More of the Diary

rustington u3a

2011-05-18T07:52:00.000-07:00

Here we are again, not many people today. We are the exclusive ones. I put this on to show Colin how it is done, and to illustrate how easy it is including editing. Unfortunately there are no pictures on this computer so I shall move to another one!

Margaret Frances Hoskins Long

2010-12-22T02:23:00.000-08:00

My beloved sister born 1919, crossed the Jordan last night at 10.30 p.m. whilst being cared for in Cheltenham General Hospital. Two sons and their wives were at her bedside and she was comforted I am sure. I was in touch with her eldest son, David, in Forth Worth,Texas.
She will I believe, be re-united with her dear brother David and John her husband and all the family long since departed.

I shall miss her and so shall we all.

May she rest in peace and rise in glory. Alleluia

18th December Virtual Box

2010-12-18T13:59:00.000-08:00

I spoke against this contrivance at the club on Wednesday, as I think a distro on a machine in its own right is easier to handle. e.g. I have several distros on memory cards and just swap the card for a diferent distro. But here I am with Kubuntu on my Eeepc900 along with Mandriva on the same card! It certainy works, but my poor brain is having a hard time!

I haven't used Kubuntu for ages, it uses KDE instead of Gnome. So if someone asks the question about the difference, we can see for ourselves using the vitual box.

So farI have Mandriva, Debian5, Mint, Xandros Ubuntu and now Kubuntu. I tried Crunchbang but it wouldn't boot!

Sunday 5th December

2010-12-05T08:29:00.000-08:00

2 events worth noting!
Fay Zee has joined the Rustington lug mailing list. She is the lugmaster of the East Grinstead lug and also attends the Sussex and Surrey lug meetings.
She has also put me on to the Faversham luh (www.flug.org.uk) where many interesting things are going on.

7th meeting of the new rustington lug

2010-12-04T11:06:00.000-08:00

We invited Desmond Armstrong to give a presentation at our weekly meeting and made an effort to publicise the event. We do have 27 names of people wo have attended or expressed interest and we had hoped for a good turn out. Alas the weather turned nasty and we had a few apologies. There was a plus in the fact that Derek had planned to attend another group on networking but due to the weather it had been cancelled!
In the end we were down to 7, but 7 is a lucky number.
Desmond and I shared mobile phone numbers and after 2 talks on the phone he agreed to set off. During the protracted waiting period my phone ran out of air time, but Derek was on the qui vive and answered Desmond once. He finally arrived at 4 pm and we were at the meeting by 4.15.
He kicked off with an introduction and then went for Pitivi, Flphoto, Gimp, Scribus, get i-player and then a Jacqui-Lawrence Advent Calendar! We overshot by 20 minutes so he had a full hour!
Fortunately the Woodlands Centre staff had gone home so we were ok. After a round of applause and a request for Desmond to come back again they let him go.
He stayed with us at home until he left ater lunch on Friday. I learned so much that my head is filled with Linux of all shapes and sizes. Especially Mandriva and F-secure not to mention Clonezilla.
Well done Desmond, a man with determination and a mission!

Thanks Desmond from all the rustington lug members.

How to finance the new lug?

2010-11-29T11:12:00.000-08:00

I heard that the Arun U3A needed a beginners tutor. Whilst I have no qualifications for such a task, I decided to try my luck with Brian Wise who is the "IT Captain" of the Arun U3A. He agreed to send me one victim and then another
I am teaching Eldy, which is a marvellous way of introducing someone to computing. Enrico Neri one of the Eldy team approves!
I charge £2 for a one hour session, and I had my first session today. I wait for my second victim to book an appointment So far so good.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_PHYNMG5ddsI/TJkQra_vUOI/AAAAAAAAAfY/ywXG3_oyTJw/s1600/imag0002.jpg

RUSTINGTON LUG

2010-10-28T11:13:00.000-07:00

I have tried once before to get local interest in Linux. We had one meeting and several friends attended, but alas the number was small and I gave up for a while.

Now with Winter approaching I determined to try again. I found a suitable hall for hire and advertised in the paper, in the library and on three local websites. One of the Surrey LUG members gave me advice and support.

I selected a hall that I knew had a pull-down screen and visited it with the lady responsible for hiring. She didn't even know that there was a screen available in the room. All went well until we discussed internet access. That brought the "manager" of the "meals on wheels" program into the picture. The organisation was the WRVS who had a lease of the building from the Sussex Conty Council. I was rather brusquely told that the person ale to give a ruling was on holiday for a fortnight. End of conversation. Next I was told that my car with trailer was dangerously parked outside. The lady responsible for the hiring came outside as I was leaving and apologised for the "manger's" behaviour! To enable internet access I bought a wifi modem which worked very well/
We had a first meeting and because of the sunlight and lack of curtains we could not decipher the image of the computer desktop! We soldiered on and hoped that people weren't too put off.
So in preparation for the next meeting we worked out a strategy! We would use a 40" TV as a monitor. A meeting was arranged by the WRVS "Worthing Manager" and I presented my case. Internet access was out and we discussed putting a TV on the wall. Next day, one day before the LUG meeting I was given a formal interdiction for bringing ANY TV into the hall. On the grounds that a license was needed. (exception "training" see TV license rules)
Fortunately I found a friendly Parish Council who had hall for hire, and who agreed to everything and so all was set up.

I had a problem telling the prospective attendees that the venue had been switched. Thanks to a friend who stood by the WRVS door half an hour before the advertised time of the meeting and did a noble job of redirecting.

The new room is fabulous and we go from strength to strength. Next week one of our group will give a presentation.

In spite of many spanners in the works, the RUSTINGTON LUG goes forward! This means that I don;t go to Horsham or Juniper Hill or even Guildford now. We have our own home brew LUG!

21st September

2010-09-21T12:58:00.000-07:00

A picture from our visit to Clivedon, this is "The Fountain of Love" which was one of the first features that we came upon. Ursula is posing for me!

Back at home, and getting back to normality. Grass to be cut, apples to pick up, tomatoes to pick...all the usual garden chores.

An interesting e-mail from a friend who had been delighted with the Angmering web site. Had a look and found it good too. Our local one is very interesting and useful. Let's say the Angmering one is pretty professional. I left a message in the Angmering site guest book so we will see whether there will be a reply.

Horticultural Club Jolly to Chesterfield

2010-09-19T12:36:00.000-07:00

Off for a 3 night stand to Chesterfield. Visited Clivedon en route. Our room overlooked a motorway. The noise was very bad at times. Opening the windows to get the tempersture down brought in the noise. There was an adjacent disco which ran through the night. We should have asked for a room change but were too polite to embarrass the tour organiser, who is a friend of ours.

The restaurant menu in the room was excellent, at table we had a different one, a typical charabanc special. Water for whisky appeared in pint tumblers. There was a resident idiot who declaimed in the bar. He liked to wear his hat all times.

There were many conference rooms, a ballroom even a swimming pool. But sadly the hotel wifi worked for windows OS but not for linux. Happily Chesterfield Station wifi is accessible from the hotel and worked well, so the day was saved.

The lift is probably 1920 vintage but does function quite satisfactorily.

Our room had a communicating door to the next one, on our last night we had what might have been a honeymoon couple in residence. There was a wedding reception at the hotel. We were somewhat embarrassed, it added to the motorway noise and the disco noise and sleep was in short supply.

Tuesday 24th 2010

2010-08-24T13:29:00.000-07:00

Went to Lewes by train. At New Road saw the pliumber at work, also the electricians. Telephone conneition restored. Elecric point for router in gas cupboard, also router positioned there. All in working order. WiFi works ok. Came back by bus to Brighton, then walked to station just missing one train. Met by patient Ursula at EP and so hone for the happy hour abit later than expected. I am a fortunate man to be so well cared for!!

Wednesday 17th August

2010-08-18T13:41:00.000-07:00

Pam in the cafe before lunch

A trip with Meditour to Christchurch had been planned. We hoped to meet up with Pam Radford, Christina's Godmother. A matinee at a local Theatre had been arranged, but alas there had been some vandalism and the show was re-organised to take place at the Ballard School New Milton. Helena had been staying with us and fortunately a spare seat was found for her on the coach. We met up with Pam, had coffee and a flying visit to the Abbey before lunch in the Boathouse restaurant, where I used their wifi!

The show was hilarious, Pam and I were in the front row and she was coaxed to dance with one of the cast right at the end of the show. Her blue eyes did it, she was the Belle of the Show!

David her son came and picked her up to take her home. It was a great day out and we arrived back at EP by 7 pm.

Saturday 14th August

2010-08-14T12:06:00.000-07:00

I attended a very useful B&B for me at Juniper Hill. There were 2 talks which to be honest were a bit above my head, although if there had been a microphone it might have made it easier for me to hear. There was a good crowd of people there, at least another from the Sussex LUG. Alas no Fay, hope she is well!

To my delight Desmond Armstrong helped me with getting my new midget dvd/writer to work. He used it to install Fedora 13 on a 16Gb card for me. He also upgraded my Eeepc900 memory to 2Gb. He has offered to give a talk in East Preston for our club...might be a waste of his talents..but we will enquire!

Showed Eldy to 2 or 3 people, they were interested and slightly impressed.

At home there seemed to be a problem with the battery pack. I changed to the old original one and all is OK now. I moved the card onto Kate's old machine and Fedora 13 worked fine including the wifi!

I met some old friends and made some new ones. Home via the A29 by a navigational error. A27 as usual, full of traffic and came via Arundel. Took some petrol on the way home.

Monday 9th AugustD

2010-08-09T12:54:00.000-07:00

Dustbin day, they never fail. Rain, shine, holidays they always do their stuff. Today was Bertie Day too, so we got rid of quite a lot!

Letter from Sarah, needed John's signature. He was not happy, waiting for the doctor and then frustrated as his pullover was in the wash. Put one on him, obtained the signature and left. The Martlets copied the document for me and I posted off the completed form. Picked up an Argus paper for Jennifer and ordered tomorrow's Argus for her too.

Dug 2 roots of the new potatoes, look fine, elongated style, see picture. Have forgotten the variety but it seems good.

Went on the 2 metre net and promised them a talk on Linux, Roy has recovered thankfully. Don i could hardly copy, Jim and Chris were on to. Peter Dodd's aerial still works fine.

8th August

2010-08-08T02:57:00.001-07:00

We have tamed the summer fruiting raspberries and the Helen blackberry with the loganberries. They are all pruned, tied in and manured ready for hopefully a good crop next July/August.

It has been a bit of a job but with a bit of perserverance, bending, stretching, string and secateurs, we have at last finished. This is perhaps just one or two percent of the work to be done in the garden...!

Kate is with us, she arrived last night...in a celebratory mood as she had just signed up for a new house. Jennifer and Amy (from Hullavington) are still here. We shall mgo to Lewes at 11.45 for lunch and a visit to the refurbished house that was once Stephens. She is considering leasing it from Matthew if only it could be finished soon. There are some essential plumbing things to be done and time is running out.

Kate and Louise will visit Matthew next Tuesday and perhaps they will hammer out an agreement if Jennifer agrees to it all.

We shall be alone tonight as the wanderers return later on. Jennifer has her own car, a Nissan.

It hasn't been any trouble having 3 guests, but it will be back to normaity tonight!

Back at the Club!

2010-08-05T06:45:00.000-07:00

Today I recieved a special parcel from Brian Cropp in Upper Hutt. He had made me a knife and holster for working in the garden sharpening sticks for supporting plants and so on. It is a remarkable creation, really beatiful with a Tasmanian blackwood wooden handle. I am really very pleased and delighted to receive it. He included a Pau shell and details of them and the firm that cleaned them up. Thanks Brian, I treasure your gift and appreciate all the craftmanship that went into its construction.

Here is a picture of me taken by Ursula in the garden, and another of the knife and holster!

29th July Home Sweet Home!

2010-07-29T02:15:00.000-07:00

We left Hotel Interlaken yesterday and the manager gave us first a jar of honey, and then a lift to the station. Changed trains at Berne, a great bore, lugging suitcases down and up ramps, only just enough time for the connection. At Geneva airport the heavens opened, but we managed to find the lift and get checked in for assistance at 18.20. This gave us time to meet first Lyndon Evans and then Robert and Arline and then Lynda joined us. Had a good chat with Lyn, he retired two days ago. Has a viviting professorship at Imperial, a nuber of committees to look after, in fact just enough work to keep him happy. He is very proud that Linac 4 will be an H- injector. Also told of the nervous signing the FRS book with a quill pen, terrified of making a blot. Linda very charming, had been playing golf with Eileen Jones, Eiffyon's widow. One son in Marseiiles, sound specialist, one daughter working for the UN in Haiti. Lyn doesn't know aout Linux or Eldy, I told him!

They came with only one wheelchair and I took it. Ursula had to walk beside me. They took my half bottle of Dole but let me drink a glass before consigning it to the poubelle, (Thanks Bin-Laden). Seats kept for us on the plane.

At Gatwick two wheelchairs but only one man to push them. Nice chap, took us to the taxi. Home about 10 pm. Phoned Christina, e-mailed Nell. Garden is a desert!

I very much doubt that we will ever travel by air again.

Tuesday 27th July 2010

2010-07-27T09:28:00.000-07:00

Our last day.Mercifully Diverticulus eased and we sallied forth to go to the Rothorn with the steam tran from Brienz. We had to wait an hour so had a coffee and a beer in the cafe and We shared a Wesh Rabbit cooked in a frying pan. It called something else in Swiss German but I now it now.

We went on the train up to 7.500 feet and it was very cold. We both had warm clothes but decided not to stay very long. The views were marvellous, and we were very pleased with our effort!

Back to Interlaken to buy a few bits from the coop and then tea in our room!

Still sore with the dreaded Diverticulitis but much relieved!!

26th July

2010-07-26T11:57:00.000-07:00

A very nice e-mai from Amy! A lazy day after yesterday's marathon. Posted cards, paid most of hotel bill. Diverticulus not letting up, carrying on as if normal. Rain tonight, tomorrow is our last full day. The manager chatted us up, he appeared a few days ago and was pleasant to us.

On dir rien a dir et meme rien a ecrire, ceci le manager a dit a nous!

Sunday 25th July

2010-07-25T12:18:00.000-07:00

We might have gone to Church at11.15 but decided to follow the advice of one of the girls at the reception desk. Bus to Iselwalt where we founf a fair in progress and some nice hotels. One such had rognons au riz! I just put it into memory. Then we had coffee and a look round at the Hotel Bellvue Iseltwald. It looks very nice.

It was rather a long walk, no walking oots and no sticks alas! Had lnch on a bench with a Swiss family and on to Giessach. Up in a tram to the top and then a long walk to the bus stop where the bus had alresady left. So all the wsay down again and then the boat back to Interlaken.

Happy hour, small supper and that was today.

Spoke to Brian and Jim from the hotel in Iselwalt, rian in NZ Jim in California and then a quick hallo to Amy in the bug hutch.

Diverticulitis worrying me today, hope it passes off in the night.

Kovely to have sunshineaagain after the two wet days

Saturday 24th at Hotel Interlaken

2010-07-24T00:09:00.000-07:00

Sad news of the Glacier Express train crash. We have been on it years ago but not yesterday. My cousin David James has a birthday today. Facebook reminded me so we exchanged messages. A nasty day, but we don't mind too much. Must get our pictures from the shop today.

Will add to this if something interesting turns up.

Looking at this on the room TV using a cable supplied by the hotel technician!

Friday

2010-07-23T08:03:00.000-07:00

Wet weather, many people have left the hotel so breakfast less congested. We went y bus to Interlaken West and took Ursula's film to be developed and printed. I took some from my camera too They will be done for tomorrow, we must be there before 4 pm as the shop shuts. We had a snack and coffee in Untersee
In the afternoon Ursula bought new shoes at the Coop.

Thursday 22nd July

2010-07-22T07:52:00.001-07:00

Not quite sure what to do today! So took the train to Brientz and then went on the bus to Ballenberg. A crowded bus with standing room only. At Ballenberg we rode in a horse drawn cart, so saved our legs. We are becoming very lazy!!

We alighted from the cart, had our snack and then found ourselves at the other entrance, close to the chocolate factory where we saw chocolate being stirred. Had a coffee and caught the 3 pm bus back to Brienze. Did a bit of coop shopping and then walked back to the hotel. Mum's shoes are foutu so she will have to buy another pair tomorrow.

Now enjoying tea and some of Arline's lemon cake.

The picture is of the altar in a little roadside chapel moved to Ballenberg many years ago. Tried to skype home but no one there, will try again tonight! Later had e-mails explaining things. Skyped Amy and had a little chat.

Wednesday 21st

2010-07-21T13:05:00.000-07:00

Another lazy day. walked to town, visited Migros. Sold an old gold filling for 42 Fr.S and came back by bus Then we had a violent storm and a leisurely supper. The photo is of the Castle garden and house nearby.

Tuesday

2010-07-20T10:54:00.000-07:00

Had breakfast a bit late. All india and Arabia came down at the same time. A bit like a "dress" show. A Fin whose motor bike and side car we admired remarked that these arab are ordinary people, not the richest. Quite an interesting comment.

We went by train to Lucerne, made friends with a German couple from Essen who have a son in Interlaken Hospital, he may be a max fax also. Another one in Geneva. We forgot the war and I gave him a piece of my apple.

We walked on "The Bridge", picnicked by the lake and then went to see the Ramparts and the the Lion Memorial. I saw it once before and also in a dream. Read a bit from Google 600 Swiss mercenaries were slaughtered by the French Revolutionaries. Also 200 died in prison. One or two made it back to tell the tale. Dreadful story....

Back at 7 pm and now going for supper!

Sunday 18th July

2010-07-18T01:01:00.000-07:00

Weather better again after the rain, Just had breakfast and tried for Saturday's Telegraph which was promised for today but will come tomorrow we are now told.

Here is a picture of Ursula with Robert and Arline at the chateau that we visited after lunch at Marianne's flat.

After we returned we went out for a snack rather than face supper and drank tap water!! It was a big mistake.

Still trying to decide what to do today. We are spoilt for choice!

We rested in the garden, and then walked to town, Had a a snack and the took the boat to Spiez. Visited the castle and the beautiful garden and then came back by train. We had to reorganise our tickets and pay extra for the trip from Interlaken West to Ost, but of course no ticket inspector appeared! Supper in the hotel and that's that.

Saturday 17th Hotel Interlaken

2010-07-17T00:51:00.000-07:00

Getting ready to visit Marianne Simon. We will rendez-vous with Arline and Robert on the platform of the railway station at Gumligen at 11.33

Tried to buy tain tickets last night but the ticket office was shut. Was caught in a thunderstorm, but with a hotel umbrella and my anorak I was quite dry. New sandals on and no socks so all OK.

Had an enjoyable trip, a nice lunch and a visit to a chateau and back by 5 pm.

Interlaken

2010-07-16T00:06:00.000-07:00

Continuing from the last blog, we had lunch at an Italian restaurant which had lots of seating outside, we preferred inside because of the heat. We sat close to the man making the pizzas. He said that he made 2 or 3 hundred a day. The waiters dashed past with plates of food and drink for the al fresco customers. Their shirts were damp with perspiration!

Afterwards back to the Suite Hotel where Ursula rested. I went to cern to meet up with Han. It was a difficult journey with change of bus and then going to the main entrance instead of the visitors entrance. I walked back 50 yards and then got in unofficially and had a telling off from the
security man.

Han fetched me and we did a little tour. Everyone seemed to be at a computer and all my old haunts just had that type of "work" going on. Linac 4 will be a monumental challenge, I am glad not to have to face it!

Han took me almost to the hotel where I was soundly chastised for being so late back. We went to town and after a walk about had supper at the Swiss Chalet. Strangly enough we had the Swiss equivalent of Welsh Rarebit.

Return to Geneva !

2010-07-14T23:19:00.000-07:00

About 25 years ago I left Cern for the second time and entered my period of retirement.

Now on 13th July 2010 we returned for a few days to Geneva. Th easy jet plane was a bit late but we were met by Arline and Roert Simon and taken first to our hotel, the Suite, and then to supper at a restaurant just up the road. They insisted on paying the bill despite my futile attempts to settle it myself

It was very warm, ut tired as we were we enjoyed a reasonable night's sleep.!
Next morning , breakfast in our room and then off to town. We found our way to the Cathedral and enjoyed looking at the ruiins underground until we felt a bit lost and emerged having purchased a ook to understand a bit of what we had seen!

Next a visit to the Reformation wall in the Jardins des Bastion

Tuesday 23nd June

2010-06-22T14:03:00.000-07:00

I have finally returned to Xandros on the main memory, but have now managed to configure other OPs on two 16Gb memory cards. One provides Fedora 12 with a dual boot including Xandros. The other memory card has Debian 5.

So the little Eeepc900 can now host 3 ops. Fedora has also been updated using Yum.

I intend to leave the Asus noteook alone for a while now!

My Eeepc900

2010-06-18T12:57:00.000-07:00

I have been a bit unsatisfied with my notebook recently. So I bought a memory card with 16G to try and install another distro. I have gone back to Xandros for various reasons and wanted to get back to Ubuntu. I had two attempt to make it dual boot and both failed.

So I then installed Ubunto 9.10 and immediately upgraded it to 9.20. It seemed excellent and I noticed that the grub file picked up the new 16Gb memory card.

I was temped io install something else but decided to stay with a single boot and try things out on Ubuntu first.

Eldy works fine on XP, I had some problems with linux since it found the Italian version and not being fluent in Italian decided to abandon that for the moment. I have made a few friends on Eldy and chat to them when I can.

We had the Club open Day last Thursday and 2 ladies came from the Pulborough club. I demonstrated Eldy to them and they will take the message back to Jim Noble who is their teacher.

Ekiga still works fine on Fedora, I spoke with Brian the other day. Sadly he had been burgled and lost all his woodcarving tools!

I might have gone to the Surrey LUG BBQ tomorrow but could not find out where it is being held.

That is enough for now!

June 15th 2010

2010-06-15T02:31:00.000-07:00

Much has happened since the last post election blog. We are now at Helena's house, really to see Jack our new great grandson for the first time. He is now 7 weeks old, a bonny boy. We also saw his mum, Susie, and her daughter, our great granddaughter Hollie.

Over the week end we had Anthony Long to stay, with his wife Julie and daughter Lizzie. She was "having a look"at Sussex University. She might read Chemistry.

I haven't had much luck in persuading people to use Ekiga. I had not been in touch with Brian in NZ for a while and when I did, I had very bad news. He had been burgled and all his woodwork tools had been taken.He had insurance so only the Insurance company will lose outy. But what a hassle! I am depressed to learn that such things could happen in such a Christian Country.

My sister remains cool after our trip to Dore, it seems difficult to get her to write or telephone except by prodding. She seems OK and she certainly gets out and about.

Christina is off with her friend Penny to Matthew in Budapest. We leave for interlaken and Geneva in July, so holiday time is nearly here.

I have spent hours in the garden and things are almost tamed. The soft fruit should be good.

It is very pleasant to rest here with Helena, it is so nice to do absolutely nothing at all apart from using the Eeepc900 and ordering sm memory so that I can put other linux distros on it apart from Xandros!

The Election Result

2010-05-12T12:23:00.000-07:00

I really feel pleased to see the spin merchants leaving Downing Street at last. Probably they were only doing what was asked of them, but "Lord" Mandelson had been dropped twice from the Cabinet and was in my opinion (not worth much) brought back to steady the Labour rocking boat, which he did of course. Alistair was very unpleasant with the BBC and the incidents at that time reflect very badly on the Government.

The clock has been turned back 70 years and we now have an interesting coalition set up. It has started well with denial of airport extension which must be a godsend to those who live near them.

Again in my opinion a full inclusion of all parties in Government would be better still. As it is we have too many Scots, when they want to be independent of England what right have they to help govern us? I really have trouble understanding their thick accents and as for the Irish contingent who take the money and the office space and expenses but refuse to sit....well it beggars belief.

What with Health and Safety and the Data protection stuff we have been clobbered by New Europe thinking and spin. Heath must have been out of his mind to get us into Europe, Norway was much wiser. His house in Salisbury is nice and he had wonderful Lunch Parties with Royalty present. So he was a very good pianist, conductor and yachtsman. We have visited his old home as it was opened to public gaze.

Good bye to New Labour and especially to all those crook MP's. They really took us for a ride!

Perhaps the BBC will be reformed and the Today Program people who hang on long after they should be retired get the push they deserve!

To Hulavington and Serendipity

2010-03-20T05:06:00.000-07:00

Left home at 9.50 went to Guilford and on to the M3, Rain all the way Came off the motorway near Wooton Basset and wrogly went to Wroughton. Managed to turn, retrace our steps and find a £5 a head linch at the Prince of Wales pub at Coped Hall nearby. Met a talkative couple qho told us about the heros and also wartime aces like Galland.

To Alisom's for coffee and biscuits and a rest until Kate came home. Met up with Kate and Jennifer. Phoned my sister and chatted a bit. Chis appeared and after a light collattion of in Kates VW to Box for a cncert at the Methodist Church. Very pleasant, back to Kate fort a goodnight drink and then back to Serendipity for a good night's rest.

Up at 8.30 to go for the paper and then breakfast. Then to Kates. Picked up David Long's latest blog from Chateau David, phoned Margaret and told her about it. To rthe concert in the evening, Ursula thought it was wonderful. Back to Kate for a goodnight drink and then ack to Alisons. This morning good breakfast,compimented Alison on her marmalade and was presented with a pot to take home. Church at Hullavington, met someone who was in Harare andsaw him later in th pub where we took Kate for lunch.

eft Kate ar 2 pm and home for 5 pm. Exhausted,,,,,!

Network Connection

2010-03-09T07:17:00.000-08:00

For some time I have tried wireless connection to the network using whatever is on the computer or even an Asus usb "dongle". Some computers are fine some are not, some "disros" are fine and some are not. It depends on the kernel, on the device and on the patience that you can afford to display.

Tony Martin at our club told me about the mains wiring connection, and it is superb. I bought 2 devices from DLink and they are simply wonderful. Furthermore they run at 100Gb instead of 50 or so. Until something else comes along I will use them unless the wireless connection on the computer that I am using comes on immediately.

I have sent hours on many ditros trying out wireless and frankly it is a waste of time unless you learn something from enjoying yourself on the terminal or console.

If I had enough knowledge about unix and linux I could probably achieve everything. But the learning curve is long for many things, although very short for most. So I have spent all the time that I want on wireless connecting for the moment.

Saturday 6th February

2010-02-06T08:05:00.000-08:00

A confession

I am told by my wife that I don't listen hard enough to give a good sensible answer to a question. She also tells me that I need a deaf aid! Well I gon't agree with her.

Recently I have become interested in ip cameras. In fact I bought one, made it work and then took it to my son as a Christmas present. It needed a local network and as he hadn't one I took a surplus sky router and used it off line to provide the network. It worked ok but we were unable to incorporate it in a system there.

Subsquently I had a tip from the LUG and found cheaper version. By a slip of the fingers I ordered 2 not 1. So having made it function I asked my grandson to try it out and produce an instruction sheet in English instead of Taiwnese. So far he cannot make it work wirelessly.

I din't find it easy, but made it work, took it to the club last Thursday and teased the members with it. Alas when I took it home I had some problems getting it going again! It works now, but I am convinced that my IT skills are equivalent to those of a monkey. If a monkey has enough time he will suceed in playing The Blue Danube, just by bashing away at the piano keys. So it seems to me that often I have some know how but miss a few important steps.

The same goes for Apache2, it is fine on Linux but a pain on Macintosh!

The learning curve gets steeper with age I fear!

Thusday 14th January!

2010-01-14T06:56:00.000-08:00

Happy birthday to my eldest daughter Christina in Peterorough! She is taking the day off to celebrate the day. Ihope that our card arrved in time.

At the East Preston computer club today, simply ecause the thaw has started and it was easy to walk here. Paul is giving a talk on Excel, a data base program. I am at the back of the hall and cannot read what appeas on the screen.

I am running "Mint" on my eeepc900 as Uuntu 9.10 began to suffer I think from a virus! It manifested itself on the wireless connection, the applet began playing up. After several days of research I put Mint on and it all seemed good.

I tried Mandriva and Fedora both were fine, fedora had abbi word which I am not fond of.

At Cern again, this time on the PS booster accelerator!

2009-12-30T08:33:00.000-08:00

I met Georgio Brianti again, he was my new Group Leader, he was welcoming to me. There were still many old friends around, but a slightly different atmosphere from the one that existed in the early days. The technique seemed to be to surround oneself with a protective ring of loyal advisers and hold the ring! Gearge's first task was to eliminate someone who did not fit in, not a good beginning but quite on a par with all the scheming that was going on to preserve the status quo
and the safety of the jobs of people in positions of authority.

to be continued

Anniversary Day!

2009-12-30T07:51:00.000-08:00

We made it! 60 years of happily married life together. A wonderfull card from the Queen with a nice photo of her and a greetings text. We skyped to Helena and spoke to her and Christina and showed them the card over the video camera. We are quite overcome with flowers and cards and have been made aware of our friends and family's concern.

I would have enjoyed it much more if I had been fit. Kate and Chris visited us and daughter Christina came to us in the evening. As I had been up since 2.30 am I went to bed in the radio room at about 11 pm. To my great surprise I slept till 8 am. The first night's good sleep for a week.

Slowly but slowly,I am miraculously being retored to health. Someone must have been praying for me!

I spoke to David Long for a while and had his congratulations.

On the 31st.with Christina here we tried the cake that Helena had baked for us. It tasted as good as it looked, here is a photo.

Chrstmas with Richard and Jackie!

2009-12-28T06:40:00.000-08:00

We drove to Norwich on Wednesday 23rd December and after leaving hone at about 10.30 am arrived before 4 p.m.

They have a lovely new house, only some few years old with large rooms and a big garden. We were impressed with their choice.

They made us very welcome in spite of Frank's graveyard cough and his addiction to his eeepc900. There were daily apero sessions, lovely meals in the evening and a glorious Christmas Day lunch.

Ursula went out for a walk with them on Boxing Day but I lay low with my coughing.

We came home horrendously on Sunday, leaving at 11.30 and getting home at 4.30. Alas too many cars, people,lorries..but safely despite not obeying my navigator's instructions.

A lovely break with much TLC from our hosts. Thank you Richard and Jackie.

Manchester 1960

2009-11-28T07:16:00.000-08:00

By some skullduggery I was appointed to a post at the Rutherford Lab and posted to Manchester in order to help with Sam Devons's Heavy Ion Linac. My brother was married that year in Bridlington and Ursula came with me to Manchester and met Sam and the site of the linac. It had been a garage and was next to the Maths Tower and opposite to the Main University building including the library.

The pay from Rutherford was better than could have been expected from the University. We had a friend in Manchester, Charles Hawke, who had been a member of the Met Vic Erection team in Geneva. He met Ursula at the airport after her hair raising flight from Heathrow. Her plane had to go back after it almost reached Manchester because the undercart wouldn't come down. The stewardess abandoned Ursula to a kind gentleman who helped with the children.

She was installed in a hotel in Altringham while I drove the car back from Geneva and then joined her. Our house was rented from The University, and was cold, not very well decorated and on a busy crossing in Fallowfield. We had hoped to be integrated with the University but alas with Jodrell Bank causing financial embarrasment to the University this linac project in an old garage didn't cut much ice with them. We were virtual outcasts!

Gradually we made friends, especially the Anglican Chaplain to the University and his family. We almost developed together! Also Jackie Pearce, a friend of Judy Chell, who became a great comfort to us. We were visited by Hugh Hereward, who I had heard was visiting, as his hotel reservation was flawed he spent the night on our sofa! Ulf Kracht same once and Charles Hawke was a frequent visitor. Ian Grant was also on the same project and became a good friend.

In due course the accelerator came together and functioned satisfactorily. It was a huge beast, one could walk inside it. It ran at a frequencyof 75 MHz. The low energy end ran at 25 MHz and had been constructed with the help of students. It was a Wideroe parallel line device. Wideroe was working for the Germans in Hamburg during the war whilst the RAF were boming the place. He was starngely enough around at Cern in its early days!

Whilst at the University, David Long came for a week or two to help with the electronics, it was good to have him with us and I think he enjoyed himself!

Devons left for a post in the States and a new Professor was appointed, some of us didn't find him very sypathetic and eventually he disappeared too. George Nassibian was in charge of the Hilac, a good friend and a very competant engineer. I managed to recruit Tony Smith to CERN later on, he and his family came to Geneva. He elped me on the PSB. Sadly Rosemary his wife died a few years later, she told me that Geneva time was a very happy one for her.

I was very happy at Manchester, and my son was born there! Eventually we bought a house in Gatley at a cost of £5,000. 4 bedrooms two reception rooms a big kitchen and half an acre of garden! There were fruit trees and a garage on the Styal Road. We had to rewire, install central heating and decorate the house. The traffic on the Styal Road was so intense that one had to back in, in order to come out frontwards in the busy rush hour every morning.

In Fallowfield we were happy to be next door to Professor Vinaver and his wife. They were very friendly to us. When Christina passed her exam to get a place in Withington, we celebrated with a bottle of champagne and Professor Vinaver opened the bottle for us! There was a time in the winter that we were looking after the Vinaver's house next door. With all the heaters going full blast the main fuse blew. It was the fuse for the two houses and it was in our basement. I shorted it out with a nail as no one was going to come and fix it and the Vinavers were due to arrive any minute. Fortunately I never heard a word about it again! In Gatley we made friends with an optician and his family who lived opposite.

Schools for the children were plentiful and good. First Christina then Helena managed to get into Withington School.

Once the Hilac was commisioned I was posted to Liverpool to work on Nina, a proposed electron synchrotron to be built at Daresbury. I went by train every day, sometimes calling in at the Hilac to see how things were going and offer help! On one occasion the train caught fire and we had to leave the train in a tunnel, I remember a lady with a white coat who come out of the tunnel a bit like a badger. Merrison at Liverpool thought my explanation for arriving late was the nost original that he had ever heard!

Francis Farley paid a visit to Manchester, he thought I had been made a professor and was put out to find I was just another hand to the pump. He became Dean at Shrivenham. He worked on Caesar in Cern but as far as I was concerned he only produced a Methuen monograph on valve circuits, something we knew all about from Malvern days.

Manchester was heavenly. lots to do and a nice crowd of people. I do have some pictures.

Nearly all our holdays were taken in the Lake Distict at Delmar Banner's cottage at High Bield.

George Nassiian was recruited to Cern, he persuaded me to think about returning to Cern to work on the PS Booster. Gradually I became interested and eventually accepted a position in his group. This gave rise to my final endeavour, a 15 year stint in Geneva in the PS Division.

First Spell at CERN

2009-11-27T13:28:00.000-08:00

I had been working on the same type of accelerator at Harwell that Cern were planning to build. So in some respects I had a head start. I developed a "lock in oscillator" so that I could couple easily into the field patterns of the cavity modes. This way one could measure the electric fields of almost any mode in the cavity. I had to measure the Q factor and check that there were no appreciable losses. I developed my own methods and even gave a talk at the IEE in London which was well supported by ny Harwell colleagues. Alas when Nils Bohr came to inaugerate the PS I was ill, so I missed the fun!

I was at the controls of the linac when the PS made its first acceleration. Mervyn Hine was at the helm of the PS. He was the most patient of all men, excusing us for not doing exactly what was wanted and repeatedly encouraging us. Franco Bonaudi was his runner. I hit my head in the tunnel once on a trip to the PS control room from the linac, out for a short while but recovered soon after!

Lots was going on at Cern. Caesar was being put together, people were all loking round for ways to stay on after the PS and the SC machines were built. My friend Anthony Dopping-Heptonstall was at the SC. He had come from Mullard as had Bramham and Montague. Alas he deplored the waste of money at cern and tried to correct it. As a result his contract was not renewed. So when the chance came to elect to move on, I followed his path and left to go to Manchester to work on a heavy ion linac. A friend of Hereward, George Nasibian welcomed me with open arms.

Cern was a wonderful place, alas there was much of the old boy routine and one person that I knew and was friendly with had been a machinist in Manchester but rose to be one of the top grades at Cern. His only claim to fame was his activity as a trade union man in England! There were many such examples, similar to what went on at the UN. For this I was glad to go back to England and work for my living! Some people were brilliant, but I had to wait another few years until I could find them at CERN. It was the beginning of things for high energy accelerators, the really right people were yet to appear on the scene.

We had a lovely flat in Satigny, the second floor of a house on the La Boverie estate. The owner and his wife were quite sharp. I was promised a garage and when it didn't materialise I stopped paying rent! That worked like a charm, I was given a garage immediately.I had a oartsh of grass which I had to scythe by hand, also a patch of garden to cultivate for veg. The first chap downstairs was very odd. We taught them how to play bridge. Eventually he decided that the country was not for him and went back to town. We were then lucky to have the Preiswerks as our neighbours. He was quite senior at Cern, his wife Trudi was a dear. When we left they persuaded us to stay using their furniture as ours was on its way to Manchester! Before we finally left Kate was born and we had John and Rene Adams to our Christening party. The cave at Satigny had a tolerably good vin mousseux and we used it well for the party

My Third Job!

2009-11-20T11:41:00.000-08:00

After leaving Marconi's, although they tried to persuade me to stay, I took a very temporary job with a local wireless shop. Mending receivers and getting an introduction to the cheap television now available was just fun. I also did a bit of evening class teaching at the Mid-Essex Technical College to swell the coffers, which it did. All the while I was looking for what would be my career job, I tried with the Civil Service Commissioners who offered me an AEO post. Thinking I could do better, I applied for a Cancer Research Post with the MRC. After my interview, one of the board stepped out and told me that the job was mine but he had a better one for me with AERE at Harwell if I cared to apply!

In due course I was told to attend at Harwell. So with bags packed and helped by my brother we staggered to the station in Gidea Park. The case was one that he had bought in India, it was large and very heavy!

At Harwell I was shown into the presence of my new boss, the leader of an electronics group whose name I have long forgotten. He asked me whether I should like to stay at Harwell or be posted to Malvern! I elected to go to Malvern to see what was there and then afterwards to come to a decision. So off I went to Great Malvern straight into the arms of Frank Goward who led the Synchrotron Group. After a wonderful week I had to return to Harwell to give my decision, so my fate was sealed!

Ursula and I planned our marriage and I went back to Malvern to The old ABL Lab shared by the British and the Americans during their wartime exploits of Radar Research. TRE as it was called was moved from Swanage where it was very vulnerable to the enemy to Great Malvern where it took over the Boys Public School.I lived in barracks along with most of the others and Ursula and I got ready for married life from January 1950.

I did experiments on the accelerator, on explosives, and some other projects. I met some very senior people including Sir John Cockroft, Skinner, Curran and a few others. My group leader had Claus Fuchs at Harwell as his boss and duly reported all that we did to him.....straight to the Kremlin as we now know. Pontecorvo was found out, and some the English band of traitors gradually discovered.

The synchroton was a working machine, the first in the UK, but another group alongside had already developed the electron linac and were working on a brand new electron linear accelerator using dielectrics. This was designed by R.B.R.S.Harvey...alas there was a problem. A new phenonomen was just surfacing and ,it was called "multipactor". This precluded any acceleration in the new machine due to secondary electron emission. With Adlam and Mullett I worked at finding out more of the properties of the dielectrics. This brought me into X band radar components and cavity investigations and was wonderful. I met the man who eventually became professor at Sheffield, Cullen, and later he showed John Adlam and I around his lab there. Gordon Thomason an electronic wizard was another of my Malvern friends and we visited him at Abingdon later on. Harvie elected to leave accelerators when the group was moved to Harwell and went to Baldock. I met up with him later on. There were some amazing people at Malvern, some with no paper qualifications but absolutely brilliant in electronic wizardry. A character named Hubert Gent went about in a cloak. I learnt that the only circuit one needed to know was the Miller Integrator, two others developed from it, and with the cathode follower and the grounded grid amplifier one was in charge! Alas transistors spoilt it all.

In Malvern Ursula and I joined the Piers Ploughman Club and we performed in some amateur dramatics there. Noteably "Little lambs eat ivy" and "Midsummer Night's Dream". I took the part of Oberon and Ursula would have been Titania except thet Christina was on the way and Thelma Lee took over that part!

Other chacters at Malvern were Peter Dunn, John Dain, Herbert Watson, Donald lees Jeff Jones and Laurie Medcalf and lots more.

We were to be moved as a group to Harwell but being junior we had to wait for a council house at Abingdon. So for 8 months I had to spend the working week at Harwell and only come home to Nalvern for week ends.

To start with in 1949 we rented a furnished bungalow in the Link. Then we moved to the top floor of a house in Hornyold Road, where we had two rooms and I made a "landing" kitchen.Then when Christina was imminent we were allocated a Ministry flat in South Lea. To our joy Christina was born in Brunswick House on Graham Road. Years later it was up for sale and we made enquiries! We had a share in the South Lee house greenhouse and a patch of veg garden. We met tree lupins for the first time there and watched the coronation on Les Dawson's TV...a miracle in those days! We had a black cat called Wallace who seemed to wait for my return on Friday night after being away from Malvern during the week. Wallace came eventually with us to Abingdon, got lost once and then came back. We left him with the next-door-neighbours, the Bacons, when we went to Geneva.

I made a concrete garden path in 57 Sellwood Road, talked to the cow in the field at the end of the garden and planted lupin trees from seed gathered in Malvern. I went to work evry day using the Harwell transport system (bus), this ensured that I got home every night at a good time except when Thonemann who ran Zeta had a "good idea" and decided to press on regardless, driving us home himself!

Helena was born in the "Warren" at Abingdon. While waiting for her arrival I used to take Christina around on a little seat fixed to the handlebars of my bicycle, apparently it used to be quite an alarming experience for her she now tells me!. We had many friends in Sellwood road, even one of the later directors of the accelerator group who arrived from South Africa and lived there with his family! The packing case in which his furniture came became a playroom for his children. Ben Kingdom from Malvern was a neighbour too with wife and family, and he still lives there!

At Harwell we from Malvern were dazzled by the equipment that one could extract from the stores. The Malvern crowd that I knew were housed in building 152, just inside the wire from Staff Club B.
There John Adlam and I began work on measuring accelerator fields using perturbation techniques which we developed. A character called (no name) used to come in and offer useless help, apparently he was keeping an eye on us. I suggested running the accelerator using the signal from the light programme (radio) as it was extremely stable...he cogitated a bit about this, and went back to his office in Hangar7 to think it over! Alas another character called (no name) decided that he wanted to recruit John permanently as his number cruncher, John refused and we were split up. John was sent to do a job for which he had no knowledge or experience, so I threw in the sponge too and moved over to the Zeta group. This was a bit of a red herring too. After a while I applied for a post at CERN where I was welcomed almost with open arms. Goodbye to Harwell and Hallo to Geneva! Cockroft told me I was going to the "fleshpots". True the salary was double but it still wasn't sufficient. We still had ration books in England so Switzerland was a big change.

We began in a Pension "Salm" in Place Reverdin, then took a new flat in Avenue Wendt. Donald Fry came to lunch once while our piano was being rebuilt, he was head of general Physics at Harwell before becoming Director at Winfrith Heath. Years later while taking the AERE plane from Manchester to Abingdon I met him on the plane. He shifted some important person out of the seat alongside so that he could chat to me about all the goings on!

Bridgend Days

2009-11-16T01:31:00.000-08:00

Uncle Bill was an Inspector of Police at Bridgend. He moved there from Penarth. Instead of a Police Station with law court, house and vast garden, tended by those in jail, he had a small house on Merthyr Mawr Road. He had a chauffeur, first Merrick ex guardsman then Jones. We often went on picnics to the sea side at Scare Bay. I have a picture of Merrick with busby and one of he and me in swimming togs on the beach at Porthcawl.

Our milkman was a real character, sometimes he would take my brother and I to Marcross in his delivery van, where he had a pub, the Horseshoes Inn. The van stank of spilt milk, rather a similar smell to vomit! They would feed us well and sometimes we were slightly ill afterwards, too much lemonade or ginger beer. He loved us to put the gloves on and fight each other, rather unfair as David was 2 years my elder! The adjacent farm was Tynacyia, run by Dai Evans. We often went for the day with all the family. May and Ann and a son David were there too. My brother kept up with them almost until he died. I once went for a week haymaking, it was a very hard slog. On Sundays the pubs were all shut. However the drill was to knock at the back door, and when allowed in you ordered your drink in the parlour and even the local bobby was there!

There was an amusing story told me by Ann. They all went to church on Sundays.On one memorable occasion someone broke wind rather loudly, they were all quite embarrassed and someone started laughing, they were unable to control themselves and all fell about laughing and walked out! I am not sure whether they went back next Sunday or not!

There was a derelect steam roller in one of the barns, It gave us boys great pleasure in climbing all over it! The farm was fun.

They used to feed us magnificently, lunch and then tea, goog homemade fare, jam and cream too!

Dai was in trouble with the law at one time, He caught a mushoom stealer, the victim offered him his dog in recompense but as he walked away he whistled to the dog to come back to him. Dai was annoyed greatly and drawing his knife cut it's throat!

This is probably where the poem came from.. Someone telling a tale:-
Dai Jones bought a boat..
reply... sold his coat?..
no no ...bought a boat..
reply...cut his throat?
ay ay...cut it from ear to ear..
reply...shaving I spose?

Years later, Ursula and I went to Marcross for a holiday, staying in the simple b and b near the beach and having Uncle Charlie come over for lunch. We saw Ann and May again and even went to the big Manor House where Dai and his wife had moved to,at a place called Llanmihaqngel. Royalty were supposed to have slept there in bygone days! A wonderful old mansion. It is still there and it is a b&b now!

Dai advised Ursula always to sit in the front seat of a bus to avoid being upset by the motion! Then to move wiith the bus as it went round corners. Sadly Dai fell off a haystack one day, came into the house and died!

Here is a picture of the family from those times.

The holiday in Scotland in 1947 or 1948

2009-11-14T13:05:00.001-08:00

I lived with my Uncle and Aunt a bit in Ponypridd, because my mother was working, my sister at College in London and my brother working in Barkley's bank in Usk. My grandma on my mother's side had died and I just had an Uncle and Aunt .in Barry and another Uncle and Aunt in Penarth with their two children and Ethel

Uncle Bill was almost a 2nd father to me after my father died in 1928. He had the rank of Inspector in Penarth and Bridgend and then Superintendant in Pontypridd. He had a nice house and in 1939 I occupied the top attic with all my gear,like radio etc!

When the war broke out he was just 60 and was retired. This was not his choice, he had upset someone higher up the chain of command and although he had hoped for being appointed Deputy Chief Constable he was almost forced out at the normal retirement age. He took a rather menial job of security officer at a local Trading Estate and had to give up the luxury of a Police house. Eventually after my mother removed to Gidea Park (to keep me in order!) He and my Aunt moved in with us bringing their furniture.

They wanted to visit Scotland and offered me a holiday with them. We went to Inverness to the Craigmone private hotel for a week or fortnight I can't now remember which. I met a relative of theirs and borrowed the hotel bicycle to visit Culloden Moor and generally roam around it.It was interesting and I met an English Archaeologist who was investigating stone circles. On the way back I popped in at a pub to quench my thirst and was amazed to find the whole place packed out and could hardly get to the bar to buy a drink!

I noticed one thing in Inverness one evening, at about 4 pm there was a great commotion outside a pub, it was actually people trying to fight their way in after closing time! They were certainly fond of their drinking in Inverness!

I went to Loch Ness one day looking for the monster. I had tea at a house, boiled egg and etc for two and sixpence. Apparently it is the custom for visitors just to knock on the door and ask for a meal I had a lift back on a very noisy truck.

We visted Loch Alvie where Uncle Bills family are buried and the hotel opposite the railway station which was built by one of his Uncles. Many years later on a return trip from Doonray I spent the afternoon while waiting for the night train back to London. The bar was shut but I was told I could still order drinks from the hotel sitting room! The night train proved a disaster, The handle of the loo fell off outside, after what seemed an age someone came to my aid and let me out!

It was a memorable holiday and I have put pictures on my blog.

My second job!

2009-11-14T07:23:00.000-08:00

Thanks to one of Uncle Bill's pals, an influential man who was Secretary to a company on the Treforest Trading Estate, I obtained an Apprentice Post at Marconi's in Chelmsford. The day that I arrived I went to the swimming baths in Chelmsford and watched as streams of German bombers went overhead on their way to London. A wonderful welcome for me!

I went into digs there, joining 3 other people, on an elderly man, the two others were both employed at Marconi's. One an AID inspector, the other a boffin. My accomodation had to be subsidised from Home as my wages were twelve and sixpence per week! Jimmy Twatt was the boffin, he worked at Marcon's and was also a wireless spy to detect people communicating with the enemy. We listened to the VHF radio and the dogfight conversations from the airmen. I met up with Jimmie years later , he had married and changed his name to Watt. He came from the Orkneys.

I was looked after by the son of another of Bill's friends, I forget his name, he was the MOH for Chelmsford, another Welshman. He was very kind and even let me use a room in his house for my meddling with hobbies. He had to attend at the scene of air crashes and deal with the results. Regrettably I lost touch with him after a while. He did report my known misdemeaners which did not enamour me to him at all! He lived in a bungalow and smoked a pipe which he filled wih Balkan Sobranie and Laticia tobacco. I usually spent time at the weekend listening to the wireless with him. He once drove me all the way back to Wales in his car!

First I worked in the machine shop at Marconi's until it was bombed, drama in the paint shop where looking for bodies we found a UXB and had to get out! Then a spell in the mounting shop. puting together and wiring transmitters. After that Mr Twigg and the instrumnents, meters etc. Then echometers or depth sounders and after that radar receivers, jammers and so on. One of our pleasant jobs was to train WRENs in some aspects of radar. I once took a WREN on the crossbar of my bike! I was trusted to test transmitters at Baddow using the Church Tower echo as a measure of the perfomance. Here I met up with the Navy weather forecasters, WRENs and WRENs! Finally I joined the television transmitter group with Ned Green. Later in life I realised how clever he was using hybrids to back up transmitters! Meanwhile I continued my studies by matriculating and doing Intermediate B.Sc. before attending at Birkbeck College in evenings and Saturdays to get my B,Sc. Special Physics. I passed my Maths as subsiduary but was not clever enough to be awarded a good degree.

I was encouraged to change digs and moved to the Browns in Broomfield Road. I had a particular friend Peter Love who also worked at Marconi's and eventually joined the RAF. His father was another spy detector and had a nice communication receiver. Mr Brown was a cabinet maker one son was at home the other a comando. Mrs Brown was a large lady who loved to make sherry trifle, I hate it! We used to play cards in the evening with a Mr Harries, a city gent, a very charming person. I once visited him in the city at his office where sometimes he firewatched.
I was bombed out once in Broomfield Road, a landmine exploded 100 feet away and blew the roof of my digs away. I cut my feet a bit but watched the Bofors shells being fired probably in vain at the sky! Mrs Brown nicked the apple trees from the bombed out garden but had to put them back when it was found out!

I escaped from the Browns, where actually Jimmie Watt was our neighbour with wife and family. I went to the Hubbards in Shenfield. Sometimes getting a lift in a car to work but more often going by train. Very strangeley I met up with the boy who used to take me in his car when Ursula and I went to a dance at the Royal Liberty School. His wife was a Mary, whose parents ran a pub in avillage near Chelmsford. The Americans from Wilingale used to come to the pub and let me use their 45's to shoot rabbits! They flew Marauders, one wanted to mary Mary's sister...don't know what happened.

I went for a medical for call up and was first offered a navy posting, I asked whether I could complete my studies and was promptly passed over to the RAF. I went to Cardington and was passed as PNB material even though I had a problem getting the mercury up the tube, the examiner said "too many woodbines, never mind that", given the rank of AC2 and a number and sent home to wait for call up. As I thought I would be called up any day I abandonded my Home Guard duties as 2nd Lieut of the 101st Battalion which manned a 64 twin rocket battery, but whewn the call up didn't come had to go back. I came off night duty one Sunday morning to see the gliders on their way to Arnhem. Strangely enough I might have been one of them as at Scarborough I has been accepted as a volunteer for the Parachute Regiment as an alternative to having another RAF medical for aircrew.
I never heard from the Army but was discharged from the RAF as "surplus to requirements"

My friend "Scottie " managed to get into the Fleet Air Arm, and my friend Michael Burden was a 2nd Lieut in the Ox and Bucks and was due to go to Pegasus Bridge! I have never had any news about either. Michael worked at the hospital and when all the cyanide disappeared from the chemi lab that we used for the "brown ring test" in anaylsis for our chemistry course, he was able to go to the mortuary and see the bodies of our late chemistry teacher, wife and two children! Apparently he owed money and couldn't face the music, very very sad.

If there are any pictures of the Victory Parade in Chelmsford I will be seen, leading some of the Home Guard!

I did some scanning of photos from the Jungfrau for Prof George,(£50). had little help from Bernal, much fun with Sidday and so on. I protested about Blacket's communistic ideas when there was a student meeting on that subject! This probably didn't do me any good!

I applied for a job with the Civil Service Commissioners, was offered one but didn't take it up. It seemed difficult for the board to understand my description of the Redifusion Job and they "drew a cloud" over my explanation. I applied to the MRC for a job on cancer research but was talked out of by a member of that board who saw me after the interview and offered me one with AERE.

So I gave up on Marconi's which had already become part of English Electric, did a bit of evening class teaching at the Mid Essex Technical College which was highly remunerative and then concentrated on marriage and a move to Harwell or Malvern. I was lucky to be given the option, but was so pleased to be welcomed by Frank Goward who immediately renamed as "Jimmie", a name which has stuck a bit!

Later when up for promotion the very same Chairman who had offered me a job turned me down on the grounds that I had not accepted his previous offer of a job. So a few months later another board with a more humane chairman gave me my Established Post.

I have almost begun my 3rd job story but will leave a bit for later!

My First Job!

2009-11-14T03:51:00.000-08:00

I did not go back to school at Bushey after the Summer term, I did not expect to be retained after the Winter term so I elected to leave. They sent me my first prize as a leaving present. It was a book about radio! I had operated a crystal set most of the time without permission, (it had been refused by the Headmaster named Croft), he left in 1937 and a New Zealander took over, Norman Sinclair was his name. He was a human being, his wife gave us Cello Concerts on the stage of the Big School with the instrument clamped between her legs!, he had a family, and he told us about sex. He was a bit late with his talk, somehow the subject had already been brought to light by some small boy! However he did reassure us and strongly advised us to avoid "solitary vice"!

I was in Pontypridd with my Uncle Bill and Aunt Edie when war was declared. I heard the news on a TRF radio given me by my Uncle George, who lived in Pill Street, Penarth with Dollie his wife, Ethel, Mary and John.

I was found a job with the South Wales Relays firm run by George Ball, His firm provided wired wireless for the Valleys, sometimes called Redifusion. I used to go round as a helper for a technician who "fixed" and maintained the various amplifies located in different towns. He had a bike and sidecar which was very exciting for me.

Later I had to do night shifts at the receiving station in a hut on a hill at Trebanog, See photo!
Here there were receivers connected to the network. Some times we were two sometimes alone to select the programs and be sure to switch on at 7am because it was probably the signal to wake people up! It was really quite an adventure, boys from the village popped in and chatted from time to time. One man, a stranger came along once and made an effort to interfere with me but was quickly sent on his way never to be seen again! Once I overslept and was soundly reprimanded for not waking everyone up at 7 am!

I was in the LDV and took my rifle with me, but had no ammunition, so if a German parachutist had come I could have only hit him with it! I did fire the rifle at a Police range, but I don't think I had the eye for it. The LDV ensignia was just a khaki armband with LDV on it. It was supposed to save you from summary execution as you had advertised the fact that you were a combatant! I don't think that would have helped much in Spain! Franco's men massacred many who even looked like being against them!

My job finished when I went off to Chelmsford. However I bought my very own bicycle with my wages for £5!

Adieu to the East Preston Silver Surfers

2009-11-06T03:17:00.000-08:00

TO THE EAST PRESTON SILVER SURFERS COMPUTER CLUB

I have received a wonderful letter from your secretary on your behalf, almost a testimonial which would help if I needed to apply for starting a new venture. Thank you all very much. I am flattered and hardly know what to say!

The club is in excellent condition, has a strong and capable team running it, so having done very little to help for the last year or so, I felt it time to leave room for another President, and I am sure that such a person can be found.

As you all know, my interest is in Linux and not Microsoft. It would be hard for me to help with Vista and Windows 7.

Without the early help from Paul and Brian, I could not have made much progress. They, the founder members, the Village Hall committee and Local Council support, all played a very important role. The lottery funding made the acquisition of equipment and services possible. Alma Barker, Dave Hughes, Sheila Young, were there too at the beginning. Our committee has expanded and the Trustees watch over the club finances. I in turn am proud of them all and only too glad to have been there at the moment of the club's “big bang”.

I gratefully accept the offer of becoming an Honorary Member, and promise to look in from time to time. With my grateful thanks and my best wishes to the club ..

.Your First President

60th Wedding Anniversary

2009-11-02T10:25:00.000-08:00

Because our wedding anniversary is Dec 28th and a very inconvenient date for a party we decided to hold it last week end. 39 family and friends came here and we had a little lunch together. There were our 4 children, 5 grand children. one great grand daughter (Hollie Stock). Cousins and others and two of Ursula's friends > One from the age of 2 or 3, and one from adolescence when Ursula and family were evacuated to Kings Lynn during the war.

We had a cake cutting ceremony and a group photo

Here are some photos!

Computer Housekeeping

2009-09-07T11:42:00.000-07:00

As a result of looking at a friend's computer, where he had PC Linux as the Operating system, I decided on a massive clean up on the PC s at home.

I had inherited two from Eric. I had also the disks for XP and Microsoft Office from him. I made a new installation and had great problems with first, sound: then wireless access: and then printing.
The sound I cured with an IMic sound device, it plugs into a usb port and works straight out of the box. Skype now functions well. The printer is on my network and I had a bit of a struggle!

On another I have just installed Debian as a dual boot with Mandriva Spring.

I found another PC in the garage and again Mandriva Spring was installed and is working well.

Eddie's old Tiny runs Mint, but there are problems with wireless.

The Dell laptop gave more trouble with wireless so we installed Mandriva Spring and it runs well.

Talk Talk download speeds vary from 24 KB to 500 kB dependant on the time of day.

For those interested in Linux go to http://www/linux.org/ Everything you need is there for your
enlightenment!

Greengage Jam

2009-08-19T01:20:00.000-07:00

When I was about 5 years old, my brother David went to the Royal Masonic School at Bushey. I remember being told about the school tuckshop and what could be bought there. So as he was leaving at the beginning of one of his terms I remember saying, "get me a pot of greengage jam and I will be pleased to come to school to joine you!"

I don't know how I had heard of greengage jam or how the weekly pocket money was distributed or much about the tuckshop. But children have a way of finding out about the nice things on offer!

I must have mentioned it to Christina who is with us now. She went out and bought some greengages and made jam last night. We had some for breakfast, it was delicious. Here is a picture of Christina at breakfast with the jam!

To Nymans Garden later on. Heard a talk about the house followed by a visit. The gardens were magnificent. Lunch followed by my sit down with Olwen allowing Chis and Mum to do more garden prowling.
Then to Olwen's house in Findon Valley for tea fpllwed by more tea at home. An interesting day altogether!

Yuesday 18th August

2009-08-18T01:40:00.000-07:00

Despite loding the Bramley apple tree last year, we still get some from the younger trees. Christina is here for a week and has been doing her share of gardening, apple pulp making and generally helping and cheering us up.

These are James Grieve apples which are eaters and cookers.

12th July 2009

2009-08-13T13:03:00.000-07:00

We had Wilma, Gillian,(my Goddaughter), and her two young ladies to lunch today. We took them to Angmering to the Spotted Cow. After a nice lunch we returned home for coffee. We left Mum and Wilma at home and they drove me to the beach and after parking the car we sauntered on to the shingle.

It was a bit blustery and we walked a bit and as you can see I took some photos. Alas Emily's photo didn't come out so I shall ask her for one to include later.

I slipped on the pebbles and cracked my head on a bit of the breakwater timber. Gillian was simply marvellous and gave me first aid, doing all the correct things. The girls helped too and the the paramedics came soon and took me under their wing. I was taken to Worthing A&E where after a while I was fixed with glue and some tapes. On the way to the hospital there was a gridlock on the A259 because of an accident. There was a rather bumpy crossing of the central reservation as we went to the other side of the road. I had to hold on tight! Alas after I had called a taxi to take me home, my wound started to bleed again so I went in for a second attempt to glue me up. I arrived home at about 7.30 pm with a fairly sore head! Ursula was pleased to see me in one piece and gave me much fussing!

Gillian and the others went home rather late and we were relieved to get their "arrived home " from Wilma later.

Another of my 9 lives gone but so I was wonderfully aided by Gillian and her two marvellous daughters.

I write this on the 13th when I was well enough to go to the club and deliver my little talk on Linux. John Boutal helped me setting up as his mother had driven him down for that express purpose.

I was able to ring Gillian at Wilmas this morning and wish her a happy birthday, and of course thank her for being such a dear. My head does not bother me and in a few days I shall be as right as rain!

!st August 2009

2009-08-01T08:47:00.000-07:00

The annual East Preston Flower Show took place today. The Horticultural Society organise it and this year the weather spoilt a lot of the fun.

I spent some time yesterday finding some potatoes to exhibit. Finally chose 5 big ones and took them down before 10 am to put on display. I put them on the Sunny Jim tray.

The winner had 5 beautiful white potatoes with what seemed like indelible ink markings at the end of each potato. Very striking, indeed it won exhibit of the show. I wish that I had taken a picture of them.

Sadly the judges hadn't even turned my card over for people to see. I expect I had violated a rule by using a metal tray.

I heard from Prim later that it was the stewards who should have turned my card over, the judges had obviously decided that my potatoes might have been the biggest but were not good enough for any comment!

We had a cup of tea and a cake and heard the usual list if winners read out. They are certainly an energetic crowd of gardeners and all the exhibits (except for mine) were simply wonderful.

It is very unusual to have a rainy day for the show, and we were very unlucky!

I am adding to yesterday's blog because today Sunday I found a massive 5 lb courgette in the garden. I should have put it in the show, and it might have given the judges a nasty shock! Never mind...I am not able to give enough time nor attention to the serious business of competing against such a dedicated crowd of people.

I am sorry if I have given the impression of having my one entry ignored.

At the club Thursday 30th July

2009-07-30T07:47:00.000-07:00

Here we are at the club learning (?) about Linux!

Cornish "hotel"

2009-07-29T11:48:00.000-07:00

It isn't very nice to write about the shortcomings of a "hotel" that you have just suffered, but it is a good thing to describe what you didn't like so that others may have their say.

We asked for a rwin room, we were given one with three beds, a double and a single bed. Probably we should have quieried the point.When one is a bit tired of travelling and only too pleased to have arrived somewhere one lets it go.

The miniscule bathroom had a door that squeqked, a bit of 3 in 1 would have helped. Space for putting things down were 1, the loo lid
2, a tooth brush holder for 6 toothbrushes

The first night we had a towel for the floor, this disappeared for the second night and we had to do without.

The loo was a bad flusher.

To get to the shower one had to step into the bath. There were no hand grips, so it was a serious balancing act and a dangerous one. To get out one used the door handle as a grip place. I WAS really scared at the prospect of a fall.

We had a snack whilst Herbert had his lunch on th4 first day. Baps with too much salad.

We ate there in the evening, a non descript meal with masses of chips!

That night the locals carroused until 11 pm or so all outside our window. Eventually we slept.

Breakfast was funny, fruit juice, corn flakes and poached egg. Coffee, no toast.

We took Herbert out to lunch so were spared of the Hotel menu,(unchanging). We had a snack yesterday, it was difficult to persuade them to make a sandwich, but they did at last, packing it with salad again.

The wifi worked on ubuntu 9 at first, and then refused. The Asus never worked on the wifi. By installing Mandriva from a Live disk the wifi worked on the Dell.

The hotel staff tried to help but we had trouble getting an address.

I met a NZ family, Peter Davenport and family from Upper Hutt. He had his own business there and was going home on Sunday with Singapore Airlines. His daughter stays in London (Jean).

Tuesday July 29 2009

2009-07-28T14:07:00.000-07:00

We took Herbert out to lunch and then went back with him for tea and more chat. He kept dropping asleep because I was talking to him about computers!
We left him at about six pm and went back to the Eliot Arms.

After a spell Ursula took me walking and then we took the car and went to see Brunel's Viaduct. We met people from Upper Hutt and this was fun.

Ny changing the system to Mandriva Spring I have made the internet wireless connection. There seems to be a problem with both computers at this "Hotel"

Good night from St Germans

To St. Germans to see Herbert Whitby

2009-07-27T13:14:00.000-07:00

After 50 years we meet up with Herbert. Here he is with Ursula.

We shall see him tomorrow and have more chat, a remarkable man and old colleague.

Sunday 26th July

2009-07-27T13:03:00.000-07:00

Left home at 10 am and arrived at Rosemary's house at about 3.30 pm. A reasonable journey with an hour's stop for hot chocolate near Axminster I think. A good chat, a nice happy hour and supper and so to bed. An early morning tea from Peter who went out to play Golf. Breakfast with Rosemary and a view of her pictures of her last holiday.

Off at 10.30 am to St. Germans. Took a picture of the two of them before we left!

Herbert Whitby

2009-07-13T13:34:00.000-07:00

I knew Herbert from the Nimrod Injector days. He had developed a chain of amplifiers for driving the accelerator. He did wonderful things with them like self exciting the cavity through the amplifier chain. He was quite brilliant.

I used to come down from Manchester to see him and the others in the team. Funnily enough one of the team was later in charge of the PS group when I left Cern. Sadly he died soon after I left.
He was Roy Billinge. On the Nimrod Injector he was rather small fry.

I first knew of Herbert through his neighbour on the Abingdon estate a Gordon and Grace Thomason. We played bridge pretty frequently and once played at their house. We met in great Malvern. He told me of the Spitfire that came to earth in Herbert's garden!

My last recollection of Herbert is hearing that he had been persuaded by Peter Dunn to leave Harwell for what I thought as a stupid idea to generate electricity from a reactor by using thermoelectricity. I called it hair brained and was rather rudely told off by Nigel West.

I met up with Peter on the telephone after John Adlam's death. He "said" that he would come to the funeral but cried off at the last moment using "a funny turn" as his excuse. Peter was a prof at Reading after his Malvern and Harwell adventures. I built a modulator for him once at Malvern.
He too was a bridge player along with John Adlam and Tony Egglington who later rose to dizzy heights in the hierachy.

Such memories I shall share with Herbert when I meet up with him in Saltash before his 102nd birthday in september this year.

As Leo Hobbis says in NZ, Herbert was and is magnificent and I agree!

Our last full day at the hotel Interlaken

2009-07-11T07:42:00.000-07:00

We had some more prnts done and Ursula bought another film. We also had the train photos printed to send to the Simons in Meyrin.

Although the hotel has been mostly excellent, there were a number of things that we would advise anyone staying here to watch out for!

Our room was excellent....except for the TV/Computer rejoicing in the brand name of "SmartScreens" which is pure rubbish. The annoying thing is that it functions from time to time when it decides to boot up. The hotel people did try to help. They provided me with a USB keyboard and mouse which worked fire but then replaced it with another abomination off a wireless keyoard and separate wreless mouse which worked at first and later intermittantly.

The room is at the back of the hotel, above the laundry and ktchen, it is also above the "goods in" area and the workshop area if maintenance jobs are going on So we hear the washing up chatter, the arrival of goods in the morning and the noise of maintenance men cutting wood and other things from early morning time.

The bathroom is impeccable except for the liquid soap, also the bath into which we have to stand to shower is extremely dangerous because ot ther siting of the grab rails.

The room safe refused to open after 4 days, so we were oblged to use the safe box at reception.

I explained that coudn't pay by UBS card as it is only good for 1000 Fr per day. I offered a USB
Global Form but after consultaton they said it would cost them 20 SFR so they didn't weant to do it! They offered to take me to the bank, and i accepted. So I had to draw cash and pay my bill that way.

The staff are all very kind and courtious, but the unchanging menu is now becoming rather boring. but the convenience of beng able to just slip downstairs and get supper is exceedingly helpful.

We have had a restful and interesting holiday and hope to return tomorrow to reality in East Preston.

The punch line is as follows. Ursula asked me where her purse was just as we were leaving. I had put it in the safe. I couldn't find it. She then said that she wasn't going anywhere until her purse had been found. The recepionist said "Shall I check your room safe?". Well we thought that we had transferred all to the hotel safe. To our relief and Ursula's delight the receptionist found it in the open safe box in our room, tucked away in the back! So it had been in the open safe for a week or so. Such is the honesty of the room maid and staff.

Visit to Thun

2009-07-11T02:11:00.000-07:00

We went to Thun on the trai, vivsited the casle and then came back to Interlaken.

Alpine Garden at Interlaken

2009-07-11T02:08:00.001-07:00

We went to the Alpine Garden on Thursday. It was at an altitude of 6,600 feet, Ursula was not well equipped for the temperature so we had to buy her a pullover. I took a pisture of her in it when we got back!

Bern Pictures

2009-07-11T01:56:00.000-07:00

These pictures were taken when we went to Bern. The Hotel computer started to boot again!

Saturday 11th of July

2009-07-11T01:20:00.000-07:00

We went to Bern on Wednesday and met up with Robert, Arline and Marianne. We had a tour round the Parliament building, a snack lunch in the canteen and then came back to Interlaken accompanied by Arline and Robert. They went back almost immediately to Geneva.

Today is our last full day, we shall have to pack our bags tonight.

Wednesday 8th July

2009-07-08T01:18:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Nell! She is in the Scilly Isles on holiday. We are off to Bern to meet up with Arline, Robert and Marianne. We leave the hotel quite soon to catch the train from Interlaken Ost. We may add a picture or two later.

This computer folded once already today, but has decided to boot up again, it is fickle!

2009-07-06T01:42:00.000-07:00

We took these pictures earlier in the week. The room computer has decided to work again, so I have been doing a few things with it. Personally I would never buy a thing called a SmartScreen computer. The wide screen distorts our pictures and makes us look like barrel men and women.

It rained hard in the night and was carrying on at breakfast. I think slowly the weather is improving and after a hot chocolate we might persuade each other to go for a walk!

Saturday 4th July

2009-07-04T09:52:00.000-07:00

A lazy day. We were at Ballenerg yesterday and rodein a cart dragged by horses for half an hour. The Harley-Davidsons are here again, solots of noise and motos.
Today the hotelmanager did another fix on his computer. It is a Smart Screens job. We made it work by using USB keyboard and mouse, but he has brought a new wireless keyboard and a wireless mouse.
We shall go down for supper now!

Interlaken

2009-06-30T11:24:00.000-07:00

Came here on Sunday. It is already Tuesday, hotel ok but restaurant a bit weird. Went to Grindelwald today, went to 7000 ft. Home again (hotel) but quite exhausted.
The Church clock chimes every quarter of an hour ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT! Hope my rain will compensate.

A visit from Helena today!

2009-06-23T12:48:00.000-07:00

This is Mum on the beach with her rainbow hat on!
We welcomed Helena who had the day off from work and arrived here at 08.45! She spent the day with us, we visited the Heritage Centre in Rustington and.. she even went for a swim!

What a lovely surprise. She was back home at 5.45 pm.

A postcard arrived from the daughter of an old colleague, she asked me to call him on the phone. He is Herbert Whitby and we spoke for a while. He will be 103 in September. He lives in Saltdean, Cornwall. I know him from Rutherford lab where he mastered an excellent rf system for the Nimrod injector! What memories of the past come flooding back.

Gardening means going to the tip!

2009-06-20T09:44:00.000-07:00

We tried another root of potatoes and it came out at 2 lbs.

Joan and Debbies present of a hibiscus is doing well!

I cut the hedge next to the Kings yesterday, they were away so I used my trailer as a standing point, we have a wasps nest so I had to leave a bit on our side near to it.

The trailer is ready for dumping but I had no energy today.

First Fruits!

2009-06-14T01:03:00.000-07:00

We have been picking and eating our strawberries and raspberries and now I tried one root of potatoes. They aren't very big, but should taste OK. Christina gave me the seed potatoes earlier in the year.

Yesterday we spoke to Karen and Michael on Skype and then Helena joined us. We shall repeat next Sunday at 10 pm our time!

It is a lovely sunny and warm morning here and the East Preston Festival finishes today.

tidying the garden!

2009-06-12T12:01:00.000-07:00

We have had an onslaught on the rear bed. The irises had come out and inspired me to do a lot of clearing out and making a new bed for some plants including Ursula's new sunflowers. I had to make at least one trip to the tip to get rid of discarded plants and weeds. I have today continued on the southern rear bed and again I have a trailerload for the tip. This is from Debian 5, but on the same machine I have a sata disk with ubuntu 9 and mandriva spring. My interest just now is the video camera running on "cheese". On this machine it works on ubuntu but not yet mandriva.

We look forward to a skype chat with Karen and Michael which is scheduled for 9 pm our time!

Vistors from Houston!

2009-05-24T06:28:00.000-07:00

We were delighted to have a visit from Richard Long, Karen, Michael Long and Susan, Karen's mum.
They arrived on Friday May 22 at 4 pm in the afternoon from Cheltenham where Richard's grandma lives. We took a walk to the beach where the tide was way out and walked on the pebbles and sand. We surprised a man who was digging for worms (as bait for his fishing habit), funnily enough he knew my name as he used to help in the local butcher's shop when David Cheal was still operating in East Preston. He showed the worms to Michael who wasn't very impressed! We walked home va the village and saw the chidren's swing park and the shops.

Ursula .cooked a nice supper and after a while we all retired to bed after a busy day. We had all sorts of plans for the next day but our guests did not want to go far, they had had quite enough of being in the car so we took the bus to Littlehampton and saw all that could be seen there.

We had fish and chips, ice cream, rode on the little train, (the three men only) and finished up at the "Look and See" museum where we could see all around us and find out about local history. We decided not to go on to Arundel so went home in a double decker bus to a nice tea and a quiet evening. And so to bed.

Sadly they left us at 11 am today Sunday for Heath Row where they will be in a hotel until their departure for the States on Tuesday. They will be "doing" London today and tomorrow, Michael is hoping for cookies with the Queen in Buckingham Palace. They will chat up the changing of the guard soldiers and also go to the tower of London to see the Beefeaters, the ravens and have a look at the Crown Jewels.

We just loved having them although we haven't the amount of space that they are used to. They were perfect guests and we loved having Susan as well. She gave us a lovely mug with Abraham Lincoln's face on it, it matched one we have which talks of "Too early for Martinis, have a cup of tea"

Bon Voyage to our visitors!

25th Wedding Anniversary

2009-04-17T12:23:00.000-07:00

Last Tuesday my nephew Paul celebrated his 25th wedding anniversary and had a family gathering. I have had some pictures from Paul's sister, Gillian. Kate, Helena, Christina, Amy and her dad, Christopher in the upper picture.
Below we have Jennifer, Louise, Emily, Charlotte and Laura!

Revising Morse Code!

2009-04-14T13:13:00.000-07:00

Although it is out of date, amateurs still use it. One of the Worthing club members runs a learning course and I have joined. I have also rejoined the Worthing club. There was a session on the air tonight but I joined rather late. I think it is good exercise for the brain! There are some interesting types who take part, plus a number of old codgers like me who are at present very much in the learning role.

I missed the bab at Farnborough, it would have meant 5 hrs of train!

With the help of 2 of the Surrey LUG I have "easy peasey" on my Eee PC now. This puts Ubuntu on the noteook and is much superior to Xandros (which was on before).

Back to Morse!

2009-04-06T09:43:00.001-07:00

I have been encouraged to join a morse group on Tuesday nights. It's probably good to make the brain work a bit. I found a good tutor program on the net and have used it a bit. We are on tomorrow night from 7 pm and I will meet up with one of the men who tutored me years and years ago. He is Graham, G0IOF, a staunch member of the Newhaven Fort Club.

Also contemplating going to Farnborough for a bab meeting on Saturday. The troule is the rather long train journey, shall think about it. Sadly I don't think I will attempt it!

hooked on Linux and irc

2009-03-19T08:30:00.000-07:00

I have been to a "bring a box" session at Guildford with the surrey group. I have also found irs and XChat, where you can have "keyboard conversations" ad lib. I have asked lug admin for permission to start up the littlehampton LUG but no reply as yet.

More ;later on!

5th March 2009

2009-03-05T01:28:00.000-08:00

We had news yesterday that Karen and Richard and Michael are visiting the UK in May! They are going to Anthony first and will be in East Preston about a week later. It will be our pleasure to show them a bit of Sussex and to have them stay with us. It won't be as grand as in Houston but the welcome will be just as good! Just heard today that Karen's Mum is coming too. We shall ask our neighbours if we can make use of their grannie flat. If they have no family coming at that time all will be well!

Monday 16th February

2009-02-16T14:41:00.000-08:00

With some help from Peter Dodd I came back on to 2 m and 70 cm with my amateur radio gear. I use a simple home made aerial that I can quickly transform from one band to another. I heard the Worthing net tonight and came in just at the end to get a signal report from Roy.
So getting back to my old tricks?

G0LOF.....alias Frank

Saturday 7th February

2009-02-07T12:27:00.000-08:00

I have just started a new website...http://www.fhj16.talktalk.net
You might lke to look at it. The reason was to see how talktalk could be persaded to give me one.
I have tried for so long to get help from them and at last sorted it out. They give you 15 Mb of space.

I only used linux programs to write a page and to upload it. I have messed about a lot and almost screwed up the whole thing today. I constructed an alternative site but found that I couldn't get rid of the old data, so had to go back to it.

Anyway we will see how it goes on. Well I had to change the address from fhj17 to fhj16, but that seems to have been done now, so try it out!

5th January 2009

2009-01-05T09:13:00.000-08:00

We have not been well and are just starting to recover! Thanks to everyone for their cards wishes and presents! We had seen most of the family before the bug hit us, and after that we just tried to keep going in spite of everything.

Ther are now two extra family members, Gavin Long in Houston, and Ellis James Michaels in New York, congratulations to Kate and Jack in Houston and Emma and Chance in New York.

On 19th Decembmer Stephen's ashes were interred in St Mary's churchyard and a new monument laid to include his name with those of his parents.

The Gribble Inn, Oving, West Sussex

2008-11-26T09:53:00.000-08:00

Saturday's Daily Telegraph told us about this gem. A pub with a home brewery on site. We were shown round the brewery and tasted the products. I shall return to brewing!

Reg's Tipple is good and so is Plucking Pheasant. We had a good lunch and returned home to snooze all the rest of the afternoon.

All Souls Requiem at Merton

2008-11-03T11:51:00.000-08:00

We were invited to Merton to hear a Requiem Mass for those of Merton who had died last year. Stephen's name was read out. The choir were wonderful. We met the Chaplain Simon Jones. Philip and Jan, Pippa and Bobby were also able to attend.

We stayed in the much overheated Randolph and as we had a cheaper room (!!) The wifi would have been £5 for an hour, so we were not even tempted.

Philip and Jan wisely stayed at a hotel close to Merot where wifi was free, but I didn't take my computer there so had a rest from blogs, e-mails, skypes and etc.

It took us 2 and a half hours to get there and I was quite exhausted by the driving. We had a nice lunch and then snoozed until time for the taxi to Merton.

At 3am the Randolph slipped a bill under the bedroom door indicating that there was another £30.60 to pay!

We came home stopping for lunch at Trotton. Nice to be home to free (?) wifi and normal room temperatures.

Ursula's Birthday today!

2008-10-25T10:49:00.000-07:00

Here she is! The birthday lady. She received lots of lovely cards, presents,
a bouquet of flowers, and then a nice lunch at the Spotted Cow. Patsy joined us for lunch and then we went to her house for coffee. Sadly I dozed off! The level crossing did its worst and shut every time we looked at it!

Mandriva 2009

2008-10-20T12:44:00.000-07:00

I downloaded this distro last night. It seems very good. Lots of new features. One is getting pics from a web cam easily anywhere that you want them.

Here are we on the couch with new covers. Alas Ursula's coffee cup handle broke and she and the new cover were drenched. It was very painful for her. She had to change everything and was scalded as well. The cover we took off and washed, hopefully it won't have a stain mark.

Prim came this morning to help me with my wine attempt. I don't hold out much hope that it will work but we will see.

Helena is with Christina in Peterborough, all the rest are at home. Jen goes to China tomorrow with her school party.

18th October 2008

2008-10-19T01:58:00.000-07:00

On Friday I had my 85^th birthday. We went out for lunch and that was about all that we did! However the next day my family gave me the sweetest day of my life. They all travelled down from far and wide and together we had a family celebration that surely I will never forget.

We had a fairly simple lunch, though it must have taken an enormous amount of effort to put it together. Richard and Jackie coming from Norfolk were understandingly late so lunch was really in two parts. However the cake cutting ceremony was shared by all, and with a bottle of champagne we toasted one another. Richard used his new video camera and had a record of my speechlessness and obvious joy at the events as they unfolded.

At long last, though I had suspected it, I realise the love and affection that my wife and children have bestowed on me over all these years. I am humbled and hold my head in shame at the memory of all my past misdeeds and errors!

We were blessed with Johnny being with us, he is not always able to join in. Mind you, he spent a lot of time examining the new mini Asus Eee PC, and didn't venture to the beach with us. We skyped Amy and Susie, they could not attend either because of various impedimenta, one was Hollie having a nasty cold.

Helena had prepared a book of life for me, a wonderful collection of many of the good things that I could be proud of, some were quite new for me to read. It must have taken hours and hours of research on her part. What a wonderful gift she gave me

I had presents and cards, and after they had gone home and all was over I felt quite old and feeble, and reflected on how lucky I have been through all my life and what a wonderful thing is a family.

Why not try Linux?

2008-09-30T08:57:00.000-07:00

You may have been stuck with microsoft or apple for a long time. I have a tip for you. Have you ever heard of a live disk?

A live disk, which you can get free or download yourself if you have broadband, will enable you to run your computer as a linux machine without the need to use your own hard drive. In fact even if you remove your hard drive the cd disk will enable you to run using a linux operating system dependent on your choice of cd.

This way you can explore the linux world where all the software is free and there is all the help you need available on line.

Look up live disk on google or look up linux. You really are wasting your time and money with microsoft.

One of the best is PCLinux gnome, but ubuntu is also very good. There is debian and a host of others including suse, mandriva and so many others.

I recently acquired a small Asus Eee PC computer. It also runs a linux distro and in fact I am using it now. It weighs less than 1 Kg, the screen is about 7" wide and it as all you need except for a cd rom drive. It has no moving parts and its "hard drive" is non volatile memory. It has 1Gb of memory which is fine.

The keyboard is small but even I can use it so it can't be bad.

Look it up on the web sometime, for taking away on trips and keeping in touch it is a gem!LINUX

28th September

2008-09-28T06:08:00.000-07:00

To Church at 10 am, Harvest Festival... not like the old ones. Most people I never saw before! Happy Clappy, mousic and more. Bogoff for a home in Hove, already in the news earlier in the year for irregularities!

Given up SLUG, last to month couldn't get a lift. Intereseting people but not en specially helpful. Mr Debian a real pain. Can't and won't help to get Debian to see a wifi.

Some really nice people and some just show-offs!

Given up on Mandriva, PC Linux really works.

Did the side hedge, and now on the Autumn Bliss raspberries. Lots of toms and lettuce. Tryin to incres the strawberry plant holding.

Matthew's bees really are bumble and will be left!

Howlong before distribution , only the blue stocking girl can tell!

A horrendous journey home!

2008-09-22T13:07:00.000-07:00

We were taken by Wilma to Harrow and Wealdstone at 5.30 pm on Sunday night as we wanted to get back home in order to put dustbin and bertie box out as the dustmen come on Monday morning at 7 am.

The train would take us to Euston and Wilma suggested that we get a taxi to Victoria. Alas there were steps down for taxis and steps down for tube trains so being parsimonious I thought we would try the tube. Alas the Victoria line was closed and all the ticket barriers seemed not to be openable by our tickets. Then the trains were delayed and we were 4 deep on the ploatform . I chatted to a lady from Hamilton NZ who advised us re the trains! We managed to get on the tube, squashed in by the doors! We had to change at Embankment and then up and down escalators and stairs with this now very heavy suitcase finally arriving at Victoria. Found a train and a seat only to be told that the train was cancelled and there would be an hour to wait.

Found a place for coffee, both of us wanted comfort stations, so one at a time we paid our 30p's
and back for coffee. Whilst Ursula was away, a beggar came up and asked for a sip of my coffee! I told him to buy his own but he replied that he had no money. He disappeared and later passed behind me, called me a bastard and expressed the wish that I would die on the way home. I ignored him.

At 8.10 or so we found another train, again found seats and eventually arrived back at Angmering at about 10 pm. Trudged around the other side of the station in the vain hope of getting a taxi. Nothing doing, so a weary walk with heavy case to our house!

My fault for not preparing for all this, fortified with a whisky we went to our slumbers! Just for a lark I added a picture taken last week on our Horti Trip to Stratford.

Another wedding!

2008-09-21T03:45:00.001-07:00

We were invited by Wilma to help us attend Michael Witt's wedding which was to be at St. Barnabas, Northolt. It was a very comprehensive wedding with Nuptial Mass. Many people attended and then went on to the reception at a Golf Centre in Ruislip. It was a hearty affair with rather too loud "music" later on. Ursula and I had eventually to try to hide from the sound! Nigel was there and this time he was actually wearing his old school tie. Sadly I was wearing my tie from the People's Republic of China. I had the old school tie at Wilma's but wore it the day before!

Paul drove us from Wilma's house and back. We may have persuaded him to cut short his enjoyment of the young people's music and boom-boom-boom!

I cut some of Wilma's grass on Friday night, but the back lawn defeated me on Saturday as it was long and wet. I was saved by Hugh's arrival to borrow the mower so didn't have to clean it up.

accelerator start-ups.

2008-09-09T13:25:00.000-07:00

I have seen a few. The worst was the booster at CERN. Two men were supposed to have charge of the start-up of the 4 ring vertically stacked synchrotrons. They spent days and days tickling the controls, taking hundreds of photographs and copious writing in notebooks but always without success.

To get a bit of glory they invited the Director General and all the really important people to attend on a given day. It was the mixture as before...red faces...important people 4 deep in front of the equipment racks. The reason...discovered by Frank Sacherer, Ray Sherwood et al during one of the evening and late night runs, the ocurrence of resonances which were avoided by not using the values of Qv and Qh that the "experts" insisted on using every day for a month or so.

When one "expert" was lecturing the ISR people how the booster could never work with the old linac, on his return to his office he had photos of the circulating beam in each of the 4 rings on his desk.

Like another of his compatriots who could never make a mistake no mention was made of the incident but the old Qv and Qh values were abandoned for ever.

Let's hope tomorrow goes off better than that. Lyn is my friend and I wish him success and glory!

9th September

2008-09-09T11:15:00.000-07:00

Edit and Matthew came to stay with us so that they could look over their new property and get the builder started. They left yesterday and we are very quiet again!

Sunday 22nd June

2008-06-22T13:09:00.000-07:00

To Turners Hill for a family celebration splendidly hosted by Phil and Jackie. It was to celebrate Nigel's 70th yesterday and Rosemary and Peter's golden wedding. Lots of family, James's, Medcalf's, Fishers's and Peter's cousin and hia wife. Lots of young people, Jennifer not able to come, Susie and Holie intended coming but did not. Chris gave us plants that she had brought from Peterborough. A hot sunny day, a very nice gathering!
Michael and fiancee Jo obviously very happy!