14 September 2011 (Wednesday) - New Sledge

It’s something of an anniversary today – I’ve been working in blood tests for thirty years today. Under other circumstances I would have made something of the day, but being only on my second week of my secondment, I thought I’d keep quiet.

Work was not the same as ever today – it was a vast improvement over how it has been in the past, and this evening I came home via the shortcut I learned about last Friday. That did shave a few minutes off of my journey, but (flushed with success) I then tried another shortcut round Mystole. Short cut – pah!. It started off reasonably enough. Whilst it didn’t actually become a dirt track at any point, I could definitely hear the duelling banjos. I shan’t take that route again.

Yesterday I went into Halfords to get the fascia fitted to my car radio, and I saw they had sledges in stock. I went home, and regretted not buying one, so this evening I popped back. I can remember the last but one time when it snowed; you couldn’t get sledges for love nor money. And the last time it snowed, sledges were over fifty pounds for cheap and nasty rubbish ones. Halfords are currently knocking out rather decent sledges for fifteen quid. Having bought one, it probably won’t snow for ten years, but here’s hoping.

Meanwhile science has found an extra-solar planet which isn’t entirely unlike Earth, and which has liquid water.

It’s a sad indictment of our society that this is seen by the media as (at best) a bit of a joke: if you call up Google News, the science section is all about the latest computer games and the most modern mobile phone. So to make up for that inadequacy, let’s have something else from our friend science.

I don’t like wasps, but something that winds me up far more than wasps are people who go into hysterical fits and start panicked screaming whenever a wasp is within ten miles of them. Science has found that the fuss made by such people actually attracts more wasps. If you really don’t like wasps, keep still and keep your trap shut. Because having a major stressy does nothing but call over more wasps.

And why am I mentioning wasps in autumn? Because science says the warm autumn will give an extra lease of life to the buzzing little fellows…

13 September 2011 (Tuesday) - Crackpots

I hear the banks are being forced to separate their “domestic” operations from their “high-flying gambles”. Apparently it’s taken governments (of all political persuasions) years to realise that whilst it’s fine for them to play roulette, poker, and wild guessing games with their own money, they shouldn’t do it with mine.

It amazes me that having seen the society caused by the wanton greed provoked by Margaret Thatcher, it’s taken them so long to realise than unfettered capitalism is fundamentally evil.

Meanwhile the moon is back in the news. Far be it from me to encourage the conspiracy theorist crackpot lunatic fringe, but I have a question. NASA have released photographs from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Look at this link, and you can clearly see tracks made by the L.R.V. (moon buggy), and you can see the L.R.V. parked where the astronauts left it. But you can’t see tracks going to or from the L.R.V. itself. What’s that all about?

Talking of crackpots, did you know that the planet Saturn causes backache? No? I didn’t know that either. But it says so on the Internet, so it must be true. Apparently it’s something to do with the fact that the planet Saturn emits blue rays. (I’m using the word “fact” in its loosest sense here!).

I mention this because eighteen months ago I wrote a blog entry entitled “Backache, Saturn…”, and just lately my blog-tracking software has gone mad: this particular blog entry has recently received loads of hits. Presumably from new-age crackpots who believe that sort of twaddle.

It’s ironic that if you type “Saturn backache” into Google, my blog entry appears way ahead of the loony nonsense.

The other day I whinged about my Kindle becoming obsolete. Perhaps not so – it would seem that Amazon are talking about having a cyber-library. For a fee I will be able to borrow books for my Kindle (rather than buy them). A novel concept.

I wonder if Ashford’s new library will try to compete…

12 September 2011 (Monday) - Stuff

I’m hoping my loyal readers haven’t noticed the change, but publishing yesterday’s blog was rather tricky. The nice people at Blogger have changed the blog publishing software. Whilst the new format looks a lot better; it’s different to what I’m used to. And different always takes some getting used to.

I listened to my new car radio as I drove to Canterbury this morning. I’m not sure quite what I was expecting, but I was rather disappointed that it wasn’t radically different to any other radio broadcast. Perhaps I need to fiddle with the graphic equaliser some more.

One thing that is very noticeable about my daily drive to Canterbury (specifically the drive home) is the timing of the radio’s financial news. When driving home from my normal base the radio tells me how much a Euro is worth (in pence) as I’m driving between B&Q and the traffic lights. Nowadays I get that information a couple of hundred yards past the Granville pub in Lower Hadres.

In the past I’ve obviously made the subconscious connection that being told what a Euro is worth means I am less than thirty seconds from home, because nowadays whenever I’m told what the Euro is worth I suddenly realise I’ve still got twenty minutes more driving to do.

And so home where I checked my emails. Among them was one from SEKAS (the astro club to whom I spoke on Saturday). “Thank you on behalf of SEKAS for giving us your talks on Saturday. I was impressed by your presentation of Fermi/Drake at Ashford society last year and enjoyed it even more this time, knowing what was to come. It was great to have that available as the rain prevented any observing. The ''Comets' (talk) had me on the edge of my seat, with a splendid mix of history, science, scepticism and (mainly non-) observation. Altogether a most enjoyable evening”. 

I’m feeling quite smug about that email….

11 September 2011 (Sunday) - Sound Mirrors

It could have been a good night’s sleep, but the torrential rain rattling against the windows woke me before 6am. And then next door were clanging their infernal piano at 8am. 8am – on a Sunday (!) I could go round and have a whinge, but it would achieve nothing.

And having them being so anti-social means I can be as noisy as I like (whenever I like) with a clear conscience.

The piano stopped clanging after half an hour, but the noise was replaced with the sounds of “My Boy ^TM ” “quietly” collecting the tools with which he was planning to fix his fence. It was at this point that I gave up trying to sleep and had a spot of brekkie instead. And then once brekkied I did some ironing whilst we watched last night’s episode of Doctor Who. I quite liked last week’s episode: last night’s was good too.

Half way through the episode the phone rang. “My Boy ^TM ” wondered if I had a saw he might borrow.

With Doctor Who watched and ironing done we met Chippy for a spot of McLunch, and once lunch was McScoffed we set off to Dungeness. Last year we found out about a guided tour round the sound mirrors about two hours before the walk started. And when we turned up the walk went ahead despite torrential rain, hurricane force winds and sub-zero temperatures.

Today (with a little more notice) the wind was still strong, but it was warm and dry, and seven of us joined a party of over fifty people to have a look-see at the Romney Marsh’s sound mirrors.

The sound mirrors were built in the late 1920s: the idea being that at the time no one lived on the Romney Marsh – it was deserted. And so with no other noises to interfere, the sound of enemy planes could be magnified by sound mirrors. And the first ever early warning coastal defence system was built. The mirrors are quite impressive to behold, and it’s a shame that the things were never actually used in anger. With a maximum detection range of twenty miles, and ever increasingly fast aeroplanes being built in the 1930s, a sound mirror would only give (at best) fifteen minutes advance warning of an enemy attack. With the advent of radar in 1937 (which could detect enemy aircraft at a range of over sixty miles) sound mirrors became obsolete.

The sound mirrors are now on private land; and having fallen into serious disrepair were bought my English Heritage a few years ago. Some work has been done to them to prevent them collapsing, and a few times a year they are opened up to guided tours.

Today’s tour was good – the chap running the tour was on his own: he could have done with an assistant. And it would have been nice if the pikey element had made an attempt to get their brats to shut up (or at least go away) when the tour leader was speaking. But I enjoyed it – and would certainly go again.

On the way home my phone beeped – a text to tell me that the fence had been completed. So we popped round to see “My Boy ^TM ”, his entourage, the fence, and Fudge. It’s not a bad fence (as fences go): a shame it only goes half way along the garden, but you can’t have everything…

10 September 2011 (Saturday) - Comets

This morning’s haul of emails included one from Becky Brasil who was offering some advice on how I might “set my love tool to thrill”. That was thoughtful of her, but with my back it’s probably best that I turn down her offer. Love tools are best set to “off” these days…..

“My Boy ^TM ” phoned – would I drive him to the arse end of nowhere to collect some fence panels? So we set off to deepest nowhere, loaded the car up with fence panels and brought them home for him.

He’s got a fence to build - it would seem that my grand-dog Fudge is quite adept at escaping into next door’s garden and leaving his “fudge” there. So far the neighbours are oblivious to Fudge’s fudge, but it can only be a matter of time until they get the hump, so replacing the dodgy fence is a “must”. I suggested that as well as fence panels, he might need fence posts to hold the panels, and met-posts into which to put the fence posts.

He assured me he would sort it out tomorrow. In the meantime Fudge will either cross his legs, or do what he does best.

Together with ‘er indoors ^TM we went to the building society to pay off the outstanding mortgage money. Having been told on the phone I could just turn up at the branch and be treated like royalty, I was rather miffed to have to queue up with the Great Unwashed. But eventually we got sorted. And after twenty five years the house is (mostly) now ours. We still have a small mortgage to pay for the loft extension, but that’s peanuts compared to what we’ve owed in the past.

We then went on to McDonalds for a celebratory burger, and afterwards had a bit of a mooch round the town with Martin. ‘er indoors ^TM did some shoe shopping whist I sat and waited and slept and then, just before going home, we popped into the toy shop and picked up a Lego advent calendar. Advent calendars – in September (!)

Home again. We’d not been home long when “My Boy ^TM ” turned up (minus Fudge) whinging about the cost of fence ingredients. He’d been to B&Q and had had a shock when he realised that you don’t get much change out of a fiver when building a fence from scratch. So we had a rummage in the shed and came up with most (but not all) of what he’ll need. He still has to get three more met-posts and the fence posts, but rather than heading off back to B&Q, he left our house to go up the pub. I could be wrong, but I have a sneaking suspicion he thought I was going to get his missing bits for him. If that is the case, he’ll have another think coming in the morning.

Mind you, he seems confident he’ll get the job all done tomorrow. Hammering in met-posts, putting up fence posts and panels, and giving the whole lot a coat of paint. And all this after an afternoon and evening of serious drinking.

I think he’s being a tad ambitious, but time will tell – it usually does.

I then spent a little while putting the finishing touches to the evening’s PowerPoint presentation. And then spent a long while copying music to a USB memory stick. Once upon a time I had loads of USB memory sticks. Now I have two. Where did they all go? And what is it with USB memory sticks. So many of them have silly crappy security on them that makes them utterly unusable for what I want to do with them. If only I could format them, I might get somewhere. But Windows 7 doesn’t let me format a USB memory stick.

And so to Folkestone to deliver fags and a lego girl angler. After a quick cuppa I took the Rear Admiral to be part of my posse for the evening. I’d been asked to speak to SEKAS on an astronomical topic of my choice. I must admit I was rather nervous about doing so. I’m quite happy to talk to my own astro club – but everyone there knows me. They know what I’m like – they know that I’ve blagged my talk from Wikipedia and that  I’m going to shout “Ur-Anus!!!” half way through. But SEKAS are “proper” astronomers and expect better. Or so I thought. I arrived to find a car-ful of friends from our astro club who’d come as moral support, and a dozen or so SEKAS people. Everyone was really friendly and welcoming. My talk on comets went really well (I thought). And after coffee and a raffle, bad weather put paid to any star-gazing so I gave my talk on the Fermi paradox as an encore.

I went along to the SEKAS meeting expecting to be something of a disappointment to them: I came away feeling that I’d done well. Both talks seemed to be accepted – both caused some lively debates and questions. The people there were really friendly. I might just go back there again…

9 September 2011 (Friday) - New Car Stereo

It transpires that I’ve been driving past a new colleague’s house every day this week. Today I stopped and gave him a lift. This will be a very short-lived arrangement as the bloke left work today, but whilst he was in the car he showed me a short cut.

I am always very dubious about short cuts. If they were truly shorter, then they would be called “the way”. The short cut I found today goes round the back of Chartham directly to the hospital, cutting out quite a bit of minor roads and traffic lights. However it does involve a lot of single track country lanes. This morning’s journey did save time. However while taking the short cut going home this evening, I met several oncoming cars and tractors, and the journey wasn’t that much quicker.

I don’t think I’ll use that short cut again – going the other way has better roads, and is more scenic. And every day as I look across the valley I see a huge bird flying. I really should take binoculars, stop the car and see what that bird is. As far as I know, there are no eagles in Kent: I can only imagine it’s a buzzard.

And so to work, where I learned than a two week secondment is to become a month’s secondment. I don’t mind, really. The pace of work is very much different to what I am used to, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

And this evening I got to skive off early.

Yesterday I mentioned that the CD player in my car was stuffed up, with a CD jammed in the works. The nice man at Halfords said if I could get to him before 6pm he’d fit an all-singing-all-dancing new stereo into the car for me. I rather hoped he could get the CD out of the stereo for me whilst he was at it. In the end he extracted the entire CD playing mechanism – the knacked CD is still inside it. It will probably stay there.

There is a little gap round the edge of the new stereo – I’ve ordered a trim for it which should arrive in a week or so.

We popped round to South Willesborough for a barby for the evening. Very pleasant: must do it more often. And we came home to good and bad news. The good news is that I’d won the Euro-Millions lottery. The bad news – I’d actually won £2.70. I shall squander that tomorrow..

8 September 2011 (Thursday) - Stuff

I see the pooh sticks race we did at Teston Kite festival has made the local paper. I must admit I’m a tad jealous – when I ran it last year we didn’t get such publicity.

Meanwhile, despite several suggestions of help and advice, the CD player in my car remains stuffed up. This could be a blessing in disguise – for some time I’ve been intending to replace it with one into which I can plug a USB memory stick. Perhaps this is God’s way of making me finally do so. I shall have a look in Halfords at the weekend.

To work – I’m quite liking the morning drive to Canterbury. Just as I got to work my phone bleeped - a text from “Daddy’s Little Angel ^TM ”. “My Boy ^TM ” would seem to still be holding her responsible for his missing trousers. I must admit I’m getting sick and tired hearing about his missing trousers. If it is so much of an issue I shall take him trouser shopping at the weekend.

Work was OK, and then home for a crafty pint in the Locomotive. One of my colleagues from work updated me with all the rumours about me. The rumours are wrong: which is actually a shame. And after a beer or two I forgot that Jason was coming round to collect the posters from the astro club’s display at Challock Goose Fair this weekend. He called whilst I was in the shower, and  was rather surprised when I answered the door wearing a towel and a smile.

And did you know that Star Trek is forty five years old today. Would you believe it?