 |
|
|||
| Welcome To My Blog | ||
| ********************************************************************************************************* MOST RECENT ENTRIES -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* Friday, July 29, 2005 No more from me til the 8th of August! That's it... nearly time to go home. I'm on hols for a week now, so no more updates until the 8th. Hopefully I'll have plenty to add to my fic, and a bit for the wiki. I'm looking forwards to it, although I've got lots to do. Paul's only working part-time next week, so we should be able to crack on with the jobs that need doing - like finishing decorating our room! So I'll probably be busy, but I'm hoping to get time to re-watch Doctor Who again (all in the name of research, of course ;)) There was something on telly last night about a competition to win a weekend anywhere, with the person of your choice. Paul piped up "Anywhere as long as it's with Suzi Perry." To which I replied, with a big grin on my face "Anywhere, as long as it's got a very big, very soft and comfortable bed, with Chris Eccleston." Needless to say, he wasn't very impressed! Still, if he's allowed to drool over Suzi, I'm allowed to drool over Chris! :) Fair's fair and all that! posted by Unknown -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Woohoo... Finished Chapter One. Well, it feels like a good place to leave it for now. :) I've posted it on Time And Space, and I'm about to post a link over on the Eccles forum. They're a nice gang, and I'm sure I'll get some good feedback - and positive criticism if it's required! I'm a bit nervous, but what's the point of writing fanfic if you're not going to share it with anyone? posted by Unknown -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Well that was a nice surprise! Logged on this morning, and went throught the ritual of logging on to my email, the OG forum, Blogger, and the Eccles forum. Scanning the Eccles forum, I spotted there were some more messages in the Talk thread... going to the menu I spotted that my new wallie has been made into the header image for that whole section! :) I couldn't believe it! DIY Sheep loves it, describing it as 'stunning'. I nearly fell off my chair in shock, and I couldn't stop grinning (in a slightly embarrased way!). I'm so chuffed that someone like them that much! I've now had about 270 hits on the wallpapers since I uploaded the new ones! That's not bad, considering they're only advertised on here, the Eccles forum, and OG. I really ought to start building a Doctor Who wallpapers website, or something, but I'm too busy with other stuff at the moment! I managed to write a bit more of my fanfic last night. I'll type it up this morning - it could well be that I've completed Chapter One at last! I also found all my sketches for the season 1 wallpapers (up to The Empty Child), so I can get cracking on one of those. I'm not sure though, if I should do a Captain Jack one first, or if I should move on to the 'Rose: The Episode' one! I've not really planned a Captain Jack wallie, so I'll probably do the Episode 1 wallie first. Downloaded a ton of fanvids yesterday, and watched a couple before leaving. I've watched what is probably the funniest fanvid ever - it's set to the Benny Hill chase music, and can be found on the dwfanvids livejournal community. I also watched deadflowerss "Die Another Day" vid - from the same place. It's brilliant, she really does know how to make a vid! I highly recommend her "Behind Blue Eyes" vid - it was the first fanvid I ever watched. It's really emotional, and brilliantly edited. I'm feeling really inspired by these vids, and I've got a few songs in mind which could be vidded. I just need a DVD drive in my PC, and all the eps to be available on DVD! I think I can do one from the first 6 eps, which are already out on DVD. That'd be a good place to start. posted by Unknown -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday, July 28, 2005 Yay, back working on the Wiki! Well, I finally managed to find time to see how things are going over on the TARDIS wiki. Some good ideas on how to better arrange the Character pages. I knew they needed some tweaking, but I hadn't had time to sort out a better layout! Anyway, I've updated all the character pages as suggested, and added some more. Problems with the pages I'm working on at work again! For some odd reason the pages aren't recognising that there's primary key on the record that I'm pulling out to update - so it can't update it! But it's too late in the day to be worrying about that, so I'll have to try and sort it in the morning now... posted by Unknown -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Finally finished my 'new-style' Doctor wallpaper!  It's taken me a good couple of months, but I finally had a breakthrough on the Doctor wallpaper I've been working on. I'm still not quite 100% sure with it, but it's not bad. Overall I'm pretty happy with it. I posted it on OG and the Chris forum I'm a member of, and in under 24 hours I've had about 220 hits on my wallpapers! :) Trouble is, I keep getting more and more ideas for more wallpapers! Seems that the wallpaper-bunny is in overdrive at the moment - although the plot-bunny seems to have fallen asleep! Still, I'm on hols next week, and it looks like Paul's working at least 3 days (on the 6am - 2pm shift again). So I should have time to work on it during the mornings.I'm trying to catch up a bit on my contributions to the TARDIS Index File Wiki too. It's been about 2-3 months since I posted anything there. Doesn't seem that anyone's been adding characters since I've been away. I just can't believe how mental things have been recently! posted by Unknown -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday, July 26, 2005 First 10th Doctor Publicity Stills Online!  Well, yesterday afternoon the publicity machine started rolling again. A press release, and publicity stills, were released by the BBC for the next series of Doctor Who. The press release is all over the place, but the BBC's Doctor Who site makes a good starting point.Full Wallpapers are available on the Beeb site too: Close-up: smiles Close-up: serious Close-up: serious, lower angle Long-shot Nice contrast to the original publicity stills of Chris & Billie - where they were obviously a team. There's an underlying tension that you can feel when looking at these pics - should she trust him? Is he really the Doctor? Lots of comments on OG about the Doctor's new costume. My first thoughts were 'dodgy detective' and 'trainers with a suit - now people will think I'm copying him, not Simon!' But I'm getting used to it already. Generally there seems to be a lot of positive feedback, which I'm sure will make the production team and David all happy. Apparently there's quite a lot of press coverage - which is typical! I get paid on Friday, so I can't rush out and buy the papers :( Plus I'm not sure if Paul will see the pics, as he's working at Sainsbury's today. On that subject - as he was the only one being inducted yesterday, they managed to do the whole 2 days training in one day! He's working 6am - 2pm this week, then into his shift pattern next week. Once again he's been told that they will want him on full-time days as soon as there's a position available. I'm really proud of him. It's been a good 10 years since he was in retail, but he's getting back in at a flying start. He's a Merchandiser - which basically means that he has to check that all products are in date, that stock rotation is correct, and that prices on the shelves are correct, so he's not starting on the bottom rung - which is great. He wants to make a career with the company, and they seem to be really good employers. Only drawback is that his uniform's not arrived yet, so he has 1 shirt & tie and 1 sweater. Which meant that I was up at 5 this morning ironing his shirt & tie! I'm shattered now! posted by Unknown -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Monday, July 25, 2005 Tragic news over the weekend Turns out that the guy shot by Police in London on Friday was innocent. Although it appears that his visa had run out, which probably explains why he was running from the police. That said, I whole-heartedly understand the decision of those officers - at the end of the day they had to make a snap decision. They must have genuinely felt that he was a threat or they wouldn't have shot him. Unfortunately the only way to disable a suicide bomber is going to be a shot to the head - and I completely understand why the current 'Shoot to protect' policy is in place. I feel for the poor guy's family, but equally I feel for the officers involved. They must be wondering what more they could have done. But how much worse would things be if he had been a suicide bomber? What would the public, and press, have said then? posted by Unknown -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Searching for Particle Physics diagrams I know that probably sounds odd, but believe me it'll soon sound even wierder! I'm looking for them to use in my Doctor Who wallpapers. The Gallifreyan that the BBC created seems to be based, at least, on Particle Physics diagrams. So I'm trying to find some to see if I can trace them off and create vector graphics from them. So far, I've not had much success. But I'll keep at it. posted by Unknown -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Not a bad weekend Finished Harry Potter & The Half-Blood Prince on Friday night. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and Paul finished it last night - so we could finally talk about it! He thought that the reveal on who the HBP was, was obvious! Did some shopping, went to Matalan to get him a new smart shirt & tie, a couple of nice Tees, and a pair of smart trousers. Plus socks for both of us. He starts his new job at Sainsbury's today - induction all day. Don't know yet what shifts he'll be on, but he'll probably know by now! Our lodger bought himself an XBox on Friday. I don't like them - the controls look far too complicated if you ask me! He's got a few games, and we rented 'The Great Escape' for Paul - he really likes it! I've been sitting on the sidelines advising. Paul and I are often a pretty good team on puzzle-type games (which is what 'The Great Escape' is). We'll be getting our PS2 back soon. But I'll have to restrict my playing for a while, until I'm really fit again. The fish are now eating from my hand again - including the new Tench and the new Carp! Crap weather - can't believe it's July! Hope it cheers up for next week - as I've got a week off. Found out today that the Drum documentary is being issued on Ltd Edition DVD (in the US anyway - can't seem to find any info for a UK release!). It led me to check out the DD site, and found that there is now a website for the Drum reunion. Some of the original crew - including Simon - are taking the old girl out in the Fastnet race again this year, to mark the 20th Anniversary. They're doing it to raise money, and awareness, for the RNLI - without whom 6 crew memebers, Simon included, would probably have died. It's quite interesting to read, and there's a link to online donation of funds to the RNLI. There's also a photo gallery for pics from 1985. I'll be back off over there later on today. I've got loads of pics to download - DD & DW! So looks like my next few weeks of lunchtimes are going to be filled! posted by Unknown -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Friday, July 22, 2005 Nearly finished HBP! Read another couple of chapters this morning, and I've only got the final one to go! Turns out that the Half-Blood Prince wasn't who I thought it was - although I'm not saying here! :) Had another surprise in it, which I really didn't see coming - although I knew that a particular character wasn't to be trusted! Can't wait to get home and read the final chapter... I have a feeling that it's not going to close as neatly as the previous books had. posted by Unknown -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It's all kicking off again... But this time it's the police tracking down the fugitives. One man's been shot at Stockwell station, and armed police are surrounding a Mosque in East London. The guy who was shot seems to have died. It's a shame, as the police could've done with keeping him alive to get more info - but he must've been a threat or they wouldn't have shot him. Blimey... it's a bit like watching an episode of 24! Somehow it seems almost surreal! One of my workmates picked me up on a comment I made, and said I sounded like a 1970s Cop Show - I guess I've been watching The Sweeny too much! posted by Unknown -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday, July 21, 2005 Seems things are calming down. The injured person at Warren Street may have been holding the rucksack which detonated - so may be a part of it. 2 people 'detained', and an unknown number of fugitives being sought. There seem to be conflicting reports, I've heard on the news that the UCH incident is over, but in OG there's a report that the police have gone back in. One of the guys on OG works near there - he's left the office now, and reported before going that the road at the front of the office was cordoned off, but that people were going out via a side street. Either it was a major cock-up, or they were trying to remind us that we're not safe - that they can do this sort of thing anytime. Well, we've been through all this shit in the 70s and 80s with the IRA. We don't give in to terrorists. We're British, we believe in democracy and free speech. We live our lives how we want to and terrorists won't ever change that. They never have, and they never will do. To quote the 9th Doctor: Is that all you've got? Null points. posted by Unknown -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The news is still filtering through. 1 injured at Warren Street, Sir Ian Blair is asking all Londoners to stay put and describing the situation as 'very serious'. Heard an eyewitness report that on one of the Tube trains a guy with a rucksack ran off, the other passengers shouting up the station to stop him. Don't know if they got him, but I hope so. Turns out that report is from Warren Street - and the University College Hospital has been cordoned off. Reports that there are armed police in the hospital now. posted by Unknown --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Sad new last night, and horrible news breakingForgot to mention the sad news yesterday that James Doohan, Scotty from Star Trek, has passed away. I read today that he died of pneumonia and Alzheimer's disease at his home. Apparently his ashes are to be sent into Space, on the Falcon 1 rocket which is scheduled for launch in September. Breaking News coming in about 'incidents' on the Tube system in London again. We're only about 2 weeks away from the last attrocities. I don't know what made me go into the Tenth Planet area of the Outpost Gallifrey forums, but for some reason I popped in there and spotted the breaking news. The BBC News website is being overloaded again, so I can't watch anything online - but they've just updated their news story. They're reporting that 'dummy explosion using detonators only have sparked the evacuation of three Tube stations and the closure of three lines'. There's also mention of an incident on a Route 26 Bus, and passengers from the Tube are saying that they smelt burning. It's quite scary thinking that things could be kicking off again - then again, as a poster on OG said, perhaps it's just The Sun trying to point out the security flaws in the Underground system! posted by Unknown --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  It's not as easy as you think......to write fanfic! Typed up my prologue, and posted it over on my fanfic blog, Time and Space. I then started typing up Chapter One, and created an index page too. But overnight I decided that as Chapter One's not yet complete I ought to take it down! Walking to work this morning I figured out how to move the story on - there are two main strands to the story, although there's a third strand which also joins up - and I've now sorted out how to introduce the second strand. I've got the main storyline written out, and some of the events that I really want to include are planned too - although not necessarily how we get to them! I'm quite enjoying writing it, thankfully it's coming quite naturally, but it's still not easy! Anyway, on to other things. I'm trying to get FCKeditor working on our works server, to add to the Content Management System I built us about 18 months ago. When I can get it working properly it'll be a big improvement on what we've got, but I'm having problems with the system when viewed in Firefox - which is typical as that's my default browser! I'm still getting on OK with HBP - although slowing a little due to lack of time! I wish I'd booked a few days holiday, I would've read it in about 2-3 days then! But as it is I'm trying to fit it in around washing up, cooking dinner, work and sleep! I managed another 2 chapters last night, and a further chapter this morning. There's been a development which was being hinted at throughout the book, but it's still a bit of a surprise! I'm sure that a similar development, which has been building over the last couple of books, is going to come to fruition sometime in these last chapters. Still not sure if my gut feeling about the identity of the Half-Blood Prince is going to be proved right, or wrong. Something's happened which makes me feel all the more certain that the Prince is who I'm thinking of - but I could be being very skillfully dragged down a wrong turn! Can't wait to find out who it was! The fish are all fine now. Paul's got a friend who's had fish for years, and apparently while Hoopy's eating the fish food we're putting in the pond he'll not bother eating the other fish - and he shouldn't get to be big enough to be a problem anyway. Also, we may have over-stocked the pond. Apparently if you do that, the weakest fish will die. We had initially agreed to only have about 15 fish in the pond, but Paul had upped it to 20. We're back to 15 now (16 including Hoopy), and all seems well. The pond's looking clearer and cleaner again now. So fingers crossed everythings starting to sort itself out in there again. It's really hard to find out how many fish you should have in a pond - seems that everyone's got different ideas on it! But our lot seem happy enough, so I'm hoping that our problems are now over. posted by Unknown -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday, July 20, 2005  Getting there!Another hectic day and evening yesterday. Did some work on my new blog template - I've decided to put my fanfic on Blogger as it's so much more versatile! Full functionality from a free account, what more could I want? I pretty much finished it this morning, although I think that the banner might be a bit plain, but I quite like it. It's called Time and Space, and I've added a link from this blog to that one (I've already got a link back on there). I've got the prologue to my first fanfic written, but that was quite easy to do as it's more or less a transcription of part of the final moments of 'Rose'. So with that going on, and a couple of little jobs to do, I was late home last night. I think it was about 5:50 when I met Paul at Sainsbury's to do some shopping. We couldn't decide what to have for dinner, but opted for a stuffed crust pizza and added tuna, bacon and pineapple. It was delish! Really scrummy! But while it was cooking I had to sort out the Reeds in our pond, as the high winds yesterday had blown them over. I think it was about 7:30 when we finished dinner, and I went for a bath a little after that. I did read a little HBP while I was running my bath, but not much. Had my bath, went downstairs and Paul was watching 'The Truth about Richard and Judy', which wasn't as naff as it sounds! In the final ad break they put on a trailer for the CSI:Crime Scene Investigations Season 5 finale double-bill, directed by Quentin Tarrantino. It was postponed from last week - and I actually thought I'd missed it! I haven't managed to sit and watch CSI for ages, but I really love that show. I could see why they postponed it when we got to the end of the first episode - as it featured a suicide bomber, a rather sensitive subject in the light of the recent events in London! Anyway, I was hooked. I thoroughly enjoyed the two episodes, and got tricked by some of the twists along the way. It was typically CSI, yet typically Tarrantino. Paul thought that QT had ruined it, but he's not really a QT fan. Went to bed after that and read some more HBP. Didn't get to sleep til about midnight, and I'd only read 1 1/2 chapters! Read another 1 1/2 chapters this morning, and I'm over 2/3 of the way through. Chapter 21 tonight - depending on what's on telly! posted by Unknown -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday, July 19, 2005 What a busy night last night! I can't believe how busy we were last night! Paul was helping a friend with sorting out their Garage for a while. Then we helped an old guy at the bottom of our road put his new security camera up... a half hour job which turned into a couple of hours! We finally got to eat our dinner at about 10:30! I went to bed at 11:30, and managed to read one chapter of HBP! I don't know where the time went to, it just flew by! Woke up this morning feeling tired, so I didn't get up until 7:15. Sat reading a chapter of HBP while I had my breakfast. I have an idea who the Half-Blood Prince is, but I bet I'm wrong - my idea's far too obvious! I'm still thoroughly enjoying the book. Went home for lunch, Paul had bought us a big Chicago Town Lasagne - which was delish! Got back a few minutes late, but I was in a bit early today so it all sorts itself out. He's trying to read HBP while I'm at work, but he never seems to get any time to just sit down and read! I'm sure there was something really exciting to mention, but I've forgotten it now! Ho hum! I'm sure I'll remember it eventually - can't have been that exciting can it? posted by Unknown -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Monday, July 18, 2005  Great weekend and a fantastic start to the week!So it all ended well last week - apart from Paul's employers putting his money into the wrong bank and us getting ripped off at the cashpoint! The new Harry Potter book came out on Saturday - if you needed telling! I was in the queue in Freshney Place at 11pm. Paul thought I was mad, but I wanted to be nearer the front and was hoping to get one of the paper carrier bags this time. I got chatting with some nice people behind me, and was located at near the door to HMV - not a bad spot. The family I was chatting with were very nice. Mad potter fans - even Dad, who apparently doesn't read much, enjoys them! It was quite funny really. Ottakers, where I got my pre-order copy from, renamed themselves for the day (just like last time) to Pottakers! The staff were dressed up like witches and wizards, and one guy was dresssed up like Sirius Black! They were going round with jelly beans (not Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans - thank goodness!), and had a quiz book and were helping the queue pass the time with questions about Harry and the wizarding world. The hour flew by. WHSmith decided to open for the launch this year - they were closed last time. But they weren't as busy, and they didn't put in the effort. I was talking to one of the Ottakers staff about it, complimenting them on the effort they make - as it makes all the difference - and she said that it's because they're 'a proper bookshop'... and you know what? She's absolutetly right! For somewhere like Ottakers midnight Saturday was the biggest event of the year. Anyway, a photographer and reporter were there from the local paper - and I think Austin Mitchell (our MP) was there, but he's lost a lot of weight if that was him. The family in front of me in the queue got a mention in the local paper - as I expected they would. They were all dressed up as characters from the books. The boy, an 8-year-old, was a perfect Harry, and his grandad was a brilliant Dumbledore! I didn't read the book when I got home. I was too tired, and Paul was in a bit of a bad mood - he'd had a bad day at work. I didn't get to read it in the morning either, as it seemed I had masses to do. But at about 2pm I got the sun lounger out and headed into the garden with the book. I only read about 2 or 3 chapters, but was hooked and intrigued from the start. I could help but see the irony of the timing of the book's release, as the first paragraph talks about the terrible week the Muggle-Prime-Minister had just had! Talk about close to reality! Although as it turns out there were far different things happening in Harry's England than ours. By the end of the day I'd read the first 5 chapters. Yesterday morning I laid in bed reading avidly - and another 8 chapters whizzed by. Last night I read another 2 chapters, and I'm now at the halfway point. I can't wait to get back to it! I'm really enjoying it. There are some surprises, and some other things which had been developing over time. As ever JK has surpassed herself! It's going to be really sad when the next one comes out, as that'll be the last Harry Potter book. I still think that JK's going to end up killing Harry - the prophecy hints at this. I'm sure he'll go out taking Lord Voldemort with him, but we shall see! The weekend wasn't all brilliant though. We had to take our pond right down to as low a water level as possible so that we could clean it. We were also forced into that as one of our neighbours went fishing in the park a couple of weeks ago. When he got home he found that he still had a Perch in his keepnet - and not wanting it to die he put it in our pond. Normally that sort of thing wouldn't be a problem, but Perch are predatory fish and when it gets to adulthood it's likely to eat all our fish! We have 7 goldfish, 3 Carp (1 Blue Ghost and 2 Green Grass), 4 Tench (2 Gold 2 Green) and a black Shubunkin. So we'd really rather not lose them. We couldn't catch the bloody thing as it's just so damn fast moving! What annoys me is that we have a container out in the back garden for rainwater, and buckets, the guy could have put some pond water in one of those and put the fish in there to take it back. But instead he popped it into our pond. I'm not against trying to save a life, but I don't want to risk other lives in the process! Hoopy - as the Perch is now known - is still in there at the mo. Paul's going to see if he can catch him today. He does seem to be getting more settled in the pond, and is now starting to come to the surface to eat when we feed the others. Hopefully we'll be able to catch him in the next day or so. But we really don't want to stress out our fish in the process! Back at work today, and I've finally fixed a problem that's been bugging me since before my course. Got home at lunch, and Paul's been phoned by Sainsbury's - he had an interview about a week ago - he's got a job with them. 8 days on, 6 days off, nights at first. They want him to work days asap, but that's down to when an opening turns up. So things are looking on the up for us all now! Our lodger's now doing his second week in his job. And it looks like I might finally be about to start my own business! The future's looking a whole lot better at the moment! :) I started writing my first Doctor Who fanfic - actually my first fanfic ever - on Friday. I've written the prologue, but that's pretty much just a transcription of the final moments of 'Rose'. I'm not posting it here. I plan to post it over on LiveJournal, although I suppose I should really - I could create a second Blog here.... and of course it's easier to create templates here. I'd planned to have it over there as there are so many fellow fanficcers there! But I'm not so sure now... I'll have to think about that one! posted by Unknown -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Friday, July 15, 2005  Chedder Gorge PhotosHere are my Cheddar Gorge photos, as promised! Click on the thumbnail to view the full size photo.         The photos don't really do the place justice - it's just so amazing! Truly awe-inspiring! posted by Unknown --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  My photos from SomersetI've just uploaded my photos from Somerset. I had to tweak with some of them a bit, as they looked a bit blueish - but I'm only just learning to use my camera on my phone! It's so handy carrying everything in one item though! :) Here are the thumbnails of my photos - click on each one to see the full photo! Coombe Lodge - Blagdon, North Somerset               The last photo is the outside of The Garden House - which was where my room was. The house and grounds are beautiful - although the grounds aren't as extensive as I'd expected. Apparently the house belongs to Lord Wills (tobbacco chap). He lives a few miles further on in a larger house, and this one is hired out to groups as a conference facility. They also host Murder Mystery Weekends there - which is quite funny as a number of us said that the place looked perfect for that kind of event before we saw any adverts for them! It's nearly lunchtime now, so I'm going to finish this post, and I'll post the Cheddar Gorge photos this afternoon. posted by Unknown -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday, July 14, 2005 Blimey, things have been really mad! Work's been crazy, as usual! I've not had time to catch up on things. The new series of Doctor Who has been and gone. I laughed, I cried, I was astounded... what a wonderful way to bring back the show! Chris Eccleston was Fan-tas-tic! :) I've got a new mobile now - a Nokia 6680 with 1.3 megapixel camera. I was really glad that I have the camera at the beginning of this week! I went to a little village in North Somerset called Blagdon right on the Mendip Hills. What a beautiful place! I was there on a 3-day training course to learn about asp.net at Coombe Lodge. I learnt a few things, and had a lovely break. It took me 6 hours to drive there, as I made a mistake on the journey down and came off the M5 at junction 22 instead of 20, and then back-tracked up the A38. Unfortunately there had been a serious accident about 2 junctions further south, and this was causing many drivers to leave the motorway at 22 with me. It took me 1 hour to get from the motorway to my destination! I did take a wrong turn in Churchill, but I soon realised and sorted myself out. I have to admit though, that I was quite glad I took that route, as I had some lovely scenery to look at on the way - approaching the Mendips from the south is lovely! You can actually pick out Chedder Gorge from that route! The first night had a cock-up on the rooms, and two of us (ironically the two who had travelled the furthest) volunteered to stay in the village. I'm so glad I did! We stayed in a lovely little B&B called School Farm B&B - run by a lovely lady called Tina. If you have a look at her website you can see the room I had - the Plum room. It was so comfortable! A really pleasant place to stay. After a long drive, and a long afternoon and evening studying, it was so nice to have such a lovely, comfortable, room to relax in - and after a long hot drive it was bliss to stand under the shower! The view from the windows was second to none. Right across the Cricket/Playing field past the church and over the lake. Simply breath-taking! The following day was a 9am - 9pm learning day (although we did have a lunch & dinner break). The food was lovely, although one criticism I do have is that the meat was a bit too rare for me, but each to their own. After finishing around 9 I decided to go to Cheddar Gorge. I had an amazing time there. It was truly awe-inspiring! It has to be one of the natural wonders of the world! If you've not been, I highly recommend it. I took 2 videos on my phone, and 13 photos. When I got back to base, and started looking at the photos, my phone deleted them all! So I had to return on my way home to re-take them! Unfortunately I couldn't get the village shots, as I was short on time and couldn't find anywhere near to park, but I did find places to park in the Gorge itself, and got another 8 shots! :) I'll post the best ones tomorrow! The room at the Lodge wasn't too bad - but not a patch on the B&B! No telly!! I took photos at the lodge the last morning too. I'm quite happy with how they all came out. The drive home took me 5 1/2 hours, but I did stop at Cheddar for about 1/2 an hour or so. It wasn't too bad a drive, and considering that the M1 was a nightmare from Junctions 28-30 it wasn't too bad all told. I was relieved to be off the road, but sad to have left! The really odd thing is that all my allergy symptoms are back with a vengeance now - including the headache! Monday to Wednesday were bliss - no blocked nose, little coughing, no headaches! And that was in the middle of the country! Oh well, back to see the Doctor! :( posted by Unknown -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- // *END OF NEW ENTRIES* \\ |
||
| Copyright©2004 duraniekaz -- All Rights Reserved | ||
