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After the disaster that was Leuchars 2008, it was a sheer pleasure to come down to RAF Waddington for the 2009 airshow. I am fortunate in having a friend stationed at Waddo, and as a result Fi and I were able to stay for some time and get to explore Lincoln and the surrounding area a little also. The airshow was great - the weather sufficient to allow amongst other things a full display by the RAF Falcon parachute team and the maximum height display by the Red Arrows. Fiona had never seen the arrows perform a sortie before, so it was a real treat for her.
Whilst enjoying the RAF displays, the plane that stole the show for me really was actually probably amongst the most unusual and graceful aircraft I have ever seen at a show. Air Uniques AN-2, a most unusual and distintive aircraft.
It appeared at Waddington before, but just watching it this year was captivating. Bear in mind it has some little details like the ability to fly in full control, stall free, at 30mph. Its some contrast to the antics of the Typhoon at military power!
Anyway - next show is Leuchars at the end of this years season sadly, but hey - its been fun :) |
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Occasionally I have posted links on here to the Afternoon play from Radio 4. I generally only do so when the play in question has been so good that I couldn't actually get on with what I was doing because I was listening to it and enjoying it so much that despite knowing "listen again" exists and so on, I didn't want to stop listening.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00k9p0w
That link will take you to just such a play. It is an extremely amusing take on the current financial mess, and perfect for anyone who wishes they understood it (or perhaps pretends they do but don't) and wants to get to grips with it in terms anyone can understand.
Well worth a listen. You have 7 days and counting =)
KitCurrent Mood:  amused |
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Finally gave up the struggle with my old Suffolk colt. It was proving nigh on impossible to start, and getting increasingly ratty at mowing. When you are a mower, thats not a wise career move, and thus I went looking around for what I might be able to get instead.
A mower shop in Stirling happened to have an excellent condition second hand mower. Honda petrol engine, starts with one simple and gentle pull of a cord (not over 15 minutes of mad pulling and juggling unmarked settings in an attempts to balance revs, air, petrol and mystical mower gods in a dance of grass shortening.)
I found a photo on the web - http://tinyurl.com/c6lr23
Anyway - must get on.Current Mood:  nostalgic |
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Well, I hadn't really thought about the length of time i hadn't posted here for. Didn't realise it was in May I last said anything - but that just shows how time flies I guess.
I am now a non-food stock control team leader, still with Tesco, but a job with a lot more challenge and responsibility than previously. I have staff, and I have quite a few thousand pounds of stock to lose. I mean take care of.
I have also been discovering that the Body Shop don't need to test their products on animals. My animals are testing them on themselves. So far several foot and body products have not proved to be toxic to our rescue Siamese cats who chose to eat them. I wonder if I should send them a letter pointing this out.
Siamese cats are extremely curious. We have 2, Susie and Maverick. Maverick is a total coward, and possibly the most misnamed Cat I have ever met. Susie is a typical Siamese, into everything and noisy. Both are welcome additions to the Lane household though.
What else. I am working boxing day because Tesco are opening all the Extra stores boxing day. Given I don't have family up, or down, or children, it seemed sporting that I go in meaning someone else doesn't feel they have to. Plus the money will come in useful.
Anyway - thats an update of sorts. Hope everyone is well, I will try and make it a shorter time until the next one!Current Mood:  cheerful |
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Fear
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May. 21st, 2008 @ 01:23 am
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Its late again, I am on early, yet cannot sleep. Too much goes through my head in these night hours. I worry about a world asleep. In my logical mind I know there are people taking care of it - hell, sometimes I have been one of them. Its not a world I have ever found easy to leave behind.
My wife is stirring in the bed. I would join her, but I think it might involve relocating at least a leg of hers and a cat or two to another location. Its just easier to wait until at least one of them has moved on their own initiative..
Read another O'Farrel book recently. Called May Contain Nuts, it was written somewhat after Best a Man Can Get. It was ok, but not a patch on BAMAG. Both books are excellent contraceptives.
The reason I titled this post fear is because that seems to be the strong force at work in our household at the moment. Fiona isn't certain of work, and I am looking at increasing my hours and payscale with a different job within Tesco. Fiona gets angry with me when my head cascades to emergency fall back plans. She thinks it is a lack of faith in her, and that she will get a job and so on. I have tried time and again to explain its just me. This is what I do. I plan, and think, and worry in almost equal measure. Things I imagine are reassuring (like a manager at my work saying they would take seriously an application from her for work at my store) is taken by her as a slight. It isn't. Its just me trying to ensure we stay above the waterline.
So I drift into the night. Alone, as ever, comforted by the musings of Radio 5 Lives up all night. My life has changed so much since I first started listening to this program, but its a comfort none the less. Lets see what tomorrow brings.Current Mood:  contemplative |
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This probably makes sense if you read this first
http://tinyurl.com/6eonwd
I do find it amusing that the chinese themselves are now having a problem with counterfeiting. Also, hats off to the chinese counterfeiting *MILITARY TRUCKS*. You have to admit thats stylish.
May. 7th, 2008 @ 02:04 pm
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| » Bloody hell, what a month |
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Spurred on by Mr Bryns update, I realised it has been a long time since I have posted here, and a stupid amount has happened.
Our beloved little car, raindrop, was stolen by an ethically challenged moron whose name I now know but for legal reasons cannot publish. The police are virtually certain he will be convicted of stealing our car, although bizarrely we don't have the car back.
So now I have to undertake a civil case against him, to be completed when he has been convicted in the criminal court. That will allow me to recover my uninsured losses, and also hopefully let me get to him a little bit.
Then I am going to try and motivate my insurance company to sue him as well. Because they can put in a claim for the cost of my payout, *PLUS* their expenses. And I am sure insurance companies have lots and *LOTS* of expenses.
So I had to find Fiona a new car. She needs a car to get to work, and being employed suits both of us really. So we now have a Toyota Yaris Verso. It has much better security than the Corsa, and this will hopefully soon be backed up by a full tracking system I intend to install. They won't get me twice...
The downside to this is it has damaged our household budget pretty heavily. The insurance will pay out something like the cost of 2 tyres on the new car... Yes folks, if you are imagining that your car will be valued at anything like its correct value, guess again. I am arguing with the insurers, but I dont know how that will go.
There is so much other stuff going on as well, I don't really want to bore everyone. I will try and post some more soon, but for now, its a battle.
May. 6th, 2008 @ 02:51 pm
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| » Suffolk Colt |
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My next door neighbour has moved away to a new house. He was renting the one next door, and I think has bought this one, although I didn't really pry.
He wanted me to take some things he didn't have room for at his new place, including a gorgeous Suffolk Colt lawnmower.
Yes, its old. Older than me, by some margin. However its lovely. Its a proper, English lawnmower. English engine, english mechanism. I had to spend half an hour working out how to make it work, because there aren't any instructions (yet - I am buying some) and all the markings have pretty much worn off over more than 40 years.
So Fiona is off work again, having had something of an incident in the car involving a learner motorcyclist, who messed up and pulled out infront of her whilst she was travelling at speed. She has been commenting that she needed something to do with her first years between the late 50s and late 60's. I suggested she take the mower. She replied with quite possibly the most worrying things I've ever heard a teacher say. "Sure. They can mow the astroturf"
Mar. 17th, 2008 @ 07:04 pm
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| » When greed becomes fear |
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Those of you who know me understand I don't have a television, but spend a reasonable amount of time listening to the radio. I have once previously suggested that people go and take advantage of the magnificent "listen again" feature of the BBC, and listen to an afternoon play from Radio 4. Last time was about teenage pregnancy. This time its the current state of affairs with the sub prime market.
Its 45 minutes long. But it was sufficiently good I sat in the car park of Tesco Stirling for all 45 minutes of it, just to listen to it. (I didn't have my personal radio on me).
Tuesday (26th February 2008)
When Greed Becomes Fear
By DJ Britton
What life might be like for a lonely chief executive of a major international bank, inspired by the current financial climate.
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Anyway - for those of you sufficiently interested, go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/afternoon_play.shtml
This only stays valid for one week, as the play next Tuesday will replace it then.
Not much else to report really. Carry on.
Feb. 26th, 2008 @ 03:41 pm
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| » Numberplates, bees and rock and roll |
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The new car radio allows the latter. Don't get fancy coded radios. Our old radio was coded, so having disconnected the battery (to fit a new one) and replaced a fuse, it wanted a code.
I couldn't find anything anywhere written down about the code. I mean also, who the hell was going to steal a cassette radio unit with no display (because the Corsa has a little display thing at eye level). Even when this car was *new* CD players were really all that was being stolen I suspect.
So we got the old one out and had a new one fitted. It does play CD's, has an Aux input for our mp3 players, and does a great job. Has a removeable front, so in higher risk places I pop that off to reduce idiot stealing it issues. It also has a code. You have to switch it on before choosing one. I haven't.
The bees are ok, and due another check reasonably soon. Its a tough time of year for them, as they want to get out and get pollen, but it is still cold. They will manage I think, but its also time to make plans for later in the year. How many hives, what crops to go for, what times to schedule things in for.
A friend of ours is now on the insurance for the Corsa. She is a full legal UK driver, but hasn't had much experience. Therefore before she gets married in the summer (and hopefully on the insurance of her then to be husband and his rather nicer Toyota) we thought that some time in our Corsa might help. Since then a handbrake got broken, and then (having got the car back after I got the garage to mend the handbrake) drove it into a post.
So now I have to fit a replacement front numberplate, and fix the paintwork, and find a new vauxhall badge, because my one presumably fell off sometime in this post / car / ??? incident. Still - I suppose I need something to fill my days off.
Just right now I could use a break to be honest. Things have built up, and very little is going as planned. That isn't really unusual, but more tends to work out than this normally. Just as things look sorted in one area, another crashes out of phase, and its all hands to the pumps to fix whatever appears.
Fiona is still working a lot. She has tried to cut her hours from 70 to 50, but only with mixed success. Her work hadn't really noticed the hours she was doing because they tend to fall into 2 camps. The "early arrivers" leave around 4, and the late starters come in at start of school, but perhaps stay until 5:30 or 6. Although she was doing both sides, neither camp realised, each just assuming (presumably) that she was in the other group. Anyway - because I work the weekend and evenings, finding a time when we are in the same building (and awake) is at times complicated. Add to that commitments we both have and it can literally be a week between more than an hour awake in each others company.
We aren't yet out of the woods, because she doesn't have a permanent contract like I do. Me leaving work now could be a very bad plan come the summer, so for now I am stuck with this arrangement, despite its shortcomings. Once she is permanent somewhere (assuming for a moment that anyone is offering a permanent contract these days) then I can start looking for work that is perhaps better paid, certainly better hours, but possibly less certain (either contract or smaller, less robust companies). Much as Tesco has its shortcomings, not having my salary at the end of the month is an unlikely state of affairs for them.
Wow, thats been a long post, or at least it is for me. Just wish it contained something a bit more positive!
Feb. 20th, 2008 @ 01:31 am
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| » Backshift |
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The day switches around.
The crew for the nightshift last night didn't show up. They were meant to arrive and sort out a new tobacco fixture. I helped out with bits, but went home at 04:30. I'd had enough by then. The nightshift crew seem to like me - although I suspect thats mostly because I will actually turn up at night if needed.
So its nearly 4am, the world is dark, and I don't know what to write. Sian gave birth to a boy, Edward. Fiona wants to go visit! How surreal is that! Your current wife wanting to visit your ex's baby!
We have a friend who is getting married this summer. To let her get some experience before going on her husband to be's insurance, we put her on ours. Then she called me to say the handbrake failed. Its all ok - but we now have a hire Chevvy Matiz until the car is mended. Shiny 2007 car (3800 miles instead of the 172,000 our corsa has!) But I like Raindrop more. Sorry - but thats just the way it is. She isn't perfect, but damnit she has earnt some fair respect in 30,000 miles.
Onwards!
Feb. 10th, 2008 @ 03:40 am
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| » Nightshift |
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Another quiet night. Tomorrow night I am assisting with a refit of the tobacco display at work. Or looking at it another way, "making sure the shop fitters don't walk off with tool bags suspiciously heavy with Lambert and Butlers."
In all honestly I am unlikely to have much hassle with them. They are probably paid more than I am anyway, so its a bit ironic really. Because the refit takes place overnight, I have to stay up now, sleep tomorrow, and then start 2130 so we can be ready for 2200 as proper kickoff.
There is a lot I want to say, but this doesn't seem a great forum for it. Many things are happening, to some extent here, but also elsewhere thats concerning. I found myself wondering what I got from a youth of sobriety and sensible behaviour. I mean I know some people who frankly were scarily wild, but are fine now. I find it increasingly hard to reconcile a world where you are told when you are young to not do all the things you know others are doing, as they are bad, with the image I now see.
Don't get me wrong: I am not saying I wanted to be a drunken lout. However I am coming to realise that the odd thing I did get up to is probably increasingly important, because its a past you can't return to. There is truth in that sunscreen song :/
Fiona has brought a cold home and shared it with me. It will make tomorrow all the more interesting.
Feb. 8th, 2008 @ 03:41 am
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| » The internet, and its wrongness. |
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Right.
http://www.pdet.blogspot.com/
Yeah. The person above has a blog dedicated to the tracking of ebay activity of Paul Daniels. The magician.
I really can't say anything other than to slowly shake my head and sigh.
Nov. 22nd, 2007 @ 01:13 am
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| » Anstruther RSG |
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Well - this is possibly the only time I will get to post to my journal whilst 3 floors underground, inside 15 feet of tungsten reeinforced, blast resisting concrete.
I had a spare day, the car, and a realisation that tomorrow this place shuts for the winter, so I drove to the formerly secret nuclear bunker near Anstruther.
Its a great visit actually, (including this free internet access in the former canteen, now serving snacks and drinks to visitors.) There are a lot of people that I know who would really enjoy a visit either here, or to Hack Green, a similar establishment.
Anyway - I am going to go get a subterranean coffee, before finding more staff to chat to.
;)
Oct. 31st, 2007 @ 03:04 pm
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| » HPV vaccine |
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Lets just get one thing clear shall we. There is no way, AT ALL, that vaccinating people against a virus is going to make them have sex more. Or earlier.
I don't (and have never met anyone) who thinks "ahhh, I've had a tetatnus vaccine. I must now make sure I am snagged with rusty implements on farms more often" And sex with some people probably isn't that far different, although I suppose thats a digression in itself.
The argument that given 1000 people die from it and there are 30,000,000 people and couldn't, possibly, we find something thats actually more effective against more things across more of the population, is possibly a better point, but thats not the way we've ended up. I suspect the smoking ban in public potentially saves more lives than this in a given year, or will do, although I don't have hard data.
Its still really hard not to cry at the thought of teenagers with insane hormones and boredom to contend with ruling out sexual experimentation currently because they haven't had a vaccine. I mean how low on the priority list could this possilby get for them?
Oct. 26th, 2007 @ 10:32 pm
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| » MV Claymore |
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The MV Claymore met us at St Margarets Hope. Loaded aboard we wandered around for a bit, before I grabbed a coffee. Nothing complicated here - polystyrene cup and nescafe for a £1. Still - there was a long drive ahead and anything was welcome.
The run took almost exactly 6 hours. Neither Fiona or I generally speed, and there was no real need to on this occasion whatsoever. 259 miles south we arrived home at midnight exactly. We did stop at Perth Tesco for fuel and food.
Beauty is a strange thing - very much in the eye of the beholder I know, but there is something ruggedly charming about the Orcadian archipelago. We are back here but each time gets harder, and we know with increasing certainty that the life there holds a draw for us that we hope to rise to. It won't be easy, on many fronts, but thats never stopped us yet.
Its our third wedding anniversary tomorrow. We are going to go and see Cats at the playhouse in Edinburgh. Whilst we were in Orkney I bought earrings to match the necklace Fiona got on our honeymoon. Hopefully they will look good together :)
Oct. 22nd, 2007 @ 01:39 pm
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| » Orkney |
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We managed to make it to Orkney again. The journey north was long and complicated, taking a stop in Elgin and sleeping in the car in Gills Bay (John O Groats in effect).
The crossing was gentle for the season, but enough to make a few people start looking like they weren't all that sure about this sea crossing malarkey.
We are staying again on Rousay, and so far have had three power cuts and seen a lot of stars. Its already dark up here, but once the mains fails to at least the three islands around us, if not the whole of Orkney itself, it gets *really* dark. The stars are incredible.
Its great to get away. Life here is complicated and simple at the same time. Getting things from the shops - complicated. Can involve at least a ferry and a bus. Getting fresh air - not complicated. Open the door.
We also had sun, rain and hail and sun again in the space of 8 minutes. Something of an achievement I feel.
Not really looking forward to going home in many ways, but sadly work beckons. Its nice to get here again though, and already wonder how we will manage next time. Most opportunities to get here we have had so far have basically been chance. A collision of opportunites and circumstance that ends up with us in these wet green lands.
Oct. 17th, 2007 @ 02:39 pm
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| » Alcohol |
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Just happened to read the label on a bottle of "Bishops FInger" - a pleasant kentish ale that I have always been fond of.
"Please enjoy responsibly".
Well ok - I understand that its become the thing now for the alcohol industry to at least try and pretend that they can do something with a size 6 font to cure all of Britains drink related problems - but it did get me thinking.
We aren't allowed to offer promotions on cigarettes. Nor indeed can we offer clubcard points on them. Next time you are at a place selling tobacco, have a look at it. You will notice that there aren't any "buy one get one free" deals, or indeed anything similar.
Is it time that we had the same rule for alcohol?
Whilst making it more expensive won't *solve* all problems, I can't help thinking it probably can't hurt?
Sep. 13th, 2007 @ 01:10 am
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| » Raise n to the power of Q |
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Fantastic event Dan, Claire, Peter, Doreen and families! Fiona and I thoroughly enjoyed it - it was great catching up with so many old friends, and meeting some new people as well.
Journey back was quiet but both Fiona and I were tired so we stopped at a service station and got some sleep in the car. Fiona is already asleep in bed, but I think I am probably too awake now to manage that. Only wish I could have gotten today off work (I did try!) so that I could have stayed longer. Still, in some ways I was lucky to get the Saturday off as it was.
I look forward to being in Aber and seeing the completed boards. I also look forward to seeing you all again sometime.
Sep. 9th, 2007 @ 07:07 am
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| » Eh? |
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Yeah. You wouldn't choose to blow up Kirkcaldy Tesco. I mean fair play for noticing that it exists and all. But its basically a sweet shop with "Tesco" screwed above the door. Why anyone would go to the trouble of even threatening it isd completely beyond me.
We heard nothing internally btw. Yeah - friendly that. We learnt about it from the BBC too...
My livejournal used to be interesting. I used to comment and observe and say things that people seemed to enjoy. Perhaps there is less to comment on now - although I still feel an immense sense of satisfaction living 35 miles from somewhere where the reasonable course of action in everyones mind is to *REPEATEDLY PUNCH SOMEONE WHO IS ON FIRE*
I love Glasgow.
Jul. 16th, 2007 @ 12:24 am
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