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.