TEMPERATURE IN NOTTINGHAM NOW
Thursday 21 July 2005. I have had my own bulletin board for a few weeks now, and at last I have a member! If you are interested in shares, why not join?
So much for publishing all opinions! I added my comments to this page: Daily Mail, in the Daily Mail on line, and although they were showing for a short while, censorship prevailed and they were removed. Why?
Friday 15 July 2005. I need to update urgently. It has been a very busy time, completing the three sets of examination marking, but I am at the end now, with just a small amount of checking to do. I have been up to the Durham Dales area, and recce'd the overnight section of the DD50, which was also in the DD100 six years ago. This 3 mile stretch is the section on which I have got lost on each of the three occasions I have needed to walk it...all of which were overnight. I hope now I can get through without any more problems. I have also spent a few days at my bungalow at Anderby Creek, where having internet access has enabled me to keep in touch with the movements of my shares. While there I sold my Lloyds TSB shares, making a small profit of £54. And talking of shares, today I made £332 on Centrica. Last Thursday, as the market was in freefall for a short time, I took the opportunity to buy 3000 of them at 222.66p at 10.11 am. Although they fell further, by the end of the day they had recovered sufficiently to cover my dealing costs and taxes. Over the next few days they fell again, but last night they suddenly rose 5p, and that happened again in early deals this morning, in response to the news about exploration in the North Sea. At 8.06 am the shares were up 5p, so I took the profit. That's about my best short term deal, £332 in 8 days. It beats working for a living, but having access to moneyam.co.uk makes it possible. I could not possibly do my deals without that. And the basic service, with real-time prices, is free. For full details of all my deals since I started with internet share dealing in March 2003, please visit www.shares4fun.co.uk
Sunday 3 July 2005. Yesterday I took part in the 49th Chevy Chase fell walk, starting from Wooler. I completed the event in 8 hr 34 mins 23 sec, much longer than any of my three previous times. The weather on the day was humid, although again the Cheviot itself was in the clouds, making it cold and wet. Maybe the fact that I had walked 52 miles last weekend contributed to my slower time, or maybe the weather conditions. I was also guided on the direct route from Cheviot to Hedgehope: a good and easier descent, but a much steeper climb after crossing the burn. My time was 2:17:27 between the two summits, very slow indeed. As soon as the results are posted, I will put in a link. In the meantime, click here for more details.
Sunday 26 June 2005. The Durham Dales 52 mile challenge walk was held this weekend. I started the walk at 9 am Saturday, and made three serious errors on the route, which resulted in my time being an hour longer than last year, when there were a couple of hours less daylight. In fact, the sky in the Durham Dales area never went completely dark..it was a lovely night. Pity I went 1 Km off route, and had to heather bash to pick it up again. Here are the results for this event.
Friday 24 June 05. A couple of items concerning the BBC this morning. Firstly Radio Nottingham is doing its listeners a disservice by continually giving out the phone number for National Rail Enquiries. There is a great website for real time information at key railway stations: for example Newark. The breakfast show does not even get the details from that site, although they know it exists..having emailed and phoned to tell them! Maybe they don't care about giving the best service they can.
Secondly, I find this interesting link on the R. Lincolnshire site: Skegness
Monday 13 June 05. Trouble at Ravenshead PO this morning. Had a packet to collect, that as usual mentioned showing proof of identity. Having visited that PO for over 30 years, and being dealt with by an assistant that knows me, I am not expecting to be asked for ID. I was! So I walked out, returning after collecting The Times from the paper shop. was given the package second time round, without needing to show any ID. Pity little things like that help to create customer dissatisfaction, especially with such beautiful weather as it is this morning. Oh, and the packet was not even for me!
Sunday 12 June 05. Train trip yesterday, scheduled for Wales, ended up at Blackpool. EWS had sent an unreliable engine, so by the time it got to Shrewsbury, cancellation was being thought of. A couple of hours in Blackpool: just time for a visit up the tower! Picture here It is expected that the original trip will be rearranged later in the year. Hopefully for free!
Thursday 9 June 2005. It has been nearly two weeks since the Chiltern 100 mile Challenge event, and I have at last got round to uploading four photos of me on the walk. The first, before the start, taken by Julian, then at about the twenty mile stage, by Julie. The third is about eighty miles in, taken by a passing walker at the trig point, and the final one, arriving at the finish, taken by Carol. Click here for the yahoo slideshow.
Wednesday 1 June 2005. Oh the wonders of google. I have received an email from Rachael, in the audience along with myself, for the Little Richard concert. Searching the internet for information on the Wolverhampton show, google picked up my comments. She is interested in any pictures people may have of the session where members of the audience danced onstage. I did not take any at that time, but have sent her my two best pix anyway.
Over the past couple of days, EGG shares have rebounded from their recent lows. Accordingly I have just sold half my short term holding for a profit of £243. This brings the total profit on my completed deals since March 2003 to £9025. For details go to www.shares4fun.co.uk
Monday 30 May 2005. Just returned from my first visit to the Chilterns, the area chosen for the 2005 LDWA 100 mile walk. I completed the walk in a time of 45 hrs 58 mins, and even received a hug from Carol! I recced the overnight sections, 40-54 miles and 90-100 over the preceding three days. However, I got off route on the sections just before these stages, as I had not quite got far enough on the walk itself. I will post a few pix of me on the walk when I have a few more moments. I come back to find lots of UCLES Maths papers that need sorting out prior to the examiners meeting on Saturday.
Saturday 21 May 2005. So ntl has decided to increase its phone line rental charges by £1, puuting them up to £10.50, the same price as bt. Hardly a competitive move, given that several other companies, including One-tel, are charging £9.99. For the past two years, since I had broadband from ntl, I have kept the two ntl lines, but now with this increase I have discontinued the 01623-403224 line, a loss to ntl of £8.50 per month! It is possible to return to bt for the second line, and then have adsl broadband. That really depends on how the competition developes, and how speeds increase. A few months ago, £25 for 2Mb was good value, but adsl providers are coming in with cheaper deals all the time. One-tel has another advantage in that, if one adopts paperless billing by the internet, then it is possible to save money by using their call auction service. It has saved me about 20% on the charges so far.
Friday 20 May 2005. I have a superb picture of Tim Glenn, LDWA, leaping from one stone to another on the Peak Stones walk, which would make a great cover picture for Strider. However, I am told that the printer says that he need digital pictures to be taken at 5 Mp resolution. Yet two years ago I had two photos on the front covers that had a resolution of only 1 Mp! Apparently my new 3 Mp picture is not adequate now. It could still be printed inside, along with a second photo taken on the same walk.
Wednesday 18 May 2005. Today I did the Dark Peak Stones walk. Link to some photos are at Here
Tuesday 10 May 2005. Little Richard in concert in Wolverhampton a couple of days ago. I booked Wolverhampton since at the time I did not know any other performances were taking place. As it was, I was in Birmingham when he appeared in Nottingham. However, the show I saw was a very relaxed affair, with no limitations on taking photos. Its amazing how much information it is possible to get on a 2 GB card in my Sony 150 camera! He performs well at 72. However, he did think he was returning to USA the following day, although he was scheduled to perform at the Newcastle City Hall last night.
Sunday 8 May 2005. Wow, is it really four weeks since I updated this blog. How time flies when one is enjoying oneself! There have been several very enjoyable trips during this time, as well as a couple of exam meetings for OCR coursework, that have kept me very busy. At the present time I am still involved with marking the coursework, and so will have little if any time to update this with any regularity.
I have had a telephone line installed at my Anderby Creek bungalow, and internet access is now active. At the moment I take lappy, but would like a more permanent set up. I think the best solution is to get a new set up here, and take the old one, over four years old now, there.
I purchased a speed camera GPS warning device for the Honda Civic R. It gives me verbal warnings on approaching the places where they are sited, and also mentions sites where mobile cmaeras are used. That way it will still be legal when the radar detector type is outlawed.
So Labour won both the General and Notts CC Elections on 5 May . Don't blame me! How much will my Council Tax increase from the present £1977 I wonder. And the local council has the cheek to ask for another £26 to collect garden waste. No chance!
Sunday 17 April 2005. At last, I have completed The Woldsman. What a macho name, by the way...The WOLDSMAN, so much more tough sounding than the Beverly 50. The Woldsman is a 50 mile challenge circular walk from Beverly, started as a one off two years ago by the E. Yorkshire group of the LDWA. However, it was decided to repeat it last year, and I was again not available, so yesterday was the first time I had participated. It is a lovely walk, taking in the best parts of the Wolds, and follows parts of the Wolds Way and the Hudson Way. As usual the group provided excellent facilities and good food. The full breakfast at the finish was particularly welcome, as was the hot food at the 30 mile stage. One advantage about the route is that the final 5 miles is very easy flat walking, along roads and tracks, which since darkness fell about 8.30pm (although there was a half moon last night), made progress straightforward. I completed the 50 miles in 15 hrs 12 mins, but feel I can improve on that in the future. I recommend anyone to use the Woldsman 50 as a qualifier for the 100, even in preference to The Poppyline 50, which is now considerably tougher than it was at first. Thanks particularly to Bill Jordan, Glenn Hood and all members of the E. Yorkshire group, and I hope I am able to join it again next year.
Saturday 16 April 2005. Six months ago I bought the Honda Civic R, instead of continuing with my lifetime commitment to MG Rover. The equivalent car is the MG ZR, but in most respects it has hardly changed from my 1997 Rover 200Vi. There was no way I was going to buy such a car, with its old technology, and it looks as if most car buyers agreed with me, as shown by their falling sales. Now they have gone out of business, but could be resurrected as a specialist sports car maker. So thankfully I still have the warrenty on my Honda, unlike the misguided purchasers of rovers!
Thursday 14 April 2005. Yesterday i went on a Pathfinder rail tour to the Bodmin Steam Railway. Here is a link to the pix: click
Tuesday 12 April 2005. Another box of tricks arrived this afternoon. The GPS speed camera detector is essential in todays world of the expanding camera network. Click Here for details.
Sunday 10 April 2005. For access to more photos from my trip, click Here
Saturday 9 April 2005. During my Northumberland visit earlier in the week I took a short walk along the coast. Click here for some photos.
Friday 1 April 2005. A 9 mile walk in 4 hours today, starting at 9 am at Carlton-on-Trent. Click here for the link to the photos.
Wednesday 30 March 2005. The HBOS problem continues. I check this morning and find that the £250 payment in for March has now been removed, but the withdrawal on the anniversary date of the account still contains thirteen payments! See the evidence here Click. I am told, finally, that according to the terms and conditions of the account, it is impossible to make two payments into the saver account in the same month. How does that square with one being removed...and it does not appear anywhere else either, so at the time of writing this I am £250 down. Guess which bank is not flavour of the month at this moment.
Monday 28 March 2005. HERE are the photos from the 10 mile walk from Caunton, Notts, led by Geoff Rix.
Saturday 26 March 2005. On 20 Feb I went on the walk: The Beast of Bolsover. Here is a link to the pix: Here
Halifax just called to say that the £250 had been recreddited to my saver account, as agreed, and also an ex gratis payment of £15 had been added to my web saver account. On checking, I can see the £15, but as yet there is no sign of the £250. How long do these operations on accounts take to show up?
Friday 25 March 2005. A quick phone call from Ken, of the Lincolnshire LDWA, inviting me to join him on a 17 mile recce for a walk he is putting on for the group on 3 April. It was from Matlock to Carsington Res. and return, a very hilly walk! For the yahoo slideshow link, pleasew click here
The HBOS affair has still not been resolved. Melanie is due to ring me on Monday. Time is running out!
Tuesday 22 March 2005. Sunday saw me join the LDWA walk on Kinder, where I saw the remains of ten aircraft that had crashed in that remote area of Derbyshire. Here is a link; Click here
The HBOS saga has not yet reached a satisfactory conclusion. Another couple of phone calls were needed yesterday. Was it really necessary to ask FIVE security questions? I suppose as HBOS gets money from the 0845 calls, it pays them to prolong them. However, I am promised that everything will have been corrected by next Monday, and I am also promised £15 in compensation for all the hassle that I have been put through.
Thursday 17 March 2005.HBOS is making a real mess of correcting my regular savings account. £250 is paid in each month, but the 1 March 05 payment was transferred out on 2 March, the anniversary of the account, in accordance with the rules, consequently nothing was invested at 7% for the rest of the month. In order to correct this, I have made several phone calls to HBOS, and thought that the matter had been resolved once the manual correction had taken place. The operation required went into a queue, which meant four days of waiting before it was actioned. On checking this morning I see the following: HBOS. , yes, a debit balance in a regualr savings account. The manual transaction had removed £250 instead of adding the £250 back again. I am assured that this will be corrected in the next 24 hours. We shall see. I guess the cost of my phone calls exceed the £0.48 extra interest I will receive! Still, it's the principle that counts.
Monday 14 March 2005. Just had a quick phone call from Ian Sykes, the organiser of the 50 mile challenge walk, the Woldsman, informing me that a new venue has been found, to replace the Leisure Centre that is closed at present for refurbishment. I simply have to send off the £12, writing my entry number (9) on the reverse, and turn up at the grid reference 049041 east of Beverly, at the appointed time!
Having sent off my initial investment in www.zopa.com, it is pleasing to see that it is now being made available to borrowers. So far £90 has been loaned to 9 people, 8 male and one female, aged between 24 and 59, at rates of interest varying between 8.0 and 9,6%. So far no one has defaulted! Here are the details so far: Click Here
A pleasant walking day yesterday, doing three more 2000 ft hills in the North Pennines. I approached the Chapelfell area, between Teesdale and Weardale, from the south, which meant I had to stop short of the meeting point because the road was blocked by snow. That added about another three miles to my walk! For three pix of me at the summits, and the route outline, click Here
Thursday 10 March 2005. The full list of Belvoir Challenge results is available HERE . Here is the extract showing my result! Click
Do a google search for ocelot and you may come across this website; Bovered. Please visit and see what it is all about!
A while ago it was suggested I set up my own forum. That would have the advantage of course that I would not be banned from it, as has happened on three boards over the past year or so! Visit it and join up here: Forum
A trip into Nottingham was necessary today. While in Leeds on Tuesday my Sony P150 broke. Not sure what was wrong, but it would not switch on: maybe the battery would not charge, or there was a bad connection. So I popped into Argos, where it was exchnged with no hesitation.
A while ago I emailed the Nottingham Evening Post a picture I had taken of the snowdrops at Hodstock Priory. Last Thursday the picture was published! Yay! Click Here
Sunday 6 March 2005. It is over a week since I updated here. Since last week I have been on two walks, the first on Wednesday with two other members of the ramblers' association, was a local walk from near Grantham. This introduced me to memory-map, software which I now have installed. It enables the routes of walks to be superimposed on the OS map of the area, and the result can then be sent by email, which can be viewed by the recipiant if they also have memory-map. Here are two examples: Example 1, Example 2
Saturday 26 Feb 2005. The annual challenge walk, the Belvoir Challenge, was held today. This was my first challenge walk, in 1997, so this was the 9th i have done, and only the 3rd time I have walked without a partner. My time of 8hr 14 mins was the slowest yet for the 26.5 mile event, but then conditions were extremely muddy as the recent snow was melting rapidly. The pix are here
Thursday 24 Feb 2005. Here is a picture of a snowman...or is it a snowwoman?
Wednesday 23 Feb 2005. How do you feel about OS trig points. Although no longer in use for their original purpose of mapmaking, they still provide a useful guide to your position. Whenever I see one, I like to be photographed alongside it. Here is a site that takes things one step further: www.trigpointinguk.com
Tuesday 22 February 2005. Some pix of Ravenshead in the snow: here
Monday 21 February 2005. A very pleasant weekend has now passed, with the visit of Maureen Prosser. Yesterday we joined the Lincolnshire LDWA group on its walk "The Beast of Bolsover". This is an anytime challenge, and the designer and recorder of this walk also took part. Interestingly, he has also designed 'hills and mills', from Matlock, another anytime challenge, recently put on by Tim Glenn, and to be done by the Manchester group next weekend, when I am occupied with the Belvoir Challenge. Having walk descriptions for both of these means that a couple more 20 milers are availaiable for anyone I meet who is interested in moving up from the average ramble to this distance!
Sunday 13 February 2005.Here are todays pix of Rowan Avenue: here
Time after time I find that reports in the press that involve percentages are invariably wrong. However, I expect better of the Sunday Times. Today, commenting on changes in the value of the FTSE index, Kathryn Cooper thinks that the current level of 5044 is 37% below its all time high of 6930, when it is in fact just 27% below. What she means is that a rise of 37% is needed to reach the all time high figure: not the same statistic at all!
Sunday 6 Feb 2005. I have had a gmail account for some time, and its features are proving attractive. It has now added email forwarding and POP 3 access, so you can receive emails in your PC as well as store them as part of gmails 1Gb space. Also, there has been a huge increase in the number of invites available. I now have 50 to give away, so if anyone reading this would like to be part of the gmail revolution, please send their email address to My Gmail and I will be happy to oblige!
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