Daniel's daily ramblings

last week...

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 22:20:17 GMT

A pleasantly relaxed week off - although a little too wet outdoors to get much done, so more relaxed than expected.
Not quite fitting neatly with my views on land-fill, outside I have an 8 cu. yard skip for permanently removing a chunk of garden - the problem with a brown-field site is how well (or not) the previous land owner / developer has bothered with clean-up and site preparation. Consequently another load of poor soil, cinders and brick-ends are part way to being removed for hedging alterations and tree and shrub planting in the grand scheme of things...

In these dark winter evenings, one has indulged in dining at some of Chester's respected establishments. (Apart from Telford's, there didn't seem to be much on musically). At Joseph Benjamin I picked up a pamphlet for local produce and places - one I'd missed was The Brewery Tap in the historic Gamul House on Lower Bridge Street. It's been there a year and (more fittingly) replaces a former Pizza Express in a fine Jacobean Great Hall. It's run by a local micro-brewery (under the name of Spitting Feathers) and specialises in local produce.

Saturday morning (after yet more rain) saw a trip to the Farm Shop at Hawarden Castle for a festive food fair...

The news

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:37:11 GMT

The recent changes to digital TV caused me a bit of faffing around, as The BBC channels had defaulted to the local Welsh rather than BBC North-West.
This was an even bigger problem for Father, who speaks no Welsh at all and responded in a very Anglo-Saxon style when I handed over a beginners phrase-book...

The garden has taken a bit of a back seat due to cold and dampness. Although a load of leaves shredded and composted from off the lawn for now and quite a few tree seeds to plant.
A pleasant Sunday spent at Ness Gardens - autumnal, but interesting - particularly a hill-top clump of eucalypts and a collection of Sorbus (mainly rowan, but also the whitebeam variants).

Meanwhile, a trip to the doctor's for a minor skin complaint brought up the subject of Swine Flu - apparently Crohn's disease means I'm a 'vulnerable person' and will get an immunisation invite in due course - but due to being on immuno-suppressants they don't know if i should or should not have the jab or not?

Bright Star was soporifically pleasant and interesting, despite it's theme being the untimely death of the young romantic poet Keats.

home

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:05:32 GMT

Not sure this one will be flying off the shelves for Xmas: London Wallpapers? Although I know a surprising number of folk who'd be glad of it...

My first couple of days on dry land haven't exactly been very dry - ankle deep in leaves outside, but the trees not quite denuded enough to compensate for the grey skies through the windows.
For Thursday, a rather relaxed and pleasant long lunch in Chester at Joseph Benjamin and a stroll back home along the canal - before the rain started again.
A visit from my folks for Friday lunch time and in the afternoon - a dusting down of the drawing-board for hopefully some progress on plans for the south façade, proposed west wing and a new drawing room here at One's seat, as well as minor landscaping within the grounds.

A week ahead at home - mainly odd jobs about the place and entertaining, then a look ahead towards minor travels and days out before a grand excursion around Southern England at the end of November before one returns to work.
Looking even further ahead towards December - I travel back to work a day earlier on the Monday between Xmas and New Year - conveniently English Heritage are having a Tudor history event for a few days around then, so I might break the train journey up a bit for a few hours up the West Coast Main Line...

Homeward bound...

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 10:31:04 GMT

Clear skies, calm seas - chopper on it's way and contingency for the trains south past Montrose.
Home by nightfall...

:)

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 23:32:34 GMT

An interesting looking film out Friday: Bright Star...
"London 1818: a secret love affair begins between 23 year-old English poet, John Keats (Ben Whishaw), and the girl next door, Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish), an out-spoken student of high fashion. This unlikely pair begin at odds, he thinking her a stylish minx, while she was unimpressed not only by his poetry but also by literature in general."

That is of course, if I'm home by Friday - news reports suggest that the north of Scotland is cut off. Rail and road services have been disrupted between Aberdeen and Edinburgh (and other delays at Preston).

Meanwhile, I need to look up some live music for the next couple of weeks and odd nights out (Ironically over the last couple of days, a few online flyers have suggested some good New Year's Eve Goth nights - but as well as having just missed the winter Whitby, I'm working over New Year).
The Galley / Catering Crew out here made a fine themed effort for Hallow E'en though :)

One full day and a bit to go...

Basic Itinery for the next 4 weeks off:
A week at home / Cheshire / North Wales
Manchester / Sheffield / Leeds / Derbyshire / Peak District
Oxfordshire / Uffington / bits of The Cotswolds
Brighton (New Model Army performing at Concorde 2)
South of England generally
Devon (Dartmouth - masked ball)
Knightshayes Court
Salisbury / Winchester / Bristol / Gloucestershire / Shropshire

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 20:11:30 GMT

70 knot gusts of wind out here today, the last Sunday lunch of the trip and a quieter day after Friday morning's early 5:20 wake-up due to an accidental deluge release, shutdown and re-start...

Reclining in the cabin early evening - I caught some of Countryfile. There was a feature on the Chillingham Wild Cattle (The background of the web page is a copy of a print of Edwin Landseer's famous painting, of which I obtained an old large print in Whitby last April).

Hopefully the winds will suppress any hint of fog and subside in time for Wednesday's helicopter home. Reports from which suggest I'll be gathering a lot of dead leaves up (although shredding and mulching them back onto the garden).
The Landrover should have had it's 'make-over' by the time I'm home (Ifor Williams metal hood at the rear sprayed green, together with what was a white roof and rubberised paint in the pick-up tub).

Looking at journey options for down south at the end of November, I'm tempted to make a detour between Brighton and Dartmouth to have a nosey at the Cerne Abbas Giant.

look ahead

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 21:33:57 GMT

One is missing the Whitby Goth Weekend this autumn, (away with work).

Steadily busy here on our remote island - I haven't seen the outdoors apart from on a cctv screen for just over a week now and six days still to go...

Looking far ahead, I'm off to a weekend of folklore and fairytale at Dartmouth at the end of November - with a masked ball on the evening of Saturday 28th. November.
Travel is still at the planning stages - although not a quick jaunt (800 mile round trip over a long weekend), I've booked a ticket to see New Model Army at Brighton on the evening of Thursday 26th. November, before traversing England's south coast or South Downs to Dartmouth (via the imaginatively named Slappers Hill, Devon).
View Larger Map
Return travel home will probably take in Winchester Farmer's Market on Sunday 29th. November, followed by any other distractions northwards - depending if I head up the A34 to Newbury / Oxford or cross-country to Salisbury and Marlborough...

Monday

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 22:11:25 GMT

A quick flick through the TV in the cabin on Sunday night brought up Countryfile (older viewers will remember this as the BBC Farming programme) - as it is now a 'diverse' countryside programme it also includes some farm diversification and this week had a farm that did Hallow E'en 'scare' tours and another that specialised in sheep's milk for a nearby cheese maker in Lancashire. I must confess an enthusiasm for smoked sheep's cheese after an impromtu picnic with ingredients garnered from a food festival on Winchester Cathedral Green. Apparently sheeps milk / cheese is easier on the digestive tract, as sheeps milk has smaller fat particles (as well as more calcium)...

Monday had a subtle backdrop of BBC Radio Two. With Zoe Ball standing in for Ken Bruce, William Orbit gave the "Tracks Of My Years" - Although I like a lot of stuff by him, I was surprised to find I wasn't amazingly inspired by the tracks of his choice...
A couple of hours later, my ears picked up to Visage with Fade to Grey and Spandau Ballet shortly afterwards.

Tomorrow I move cabin for a couple of nights (apparently, visitors on a stop-over necessitate an accommodation move around).

Looking ahead, I've booked a ticket for The Mediæval Bæbes performing at Sheffield Cathedral on Friday 18th. December. :)
Meanwhile - the next spell of four weeks off to fill too...

The weekend

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 20:02:10 GMT

The weekend arrives on our remote island. The CCTV screens suggest grey skies outside and a wintery ambience and choppy waves some days...

We are also into 1-to-1 sessions for reorganisation in the new year with the option to indicate a preference for 'selective' voluntary severence, stay within the 'central' operating area of our business (not necessarily present location) or to transfer to the southern sector.
It is very similar in structure to exercises I've been through within the last two employing companies within the same parent group of companies. It'll be interesting to see from the second quarter of 2010 as to who ends up where. At 40 years of age and 24 years service, the 'unknown' potentially enhanced pay-off might have been an attractive option - but my preference for now is to hopefully stay within my present group.

I'll also be missing this October's Whitby Goth Weekend - although one awaits with interest as to what is happening for the April 2010 event(s)?

Wednesday

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:07:05 GMT

Back at work after a delayed train to Aberdeen last night, a 5am wake up, 6am check-in (with quickest baggage check ever) - then hanging around in the helicopter for ages at Aberdeen before chewing it's way through a head wind off-shore.
Oh well - just two weeks to go...

Back to work...

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:00:55 GMT

A rather pleasant weekend catching up with a few folk...
To London on Friday afternoon, taking the sedate Wrexham / Shropshire / Marylebone to London train - then a relaxed Friday night dining at Ping Pong and a couple of drinks in the Devonshire Arms at Camden.

Kew Gardens on the Saturday - why I have not been before I do not know?
Only managing a quarter of the way round really during the day.
The tree-top walkway is quite good and lunch in the Orangery shows historically the lengths people would go to to grow things in England with respect to expense and buildings.

An orchestral start to the V12, 27 litre loco striking up at Marylebone on the Saturday night and Sunday at home for a few hours before travelling across The Pennines for VNV Nation at Corporation, Sheffield.
(just as well I avoided the M56, as a stray ostrich catastrophically collided with a lorry...)

Aryia, the first band on (from Canada) were quite good, although VNV milked their encore(s) a little - a good night all round and some Xmas shopping commenced during the Monday morning at Sheffield.
Lunch in The Blue Moon Cafe and the train back home to Chester.

Back up north this afternoon for another two weeks on an exclusive private island...

The weekend

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 08:05:28 GMT

Finally one has achieved relatively normal sleeping patterns after last week's night-shifts.

Thursday saw a hospital appointment for a check up on the Crohn's - 'stability' is assumed at it's present state and the various inconveniences and secondary symptoms are just part of the of the condition - although reverting back to muscle and nerve medication was hinted at short term (which I'd prefer to avoid).

A relatively quiet weekend - rural and pastoral with a foray into Shropshire, although Sunday's trains were replaced with a bus between Shrewsbury and Chester.
A little bit achieved in the garden - definitely autumn, but the ground being rather dry allowed a little bit of ground work without any mess. Must pot on a few more trees and saplings...

Tonight I'm off to Aberdeen on the sleeper for a day up there on Wednesday (computer based process simulation).

Next weekend I'm off to London for a couple of days and back in time for VNV Nation playing Corporation in Sheffield on the Sunday night.

Goth Rock and The BBC

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 14:27:43 GMT

Mentioned in a BBC website article, the Eiganharp disrupts my Yamaha tenori-on aspirations - although at around £4000 it would be a touch disruptive and discordant on the bank balance...

Back home after a pleasant lunch between trains at Edinburgh's Fruitmarket Cafe.
Into Chester this morning for 9am, having woke just before 3am as the body tries to adjust from night-shifts.

going home...

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 02:16:45 GMT

It would seem that the news of the repairs to a Wiltshire white horse were a little premature, as bad weather has delayed chalk lifting with a helicopter.
Hopefully our homeward crew-change 'copter today won't be having any delays...

One has ordered a copy of The Booker Prize winning Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. Yet more Tudor / Elizabethan theming that has pervaded parts of 2009 for me...
Two weeks off from tomorrow (apart from a swift spell on the Caledonian Sleeper for a day in Aberdeen next week).

Meanwhile - Jethro Tull's variation of a tune popular with the Court of Henry VIII

essential maintenance...

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 07:36:18 GMT

I always seem to be away with work when these tasks crop up - a Wiltshire white horse gets a make-over...
After last month's pleasant Stonehenge random Landrover camping, I'm tempted to fit in a spell at Uffington during my two weeks off.
(Incidentally, the Landrover is getting a bit of a make-over as I type, with a handy Ifor Williams metal canopy for the rear load area).

Hopefully just one sleep and a night-shift before flying from this remote isle and home via Scotland's shore and eventually back to Chester.

Update:
VNV Nation ticket now obtained for Sheffield on Sunday 18th. October... :)

last few days...

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 08:54:00 GMT

At last some process stability and a quieter night - apart from some odd noises from across the water as the accommodation barge twanged against it's anchor chains and cables whilst de-ballasting and rising out of the water a bit more...
At least the gales have blown out.
A quick mile sprint on the treadmill before bed this morning too.
Home from Wednesday - I'm guessing it's turned a touch autumnal back on dry land?

Being as I'm missing the Whitby Goth Weekend this winter due to work, One is planning a random and minor excursion into the realm of matters musical and Goth over the coming weekends...

:)

wind...

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 16:46:13 GMT

"And now the Shipping Forecast issued by the Met Office, on behalf of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, at 1725 on Saturday 03 October 2009..."

There are warnings of gales in Viking North Utsire South Utsire Forties Cromarty Forth Tyne Dogger Fisher German Bight Humber Thames Dover Wight Irish Sea Rockall Malin Hebrides Bailey Fair Isle Faeroes and Southeast Iceland.

Forties Cromarty Forth Tyne Dogger Fisher German Bight Humber west or southwest veering northwest, 7 to severe gale 9, occasionally storm 10 except in Humber, decreasing 5 or 6 except in Fisher and German Bight. rough or very rough, occasionally high in Forties, Dogger, Fisher and German Bight. Squally showers. Good, occasionally poor.

Thought it was getting a touch windy outside...
57.00 n 2.00 e puts us in Forties - glad we are on legs to the sea-bed and not on the barge that was floating next-door for the shutdown.

a look ahead...

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 20:40:12 GMT

A fine start to the night shift - breakfast was a meringue, cream, apple crumble, custard and ice-cream.
I am still 67kgs - quite why I gained 4kgs in around 2 months I'm not sure, it might have been the extra eating during longer hours and travel associated with the shutdown?
Normally weight gain is a good sign with Crohn's, but everytime I cycle this high I run into the same secondary minor problems / discomfort.
A regime of more stairs and less chocolate might be an answer (I rarely eat chocolate away from work).

An article in one of this weeks papers has prompted me to order a book - Meltdown Iceland: How the Global Financial Crisis Bankupted an Entire Country

I'm wondering which VNV gig to attend?

View Poll: #1465132

Full moon this weekend...

Halfway...

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 07:07:04 GMT

Finally, a continuous couple of days of squashing gas and cajouling condensate down the export lines, as the place comes alive again after it's summer shutdown slumber...

A bit of a change in the weather - probably a bit chilly had it not been for the flare, but some fine sunrises creeping over the horizon most mornings with a narrow strip of golden twilight rising to bold orange by the time the shifts end.

One has finished The Ice Room - a little quicker than I thought. Starting in the 1980s the reader is drawn in, almost comfortably at first. We are given part of the ending, but the story is how we get there, as a darker twist develops.
The Authoress has skilfully mixed a narrative with making the reader feel they are in each chapter as a silent observer, then we get the thoughts (sometimes dark or sinister, but brutally honest compared to their actions) of the main characters. Meanwhile the landscape and surroundings are subtly brought to life too...

Another week to go, but somehow I guess it'll be a touch autumnal by the time I'm home, compared to my last weekend on land - which was shorts & t-shirt on a Wiltshire hillside by early Sunday evening.

The weekend

Sat, 26 Sep 2009 22:41:41 GMT

Twinings Earl Grey string-tag tea-bags have randomly reappeared at the tea points, once meringues are back on the menu in the galley then my happiness is complete...

E-Book Readers... some time ago I spotted one that allowed annotation and promptly forgot what make and model it was.
Sony recently released the touch-screen PRS 600 - pricier than I'd like to pay and the on-screen keyboard seemed slow to respond and the free-hand stylus option gave results similar to Rolf Harris on an Etch-a-Sketch on acid...
This posed a question in my mind:
I have been an enthusiast of pocket / portable computing gadgetry since PSIONs were popular, but despite lots of travel miles and coffee-shop stops, I have only seen one person in real-life with an E-Book Reader... Does anyone enthusiastically use one?

I have almost convinced myself that a multi-format E-Book touch-screen with annotation would be useful for myself - but not at current prices.
The Amazon Kindle in the USofA has a roving wireless function, but also had an interesting ironic copyright management 'issue' with Orwell's 1984...

Friday...

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 17:20:27 GMT

Steadily busy and still trying to start-up at work (a body seal on a brand new valve proving a little irksome).

Off-shift I've ploughed pleasantly through Tall Trees & Small Woods and The Ice Room...

After nearly a month of not quite sleeping well, a change back to night-shifts seems to have been a cure. The first night getting a bit drowsy by handover time and sleeping in the morning from 7am to 3:30pm - with a brief rise at 11am for minor ablutions.
The Crohns has also been grumbling a touch - but with my weight peaking at 67kgs again, the symptoms of discomfort are similar to last time it cycled that high - combined with a touch of binge eating and half a bag of Maltesers a night during extra work that probably didn't help.
Probably reducing the amounts of puddings and food intake generally is a more sensible remedy to try compared to previous administrations of nerve and muscle controlling meds that play with one's head...

For more healthy fayre, I brought a couple of apples to work with me. Having survived baggage transit through Bristow's unconfiscated, unmolested and unbruised (I'm sure they are working on a new way to split the atom by experimenting with how they throw the luggage from tractor to helicopter) - These apples were Tentation from Waitrose in Marlborough last Monday and are rather pleasant - this orange blushed apple seems to reflect the public comments rather than the main write-up on the orangepippin website. Indeed a honey/cinnamon hint - the pips being my next project when I get home to see what sort of hybrid they produce in a few years time (although I guess plant-breeders rights will be an issue as they are a recent 1990s commercial product).

In the outside world, I notice a Rolls Royce plunges through a shop-front at Andover - although due to other issues, anyone who has had to traverse Andover would eventually be driven to do something similar!
Other news has been a fantastic Anglo-Saxon hoard discovered in Staffordshire going on Display...

travel and work...

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 11:19:55 GMT

Back at work 150 miles east of Aberdeen...
A pleasant train journey northwards yesterday, passing Kendal and Shap summit as the daylight faded behind the hills.

Night-shifts, so landing in time for lunch and a quick read before bed whilst downstairs the day-shift continue with the start-up...

Back to work...

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 13:21:18 GMT

Again back in Chester briefly, before Aberdeen for work later (after a rather fine evening with colleagues in Aberdeen on Saturday and to Salisbury for Sunday).

The Salisbury Food Festival was quite good, although travel excluded buying a few cuts of fine Wiltshire Bison - I got some New Forest Wine, spiced cider for mulling and lavender cordial, with an always enjoyable all-day breakfast at Cafe Monde.
A fine sunny evening, I retreated soporifically to the hills. A hot-air balloon had passed over Salisbury (I must do a flight in the area one day) and I took time to finish reading Elizabeth Bear's Ink and Steel (and need to order the sequel in this subtle Elizabethan Fae, fiction and history combination). A quick pint of shandy back in Salisbury, then discretely parking the Landrover up overnight.

Waking up to the sunrise and mist at Stonehenge... A pleasant drive from Wiltshire during Monday

Back northwards, passing the iron-bound Big Belly Oak at Savernake Forest towards Marlborough (coffee & cake stop...) - onwards cross-country via Badbury Rings hill-fort and to Uffington.
On one of the side roads to The Ridgeway - a self-set apple tree with quite pleasant fruit.

Just seven hours on the train shortly, for my third trip almost the length of Britain in just over a week...
Next books to read are:
Tall Trees & Small Woods and my signed copy of Emily Alice Ovenden's The Ice Room...

home...

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 12:04:26 GMT

Briefly back in Chester and out for brunch at Hawarden Castle Farm Shop (avoiding the w*nk*r on the A55 who tried to reverse a couple of hundred yards through two lanes of 70mph traffic back to the Wrexham turn-off)!

Aberdeen later in the evening for the work 'fire and ice' staff dance (hopefully Manchester's air trafic control systems are fixed after yesterday's delayed flight from Aberdeen).

Salisbury is looking likely by tomorrow (Sunday) afternoon for the Food Festival there - I'm leaving the Landrover with the valet parking option at Manchester Airport, then the M6, M5, A417, A419 and A346 (coffee at Marlborough), then A338, A30, A36 onto Salisbury...

Homeward bound...

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 11:45:02 GMT

Finally back on the accommodation barge and waiting for the (delayed) paraffin budgie back to land.
Chester before dark hopefully...