More Legoland Photos

Legoland

We went to Legoland, Windsor for Frodo's Birthday treat this year. We had a 3 night stay at the Windsor Marriot, with a 2 day pass into Legoland.

The hotel was good for kids (we booked it through the Legoland website, which gave it a '5 brick' rating. This meant that small boys running around the corridors were reasonably tolerated. The hotel provided a swimming pool, soft play room and small outdoor play area. Also the restaurant did a children's buffet.

It was a short drive to Legoland - 1 junction along the M4.
The boys would have had a great time just staying at the hotel. We didn't tell them where we were going until we set off for the first day, and they started reading the signs.

Legoland itself was great fun, and everything that we expected it to be. There was a good range of rides and plenty of other activities. The stunt show was fun to watch, with jet-ski action, slapstick fights and people throwing themselves off a tower time and again into the water below.

Bit of a fast-food zone foodwise, but plenty of variety.

On day 1 we did a fair amount of queueing for rides. We gave in and spent an extra 40 quid on a "Q-bot" on day 2. This is a virtual queueing device, which means that you select your next ride and are given a time. You can then go off and do something else at which point you can go to your ride and get on it pretty well straight away. This certainly took the stress out of waiting for the next thrill, and meant we could shop, have coffee and cake or wander about in between.

I'll post our own snaps on another day. We paid for 5 shots of us on the rides - so here's the other 4:

View from the 30th Floor

These views are from the 30th floor of Beetham Tower West.
One of my workmates invited us to his flat earlier this week for some real home-cooked Indian food and a few beers.
He says you get used to it after a while, but I found the view spectacularly distracting.

Sheffield

My best friend from school, who I haven't seen for a number of years, contacted me via a networking site.

He's living with his family in Sheffield, and invited us to come and visit last weekend. We went across on Friday night. Frodo and Samwise always enjoy 'sleepovers'. They were a little unsure beforehand about having to play with girls - but were fine with this when they got there.

A weekend of good food, wine and catching up.

We took the children swimming at Ponds Forge Leisure Pool on Saturday afternoon. This has a wave machine, and a "Lazy River" i.e. a current that circles the pool, where you can grab a float and go round and round. Both of these were new experiences for Frodo and Samwise. Frodo who had been swimming in a real river on Tuesday, particularly enjoyed being carried away by the current.

Frodo and Samwise were introduced to Club Penguin. I had to give parental authorisation to two accounts that were created for them.

Some more old friends came over from Leeds and joined us on Saturday evening, so more food, wine and gossiping into the early hours.

We had a barbecue on Sunday, and finished off with chilling out to the third Pirates of the Caribbean film.

My younger Sister lives a few streets from where we were staying, so we popped over to her house for a cup of tea, before we headed back home across Snake Pass.

So a great Summer weekend that came out of the blue thanks to the interweb - we'd almost lost touch. It's been a good year for reunions.

Camping by the River

Or to be more accurate Llan Gwynant campsite, at the foot of Snowdon in Wales.

Took a couple of days off work, and met up with some old friends and their family yesterday. They were on their way to Scotland, travelling up from Cornwall, and were camping for a few days in Snowdonia. We'd arranged to meet up and spend a night camping with them. No need for our tent, as they have a 14 man tent, so plenty of room. We took some food, and the rest of our camping gear, so there was plenty of stools and chairs for everyone to sit on, and a table to sit round.

It was a brilliantly sunny day yesterday. Just right for a plunge into an icy cold mountain stream. Our pals had wet suits, but Frodo and I are made of stronger stuff. Samwise had more sense - put his toe into the water and asked where the warm parts of the river were?

Had a great time last night, drinking, reminiscing and swapping stories. Frodo spent his time collecting quartz from the lake shore and stream, whilst Samwise enjoyed making friends with the other children, and trying out one of their Isla Bikes.

The rain pelted down all night, and we woke up to find that the clouds had come down from the mountains. It stayed damp for most of today, with a dry spell for a few hours in the afternoon. There was still plenty to do round the campsite, and enthusiastic children braved the river again.

We'd like to have stayed longer, but I can't afford the time off work. So packed up and goodbyes to everyone at teatime today. Our friends should be travelling back from Scotland at the end of August, so we've invited them to break up their journey with a visit to our house around the Bank Holiday.

How Far Can Too Far Go?

Spoke too soon... Did a Dusk 'til Dawn and beyond shift last night / this morning. I was just tucking into a Chinese meal when the phone went at 9pm. Saw the sun setting on the Mersey as I arrived at work. Saw it rising again around 4am. Finally got out at 11:30 am after much sweat and nail-biting sorting out a major problem with the computer system. If I'm supposed to be learning on the job, then I guess that this is what's known as a "crash" course :)

Thinking of spending my hard earned overtime cash on a Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner, so at least some housework gets done when I'm not at home. Need to do a bit of research to find out how good they are.

Work Hokey Cokey (in, out, in out...)

Late shift/on-call at work this week.
It's only Wednesday, and already I feel like I've been in for a fortnight.

Monday - finished at 18:30, back in for 20:00, phone rang half way there to tell me planned job had been cancelled, but I still needed to go back in to re-enable a backup.

Tuesday - finished at 18:30, back in at 20:00, job took 2.5 hours. Home at 23:00. Just about to go back to bed at midnight when the phone rang, called in for 2 hours to fix a problem.

Phone rang tonight at 21:00. Luckily this time just for info.

Roll on next week, when I get a couple of days off. Couple of family meet-ups with some old friends planned.

At least the kids are being entertained whilst I'm at work. Frodo and Samwise are both attending a Summer activity camp at a local P.E. college - they appear to be enjoying it. When they're not doing this it's either a cinema trip, or playing De Blob on the Wii.

Morrissey Fox

Relaxing tonight with a bottle of Morrissey Fox Blonde Ale.

Verdict - more of a bitter taste than I thought it was going to have. Tastes like one of the stronger summer ales that the Firkin chain used to sell, or the stuff that's sold in a Seattle microbrewery.

There's a great quote, and a challenge in the rogues gallery section of their website.

Sports Day

It was School Sports Day for Frodo and Samwise today...

Warning Light?

It was "one of those days" at work today - lots of activity, with problems coming in from all directions.
We asked for one of our Unix servers to be rebooted by a team that works remotely. This they did, but unfortunately they did a shutdown, rather than a reboot. Since the server was local to it we had to find it in the server room and push the button on the front of the server to bring it up again.
Sounds simple enough, but when we pushed the button a brilliant white light, adjacent to a klaxon symbol, started pulsing. If this had been an episode of Dr Who, then the server rack would have been dematerialising.
It was one of those "Gulp! - did we press the wrong button" moments.

Checked with the remote team - and that's what it does when it starts up normally. Phew! - but what a design? Why flash an "Aroogha!" symbol for normal operation??

Breaking News - Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson has died, apparently of a heart attack in LA (Internet rumours a couple of hours ago were saying overdose, but that rumour has changed). BBC News

Now let's see how long it takes for the first sick jokes to arrive...

Family Camping

Over the last couple of months we started with the purchase of a 6 man tent.

This was followed by 4 sleeping bags, 2 double self inflating mats, a tent carpet, 2 camping chairs (we were given another two for the boys, plus a small windbreak), a camping stove, gas bottle, gas regulator and gas pipe, pan set, kettle, folding table and 4 stools, tupperware boxes and containers, mallet, set of hard ground tent pegs - with luminous hooks, tent peg extractor, lantern, 2 collapsible buckets and a collapsible water container.

So with the addition of a cooler box (which we already had), and a couple of shopping bags of food, plus washkits and a change of clothes we were all set for our first family camping trip.
Decided to leave 12 iron spikes, 30 feet of rope and 6 torches behind :)

We stayed at Bryn Bach Caravan and Campsite, near Abersoch in North Wales. Set off straight after work/school last Friday, and arrived on a sunny evening at 8pm. Took about an hour to pitch the tent and set the stove up, whilst the boys explored the campsite playground.

Found that the 20 LED lantern gives a cold, rather weak light, so not too impressed with that particular purchase. It does have a remote control, so in theory you don't have to get out of your sleeping bag to turn it off.

The self inflating mats were certainly more comfortable than the ground, but are a little slippy, so the slight slope that we were on meant that everybody gravitated down the slope in the night.

It rained during the night. We discovered in the morning that we hadn't sealed the door of the tent properly (we know how to do it now), so water had got into the front corner. and had dampened a few things.

Fired up the stove - managed to brew up a cuppa, and produce bacon, eggs and toast for breakfat.

We walked over a field and down a steep hill to the beach. Samwise saw a rabbit dart across the road in front of him. We spent a damp misty morning mooching along the beach collecting shells and rocks, and looking at jellyfish.

The weather had much improved in the afternoon, which we spent loafing in the sun on the campsite whilst the kids played with some other children of a similar age on the campsite. Had a couple of beers, and a visit to the campsite by an ice-cream van meant ice-cream/lollies all round too.

One of the pastimes of camping is that once your tent is up and your camping area established, is to sit and watch newer arrivals struggling to set up theirs.

Cooked up a large pot of pasta for tea (made a bit too much), and the kids played out until the sunset.

Light rain during the night, and in the morning. Packed up all of the kit and took the tent down between showers. All done by 11:30 am, and headed home.

So a successful enjoyable weekend for all of us. Relatively cheap - if you don't count the initial 600 quid to buy all of the equipment. Should be doing it again soon.

Ullah!

We went to see Jeff Waynes Musical Version of War of the Worlds at the Echo arena on Sunday Night.

It's the 30th Anniversary Tour i.e. 30 years since the album was released - as it's only been performed live for about 3 years.

On the whole the performance was great. The orchestra was divided into a keyboards / percussion / electric stringed instruments and a 48 strong string section. Jeff Wayne conducting, of course. The music from the album was performed from start to finish, with an interval at the point where the second disc has to be played. No staged encores, or replays of favourite bits, the show finished at the second epilogue, as it does on the album.

To complement the music there was background screen displaying CGI animation portraying the story, live singers/actors who interacted with a hologram head of Richard Burton and a 35 ft Martian Fighting machine.

On the downside the sound technicians seemed to be having trouble getting the balance right between the spoken words, the singing and the music. The Richard Burton hologram and the actors were drowned out a couple of times by the music/singing, when they should have been speaking over the top of it.
The sound improved a lot by the second half, so it could have been a symptom of this being the only performance at this venue.

The CGI wasn't the greatest I've seen, but this isn't a cinema performance, and the heat ray scenes interacted well with pyros and flash bombs going off on the stage. It was a warm night, so you really felt like you were getting blasted and scorched.

At the start of the gig a new scene was displayed, showing the Martians plotting their invasion of earth. Personally I thought that this preview of the Martians lessened the impact of the later classic scene, as described by H.G Wells and narrated so well by Richard Burton when the cylinder lid unscrews, and a Martian is seen for the first time.

The fighting machine was quite impressive at first, when it descended from the lighting rig - although most of us had seen a much better mechanoid just outside on the steps last September :) This tripod was animated by chain motors, rather than the hydraulics and was a lot more cumbersome in it's movements. It reminded me a little of the old Motorhead Bomber lighting rig which was "flown" in a similar manner.

The Richard Burton hologram head is a bit weird at first. It's projected onto a clear plastic backdrop stage right and carries out the narration, as heard on the album. The weird thing is that the hologram is of a much younger Richard Burton than you might have expected him to look (the voice sounds older than the image).

The singers/actors all performed their parts well. We were amused at the start by the performers being introduced on the screen, which reminded us of an American mini-series intro - particularly "The voice of humanity" who was punching the air with his fist. They reacted to the hologram well, which in turn reacted to them.

Justin Hayward played the journalist - getting on a bit, but singing well - the right voice for "The Eve of the War" and "Forever Autumn". I didn't think that the other performers would top the original voices from the album, and I was mostly right, but surprisingly, for me, Jennifer Ellison as the preacher Nathaniel's wife did. I've only really seen her on the cover of FHM, and other magazines of that ilk, so I'd assumed that she was only famous for her other assets.

So a great musical piece, well performed, but not perfect. The complementary special effects are not for the CGI/Video games generation, but make a good piece of theatre all the same.

This week I have been mostly...

Decorating!

Took a week off to decorate the hall. Spent most of the week stripping paint off the bannisters and sanding them down. Some philistine had painted the solid oak hand rails and posts black - probably to hide the flaws - I've revealed them all again for that 'distressed' look. This is a job that I started about 5 years ago. Onto the last stages now, so hopefully I'll crack on next week, rather than leaving it for a few more years.

Novelist Supermum has done a good of stripping the woodchip from the landing walls, then painting the plaster underneath, plus the doors and doorframes.

I've stripped all the woodchip from around the stairwell walls - ready for painting next week.

Our well earned lunchbreaks have been keeping the local Cafes and Delis in business, not to mention the take-aways for easy and tasty evening meals.

We got to wave Frodo goodbye on Friday, as he headed off for his first weekend away from home. 2 nights with his schoolfriends at a local centre making shelters in the woods, and other outdoor activities - should be good fun for him. Samwise is at Grandma's tonights - we've moved an old set of 'bunk' beds round there, so he's bagsied the top one.

Summer Day, Summer Night

Visited some old friends yesterday, who live in Rawtenstall Lancashire. Took the boys with us to play with their children, and to have a sleepover.

It was a scorcher of a day. We had a great time chatting, drinking and eating whilst the kids splashed in the paddling pool, and explored the huge hillside garden at the back of the house.

After a cracking barbecue'd feast the cool evening was warmed by a roaring log fire in a chiminea. This provided a focal point for the wine-drinkers to keep going until after 11, when it was time to let the fire burn out and move into the house.

The boys didn't get to sleep until after 10pm. I was woken by Samwise at 4am, who had woken up with a nosebleed. I sorted this out for him and put him back to bed. Then up again around 8:30 am to give two over-excited and hungry boys breakfast.

Frodo discovered the attic room at the top of the house, and was enjoying the view from up there. Samwise enjoyed playing with the other children, and loved the Guinea Pigs.

We headed home in the early afternoon - taking two teary-eyed boys with us who'd had far too good a time - they always love staying somewhere else, and never seem to want to go home!

"The Company" Logo

I'm made up with this T-shirt that Novelist Supermum bought me for my Birthday, amongst some other clothes by Fat Face, and the latest book in the Mortal Engines series.



The T-shirt is made by Last Exit to Nowhere who have a great range of similarly themed products.

Stealth Destroyer - HMS Daring

This strange looking ship arrived in Liverpool today.
Of course we didn't see it as it sailed past the office windows :)



It's designed to only give a radar profile of a small fishing vessel.

My own personal theory is that this is all bluff, and it isn't like Eliot Carver's stealth ship from the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies. The trapezoid panels are just hiding a normal ship's superstructure. You tell your enemy that you've got a few of these craft, and he wastes ordnance taking out the local fishing fleet.

Eurovision 2009

Almost missed this annual masochistic form of entertainment, as I was at work until about 8pm.

Different voting rules, but the same result - a show of solidarity for old political alliances.

Graham Norton appeared to have been ordered not to be bitchy about the acts (come back Wogan!), so he ripped it out of the voting countries representatives instead.
e.g.
"You'd think he would have had a shave".
"Good god!".
"Looks like he's skipped lunch to join us".
"Plaid can be so concealing".

I also caught a bit on Radio 2 on the way back from work. They had a Wogan sound-a-like on, who wasn't doing a bad job.
His best line, after Russia had performed, was "Now I know why Anna Karenina threw herself under the train..."

Of course the fashion is now to use twitter to follow a celebrity who's watching the event. Apparently Wossy was commenting.

The weirdest part (if you don't count the Azerbaijanian entry) was the interval act, which involved people splashing around in shallow, perspex swimming pools flown from the lighting rig. How Bizarre, How Bizarre!

Star Trek

Just got back from seeing the new Star Trek film.

I won't put any spoilers here, for anyone that hasn't seen it yet, but what I will say is that I was expecting to be disappointed, and found it thoroughly enjoyable.

The writers and cast do a great job of breathing new life into old characters, whilst at the same time keeping them familiar. There's a fair amount of homage to the original series, which is fun to spot, but not enough to make the film just for Trekkies.

The special effects and sound effects are excellent - definitely one to see at the cinema.

My only quibble was that a couple of scenes are reminiscent of Galaxy Quest, but not enough to turn the film into a self parody.

Verdict: Thoroughly enjoyable, whether or not you're a Trekkie.

I see that impworks, who was with us, has also blogged a review

Dark Satanic Mill

I've been at work for most of this Bank Holiday weekend.
Sunday was a change of scenery, although I was still working.
I spent the day in this ex-cotton mill (now a business centre) in Darwen.
The chimney tower of India Mill is a fantastic piece of Victorian built Italian inspired architecture, and is a landmark for the town - you can see it from the M65. I didn't really need my Sat-Nav to find the place, I just had to look for the big chimney.