place a cosy feel.

That first afternoon we were just following our nose and before long we had walked through the old town and were now standing at the quay. Well, one of many quays actually as Stockholm is built on several islands in an archipelago so it is surrounded by water everywhere. We were not done with the old town by far and I'll be taking you back there but for now, with tired legs, we thought we would get on a water taxi and take a trip around the archipelago.
This ship had millions spent on its restoration and is now a floating youth hostel. This has got to be the most interesting youth hostel I've ever seen.
One of the islands had a pleasure park on it that opened in the afternoons and through the night. Apparently this is a popular place with the locals in the evenings but didn't get the opportunity to visit it this time, there were simply too many other things to see in the short time of our stay.

Onwards to Stockholm

2008-08-08T08:31:00.003Z

The next day we prepare to leave for Stockholm, but before I tell you about that I must just mention Malms airport. This was the original airport for Helsinki and doesn't appear to have changed much since it was built. It is a perfect Art Deco building. The departure lounge is circular and all the original Art Deco fittings are still there. Not quite as beautiful as Shoreham airport on the UK's south coast but a good contender non the less.
The weather for our flight to Stockholm was perfect (CAVOK) so I flew that leg. When we landed we needed fuel and as the fuel pump was being temperamental we soon ended up in yet another queue. I don't think the refuelling went smoothly at any airport we landed at during the trip.
That afternoon, after we had settled into out hotel, we walked into the town to explore. As we walked down the main shopping street in Stockholm towards the old town the first thing that hit me was how busy it was. There were so many people it was like walking down Oxford Street in London. Then we reached the start of the old town which is situated on it's own island. The impression I got then was that Stockholm was grand. As you walk over the bridge to the island you are confronted by the parliament building and chancery which are joined by a triumphant arch. You know that you are in for something special as you approach. To be continued...

Helsinki

2008-08-07T08:03:00.004Z

I have to say that I didn't find Helsinki overly inspiring. That's not the say it was dull, far from it but the beauty had to be hunted for. It had a lot of Art Deco architecture but the detail was quite minimalist so could be easily missed. The main religion is Lutheran so even the churches are simple in design. This is the main Lutheran church. A large white Romanesque building not too dissimilar to the White House in Washington. It's lines are clean and very geometric. The interior very Spartan. Nothing to clutter the mind or distract from worship. It has a simple beauty.
I wandered around the harbour and I stumbled across a small pier with just old sailing ships moored. I'm not sure I was supposed to wandering around there but as the signs were in Finnish and I only understand English I used that as an excuse to take a closer look. Most of the ships were being worked on. I think in hind sight they might have been being made ready for the tall ships race that was due to start in a few weeks from the UK. I took quite a few photos but eventually I seemed to be attracting too much interest so thought I would leave before I was removed. I'll upload a few more later.

Day 5 - Helsinki or bust!

2008-08-03T18:05:00.006Z

It's the morning of day 5 of our trip and we are heading off into the blue again. This time we are leaving Norway for Helsinki, Finland. We were also leaving behind this wonderful blue sky because before long we were dodging thunderstorms.
When I originally saw dozens of lightning strikes on our storm scope all perfectly aligned on our route I started to believe it was a computer error until I saw this beasty. It was emitting constant bolts of lightning every few seconds from the same place on its far right edge. We got permission to divert to the west by air traffic control. It was a long way around but flying through active thunderstorms is something even the big boys avoid.
Our diversion took us down the west coast of Finland. Well, in truth I guess they only have one coast. Despite this being a sea coast it looked more like the coast of a large lake. There was no evidence of any sandy beaches just hundreds of tiny islands.
The detour added an extra 40 minutes to our flight but it kept us reasonable safe so well worth it. Eventually we arrived at Malms airport, Helsinky and had a chance to swap tales with the rest of the group. No one, it seemed, had had a boring flight :-)

Work in progress

2008-08-02T11:56:00.006Z

As there was only this one road linking the villages along the coast it had to be kept open even during major road widening work. I felt like I was driving through a building site, which I guess I was. These machines look very big when you are squeezing between them. :-)The coast on the other side of the fiord was totally different. Here the breeze was roughing up the water and the light was in the wrong direction to provide the superb reflections seen on the other side. Despite this it had its own beauty.
That evening we went on foot in search of catching a view of the midnight sun. We had had to return the hired car so were restricted to finding a view on foot. That limited us as Alta was on the wrong side of some high ground but we had to try. another down side was that it was cloudy. This ended up being as near as we could get to capturing the moment. This photo actually looks like it was quite dark but that is just my little point and shoot, that I was carrying at the time, trying to cope with the brightness of the sky.
By the time we got back to our hotel and turned in for the 'night' it was 1am. It was still quite warm and as our airconditioning didn't work we had our windows open. There was a kid in the car park below on a skateboard. I can't begin to explain how strange that felt trying to sleep in virtually full daylight with the sounds of children playing outside.

An Interesting Encounter

2008-07-24T10:09:00.003Z

While taking photos of the fishing boats I noticed some oystercatchers on the shore and thought it would be good to get a photo of them. As I approached they flew off, naturally, making quite a fuss but never went far.
The fuss the birds were kicking up and the way they were acting could only mean one thing. They were nesting. Not that they build a nest. They lay straight onto the shingle. I had no idea if I would be looking for eggs or chicks but what I did know was that they are extremely well camouflaged either way. I studied the ground carefully before every step.
As I slowly made my way across the shingle,carefully checking every step incase I trod on the very thing I was looking for, my progress was being further hampered by a common gull who had apparently decided to join forces with the oyster-catchers and was dive bombing me.
Eventually I found what I had been looking for. One of the rocks looked odd and I soon realised I was looking at a chick. It sat there totally motionless. Not only could I not discern any breathing but it didn’t even move its eyes to look at me as I carefully edged around it to get a photo. I knew there wouldn’t be just one so I searched further and sure enough there was a second, hiding with its head stuffed in some drying kelp only a couple of feet away. The temptation to pick them up was immense but that would have been wrong so having taken a few shots I carefully moved away to leave them and their parents in peace. I felt totally elated as I had never come across them before. this was turning out to be a very good day.

Catch of the day

2008-07-18T16:17:00.005Z

Dried cod is one of the main sources of income for the people of Finnmark. We passed loads of fishing huts with racks of fish drying in the air like this. It's hardly any wonder that cod stocks are so depleted in the North Sea. Who knows how the local economy will fair when the cod stocks are exhausted.
Below is a photo of some cod fishing boats, you can see more racks of fish drying behind them.

Day 4 - A trip around the coast.

2008-07-17T13:38:00.005Z

The next day we hired a car so we could drive around the coast of the fiord. We had a 200km limit on our car hire for the day so we drove 50km along the coast to the west of Alta first and then planned to go 50km to the NE of Alta in the afternoon. There were no other roads so a round trip was out of the question. 50km west took us to a little peninsula with a few houses called Isnestoften. It was, like all the settlements along the coast, a fishing community. We stopped and sat by the water for a while. This was the most peaceful place I have ever been. the only sounds were natural and mainly just wading birds and gentle lapping of the water. Very gentle lapping actually as there was barely a ripple to be seen. We could have been the only humans on the planet.
On the way here we were surprised by a handful of reindeer who had decided the grass was greener on the other side of the road and just ran out in front of us. I just had to stop and get a photo although I half expected them to disappear into the vegetation at the sight of me getting out of the car. I noticed that down a bank on the other side of the road there was a heard of 20 or so but they were too difficult to get to. This guy was clearly not impressed by me as I was blocking his route that would allow him to rejoin the rest of the herd. He showed his displeasure by stamping his feet. I was amazed at just how close I could get to them. In the UK you only ever get this close to deer if they are tame as in the wild they are extremely shy creatures.
This one was the biggest of the group. I'm sure once those antlers finish growing he will be a very impressive animal.

Alta

2008-07-15T07:27:00.003Z

When we arrived at Alta it was a big anti climax. The town was totally lacking in character or anything of interest. It location on the wrong side of a small hill meant you couldn't even get to see the midnight sun properly, as we were later to discover, without a long walk. Luckily we didn't have to travel far to find something that more than made up for this. A short taxi ride out of town took us to the Alta Open Air Museum. It was late in the day but with 24 hours of sunlight most businesses try and make the most of the summer with long opening hours. It also meant that all the coach parties that would normally be filling the place during the day had left and the place was almost empty. The museum was set up around an extremely extensive series of prehistoric rock carvings that had been dated as being created between 4,500BC and 500BC. These rock carvings had been chipped out of the flat stones that littered the place after the ice retreated during the end of the last ice age. They show every day life, herding reindeer and elk, fishing and hunting bears.
The location of the museum itself was also as interesting as the artefacts. It was at the edge of the fiord and had spectacular views in all directions. As we walked around we are serenaded by the sounds of wading birds calling and everywhere we looked there were beautiful wild flowers of a sort I had never seen before. The place was totally idyllic.

Glaciers

2008-07-12T09:09:00.003Z

The flight from Trondheim to Alta took about 4 hours. there was little to see for the first 1 1/2 hours as we were in cloud but when we broke free the views were spectacular. We flew over glaciers and snowfields, mountains and lakes, for mile after mile. Having never seen a glacier in real life before I was thrilled to get this view (above). The fissures in the ice showed up turquoise and the whole thing looked like a pale blue tongue. The image below is the same view but zoomed out a bit.

Below are some more shots I took on the flight.

Day 2 - Trondheim to Alta

2008-07-10T15:51:00.002Z

The flight from Trondheim to Alta was spectacular. The first part was in cloud but after flying for about an hour we broke free of it and the scenery had totally changed from lush green to white. We are flying at 10,000'and some of the peaks on route were about 8,500'.

Day 1 - Bergen

2008-07-09T13:27:00.003Z

As mentioned, we spent the first night in Bergen, SW Norway. This was a charming town with a harbour. These houses were opposite the quay and were probably fishermen's buildings of some sort. Wood was and still is the main building material throughout Norway except in towns were concrete has taken over.

Just Back from Scandinavia

2008-07-08T08:00:00.003Z

We have just got back from a 10 day flying tour of Scandinavia. I took over 800 photos in all which will take me ages to sort out. Loads of deleting to be done I'm sure :-)
There were 12 people on the trip in 6 aircraft. This photo is our arrival at Bergen, Norway where we all met up and spent the first night. Didn't see much on the flight as we were in cloud for most of it but once we broke out of the clouds the scenery was wonderful. From Bergen we went up to Trondheim and then up into the Arctic circle at a place called Alta right at the top of Norway and land of the midnight sun (home of the insomniacs). After that we flew down to Helsinki in Finland where we returned to having a couple of hours of darkness each night...bliss. Our last planned stop was Stockholm but as the weather turned bad on us we had to break our return flight at Gronegen in the Netherlands for an extra night.
Apart from some nasty flying weather on some of the legs the trip was excellent. I'll tell you more about it over the next few days.

Brac's big moment...but don't blink!

2008-06-09T22:03:00.001Z

This is a frame from the Morrison's ad that Brac is in. You will have to be quick to notice him when it's on as he's only visible for about a second and hidden behind the other collie. Sorry about the quality of this image but it is a photograph of my TV screen.

Taking to the Air

2008-06-09T06:36:00.008Z

Now we have the aircraft back Paul is desperate to get up-to-speed again with flying it before we go on holiday in it at the end of the month. For this reason we spent the weekend going places in it. On Saturday we flew to Shoreham airport which is near to Brighton on the south coast. This is a charming airfield as the terminal building was an original 1920 Art Deco building with all it's original features. The airfield is also located so close to the town you can walk there and get straight down onto the beach.
Yesterday we flew to Old Sarum airfield which is next to Salisbury in wiltshire. We me his parents, sister, and niece Bethany there for lunch. Paul gave Bethany and his dad a joy flight while we were there. There is a large Iron Age hill fort next to the airfield that you fly right over on the approach. This was later turned into a Norman bailey and mote castle and when that fell into disuse the stone was taken to build a cathedral. You can see the ruins of both in this image. Apparently when this cathedral was built it was so exposed and cold that no one wanted to worship there. A decision was made to relocate the cathedral and so history books record that an archer fired an arrow from the mound and where it fell was where they erected the current cathedral. However, it seems extremely unlikely that any arrow could have ever made it that far. You can just about make out the spire of the current Salisbury cathedral in this photo and it's a very long way.

Major Headache

2008-06-06T10:18:00.002Z

Now here is an even bigger reason for my tardyness in blogging. My PC is getting old and arthritic. OK so it's only 4 years old but in technology terms that's ancient especially when I need to run hungry software like Photoshop. Paul tried increasing the ram for me but it's already on maximum at 1GB. One thing that did seem to be slowing everything down is spurious software that seemed to be running for no reason. Then Abode bridge, a pert of Photoshop that manages files, failed. On contacting the support desk I was told it was basically my operating system that was in error and not their software. They provided me a fix that sure enough fixed Adobe bridge but messed up the rest of my operating system! Thanks guys. I finally came to the conclusion that the only way to go was to start from scratch. I didn't want to replace my PC just yet as after the aeroplane refit we are a little tight on available funds and when I do replace this PC I want to make sure it has enough spec to last me a little longer than 4 years. The only other solution was to reformat the hard drive or simple replace it with a new one as they are pretty cheap these days. That was done last Saturday and I am still trying to re-install all my software and configure my system. It took me 24 hours to get all the windows updates installed! I'm nearly finished now and hope to have it all done by tonight but I'm sure there will be things I go to use in a few weeks time that I've forgotten to re-install. One thing I have noticed though, far less space is being used up by all my system and program files than was before. Lets just hope it runs more efficiently now. :-)

Long weekend in Berlin

2008-06-05T15:39:00.005Z

The weekend before last we had a trip to Berlin. It was a flying trip organised by a group called the Socata TB Users Group which is an internet based support group for owners of Socata TB aircraft. It had been planned a long time and we were all paid up for it but for one problem. Our aircraft had been booked in over the winter for a respray and refit and the work was taking longer than expected to get done. We should have had it back at least a month before this trip but as it ended up we didn't get it back until about 30 minutes before we were due to take-off as there were still last minute problems that needed fixing. It does, however, look beautiful and the flight to Berlin went like a dream. See below

There were 31 other aircraft on the trip and we all flew into Templehof airport which is right on the edge of the city and the location for the Berlin Airlift just after the war.
Berlin is a real phoenix of a place. Flattened mainly by the Brits during the war there are few original buildings standing but what they have they have restored beautifully along side the ultra modern buildings of the Chancellery and the Paul-Löbe-Haus.
We arrived on Saturday afternoon and left after lunch on Monday. We had a city tour on foot and another by boat. A group meal was arranged for us at the top of the Reichstag on the Sunday evening and walked back through the Brandenburg Gate to our hotel. Although we saw quite a bit there is plenty we didn't get to see and I would thoroughly recommend it for a city break.

Brac moves into video

2008-06-04T08:47:00.002Z

One thing I forgot to tell you guys that I know you'll be interested in, Brac did another ad last Saturday. This time for Morrisons supermarket. It's a TV advert rather than a still one and if used will be shown on ITV in the next few weeks. I took this on my mobile as they were setting up. Brac's not in this shot as he is with me. The advert had a housewife pushing a shopping trolley through a farmers gate on her way to get some spring lamb. The farmer is leaning on the gate and Brac is sitting next to him pretending to be a sheep dog. For some of the shooting he has a girlfriend, a beautiful tri-colour border collie bitch but she got worried by the shooting and after a few takes wouldn't settle any more so they continued without her. If she is in the final ad will depend on which take they use. You can just see her in the centre of this image being held my Brac's agent Viv. If you look closely you can also see the guy playing the farmer holding the gate open for a woman pushing a shopping trolley. They wanted to see if the set worked before bringing the dogs in. I think you can see the image larger if you click on it.

Bloggers Catch 22

2008-06-04T08:43:00.005Z

The big trouble with blogging is that when ever I have time to blog I never have anything much of interest to say. When ever I have plenty to tell you, I don't have the time to blog! It's the Bloggers catch 22. I've not been blogging lately because I've been so busy but now it's all old news. I'll tell you some snippets but I'll break them up into separate blogs because long blogs can be a strain to read. :-)I'll also space them out a bit so they won't appear all at once.

Chinese Military possibly disguising themselvs as monks?

2008-05-10T11:19:00.001Z

I didn't take this photo. It was sent to me via facebook.
It appears to be showing Chinese Military donning Tibetan Monk's robes before going on to riot and cause trouble in disguised. Whoever took this was very brave.

Brac goes live on YouTube

2008-05-09T18:59:00.003Z

I have now set up a YouTube account where I shall be uploading videos of Brac from time to time. There are two on there at present but I'm sure I'll soon have a few more to add. You can see them here.

Obedience - When he feels like it!

2008-04-27T08:07:00.004Z

This is me in at a training session with Brac last Thursday. He looks wonderful, bless his cotton socks. We had our first obedience show of the season yesterday but what he produced in the ring bore no relation to this. He will work like this outside the ring at the venue which is usually a sports field, but in the ring, Brac has his own agenda and paying attention to me isn't listed very high on it.

Spring

2008-04-20T11:07:00.000Z

More snow

2008-04-06T17:53:00.005Z

It's Spring. It's April. Friday I was walking Brac in a T shirt in glorious sun shine and thinking I should perhaps have put some lotion on. This morning it snowed, and snowed, and snowed. We ended up with 2-3" but it would have easily been twice that if it had been cold enough for it not to melt. It looked pretty for a while but once the snow started to abate it melted very quickly. The sun has just appeared but it is about to set anyway. There is now just a small amount of snow left on the rooftops but apart from that it appears to be returning to normal...what ever that is. Crazy weather.

Just being a dog!

2008-04-03T19:32:00.001Z

Brac takes time out after all his hard work.

Brac's second day on the job

2008-04-02T17:53:00.004Z

Today was Brac's second and final day on the photo shoot. This time he was being walked by a different model and in a park. What he really wanted to do was what dogs normally do in park but instead he had to be content being walked back and forth while more photos were taken. It wasn't all boring though. A little later on he was to get involved in a group frisbee game in the park which, as it had been raining lots lately, was extremely muddy. Brac, who had only been bathed yesterday in preparation for this photo shoot, ended up plastered but at least he had fun.

Brac's a Star...but we knew that anyway.

2008-04-01T18:25:00.006Z

Brac was used in a photo shoot for an advert today. This is the second time he has been used in advertising. Last time was for worming pills and today was healthcare. He assignment was to walk on the lead with the model so nothing too taxing. What amazes me about this kind of set-up is just how many people it takes to take a photograph.
Brac is required back again tomorrow for some different shots. I'm not sure yet what they will require but what ever it is he will be only too happy to be in the centre of attention.

New Neighbours

2008-03-27T19:41:00.001Z

A male blue tit has been very busy these last few days sorting out this nest box and trying to make it acceptable to his female. I think they have now finally settled but for several days it was touch and go as to whether she would accept it of not. He was hedging his bets though as there are at least three other tit boxes in the garden and he had been preparing all four but this was the one he had been displaying outside so clearly this was his first choice. It's good for me as it's right opposite my office window.

2008-03-23T14:16:00.002Z

This is just an Easter wish for you all. Enjoy the holiday and don't get too sick on chocolate. As for me, today is a day for staying in by the fire as it's freezing cold and snowing!

Silly sheep... ...dog!

2008-03-19T20:54:00.008Z

These sheep are engrossed. The have wandered across the field to try and understand the spectacle that is revealing itself before them. Believe it or not, it's Brac they are interested in and far from being concerned about his presence they seem completely mystified by him.
So why is Brac commanding so much attention? Because bored with me stopping to take photos of sheep he has wandered off through a scraggy hedge to my right and into a small coppice. There is a lot of growling and grunting going on with a few barks through in for good measure. I decide to take a look and see for myself what he is up to and the rest I thought worth photographing...
Scroll drown to the images below.

As I turned around I saw the tip of Brac's tail slowly emerging from the hedge. By the time I get the camera focused he is half way out. He is clearly trying to retrieve something that he does not want to give up on and the frustration is very apparent.

Suddenly it all happens and he springs backwards with his spoils. It's one of the recently coppiced canes.

Having dog-handled it through the hedge he now feels his has won the right to parade with it up and down the path while the sheep still gaze at him in wonder.

Back at Agility

2008-03-01T11:45:00.005Z

This morning I was able to take Brac to agility training for the first time since just before Christmas. You can imagine how excited he was when he got there. There was no training for a month over the Christmas period and then when it started up again it was cancelled for the first two weeks due to bad weather. Since then there have been a couple of training days cancelled because the organisers have been away and of those that were available either we were away or Brac had a cut paw. Next week there won't be any agility training as Crufts is on and most of the trainers and some of the trainees will be there.
Despite Brac not having been for so long he hadn't forgotten any of it and was far more 'on the ball' than me. I was still trying to fathom out my lefts from rights when he was half way around the course. I swear he is probably better off without me barking commands at him all the way around especially when half the time they are wrong and he ignores me anyway. I think I need to go round with Gaffa tape over my mouth :-)

My Garden Stalker

2008-02-27T19:58:00.003Z

Although not native, pheasants are '10 a penny' in the UK and a quintessential part of the British countryside. I don't , however, live in the country, so you can imagine my surprise at seeing this beauty in my back garden. Ok, I've only got to go a few miles down the road to find some and It's true I do back onto farmland, but it's arable so at this time of year especially there is no ground cover. Being on the edge of a town means these fields are regularly patrolled by endless dog walkers and there is a clay pigeon shoot the next field over. All this generally keeps these birds well away so maybe this one had got lost and thought my garden a place of safety? He clearly hadn't spotted Brac watching from the French doors. He's gone now but not until he had spent a good few hours searching between every blade of grass in a general leisurely way for some morsel to eat. I wonder if I'll see him again?

Happy Birthday To Us

2008-02-22T11:37:00.002Z

Today is OUR birthday. Mine, Paul's and Brac's. Well OK, officially it was Brac's yesterday but he's not going to know. In effect today is like a second mini Christmas as we all open our presis together, which means waiting until Paul comes home from work :-( You can tell which are Brac's. They are the ones wrapped in Christmas paper. He's not fussy.

Adobe Photoshop Tutorials

2008-02-21T18:40:00.004Z

So what have I been up to recently? Well I guess it's all a bit sad really because it's not been anything wildly exciting that has kept me away from blogging like a wonderful holiday or moving house. No I've been here all along but I've been working on my web site in my spare time and by the time I'm finished I've just had enough of typing. Why, well I'm adding a series of tutorials to my web site on Adobe Photoshop. I use it as the main tool after my camera, for creating my pet portraits and as such I've built up quite a lot of working knowledge about it. Many people keep asking me how I do this or how I do that when they see my work so instead of simply repeating myself over and over I've started to write it all down. It will take me years to finish, if I ever do, but that's OK, I'll just keep adding more tutorials as I get around to it. If you are interested in knowing how to use the most comprehensive images editing software available then do check out my web site. If you don't find what you are looking for today, try again in a few days time, or, alternatively, ask me what it is you would like to know and I'll add it to my list and discuss it in a tutorial as soon as I can.
Similarly, if you have any trouble using the site do let me know so I can fix it.

The First Emperor

2008-02-19T09:23:00.003Z

Sorry for not Blogging for a while. Been a bit busy on other things but more about that later.
I went to see the First Emperor exhibition with Paul last night at the British Museum. There were about a couple of dozen or so statues from China's Terracotta Army including horses and chariots. Although there were only a few statues at the exhibition you were able to get right up close to them which apparently you can't do in china. It was all pretty amazing but even more so when you consider that there are over 4,000 of these in place around the Emperor's tomb. Each one is different. It wasn't just men and horses either. He had bronzes made of all the bird life too. It really is an exhibition worth seeing if you get the chance but we were extra lucky because Paul is currently working for the sponsors of the Exhibition and so we were able to go to a special members viewing for free and without the queue.