Hi - I'm john, and I live in Sherwood Forest, home of Robin Hood.
Please email me at john@jg4fun.co.uk
Thur 15 May 03I see that Tatton, Cheshire, is the richest area of the UK...pity that I did not register tatton.me.uk instead of alderleyedge.me.uk or wilmslow.me.uk ...It was available as I notice from a whois check that tatton was registered about 4 weeks after I registered the other two! Why not have a look at www.alderleyedge.me.uk or www.wilmslow.me.uk ? Or do you fancy an email address based on these. Visit and find out more.
Wed 14 May 03
I have seen Ad aware mentioned and praised frequently. When I took its advice and cleared the computer of the ads and other things it recommended be removed, I also lost my internet connection. NTL could only advise a complete reinstall of the system. I eventually came across the restore section in ad-aware, and the connection returned. So I would not advise anyone to use ad-aware unless they do not use the internet.
Sat 10 May 03
Here is a copy of a message sent to National Express today concerning the service yesterday, from Manchester to Sheffield, leaving at 6.30 pm yestyerday, 9 May 03:
I book on the internet and print off the eticket, which works very well. However, on attempting to board the above service, I was told to wait while all the other passengers with 'regular' tickets, were allowed on. Myself and two others in the same situation then had the paperwork checked and whatever needs to be done was done... I think the driver has to copy some information, although not all do. We were then allowed on, and so had to choose from the limited selection of seats. This is clearly not something that should be encouraged, as it defeats the object of on-line booking if the passengers are going to be treated as second class citizens. I hope you see the injustice in this, and can take it up, not only with the driver concerned, but with ALL your drivers, so that this problem does not happen again in the future. I travel fairly regularly using National Express and do not want to be treated in this way again.
Sat 10 May 03
I have had a very satisfying Challenge Walk today,the Caythorpe Canter.
When I last did the route, which although supposedly 26 miles I think is more like 25, I took 6:16. That was 5 years ago, and 5 years is a long time! So I was very interested to see if I could match that, since other walks last year have not been of a sufficiently fast standard. The terrain is very much to my liking, in that for most of the walk it is flat. There are a couple of sharp ascents, but both are very brief!
I had had a short chat with David, from Horncastle, just before the start, since I was wearing my orangy 100 lakeland shirt, and he had completed that event last year. Of course I did not know his speed, but I set off as usual, trying to shake off any fast walkers...really to get a distance between us, so that when I tired I would be far enough ahead to maintain my lead.
But footsteps kept up just behind, and it was David, wth the unusual style sometimes used in speed walking, but not seen in the LDWA. So we kept together, and since there were only 3 CPs, at 6,14 and 21 miles, no time was wasted. Some way before the 21 mile CP I noticed someone who seemed to be catching up. That was very surprising, as I really thought David and myself had shaken off the opposition. The track alongside the wood was excellent, slghtly downhill before Ancaster, and just to my liking, so I went rather more quickly down there, in fact to try to arrive at 21 miles by 1pm, 4½ hrs from the start. I missed that by 2 minutes.
A quick bite and drink...thanks for the fruit and rice... we left, but Colin was arriving. Now Colin is the most amazing walker I have seen locally. Apparently no effort, long legs striding out, and fast movement forward ensues. So I knew that to have any chance of being the first walker I had to speed up. This I did, but that was too much for David, who had not done a Challenge Walk for many months. Eventually when I turned round, I saw that Colin had caught him up, and he then began catching me as well. The locked and barbed gate near the finish confused me, and caused me to pause, but I did keep ahead. This was maintained to the finish, in a time for the approx 25 miles of 5:39. Colin was about ½ minute slower, being about 30 yards behind. Clearly he would have overtaken if the event was any longer. Obviously I was the first walker back, with about 20 runners in front. However, the one disappointment of the day is that this time there will be no results sheet. I guess the runners will be concerned about that as well. But I did do the event 37 mins quicker than 5 years ago, much to my relief. Amazing waht a bit of competition does on the day!
Oh, and David finished in 5:45.
Tue 6 May 03 I have been very occupied of late, so I have only just found time to bring this page up to date. I have been climbing 8 Munros, 3 in the remote Knoydart region north of Mallaig. The area, although part of the British mainland, does not have road access. The only ways in are on foot, maybe bike, but mainly by boat, thrice weekly out of season from Mallaig. fare £6 single. Consequently, once vehicles are there, either to run on the rough tracks, or the couple of miles of metalled roads, they tend to stay. Fuel arrives in cans by each sailing! No road fund licences or MOTs are required. There is also the remotest pub on the mainland of the UK, The Old Forge, and Pier House, providing morning coffee and meals. And that is about it, apart from the easier access to the Munros. I have now completed 42, leaving just 242 to climb! Surprisingly there were two cars with Nottingham registrations, having been taken there by their owners. Also, visitors from Ravenshead were due to arrive there in the next few weeks. What a small world it is!
On returning, there was the annual two day exam meeting for OCR coursework, this time at the Holiday Inn, Nottingham.
I was then able to get back today to a bit more stock market gambling, and although my share, bt, did rise, I am holding on for a further rise tomorrow! Thus had good results, so I chanced on buying a huge amount of that, since it is so cheap, and looks to have potential from the very low level at this time.
Wed 16 Apr 03 The stock market gambling did not pay off today. The market was down at lunchtime, and with the US expected to start higher, I guessed that the UK market would rise later in the day. But America opened lower, and then dropped even more, pulling the UK down with it. So the two shares I had bought around lunchtime finished lower. I will put a sell limit on them while I am away, and they could have been sold by the time of my return. I am visiting the Knoydart area of Scotland, hoping to climb some Munros, as well as 'bag' a few more around Crianlarich and Glencoe when I break my journeys.
I am the cover picture on the front page of the Strider magazine, April 03 CLICK HERE
Tue 15 Apr 03 After three weeks of quick dealing, in six different shares, my total profit is now £320.02. I thought the market was going to be in for a fair run up as it did seem to be getting too low. Whether the rise will be maintained is another matter; however, this profit is in the bag, the shares in question having been bought and sold.
I had a very pleasant walk, courtesy of the LDWA, in the North Pennines area once again, on Saturday, with the warm weather being particularly pleasant. The ground was very firm, the bogs having dried out from the winter. Monday saw me visiting the City of Caves in Nottingham, which opens to the public on Friday. I was lucky enough to secure one of the ten places that Radio Nottingham had on offer, for a special preview. My comments to Karl Cooper, the morning show presenter, were not broadcast this morning. My pictures can be seen HERE
Mon 7 Apr 03 Having reading about a worm caught from altavista, I thought it was sensible to download ad-aware. After running it and finding it removing lots of 'spyware' I also found I had lost my internet connection! NTL tried to advise, but eventually could only suggest that I reinstall windows XP. After a restless night, I recalled that I had spotted a restore facility, so I used that. I got my internet connection back, along with emails, but the only browser that works now is Opera, which I was using in preference to IE. Having tried and failed to get IE, Netscape & Mozilla to function properly, I am left with Opera. I hope that can stand the strain!
On the share fron, BT & Vodafone rose, but not sufficient to tempt me to take the short term gains at the moment. I think the market still has a little way to go, although as the US fell back a lot from its highs today, tomorrow may be see a downward movement in the UK.
Sat 5 Apr 03 I have just returned from a very enjoyable train trip, from Chesterfield, via Leeds, Settle, Carlisle, Newcastle, and return via the ECML through Doncaster to Chesterfield. Pleasant weather, great scenery, and very relaxing simply sitting and letting the world pass by. Try it some time! There are over 70 photos of the trip to post, so watch www.jg4fun.co.uk and click on 'latest' to find the link.
Fri 4 Apr 03 Those of you who know me from the past may recall that I was interested in the stock market, and bought and sold shares from time to time. I have been inactive for the past three years, letting the market find an appropriate level before starting to invest further. Three weeks ago I felt that moment had arrived, but Schwab would not let me deal at that time because of the long gap since I had last dealt with them. I have five accounts, including ISAs and PEPs, so they all needed reactivating. This I did, but I also took the opportunity to set up the internet dealing accounts that they operate. The pass words that had been mailed to me failed to work, which meant two 0870 calls, but I did eventually get things working.
Almost at the same time I was informed about www.moneyam.com, which must surely be the greatest free site for streaming real time UK stock market prices, usually only available to professionals at great cost. Schwab offers internet deals free of charge for the first month, so, in conjunction with moneyam.com I set about 'earning' some profits for myself. After three days of falling prices last week I felt a short term upward movement was possible, and invested over the next few days in corus, abbey national and barclays. With a close eye on moneyam.com I was able to act on small movements in their prices. These shares were chosen because they are large companies, with many shares in circulation, and were seen to be very active in that there were a lot of deals being processed. I was able to sell all three of these shares during the next few days, coming out with a profit of £180 tax free. This is better than teaching mathematics! I am now holding BT and vodafone, both of which moved in the wrong direction after purchase, but again as they are active shares, may show a short term profit in the near future. If not, I will continue to hold them until they do.
Mon 24 March 03 A busy weekend. Saturday was spent introducing
Philippa
to walking. She hopes to get up to 100 miles, the length of the longest walks I have done. It will take a few years I guess, but we are starting our training now. We may meet again in a couple of weeks time to try the Round Ravenshead 11 mile walk.
On Sunday there was the Irregulars LDWA AGM walk, a difficult 12 mile walk from near Halifax. It's all hills around there! The AGM, probably the most populated and best organised of any of the LDWA groups AGMs, went off very well indeed, with several interesting decisions agreed. Most notably of those concerns those who attend Irregs walk who have not paid the annual £10 subscription...in future they will be required to pay for the walk, including badge and certificate, at a higher rate than that for members!I lost the use of the computer at 17.50 fri 21 March. The video card failed, and blew the fuse + the ring main CB. So into the shop with it on Sat, repaired, and collected today. But why did control panel disappear form Start menu....I have now put it back, but 'help' was no help in finding it...it suggested finding it in the start menu! Anyway, I noticed it in the menu on the left of the My Docs page, so brought it up, and dragged it to start...so all is well again.
I am fed up with my local radio station not giving much local news recently. I complained to the complaints department of the BBC, and here is the response: 'Thank you for your e-mail to the BBC Programme Complaints Unit.
We are sorry that we cannot answer your e-mail here, as it does not fall
within the parameters set out on our web pages.' In everyday English, don't send complaints to the complaints department!...very Monty Pythonish!
Thur 13 Feb 03 I returned from the Irregulars trip to the Isle of Man, where 21 members walked the coastal path. I hope that full details will be published in Strider eventually, but here is the press report that dealt with our attempt to return to England. We arrived back at Heysham 27 hours late, due to being fogbound outside Heysham
Press report
Mon 3 Feb 03A very sad day for Texas today, remembering the events that occurred in that snowstorm 44 years ago. I will never forget the next morning in 1959, and where I was, as I read the full details spelt out on the front page, which still survives somewhere in my newspaper cuttings to this day. The music never died, of course, and his influence on the pop music industry has been so profound. I regret the decision of KDAV from Lubbock to charge for the sevice, as today is such a special day in its schedule.
Sun 26 Jan 03 Todays walk was with the local ldwa group, Sherwood, led by Maureen Higgins, joint secretary. It was 17½ miles, starting in Duffield, north of Derby. A pleasant walk, not too muddy, good conversation, and mostly friendly company. My pix are at HERE. I sent several to Julie Strider for consideration, and the distressing news is that one of them, showing Richard Measures and 'a friend' is being considered for the front cover of the April edition, in place of a brilliant one of myself on Dufton Pike. I suggested that my pic should stay on the front, since it is a hillwalkers edition, with Richard on the
back. That seems a sensible compromise!
Also on the walk was Malcolm, of vest fame, but now he is into hats and gloves. I needed a warmer pair of gloves, since the freezing conditions last week in the Pennines were too much for my fingers to take in my usual thin pair. So I bought a pair at £2...excellent quality. He can be contacted at malcolm@jg4fun.co.uk if you would like a pair.
Mon 20 Jan 03. I had a short practice on my double suspension cycle today, in preparation for my C2C cycle ride later in the year, maybe. Todays practice took place at Clipstone Forest, now renamed Sherwood Pines Forest. Clearly, since Centre Parcs arrived in the area, a new more upmarket name was required. Pix from today: pic003, pic004
Sun 19 Jan 03. I arrived back yesterday from a few days away. On Tuesday I had left for York Y.H., staying overnight, to join the Irregulars on its York Millenium Walk. I made the mistake the next morning of trying to drive to the start point near the racecourse, and, because of the difficulties with the York traffic, arrived at 8.20 am, 20 mins late. I should have made the easy 30 mins walk instead. However, I had an enjoyable day visiting the Cathedral area, with a walk along the river, the city walls, more of the river passing the new Millenium footbridge and cycle way, returning via the racecourse.
After a second night at the very pleasant Y.H., I left the next morning for Windermere, where I had been invited to stay for two nights at the home of Heather & Alan, the inventors and producers of Pacerpoles. I received a couple of days tuition in their use, with the aim of speeding me up on the hills of the Chevy Chase later in the year. Last year I started the event with Moira, but took 7:00:07 to complete, being particularly slow on the hills, both up and down, as well as being seriously misdirected later on the route. However, Heather beleived that with proper use of here walking poles I could reduce that to 5:50. Time will tell, but, as ever, time marches on, and I am another year older!
I had a practice with the poles yesterday on a walk up some hills in the N. Pennines area with Moira.
Today was the meeting of the local LDWA reps at Nottm University. One rep was called Atkinson, so I was able to offer him and other members of his family the use of the domain name I own: kinson.me.uk, so that they can use their own email addresses: xxx@kinson.me.uk . For further details visit www.kinson.me.uk where all is explained! I suggested to Avril that I take a picture of all the reps that were present, and that was acccomplished. The results should be seen in the April Strider, and there may be a picture taken yesterday of me at the top of Dufton Pike in the North Pennines, with the pacerpoles clearly on display!
Sun 12 Jan 03.The decision to charge for kdav radio has been caused by a ruling in Congress that internet radio stations have to pay more in royalties. Since many are low budget operations, these payments can easily amount to 150% of their income. So they have no choice but to charge, other than to go out of business.
Thur 9 Jan 03. A very sad day for music lovers worldwide. For the past two year I have been a regular listener to www.kdav.com, a radio station based in Lubbock, Texas. It has a 24/7 music format, playing tracks from the 50s and early 60s. Also, it has played my requests on the Pink Panther programme, on air in the UK at 10pm Sat. I have also received Christmas cards from Mr Ray, the dj, and his wife Queenie, who occasionally is a joint presenter on the show. So what is the bad news. Well...trying to 'tune in' yesterday, up popped a small window asking for username and password. Yes, it has become a subscription service, costing $15 per month. Maybe if the charge had been set lower, say at $2, I would have given serious consideration to subscribing. But along with my BBC licence tax, and the ntl internet subscription, I pay enough monthly as it is. So I afraid will not be subscribing to kdav. What are the options for the future? Maybe I should move to Lubbock, (too much gun crime here in Nottingham, so it may be safer), maybe a hacker can give me username/password that will allow access, or maybe the service will return to being free. Otherwise it is goodbye kdav, it has been a great two years listening to you and making new friends over there in Lubbock.
before 20 Jan 03
20 Jan 03 to 15 May 03
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