Well that is it

Well that is it for 2012, just less than a day left. All I can say is it had its highs and had its lows. Far from a great year I'm glad it is coming to an end. Happy new year.

Another Christmas

Well it is that time of the year again and I hope you and yours have a Happy Christmas.

Haunting Songs

There are some songs that are turely haunting and that stick with you through life and when you hear them one such song is Michel Legrand's "Les Moulins de Mon Coeur".

Here are the lyrics the lyrics in french of course but you might know the song better in it english version wich is called "Windmills of the Mind" and was sung orginally by Noel Harrison.

Comme une pierre que l'on jette dans l'eau vive d'un ruisseau
Et qui laisse derrière elle des milliers de ronds dans l'eau
Comme un manège de lune avec ses chevaux d'étoiles
Comme un anneau de Saturne, un ballon de carnaval,
Comme le chemin de ronde que font sans cesse les heures
Le voyage autour du monde d'un tournesol dans sa fleur
Tu fais tourner de ton nom tous les moulins de mon coeur

Comme un écheveau de laine entre les mains d'un enfant
Ou les mots d'une rengaine pris dans les harpes du vent
Comme un tourbillon de neige, comme un vol de goélands,
Sur des forêts de Norvège, sur des moutons d'océan,
Comme le chemin de ronde que font sans cesse les heures
Le voyage autour du monde d'un tournesol dans sa fleur
Tu fais tourner de ton nom tous les moulins de mon coeur

Ce jour-là près de la source Dieu sait ce que tu m'as dit
Mais l'été finit sa course, l'oiseau tomba de son nid
Et voilà que sur le sable nos pas s'effacent déjà
Et je suis seul à la table qui résonne sous mes doigts
Comme un tambourin qui pleure sous les gouttes de la pluie
Comme les chansons qui meurent aussitôt qu'on les oublie
Et les feuilles de l'automne rencontrent des ciels moins bleus
Et ton absence leur donne la couleur de tes cheveux

Comme une pierre que l'on jette dans l'eau vive d'un ruisseau
Et qui laisse derrière elle des milliers de ronds dans l'eau
Aux vents des quatre saisons, tu fais tourner de ton nom
Tous les moulins de mon coeur

Although I know it better in in it English version there is something about the song in French that just makes it that much more special. It is just the way the words bend is better and it has more feeling. Either way it is a haunting song in French or English and it is about something we have all experianced in life.

I'm a Celebrity Get, Me out of Here - The Final

It hasn't been the most wonderful show in the series in terms of drama but it has made for good viewing all the same. It has shown us the nice side of several of the celebrities that have been on the show this year.

Several of the celebrities in the show would have made good Kings or Queens of the Jungle. In my view the final three were spot on and I couldn't decide between the three of them.

As it was the public decided that Charlie Brooks should be this year's queen of the Jungle and on the whole it was an excellent choice. She was always up for a laugh and was never anything else but herself on the show.

In tonight's show I loved the moment she was reunited with her daughter. That was so lovely to watch especially when her daughter told her she loved her. You couldn't fail to be moved by the moment unless you have a heart of stone.

Anyway so that it for this show for another year and after Christmas we will have another Celebrity Big Brother to look forward to and a firm family favourite, Dancing on Ice.

More Him and Her

A show I have loved since it started is about to return to our screen, the wonderful comedy series “Him and Her”, now in it’s third series, and hopefully going strong towards a 4th and 5th series.

It is the story of Becky and Steve who spend their days watching DVD’s in their bedsit, constantly being interrupted by Dan and various relations, to great comic effect. What I love about the show is crude and natural way the show is directed and filmed, which really suits the style of the excellent writing and shows off the quality of the scripts. It reminds me of watching short plays or listening to a play on the radio rather than what you would expect from modern television. In away this is a breath of fresh air.
 
Anyway, if you want a good laugh and you need a smile I can highly recommend it.. The new series starts tonight on BBC3 and it is not to be missed.

Emily in the News

It was a suprise to see Emily in the Rutland Times today. Although she had been working on a science project on a project for a few days I didn't expect the press to pick the story up.

The idea was that teams of talented scientists came up against the Catmose Dragons Den in order to gain funding for their fireworks ideas. Being chosen to take part was impressive enough, but Emily managed to help her team pip the others to the post and win the Dragons Den Challenge. So here is a big well done Emily blog post, I'm proud of you and all your sisters.

RIP Barleythorpe

A Community is about to be destroyed in Rutland through the greed of developers and their puppets at Rutland County Council. Barleythorpe was a small village 1 mile from county town of Oakham in Rutland and it is history goes back to the times of the Doomsday Book. It was given to Westminster abbey by Edward the Confessor and it belonged to the dean and chapter of Westminster.

Today it seems it belongs to the the developers Larkfleet who have taken the village over by stealth with their plans drawn up in conjunction with Rutland County Council. Soon the village will be no more, it will just be part of Oakham and all that history and the community will be lost forever. More and more houses are being built that will connect the village with the town.

The people I have spoken to from the village feel let down by Rutland County Council. Their views have been ignored and and stamped on by the council. They want to save their village but feel helpless to do anything. It is wrong that a Country Council can do this to the people it represents.

I'm a Celebrity Get, Me out of Here

Another autumn favourite starts today with the first programme in the new series of "I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here". The bug eating trial show designed to turn the hardest celebrity stomach.

 

The show now in it twelfth series is presented by the more than capable duo of Ant and Dec, with their predictable but funny double act. They are joined by the shows victims the so called “Celebrities” and lots of nasty bugs. This year we have a good line up taking part in the show, which includes David Haye, Helen Flanagan, Brian Conley, Nadine Dorries, Colin Baker, Charlie Brooks, Hugo Taylor, Linda Robson, Eric Bristow, Ashley Roberts and I guess at least one surprise celebrity to be added at a later date.
 

It makes a change to have something on every night I actually want to watch rather than the constant stream of programmes which never seem to grab my attention.I use to have the X-Factor to look forward to this time of year but its decline in recent years, since Simon Cowell left the show, has really made this part of the year rather barren as far as good entertainment goes.

It has been a firm family favourite for the last six years or so, ever since I started watching it. It makes everyone smile, cringe and turns the odd stomach, but that is all part of the fun of watching the show. I will be watching until the end, will you?

Rutland Water

Took some time out from working to take a look around a very sunny and autumnal Rutland Water and it was well worth it.

 

 

 

I hope you like some of the pictures and although it might be cold outside there is still loads to see and appreciate in this beautiful country we live in. See it now before the developers ruin it and turn the countryside into one big city.

Another Birthday

Today my little one Lucy turns five. It is amazing how quickly time goes by. I still remember holding her in my arms when she was born.

There was so much promise back then and so much to look forward to. Now things have change so much my dreams back then seem like they were just that fantasy and nothing was real at all. I love her so much and always wanted to bring her up and play a full part in her life, but the chance of doing that past years ago. I’m just sorry it couldn’t be like that fot her.

I love Lucy, just like her sisters, and I just hope whatever she is doing she has a great time. I’m sorry, I’m not there.

Halloween

The Emily and Catherine love Halloween, all the dressing up and then there is the sweets. It really has become bigger than bonfire night for them and many other people around the country too. In some way it is a shame, when standing around a bonfire and letting off fireworks use to be so much fun, especially with lovely baked potatoes in the oven to warm you up when you got indoors. Now all the money goes on sweets for an event six days before.

This year there wasn't any pumpkin making; there just wasn't any point and no reason to do it. There was any enthusiasm in me to even think about bothering although in the past it has always been fun. Maybe next year will be different, but at least the girls came home smiling after their nights work, sweets to last them a month. As for bonfire night, we will see, I can see me looking out the window rather standing around a bonfire and letting off fireworks this year at least.

Autumn Moon

Tonight saw a full moon rise above Rutland and shine it light down upon us, lighting the countryside for man and beast. It still amazes me how much light it gives, turning the sky dark blue and lighting up the landscape. Something I never noticed it the city with it orange street lights polluting the sky.

 

I always think there is something special about the full moon, some magical, that is just part of us. May be an odd thing to say in the world we live into today, but then may be it is just part of our ancient past when the phases of the moon had more meaning to us.

This full moon won’t be welcomed by everyone. Those poor people on the East Coast of America that are facing the combination of the post-tropical cyclone Sandy with the high tides the moon will bring. Thankfully the winds have died down a somewhat from those that ripped through Caribbean, but even so water levels have been lapping at record highs in New York City and the power supplier has had to shut off power to parts of lower Manhattan. I just hope everyone is alright when the night has past.

All the same, I hope that something special comes out of tonight’s full moon for me; I even saw a shooting star as I looked upon its beauty. I live in hope and you never know what is round the next corner.

Autumn Sunset

We are well and truly into autumn now but with it we have countryside full of luscious colours before the final fall of leaves and the beautiful bleakness of winter descends upon us.

 

Sometimes you get those sunny days and a lovely sunset that makes you smile and gives you hope that a nice day will follow tomorrow. It was one of those sunsets we had today, which I managed to photograph as the sun set from Hambleton in Rutland. I just hope it promise is fulfilled tomorrow to make me smile.

Changing Colours

I really haven't had the time or the inclination to take many pictures since the end of the summer, but here are a few I did manage to take over the autumn period.

 

 

Hopefully come the winter I will feel like taking pictures again and writing the blog. I guess we will have to wait and see what my mood is like then.

Goodbye Ceefax

This week see the last analouge television broadcast in the United Kingdom and after a little over 38 years the death of the Ceefax service. The first digital information service broadcast to the public in the world.

 

I know it is something a lot of people have grown up with and used over the years despite its slowness it had it uses for looking up what was on, the news and the weather before the dawn of the internet. We lost the service here a few years ago when we went digital and to be honest I find the freeview replacement sub-standard in terms of content. I guess it doesn't need to be as good, but then again it doesn't need to be with the internet and multichannel TV, however bad the later seems at times.

I work in the technology field and it still amazes me how far we have come in the time Ceefax came into our homes. Who could have predicted where we would be today in terms of the power at our finger tips as they glide across the screen of our tablets or smart phones. I do wonder how long it will be, before computers just become an extension of being.

That's is an aside, this post is about saying goodbye to an old friend, so goodbye Ceefax, you served us well over the years and despite your slowness you gave us more information than your replacement.

Autumn Blog

With the autumn weather set in and leaves falling the landscape is changing once more. Gone is all the lush green replaced by the yellows, reds and browns as we move into winter, and the farmers busy themselves getting the land ready for the spring and gathering food for the animals over the winter months.

 

Hopefully soon I will have some time to get out with the camera and capture some what going on for a post in the blog, which seems a little neglected at the moment with still a mass of posts to complete. In the meantime with the nights getting colder it will be time to have a real fire at the weekends and snuggle up warm against the cold. Everyone loves them and it one of the things that makes the cottage feel so homely over the colder months.

The blog hasn’t been forgotten, although it form and subject seems to be changing as life changes. There will be posts in the future, just not so many as the in the past, as there isn’t so much family stuff to write about now. Expect more photo posts and maybe the odd thought or rant, bur that will be about it for now.

O2 Netwrok Problems Strike Again

May be it is time that O2 considered changing the advertising slogan on the advert below to "It's our O2, See how little you can do", after at least ten percent of the customers faced hours without network coverage again today.

 

In a world where mobile communications is becoming ever more imprtant to people lives to have network problems over and over again is making the company look like the one to avoid, and because the same fault affected GiffGaff and Tesco Mobile they are in the same boat even although it wasn't their fault.

 

How long people will put up with this is anyones guess, but given the poor 3G coverage compared to the other mobile companies in the UK I would guess it won't be for long. Just like Blackberry who lost the trust of it's customers when it network failed the same thing is likely to happen to O2 if things carry on like this. People won't put up with the rubbish network which clearly has a number of short coming and suffers from lack of investment.

 

If I was in charger of the regualtors, or in government, I would be looking at pulling the companies rights to setting up 4G networks until the company got it's act together. I would insist they had 3G coverage that is of the same level as the other companies and set minimum reliablity standards for the company before letting them proceed with upgrading their network to 4G. This would force the company to put in the investment into the inferstructure that should have be put in place years ago, all lead to benefits to all of the customers rather than the select few with 4G handsets.

 

O2 need to get this right and they need to do it now. People won't stand for this for much longer and the regulator need to make sure that they sort out the network problems and network coverage issues. The regulator needs to act on this and show it's got some power to make the failing mobile companies like O2 work for the customers.

The National Museum of Computing

Anyone that knows me will know I have an interest in old computer, why today I went back in time with a visit to The National Museum of Computing loacted at the home of the code breakers at Bletchly Park near Milton Keynes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The museum is quite a sight and covers the period from the birth of computer, with a rebuild of a working Mk.2 Colossus, to the dawn of personal computer age and the internet. All wonderfully laid out and explained. It is well worth a visist, but what you get to see is only part of the collection. It is currently housed in one hut but there are other huts containing more old computers waiting to be restored. All they need is the man power and the money to help out and you don't have to be a electrionics expert.

Eyebrook Reservoir

When you say to people that you come from Rutaland everyone associates the place with Rutland water, the largest Reservoir in the area, however their is more than one.

 

 

 

 

The Eyebrook Reservoir near Uppingham is equally as beautiful if not nearly as large. Originally built to provide water for the Corby Steelworks some 4 miles to southeast, the between 1937 and 1940. It is an ideal place for bird watching, it also boasts a fine trout fishery which was opened back in 1942. It was also the the location the final practice run for Guy Gibson's 617 Squadron Dambusters  prior to Operation Chastise, the attack on the Ruhr valley Dams in mid May 1943.

 

It is a lovely place what ever time of year you go there, especially when the sun is shining like it was today, so if you are ever in the area don't just get drawn to Rutland Water and have a look, or maybe a cycle, round the Eyebrook Reservoir too.

 

 

Born of Hope

So you have twenty five thousand pounds and you want showcase your work and that of others, why not make a feature film and put it on line. That what it seems a group of people did when they made the film "Born of Hope" based on the work of J.R.Tolkin.

It is a great example of what you can do with next to nothing in this internet age. If you have a good idea, a good script and actors and you end up with something like this. I won't spoil the film by talking about the story line, but I will say it is worth watching. I really hope all those that took part in the filme do well, some of them unemployed actors and film makers. It is a great showcase for their work.

If you want to watch the film then it is avaliable on YouTube just follow this link. It is worth the time and effort if you are a fanatsy fan, but don't expect the effects to be as good as that of it's fifty plus million of it Peter Jackson conterparts but the musical score is lovely as is the direction and the acting. I can assure you, it is a lot better than a lot of simular type fantasy productions that come out of the US television industry costing a lot more that are shown over here.

Christmas Comes Early

It seems that Chrismas comes earlier evey year and just to prove it, Gates Nursery thought it would be a good idea to roll out there Christmas display today to get people buying.

Although I love the Christmas display at Gates Nursery, personally I think there should be some kind of date before which we can't be bombard by Christmas stuff in the shops and on television. It really starting to get silly and even the supermarkets are at it, with Christmas frozen food appearing in the Tesco's in Oakham this month. It just spoils the special feel Christmas by starting it all too early until we are all bored by the whole thing because of the long run up to the holiday session.

Later with Jools Holland

It is so nice t see the return of "Later with Jools Holland" on BBC2. I love live music and the show features plenty of that and new acts that make you go wow.

In tonights episode we were treated to the Muse, Public Image Ltd, The Beachboys, The XX and Natalie Duncan to get the show off to a great start. The show, which is nearly twenty years old hasn't lost any of it's drive and still feels fresh despite the passage of time. For me the act of the night was Natalie Duncan with her beautiful voice.

It is nice to have something that is musical on the televeision again that is worth watching. The X-factor this year looks once again like being a dud.

Sumer Sunsets

With the coming to the end of the summer I thought it would be nice to share some of the lovely sunsets we have had over the last few months,

 

 

 

Finally as for the blog it is still in a state of suspended animantion for a number of reasons and it looks set to stay that way for a while, but I hope seeing these pictures at least warms your heart.