Brimham Rocks

Last Thursday the sun rose early, stretched and decided to hang around for the day.  And so it was that I decided to go for a drive as it was the first day of decently warm weather we'd had so far this year.

As I'm planning on exploring the UK this summer, I'd been thinking about becoming a member of a couple of the organisations that would allow me free access to stately homes, historic houses, beautiful gardens and scenic locations up and down the country.  

Fancying a spot of exercise as well as a drive, I decided to revisit Brimham Rocks as they were only 50 minutes away and if I joined the National Trust, I could park for free and thus 'save' on the £4 charge.  I became a member online, paid the £41.50 fee, got a temporary access card via an email which I printed off and I was set to go. 

First up, I needed lunch so I went to the Crown Carvery pub, The Wellington, on Wetherby Road and ate outside in the glorious sunshine.  A good start.

Putting Brimham Rocks into my GPS, I headed off NW to Harrogate Road and once through the town, went west on the B6165 towards Pateley Bridge.  

I'm glad I had the GPS as signs for Brimham Rocks were as rare as squirrel eggs as far as I could see. I knew I was eventually turning right onto Brimham Rocks Road (the clue is in the name) but a sign at the start of the B6165 at Ripley would've been both informative and helpful. 

Anyway there was a good clear National Trust sign at the turnoff onto Brimham Rocks Road so better late than never I guess.

This road was delightful with open Dales fields on both sides and on a sunny early spring day like last Thursday, it was a joy to have it to myself. Any Americans bringing their RVs over to explore this area.....beware.  This road is NOT for you. Actually it would be a tight fit for a good old British caravan but like I said, I had it to myself and my little Clio purred along with its recently replaced timing belt showing no signs of wear !

Finally I arrived at the car park and despite the presence of 3 others cars and a school van,  I found a spot and parked up.  Ok one little niggle right away.  In an effort to be all ecological and green, they've used wooden 'beams' to mark out the parking bays on this otherwise gravel parking lot but have used metal nuts and bolts to secure them into the ground. I dread to think what this could do to your tyres if you go over them and, say, turn the wheels a few times to get properly into the bay.

After placing my newly printed temporary NT membership pass on my dashboard, I noticed a man going to the pay and display machine and then looking a bit confused as he wandered back to his car where his wife and 2 young kids were waiting. As I got out of my car he came up to me and in slightly broken English, asked if there was a charge for only staying an hour as that's all the time they had for their visit.

I knew already that the minimum charge was £4 for 3 hours and I'd remembered thinking that was a bit unfair for anyone wanting less time for less money. The man opened his hand and showed me 3 pound coins and before I'd thought about it, I fished a pound coin out of my pocket and gave it to him. It was only later that I doubted that he only had £3 on him but maybe that was all the change he had. Anyway, it was my good deed for the day and hopefully they enjoyed their hour there !

So I walked the very short distance to the rocks and sure enough, they'd not changed much since my last visit, several years earlier !  Actually I'd been several times before as I've always been a bit of a climber and the rocks were perfect for my level of fitness.

Sadly I soon discovered that those days are gone and at 60, I looked at some high ledges and spaces between the rocks and thought......hmmmm, I could do myself a mischief here or even....hmmmmmm not a chance in hell !  Then again, I was wearing jeans so didn't have much in the way of "freedom of movement" so that'll be my main excuse.

With so few people around, it was great to be able to take photos without anyone (else) clambering over the rocks. I didn't mind the occasional visitor as they'd help to give scale.

  

At the top of one particular rock I found two half drunk bottles of pop, probably dumped by two of the kids who were now gathered around the school van in the parking lot ready to leave. As it wasn't far, I picked up the bottles and walked down to the car park intending to put them into a bin.

Well I would've done if there HAD been a bin.  Not one.  Two car parks and not one bin !

With the British attitude concerning litter (even if there is a bin nearby I'll just drop my litter on the ground as someone is paid to pick it up anyway), it might be reasoned that bins are pretty useless but at least have them for those of us who do like our scenery unspoiled by litter. Without them, there is no option. The NT told me they have daily collections by volunteers but come on, surely that's playing into the hands of the litter louts AND does nothing for the views between those daily collections. 

End of rant.

I left the bottles behind the pay and display unit so at least they were hidden from most views.

Backup up at the rocks, there were a few 'proper' climbers doing their thing and despite the rocks not being that high, many had sheer sides which were a decent challenge and good for training purposes for future harder climbs.

 It was while at the top of one of the taller rock formations that I had an epiphany.  Always happens to me when nowhere near a restroom !

To be serious, it came as I glanced across to my right, away from the usual views over the Dales.  It came about as there were no leaves on most of the trees so I could see much more than on any previous visit.  I saw more rocks !

Holy crap on a stick !!  There were dozens more formations spreading as far as the eye could see.....and last Thursday, on top of that rock, with no leaves in the way, I could see quite a distance. 

All those times I'd been to the rocks, I'd thought the small group near the car park were the only ones.  What an idiot.  I should've known.  I'd never seen any of the ones on the website and as for the visitor's centre and gift shop etc........nope, I'd never seen them either !

So I went exploring and what a revelation....rocks to the right of me, rocks to the left of me and so on. In fact you couldn't move more than a few feet without coming across another formation. And again, with so few people around, I felt I had them all to myself.

I found the balanced rock, similar to the one in Arches Natl Park in Utah and one with strange eroded notches in its side which made it look like the portholes of a ship.

As you can tell from these photos, and the ones to come, there was a sort of main path that would take you past many of the rock formations; to see them all, you had to get off this path and go on ones created by the feet of the thousands of visitors who had explored the location over the years.  Some were grassy and easy to walk along but others you had to make yourself by walking over smaller rocks and navigating around trees, rocks and other natural obstacles. It was great. I loved it.

Finally I came upon the visitor's centre which I knew wasn't open during the week at this early part of the season. It all made sense now. I finally understood why you'd need to spend several hours there. The rocks covered a vast area. By now i'd been there just under 3 hours and there was still so much to see but I needed to get back home.

I'll include one short video clip as most were too long for Blogger to deal with here. There is no commentary from me except for occasional heavy breathing as I'd climbed over pretty much every rock between the car park and the visitor's centre and, technically speaking, I was knackered. 

Sad to say, uploading it to Blogger has reduced the original HD quality so much that you really should leave it at this small size. If you click to make it full screen, you'll get something like from a BBC documentary from 1947.

Four final shots. 

First up, my initial view of the visitor's centre off to the left in the distance, taken from the top of a rock. Then on the way back, a black & white view of a tree growing out of another formation. The penultimate photo shows a formation looking like an Egyptian Sphinx (and later I learned it was called....the Sphinx !) and finally I came upon a pair having a read/nap in the late afternoon sunshine. 

Perfik.

Back in the car, I really didn't fancy the drive back through Harrogate at rush hour and the A61 to Leeds at that time would've been pretty awful too.

Well it was as if my GPS knew that, as it took me back a different way which totally avoided Harrogate and instead, took me along delightful Dales roads, one as straight as an arrow for miles so clearly 'made' by those Yorkshire Romans !  

It also took me along the B6451 past Menwith Hill, the joint UK/US 'listening station' with it's 30 distinctive golf ball shaped radomes. I'd never been that close to them before but resisted the temptation to stop for photographs as somehow I knew doing so would add about 2 hours to my home time !  Or maybe 2 years !!

I wanted my supper.

So that was it.  A grand day out as Wallace would've said...if he'd been a real person and with me. The sun shone, the rocks were brill and I got a lot of much needed exercise.  

I slept like the proverbial log that night. And I'll be going back for sure.

One Direction - As Long As It's Left.

Yes I know, another 'clever' title that I'm hoping will get me pop fan readers !  Desperate times etc but it IS sort of relevant.

Anyway, no one has asked me, but I'm claiming that yesterday was the first day of Spring here in the UK. 

Given the winter we've had, my recipe for Spring was a hint of sunshine, a drizzle of blue in the sky all coming together with a soupçon of heat.

Yesterday we got all that although personally, I could've done without the gale force wind which blew my hair all over the place...a bit like Mick Miller in a wind tunnel !

Given my penchant for staying up till 3am and thus not rising till about noon, I was a bit annoyed that the weather was so good and half the hours of daylight had already passed me by. Still, I'm nothing if not adaptable and no sooner had I showered and come down the stairs than I was planning on having a trip out.

I fixed some coconut and date porridge (highly recommended) as it only takes a few minutes and is very filling - a good idea as I'd no idea when I would eat next.  

12:15 and I was off.

Off where ?  I'd no idea.....not a clue.

Back in the day when I got my first car and petrol was (relatively) cheap, I used to go off with little clue as to a destination. I just fancied touring the countryside without a care in the world and lots of 60's cassettes to keep my fingers drumming on the steering wheel. Ahhhh cassettes. Google them.

For obvious reasons, I've rarely done it since.

So it was that I sat in my car in my driveway and tried to think which way to go for my first move. When in doubt I always pick left, being that I'm left handed I suppose. Thus my neighbour on my left was quite surprised when I pulled up onto her driveway and her net curtains twitching couldn't disguise her look of horror ! 

Deciding to go a bit further afield, I set off again and kept turning left when I had a choice to make. I found myself at a junction with the A58, the main road between Leeds and Wetherby and remembered that just a few hundred yards to the right was The Wellington, a carvery pub I used to frequent in the days before I discovered the slightly better, although more expensive, Queens on Harrogate Road.

I'd been on the road for all of 7 minutes and clearly I needed a break and what better way to have a break than to rest and stuff my face at the same time.

The Wellington do a 'small' carvery for £3.49 which I think they expect only children to take up. Ha ! For £3.49 I'm your man.
The carvery choices are exactly the same, it's just that the plate is smaller for the small price.

Evidently The Wellington hadn't heard of my food stacking ability and I managed to get my usual quantity on board despite the size of the plate. Ok so I left a trail of carrots and peas in a rich, dark gravy as I carefully made my way back to my table but hey, them's the rules.

40 minutes later I was back in the car with a destination in mind. I'd used some of my eating time to check the map on my tablet (free wifi at The Wellington) and I decided to go to Pickering, a North Yorkshire market town where I felt I'd get some much needed exercise by exploring its delights on a sunny Monday afternoon.

The drive was delightful. My mp3 player was blasting out 100 Top Power Ballads, the roads were quite empty and the countryside was basking under the rays of a blinding sun. England is truly grand on a good day. We just don't get many.

Approaching Pickering I had an epiphany. I wanted to see the sea.
Just like that. I'd ruled out a trip to the sea when at home thinking where to go. Now I wanted it. Go figure.

The sign said Whitby 21 miles and that was good enough for me.

The great thing about going to Whitby meant I'd be going up over the North Yorkshire Moors and I'd recommend that A169 road to anyone who loves driving. The route also takes you past "The Hole Of Horcum" which, sniggers aside, is a wonderful natural depression that reminds me of Meteor Crater in Arizona, but with more grass !

I stopped for a bit of fresh air but it was a bit TOO fresh as the wind almost blew me off the ridge. I felt sorry for the ice cream van owner who was parked at one end of the car park surveying the only car there.....mine. But not sorry enough to buy anything from him.

At 3:30pm I arrived in Whitby and was just delighted that the weather had, if anything, improved. The wind had dropped a lot, there was much more blue in the sky and it was quite warm. 

I wasn't sure what to expect, tourist wise, for a Monday afternoon in April. It wasn't too bad at all. Whitby can be very crowded in mid summer but yesterday it was almost perfect. There were a few student groups (French and Japanese) but for the most part, I only had to wait a few seconds to get photos of the main sights with no one getting in the way.

I started off on the swing bridge over the River Esk as that view is always picturesque with the houses and the boats and, naturally, the water.

I then decided to go up to the church and abbey on top of the east cliff overlooking the town. This was clever thinking as to get there requires one to climb 199 steep steps and having been to Whitby many times, that climb is not to be attempted at the end of a day's exploring. Fresh legs are definitely needed. 

Most of Whitby's streets are narrow but on the way to the 199 steps, the aptly named Church Street is only wide enough for one vehicle - so a good idea that it's pedestrianised. Then it gets even narrower.

At the start of January, prolonged rainfall, plus a burst drainage pipe, caused a large portion of the cliff in front of St. Mary's Church to fall away. As this section contained part of the graveyard, the news headlines reported that the landslide opened up these graves, causing remains to slither down to the homes below. The link between the town and Bram Stoker's Dracula was gleefully brought up in this reporting.

There were men working on the cliff and the whole area was condoned off which was a shame as I used to love sitting on the benches near the edge, taking in the vista before me, the town and harbour below and the views across to the west cliff and the imposing statue of the famous maritime explorer, Capt. James Cook.  

I looked around the graveyard and was quite surprised at the age of some of the residents when they'd died. We tend to think of few people living beyond 50 or 60 in the 18th/19th century but clearly some were made of sterner stuff....

Back down the steps, there were many interesting speciality shops along Church Street and their windows were as interesting as anything at the top of the cliff.

Back in the town, everywhere you looked there was a photo op. I wanted to go to parts I'd never been to before and that took me out along a small stone pier on the east side of The Esk before strolling along the west side towards the lighthouse. 

I'd never been beyond the lighthouse before but as the setting sun was casting a lovely light on Whitby, I walked to the very end which gave wonderful views back towards the town.

Here is the final shot I took and just as well as after taking it, my camera battery ran out ! 

I was pretty drained by this time too and as it had been 6 hours since the carvery meal, I was ready for the Whitby food experience.....fish and chips.  Yum.

I took my takeaway to a bench by the harbour and was immediately pestered by seagulls, coming right up to my feet and continually squawking to get some of my food. I knew better than to throw anything at them as that would produce a fight and attract more gulls.

But when I'd had enough to eat, I still had loads of chips in the box so I did toss a few onto the ground before putting the box in a nearby bin.

Well what followed was a scene worthy of Hitchcock himself as the dozens of gulls on the ground suddenly went into a fighting frenzy and were joined by dozens more from above. I had to walk through them for a few feet and was only safe from them when I tossed the box in the bin. Then they all disappeared as quickly as they'd arrived !  

I returned to the car and could see from a distance that of all the cars in the park, mine was the only white one.  As such, it has 2 gulls on the roof and one on the bonnet (hood) and as I got closer and they cleared off, I saw plenty of poop on the car too.

A trip to the car wash will be needed and because bird poop is like acid, it had better be in the next few days.

The drive home was lovely too as there was still just enough light for half the trip to be able to see the countryside....even the Hole of Horcum again.  Going at 30mph through a small village a few small birds flew across my path and I couldn't avoid hitting the last one. I felt the bump as at least one wheel went over it and when I glanced in my rear view mirror, it lay unmoving in the middle of the road.

I was really upset about it but today when checking my car, there was no damage !

Sorry bird lovers.

So considering my late start and having no initial idea where to go, I'd had a brill day out and have decided to do it again as often as possible.....weather permitting.

Which probably means twice in July and once in August !

On This Day In History........

Tis that time of year again when I remember the skills of Mr. Nair, or Mr. Ramanpillai Unnikrishnan Nair MBBS, MS (Genl), FRCS (Eng & Ed), FETCS to give him his full title.

20 years ago today, Mr Nair tinkered with my ticker's plumbing by replacing a few parts of blocked piping from near my heart with bits cut from a length of good piping from my left leg.

As a result, my heart is still going (fairly) strong but my left leg withered and died !  Joking.

I used to look at statistics for how long such grafts would be expected to last but I gave up many years ago.  Most people had bypass surgery in much later life than me and so would die 10, 12 or 15 years later from various causes not always related to their surgery.

Last December, soon after the 20th anniversary of the heart attack that necessitated the surgery, I made email contact with Mr. Nair to both thank him for what he had done for me and to just let him know I was clearly one of his many long term success stories. I also shared my concern that I might be on borrowed time.

I got the following reply the next day.....................

Thank you very much for writing to me. I am very pleased to hear that you are doing well. 

Please don't get too anxious that your grafts are 20 years old. I had to operate on an ex-patient last year who had had a triple graft 21 years earlier and this time he needed an aortic valve replacement. When he had the repeat angiogram as part of the pre-operative investigations, all the three grafts were found to be in excellent condition. So it rewards you to look after yourself by being regular in health activities and diet, which can prolong the lifespan of the grafts. I hope this case history will give you some reassurance.

I retired from the LGI in March and have in the last few months stopped seeing patients privately as well. It is very kind of you to write to me to show me your appreciation, which I will cherish with gratitude.  

Not many cardiothoracic surgeons would have bothered replying but as well as being a wonderful surgeon, Mr. Nair was a lovely man....and only 5 years older than me !

As I've said before on this blog, I went 'private' for my surgery for several reasons.

1) I had free private cover (BUPA) through work.
2) The NHS waiting list for my surgery was 6 months.
3) Mr. Nair said I probably didn't HAVE 6 months.

So it was a no brainer really !!

I've still got the itemised bills from all parties which I then passed on to the insurance company who then sent me their payment details. The total for everything, including the tests before surgery and the physiotherapy afterwards came to £15,991.

Normally I'm a fully paid up NHS patient so back then it was an eye opener to see everything itemised from the actual surgery fee to every aspirin I was given, from x-ray charges to sticking plasters. One item always peeked my interest.........

Fogarty Softjaw 6mm Spring Clip..........£25.98.


Apparently this reduced-force spring clip minimizes vessel trauma while maintaining occlusion so hopefully not an item sourced from B&Q.

The thing that got me was that it came under the bill heading of a prosthesis so......is it still inside me ?  I know my chest was cracked open to give access to the 'working area' and that metal wires were later used to hold it together short term while nature did it long term. 12 weeks after the surgery I flew to America for a holiday (recuperation.....as far as work was concerned !) and I remember half hoping I'd set off the metal detectors at the airport !

I didn't.

I took some video of my time in the hospital......just in case I didn't make it.  A sort of living will thing.  I remember talking to the camera a few hours before being taken for the operation and it was quite surreal doing so. I also took much happier footage after I'd come out of the ICU and was able to walk a few steps. I filmed my left leg where the long 'angry' line of the cut (from just above the ankle bone to mid thigh) was held together with numerous staples and also the lesser scar on my chest.  The leg one looked much worse and hurt much worse too. Go figure.

Sadly that video tape from 1993 has gone AWOL and that's a shame. I may have loaned it to someone, never got it back and now I've no clue where it is.  As the footage before the operation was kinda personal, I'm not even sure I would've loaned it out so maybe, just maybe, it's in the house somewhere.

Anyway.....20 years ago eh ?!!  Doesn't time fly ?  At least it's time I've been given and the great thing for me is that for the last 12 of them, I've been retired and so better placed to enjoy them.  Wooohoooo.

And once again, thank you Mr. Nair. Enjoy your retirement too !

Spring Is In The Air ?

Yesterday was a lovely day weatherwise and I've not been able to say that for many months.  It probably wasn't quite a harbinger of Spring but it was good enough for me to dust off the car, charge up the GPS and go for a spin into the countryside.

Now I realise that the days of 'going for a spin' died out when petrol here started being sold by the litre.  This came in on 1st October 1995 although the switch over had been taking place since the late 1970's.

That's when prices seemed to go up overnight and have been going up ever since so that these days, we need to almost save our precious and very expensive petrol for essential trips, like to the shops or to work or to pick up the Chinese takeaway when they don't deliver !

I remember when I got my first car and I'd just go out for a drive for the pure enjoyment of it all. Yes I know I should've been at work but those were the good old days when you could take a sickie and not risk losing your job.

I'd drive to the coast, have seaside fish and chips and be back home in the late evening all for 3 florins. If I did need a fill up along the way, I'd stop at a petrol station where a young fella would fill up the car, clean my windscreen, check my tyre pressures, valet the inside and leave a mint on my seat.  Not sure why he spent so long taking my girlfriend to the rest room but she seemed happy enough when she returned.

Despite petrol now costing 500 squillion times more, we have lost out on all that service.  We have to fill up the tank ourselves, clean our own windscreens and drive around in rubbish filled cars.  As for tyre pressures, who checks those anymore ?  Oh I know we're advised to do so weekly but come on, who like me goes from one annual service to another without ever checking our tyres ?  I'm not even sure where they are on my car !  I'm told I have 5....who knew !!

And the inside of my car has more computing power than took Armstrong et al to the moon and back, allegedly. Added to what came as standard, like many young and tech savvy drivers (shut it !) I've added the smartphone in its cradle, the GPS on its mounting, the mp3 and FM transmitter on the dashboard and since last week, the Nexus 7 on the passenger seat. It's no wonder the lights dim when I start the car !

Actually of all those gadgets, it's the FM transmitter I love the most....as far as in car entertainment is concerned.  Being a basic car, it came with a standard radio/cd player with no input for an mp3 player.  I tried one type of FM transmitter so that it would play via the car speakers but it was a bit of a failure.  I got a new one a couple of years ago and it's brill. It's smaller than a classic zippo lighter and rests in a spare cup holder and means I can listen to MY music and not the (mostly) drivel on the radio.

So yesterday, with a tankful of petrol bought when it was 10p a litre cheaper (2 days ago), I tootled along the A65 at a typically retired person speed and enjoyed the clear blue skies above me and the open road before me.  Well I say open road but we all know those also passed away in the pre litre days. These days if you can get into 5th gear at any point during a trip you've most likely strayed onto a motorway.  On A roads, the best you can hope for is forward motion.

I set off with the idea of going to Skipton (25 miles but 50 mins) as I knew a walk around the canal area would be both good for a bit of exercise and for taking photos.  There are always loads of canal boats moored there and with several companies offering 30 minute trips, there is always action on the water too.

The drive there was lovely and I enjoyed every minute.  Despite my previous comments, slightly tongue in cheek, the A65 was almost empty except when passing through Ilkley, always a bit of a bottleneck.  As well as the open road, there were sheep (if not lambs) in the fields and the Yorkshire countryside was at its most glorious. Low stone built walls, neat farmhouses, hillside villages and numerous streams were all visible through my newly cleaned windscreen - as I'd cleaned it myself before setting off !

20 miles from home, the A65 climbs up into the Dales between Ilkley and Skipton and passes Chelker Reservoir built in 1866 to serve the Bradford area.  God this blog is educational.

There are 4 wind turbines along the far edge of the reservoir as at this height, there is nothing much to stop the strong wind blowing across the waters.  For some reason only 2 have blades so really there are 2 turbines.....and 2 tall white towers !!

I pulled off the road to get some (very) fresh air and take a pic.............

 Then it was on to Skipton and being market day, it was quite busy.

Actually as Skipton has no less than 4 market days a week (Mon/Wed/Fri/Sat) and it's a popular Dales town, it's always busy.  I parked near the canal, had a walk around and enjoyed the afternoon sunshine, if not the freezing temps.

When walking back to the car, I noticed this sign on a van window parked outside a cafe which was a funny take on the usual "No Tools In This Van" which is supposed to stop thieves from breaking into commercial vehicles.  As if !

Then I had to return to Leeds to 'run an errand' and got back before the onset of the rush hour madness that makes driving on the A65 a misery.

So is Spring in the air ?  Well today's weather is the same as yesterday with clear blue skies and 8F and with no rain forecast for the next few days, it's certainly looking promising weatherwise.

But whether I can save enough to afford the petrol for more days out is another matter.

Ahhh for the good old days when petrol was relatively cheap, the roads weren't filled with cars and petrol station restrooms were only used for one thing !

Once again nostalgia ain't what it used to be.

When Buying A Laptop, Take One Tablet And........

Well I've gone a full week without a laptop and nothing bad happened.  I survived.....just.

Survival was helped by Daphne loaning me her iPad and by also having a smartphone !  Good backup, eh ?!

Of course neither of these could fully replace an actual computer so I spent the week looking at many models and reading reviews till I was about ready to scream and get an abacus !

Customer reviews on sites like Amazon can give a very slanted view on a laptop.  People give 3 stars out of 5 because the delivery was a day late, the box was damaged, it came with hard to understand Windows 8 or the company's help desk was based in India.  As none of these 'complaints' relate to the product as such, it's best not to ignore a laptop choice just because it gets several low scores.

So I read and read and after several days, I was just about ready to go for a desktop pc and have it built to my specs.  But I really wanted a laptop despite using it mostly in the house - in fact for the last 2 years, my old laptop didn't even have a working battery so HAD to be used indoors.

In the end I decided to make a list of 'must have' specs and look for a laptop with them installed.  There weren't many !  I guess my sights were set high.

On Wednesday I went to a PCWorld in Leeds and looked at their selection and made my choice.  A Samsung NP550P7C.

Before this week, I wasn't even aware Samsung made computers so I wanted to check out a few reviews before making the purchase.  It wasn't easy as it's not a common model and of course as I knew already, there are many differing specs depending on the country and even the store.  As far as I could see, the specs on Samsung's own site was pretty close to the one I saw in the store except it came with 8Gb of memory which was one of my spec criteria.

Based on the few reviews I could find, I decided to buy it and returned to the store yesterday to do so.  It cost more than I'd initially wanted to spend but there is a mini story behind that too.

I never had any wish to get a tablet before my laptop 'broke' last week but for some reason having Daphne's iPad changed my mind.  I didn't NEED one, but I wanted one.  Go figure.  My idea was to get a medium powered laptop plus a Nexus 10 tablet for mobility.  As Nexus 10's had been out of stock for weeks with no sign of any coming in (they can only be bought from the Google Store in the UK), I was just checking the site daily but was resigned to not having one for many weeks.

Whilst in PCWorld I looked at all the tablets and liked the Nexus 7. I knew all about it from reading numerous reviews but to have it in my hand made all the difference.  I wanted one.  At £200 less than the Nexus 10, I couldn't resist and decided to put that money towards a more powerful laptop.  Hence the Samsung.

I got the Nexus 7 there and then and the Samsung 24 hrs later so right now I'm in geek heaven setting them up. Getting to grips with Windows 8 has been an issue but like breaking a wild horse, I'm slowing getting it tamed and it's not quite the beast it was on first power up.

One point came up pretty quickly; it's all very well getting Facebook and email notifications on the smartphone, tablet and laptop but after a cacophony of sound for a few hours, I had to mute the sound on two of them !  Syncing isn't always a good thing.  Just ask Jack Dawson !

Titanic joke there.

It'll take weeks to get the Samsung to the point where it has most of the programs that were on the old one.  That's always the case and a bit of redundancy will be a good thing as I had a lot of rubbish on the old one.  Time for some downsizing I guess.

But at least I can blog using a full keyboard and of course that's the main thing !!

Finally, mention of a d'oh moment from last Wednesday.  Having bought the Nexus 7, I came home and as the loaner iPad browser was still on the Google Store site from earlier on, I hit reload and couldn't believe my eyes when it showed the Nexus 10 was now in stock with a delivery of 3-5 days.  Arrrrggggggggg.

As it was still in the box in the bag, I knew I could take the Nexus 7 back for a refund but after thinking about it for a short time, I decided I liked the 7 better as it was almost as good a product and its handy size was just what I wanted.

Time will tell if I've made 2 good choices but so far, so good, although the Samsung hard drive is quite slow and undermines the awesome power of the processor and speed of the graphics chip. A new drive may be needed but that's for the future.

It'll all be documented in my Amazon review ;-)

Lappy's Demise

Last Thursday I felt my laptop was slowing down a bit so as it had been powered on for over a week, I decided to power it off for a few minutes.

When I powered it up, or tried to, it gave out a long beep almost straight away followed by 2 shorter beeps. I'm not sure what that would be in morse code terms but in laptop terms, I knew it wasn't good. The screen remained black with not a flicker of life. Rats.

Actually I said something much ruder but 'rats' will do here.

So it came up into Windows, I think, as I HEARD it go through the process. I'd no choice but to power it off and try again, ever the optimist. Same result.

It was either the screen or the graphics chip on the motherboard and both of those on a laptop mean death.

Thankfully I keep all my photos, music and tv/movies on an external drive so there is little data I NEED from the laptop but it's still a pain in the butt and in the wallet and I could do with neither. The hard drive is fine so when I get a new laptop, whatever I need can be copied across.

But now I have decisions to make; for a short time I thought about getting a tablet and forgetting about a replacement laptop altogether. Sadly it soon dawned on me that tablets are no substitutes for computers as for one thing, they don't have USB ports so I couldn't access all my external drive files. That alone would be a show stopper.

Then I thought about getting a laptop AND a tablet and that's still my plan today. I was thinking of getting a cheap basic laptop and a top of the range non Apple tablet to have the best of both worlds so as I had no experience of tablets at all, I asked Daphne if I could borrow her iPad for a few days and she said of course.

That's why I'm typing this on it right now and it's also why I know I don't want one for myself !!!

My smartphone experience has been with Android based phones and I've been more that happy with that system. I don't like Apple products and the iPad is no exception. Each to their own and that is just my opinion as always.

At the moment I'm leaning towards a Nexus 10 as I want a screen big enough for watching movies when I'm travelling as I'd take the tablet and leave the laptop at home. As for the choice of laptop, I just can't bring myself to think in terms of 'cheap' and as I do a lot of photo and video editing, cheap just won't cut it. For that reason I've even thought about getting a desktop instead but no, I want the portability of a laptop so will stick with that.

So that's the situation right now. I'll do my usual time consuming searches and review checks before making my choices but that will be in conflict with my 'want them now' attitude when it comes to buying new electronic devices.

I'd like to thank Daphne for the loan of her iPad and although I don't want one, it is a nice piece of kit. Being an iPad2, I think many of the 'cons' will have been sorted with later incarnations but as with all Apple products, the price alone puts me off.

Until I get the new kit, my blogs may be short and sweet as typing on a smartphone doesn't lend itself to long blog posts !!!

Duchess Of Cambridge Bikini Photos

Last Wednesday I drove Daphne to Hull for her work and as I knew she'd never been to Beverley Minster, we stopped there on the way home.

I've always loved Beverley Minster and the town of Beverley is pretty neat too.  It's very much like York but smaller and.....well....neater.  So is its Minster which I find more welcoming;  York Minster might be much more impressive in size, but that makes it very cold and impersonal in my opinion.

Unfortunately Beverley Minster was having renovations done inside and so parts were roped off from the general public.  The storage of construction bits and pieces had overflowed into other areas as well so all in all, the poor old Minster wasn't showing itself at its best for our visit.

Still, I think Daphne liked it and as usual, we both took our fair share of photos, despite a Minster man constantly watching us in the forlorn hope that we'd cough up some money for a photo permit.  He'd made the mistake of telling us that under the circumstance (the work going on), he'd waive the need to buy a permit as long as we only took a few photos.

I probably took about 50 as did Daphne so MAYBE we abused his generosity a bit !

We pretty much had the place to ourselves so it wasn't hard to get a shot of Daphne with no one else in the picture.  It wasn't a particularly sunny day but enough light was available to show off the stained glass windows and with so many of them, the coloured light hitting the stone columns added to the overall beauty of the Minster.

By the time we left, it was a bit too dark to take decent photos of the outside and actually it's not the easiest building to photograph, given its location right in the centre of the town. Everytime you try and back up to get it all in, you come up against a house or shop.

I did take one photo in town on our way back to the car as it was of an interesting butcher's shop. I particularly like "pigeon's breasts" for sale although as with the beef and venison on offer, I'm not sure why they decided to make the shop name so inaccurately specialised.

Fast forward to this Wednesday, today in fact, and the weather has taken a nose dive.  The snow came back but seemingly just for today.

This was how I saw it from my bedroom window.............

It continued to fall all day and as it was particularly 'wet' snow, it stuck to every surface, even my front door window.

Here are a few more shots of it but it wasn't a lot and should be mostly gone by tomorrow.

I'm glad it didn't come yesterday as we had some drama here with a burst water main around the corner at a busy road junction.  I first noticed it when I looked out to see what the weather was like as I wanted to go for a walk.  I saw water flowing down past my drive and yet the drive itself was bone dry !?!

I went out to investigate and went round the corner and there was quite a torrent of water pouring down the next road so I tried to follow the flow back to its source.  This was strangely difficult as in places, the water was actually flowing in several directions !

I finally tracked it to a couple of areas at the junction of two roads where water was bubbling up through the tarmac.  I came home and phoned the water company who said it would be treated as an emergency given my description.  About 15 minutes later 3 vans, a digger and several workmen turned up and went about trying to find just where the burst pipe was under the large area of tarmac.

In this day and age of sophisticated equipment that can locate a 500 year old king's body under a car park, I loved seeing one of these workers 'listening' for the flow of underground water using a 5ft long thin metal rod with what looked like a small eat trumpet at one end.

It seemed to work as they managed to locate the burst pipe and worked through the night to repair it.  I got a call from the water company this morning to let me know what was happening (as I'd reported it) and that the junction would be fully repaired with new tarmac by the end of Friday.

I was very impressed.

So there you have it - Beverley, snow and lots of water.  Nothing at all to tie these 3 topics together but they were all part of the rich tapestry of my life over the last week here in rarely sunny England.

It's no wonder I watch a lot of tv !!

P.S. What about those Kate photos I hear you ask ?  Sorry, I just need to get my readership numbers back up after my blogging break !  Hey it could've been worse.....I could've mentioned Susan Boyle in the title !!