Far too many pictures of XH558 Flying @ Kemble

Click the picture for a larger version...

XH558 on the ground at Kemble

Sensibly XH558 was the very first thing your saw on turning into the carpark...

hawker Hunters - 60 years old - at Kemble

Myślałem, że jestem rozumiany Polaków...

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"A Warrior's Beverage" - Lt Worf Stardate 2011.06.16

In my local Polish store - a choice of carrot-raspberry-apple or carrot-banana-apple - and I thought I understood the Poles.  It tastes OK if you follow it up with a glass of vodka (or six)

Hollycombe Steam Collection - incl Steam Powered Swings

"The Hollycombe Steam Collection is a collection of steam-powered vehicles, rides and attractions based near Liphook in Hampshire. The collection includes fairground rides, a display farm and two railways."

You haven't lived until you have been in a steam powered swing

Walker Chair o planes

Ohhhh... makes me feel nauseous just to look at the photo

Kirstie seems to be enjoying the experience

Van Leer - Passfield - Bramshott - 40 years on.

Driving towards Hollycombe we came across a sign to "Passfield Business Centre"

this was where my father worked from 1961 until 1970.  It was the R&D site for Van Leer,  developing fibre drums; To test durability they built a "Fibre-Henge" - a scale model of the better known megalithic monument on Salisbury Plain - the weighted down trilithions were left outside for a couple of years.  I remember Xmas parties and bonfire nights and my dad getting censured for some, rather right wing, views expressed in the centre newsletter ("Drumbeat") - eugenics I think - but remember the Swedes were doing this until 1975  On the access road is a small birch forest - where I remember assisting with "sap tapping" - though I did not get to sample the (eventually) alcoholic product

Later in the day we stopped off at Bramshott Junior Boys School - now converted to a rather nice set of houses - though at £600K for a three bedroomed property - it should be nice!  The school building was originally a pub - close to the main London-Portsmouth road.  About 500 years old we were told.  I was there in the school year 1969-70 - which meant I missed Boris Karloff by just a couple of months - yes really!

The owner was working in the yard - formerly the playground and we had a nice long chat about:

The garage - the former outside loos - where I got snowed on at Xmas 1969

The playground where the entire school engaged in monstrously violent games of "British Bulldogs"

The now living room was my first classroom - a Victorian extension to the original building and where I was banned from using ink and forced back to pencil after an unfortunate blotting paper and inkwell incident

The sheds - where the older boys sold out-grown football boots to new oiks


The bomb-craters - probably lime or marl pits on reflection

There were photos of the semi derelict school post closure (mid 70's) and photos of boys with long hair and short shorts - sadly not of my year though.

I saw Senna...

We were almost the same age...

This was the silver age of Formula 1 - today's drivers seem, if only by comparison, characterless automatons.

In the late 90's fell asleep during a Coultard/Haakkinon chase - that was the end of F1 for me.

I saw this movie at the oldest working cinema in the UK... The Electric stunning film - if you were watching F1 in 1994 - go and see this.  Brilliant, Really Brilliant.  If you were not - then go see this movie to understand what it was all about

While you are at it - listen to Stevie

The Venue

 

 

 

Captain has another "new" car

Missed out on Olympics Tickets? Don't worry...

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A short drive down to Bourton-On-The-Water to see nephew Martin play county cricket (and playing up an age band as well) - unusually for me I did not bring rain.  It turns out the Anderssons got no tickets at all in the London 2012 ticket 'lottery' and a decision is being in the process of being made to leave the country for the duration.

There is an alternative - Mr Robert Dover's Cotswold Olympicks - which I missed by a couple of days (visiting Dover's Hill for a little post-cricket jog) - celebrates its 400 year anniversary in 2012:

The Stadium

At last I have internet enabled my phone - and with the correct Google Voice Search App all I need to say is "Dovers Hill Olympics" and by the magic of GiffGaff and its "Unlockapedia" there is all is.  I have put my name down for the Shin Kicking

Closer to home we have the Much Wenlock Olympics - officially recognised by the IOC!

I have a surprising amount of mint growing in my garden

...OK there is always mint sauce, mint jelly or Moroccan mint tea but the very best use for mint is...

Can you guess what I'm making?  (there is a clue here)

Though perhaps jogging 2km to the shops and spending £20 on "makings" just to use up a bit of surplus wild mint is not wholly sensible...

One reporter described eating organic cucumber as being akin to Russian roulette

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I can confirm that attempting to blow ones brains out with a primed Cucumis sativus is not going to work at all - although I am not taking any risks with this surprisingly inexpensive green monster...

Number 1 - Its British

Number 2 - No way am I going to cook cucumber but I have a Swedish Recipe that uses a lot of vinegar (Ph 2.5 to 3.5) which should do for Mr E C.  Although E Coli has can be primed to be acid tolerant (how else would it get through your stomach) the literature seems to look at survival in simulated "gut" fluids and at 37oC - acid is going to hurt it more while it is actively doing stuff and all its little enzymes and organelles are busy exchanging fluids.  Unfortunately the recipe calls for refrigeration - which won't support growth but won't necessarily kill the little blighters either.  The latest science points to the new bug having an amazing single adaptation that lets it bond to "salad leaf surfaces" and "the human gut" - so I am going to peel and hope.

Nice Day In the Office

My walk to work today was bliss - roads quiet (schools are out), birds are singing and 90% of my route is through park or woodland.

My Nokia C5-00 struggles with "white balance" and "colour intensity"

 

 

Cousin Matty made me a desk ornament - now I can see who is sneaking up behind me!