15 August 2009 (Saturday) - To Woodchurch

For some reason I was up with the lark today, so more smalls went into the washing machine, and the washing up gone done. A quick voom to collect my car from where I’d left it, and then onto the pedal bike and off to Woodchurch for dinner. A reasonably flat route, but one which goes along some rather busy roads.

The Six Bells is somewhere we visit intermittently. I rate it at 8/10 on Beer in the Evening, and today it lived up to expectations. And then home again via the Kings Head in Shadoxhurst – somewhere which is becoming a regular stopping off point on cycle rides. Once home I mowed the lawn. It’s amazing how much the thing has grown in two weeks. And then I fell asleep by the fish pond, only to be rudely awoken a few minutes later by the Red Arrows roaring past. Noisy beggars !

I wonder if I should have slept a bit longer. I think I caught the sun today – I’m not feeling 100%. Perhaps an early night might be a good idea…

14 August 2009 (Friday) - Doing the Lambef Walk (Oi!)

A couple of days ago I mentioned about the anti-social didgeridoos at Teston earlier in the year. This morning’s haul of emails brought an apology from the East Kent Didge Club, who said; “The ethos of the club has always been to extend the hand of friendship and show the didge, and the culture it comes from, in a positive way. On this occasion it would appear that we have failed to do that. Please pass our apologies on to those we kept awake.”

That’s a result, I suppose. My only real reservation is that one of the leading lights in the East Kent Didge Club has taken over the running of Teston Kite Festival. Oh well - we shall see what happens.

Another result was a reply to the email I sent round to the astro club. I’ve found a volunteer to take over the role of Treasurer – provided I stay on to noisily hawk the raffle. I can do that - noisily hawking raffles is my middle name (what *was* my mother thinking of?).

And then straight from work to the World’s Wonder in Warehorne for an “old-time sing along featuring Elspeth at the pianoforte”. It was great fun. Probably as well that we went. Any singalong needs someone to get things going, and for the first few songs there was just Elspeth tinkling and us giving it welly. But before long, the normal people came along from the other bar, and an hour or two was spent pleasantly squalling away to “We’ll meet again, The Lambeth Walk, Roll Out the Barrel” and other such favourites.

Elspeth has suggested that next time we do a medley of Abba songs. I’m up for that….

13 August 2009 (Thursday) - Soon Be Xmas

Today a poster went up at work inviting us all to put our names down for the Xmas bash. Xmas!! Well, I suppose it’s only four months away. The year is flying past. With three of the year’s four camping trips now but a happy memory, it will soon be time to take the top box off of the car, and put the seats back into it. (Back in the car, not the top box!)

Perhaps I ought to start making plans for Xmas myself. I have said that the big Xmas dinner we staged in the living room last year will be repeated in January once “Norman Stanley” is released from Her Majesty’s Pleasure. So I suppose that lets me off the hook for Xmassy organising. I just need to chivvy up what other events and activities are planned, and list them on the blog so’s I don’t forget. Easier said than done.

And then to NeverWinter where my current game is playing up. My character enters a room, and that’s it. Nothing happens. Stuck. So I went to the relevant page at the NeverWinter Vault (there’s even a NeverWinter Wiki, you know) and it seems that for this particular module to work I need to download the latest CEP (look it up on the NeverWinter Wiki!). A 1Gb download. I don’t think so, somehow.

And that’s it for this time. Rather dull to read. Even more dull living it, today.

12 August 2009 (Wednesday) - Correspondence

This morning I had a letter from Accent market research. I had one a week or so ago – a questionnaire asking my opinions on the recent gas works up our street. I’d ignored it, thinking it was a joke, but they sent another one, so I replied:

Please find enclosed questionnaire. I did not complete the first one because in all honesty I thought it was some sort of a joke. Perhaps I might take a minute or two of your time to tell you of my complete and utter dissatisfaction with the incompetence demonstrated by the people charged with the gas repairs in Beaver Road. The work outside my house started on Wednesday 28th January, and finally finished on Tuesday 16th June. During that time the gas supply to my house was interrupted for maybe an hour at most. The actual problem was the loss of some twenty or more car parking spaces in an area where parking is tight. For some five months I and my neighbors have been forced to park where we could, often several streets away. One doesn’t mind this happening occasionally, but five months is a tad excessive. Especially when similar work in an adjoining street (Whitfeld Road) was completed in a fortnight. One also wouldn’t mind if this work was necessary. However it was clear this work was not necessary. Having dug the holes, they were left open with no one working in them for weeks. Every so often someone in a high vis jacket would sit by the hole, shout a conversation to a girlfriend into a mobile phone and then vanish. Telephoning Southern Gas Networks (something I did several times) was a waste of time. The people there denied all responsibility, and clearly weren’t interested. I telephoned Kent Highways who apparently had several meetings with the contractors to no avail. The most helpful person I found was the chap who was charged with sweeping up after the holes had been filled in. He claimed that during the course of the work three different gangs had started work, made serious mistakes, been sacked for incompetence and replaced with people equally incompetent. He also went on to say that the contractors are paid for how much work they take on, not how much work they complete, so it is in their best interests to dig holes, but not fill them in. Please feel free to pass my comments on to Southern Gas Networks.

I wonder what will come of it. Not much, I expect. Much the same as will come from the email I sent to the astro club. Having emailed the club membership yesterday, over twenty people’s email provider has sent the message back to me. All for the same reason - too many recipients.

I can see that might be a useful anti-spamming tool, but there are over twenty people who’ve obviously never received an email from the astro club. Let’s hope no one has missed anything important. To be on the safe side, I sent the same message via Facebook:

Apologies if you’ve already received this via email. However when I sent it, over twenty people’s email server bounced it back to me. If this is the first time you’ve had this message, I suspect you may have missed other emails from the club… Jason emailed everyone to say: “May I draw your attention to the main page of the Ashford Astronomical Society website www.ashfordastro.org.uk. The August meeting will be an AGM/Social occasion. Drew has put together some details of the night’s proceedings for your perusal on the main webpage, so that everyone can make plans, and / or have questions for the experienced members of the society on the night in advance. Hope to see you all there, and please don't forget to bring your friends along too.” I felt I might add to this: Whilst we’re on the subject of the AGM, whilst I’m happy to continue as treasurer, if anyone else would like to take on the role, please don’t think I’d be offended if you’d like to stand instead of me :o)

I doubt I’ll get much interest – once you take on a voluntary role, you are usually stuck with it. But you never know – there might be someone who wants to have a go.

Talking of things astronomical, I was hoping to have a look at the Perseid meteor shower tonight. But there is solid cloud cover and pouring rain. Maybe next year…

11 August 2009 (Tuesday) - Telescopes and Didgeridoos

It was as well I was on a late start today – what with four nights in a tent I needed a good night’s sleep. And better still a morning’s abluting in my own bathroom. Much as I like going away for the weekend, you can’t beat hot water from a tap and a gronk in your own cludgee.

As I had a bit of time before work, I had a go at the astronomy club’s accounts. Not too sad, as “My Boy ^TM ” would say. I then had a look at some of the preparations for the October “AstroBash” event, and perused the plans for this month’s meeting. It’s the AGM, and I’m wondering if I’m the right man to be on the committee. The secretary & chairman are full of activity & enthusiasm for the thing. And I suppose I am too, but the club’s going down the road of doing roadshows for cub & brownie groups. I did all that with snakes ten years ago. And the club’s also getting very much into practical astronomy with telescopes. Quite frankly if I want to look at something astronomical, I can see something far more impressive in far greater comfort by using Google Images.

I’ve sent an email round saying that whilst I’m happy to continue as treasurer (which I am), I wouldn’t be offended if anyone else fancied taking on the role. Mind you, I doubt anything will come of it – the email bounced back undelivered from half the recipients.

It’s amazing what you find when surfing the net. I see the didgeridoos that ruined the first Teston weekend for everyone had actually been invited to the Brighton Kite Festival in July. It’s probably just as well they weren’t able to make it. It’s even better that I didn’t find out they had been invited until after the event.

The weather forecast for the weekend was bad enough – but with the promise of their infernal racket there as well, I wouldn’t have gone…. Well I probably would have gone. But would have had words to say (!)

10 August 2009 (Monday) - Reflections on Teston

I had a restless night. Having gone for a wazz at 2am, I came back into the tent to find uproar. Apparently ‘er indoors ^TM ‘s airbed went flat simultaneously with my departing for a wazz, and I got the blame. Fortunately I could hear Batty’s pump going, so I knocked him up (oo-er!) borrowed the pump, handed it over and went back to kip. But didn’t sleep well. Last night’s port and stilton wasn’t sitting comfortably, and I was up at seven. It was either get up and do something, or lie there with guts ache.

I did the washing up from the previous evening as people got up, we had brekkie, and then we took our campsite down. With all hands to the pumps we were away by 11am. I came home via a farm in Smarden. We’ll be camping there in a few weeks’ time, so it made sense to drop off the tents and other stuff rather than bring it home again.

Sleeping bags away, washing into the washing machine – I was asleep in front of the computer by 2pm. On reflection, I’ve had a brilliant weekend. Bearing in mind the disaster that was last year’s August Teston, and also bearing in mind how wet the last few kite festivals have been, this weekend has been excellent. You can see photos of the weekend here.

Having said that… I mentioned yesterday that the best part of a kite festival is when the normal people have gone home. And on Saturday the children had their bikes stolen. Every time we are at Teston I sit back and watch several herds of “normal people” set up their picnics and games of rounders and football right in the middle of the field because that’s where they always do that every week. And clearly resent the kites being there.

I can’t help but wonder if invading the picnic site twice a year is the best thing to do. Once a year we camp on a friend’s farm. There’s no one there but us. A lot of the kiting people do something similar at a camp site in Sussex – they book a whole area for themselves and so can do their own thing. Joining them is looking more and more attractive.

9 August 2009 (Sunday) - Teston Kite festival (Still)

Despite being the last person at the festival to bed last night, I was still up and about at 7.30am. I spent a little while pootling about, and disappointed those who thought I’d put the kettle on for making coffee. If someone wants coffee in the morning, that’s fine. They can make me some too, whilst I do the washing up. “Daddies Little Angel ^TM ” made a fine cup of coffee. Or that is, she made me a fine cup. Hers wasn’t so good. The milk had gone squafty overnight, and was actually now lumpy. Once she’d finished honking (and I’d stopped laughing) she got on with breakfast. She makes a good cooked brekkie.

Ably assisted by Batty (who had stepped into the role of catering supremo) we set off to Asda for the ingredients for tea. I was on cookhouse duty, and we’d decided I’d make a mild chicken curry.

And so back to campsite where I was greeted by my niece who was proudly telling the world she’d been peed on by a puppy. It transpired that some of the caravans were leaking pee, but people weren’t quite so proud about that. In the spirit of joining in with the kite festival I tried to fly a dustbin liner as a kite, then fixed more banners. Some had had the poles poke through them overnight.

Bread & cheese for dinner, washed down with a couple of bottles of Oyster Stout. And then I set about preparing the chicken curry for tea, whilst people sat around chatting, playing Blokus and generally relaxing. The news came that I wasn’t to be taking over the running of the Teston Kite Festival. Apparently the torch has been passed to the Kent Kite Fliers. I don’t really know much about the people, but I wish them luck. I didn’t really want the responsibility of running the thing anyway (as I blogged on 15^th June).

Something noteworthy happened during the afternoon. It’s traditional at Teston Kite Festival that all of the campers get together for a group photo. It’s a tradition that I found out about third hand, and for all that this was my fourteenth time camping at the place, this was only the second time I was actually invited to be in the photo. We all posed, mucked about, and spent quite a bit of time waiting for the camera to work. I wonder if I’ll ever see the piccie.

We said goodbye to Brian (who had to be back home for work), and scoffed the curry I’d made. I was rather nervous. This weekend we’d shared the cookery. Following excellent spag bol, fahitas, stir fry, and full Englishes I had an awful lot to live up to. But I was pleasantly surprised with what I’d come up with.

‘er indoors ^TM arrived back from training candles, and we spent a pleasant evening watching all and sundry doing gymnastics. As always with kite festivals, the best time is when the normal people have gone home. But the evening was in many ways quite sad. As a lot of the campers were going home, it was goodbye to a lot of friends I won’t now see again until the Xmas party, if not until next year.