Day Six

Following a late stat we decided to head out to a welsh valley, known locally as the Mach loop. It's here that the RAF practice low flying, however it seems that today they have better things to do and we see no planes. We head into the local village for food and then head for home. Another evening in the company of V&C

Days Three, Four and Five

Day Three...

Again last night with the rain and the snoring!

Another sunny morning, I head out to town and discover that Tuesdays are market day in Glastonbury, the main road trough the town is shut, so rather than fight my way around town I decide to drive the two miles to sainsburies to get cash from their machine. When I get there the machine don't work, so it's back to Glastonbury to brave the market day diversions.

I soon have cash and spend half an hour mooching round the market. Nothing really screams buy me so, considering how busy the town is I decide to head over to Wells to get some photos of the cathederal.

Up until now I've been typing this in starbucks over a grande latte, now I must move on, so the remainder of this post will have to wait till later...

... And so dear reader it's 6.15 and the tale of day three continues atop a very windy Glastonbury Tor from where I'll be posting this entry as oddly the G3 connection up here is better than it is at the campsite. Or maybe not as I now seem unable to get a connection of any kind! (as you will see it is actually two days before I post)

I made the decision that it was too windy to stand waiting the hour and a half till sunset and decended the tor with the intention of using the sunset as a backdrop for some photos of the hill. I drive east and before long find the perfect spot. I set up the camera and wait... I'm not dissapointed! (Pics to follow) I also discover that I've had catastrophic GPS failure!

Day four...

Spend the morning breaking down camp and wondering how in the hell I'm going to navigate to North Wales since my GPS software died. I did think of buying a paper map but that kind of defeats the object of the journey as I have a vague idea that the trip should rely as much as possible on the digital domain... Then I thought of multimap. Hah god bless the internet, PDA phones and GPRS/G3.

Off to visit my old friend Glastonbury abbey now... Just got to find some change for the bloody car park.

Afternoon...

Following my visit to the abbey I begin the drive to North Wales. Come 5:30 I decide to spend the night in a real bed and book into a Motorway hotel for the evening, which is spent vegging out in front of the TV.

Day five

The following morning I continue my journey to North Wales, heading through Wrexham and getting lost several times but eventually arrive in Abergele. The evening is spent catching up with my old friends Marni and Kev, over copious amounts of vodka and coke.

Day two...

It rained last night.When I say rain I mean it was as if someone tipped the contents of th Thames over my tent from a great height. At least that's what it sounded like from inside the tent. Eventually the torrent subsided, only to be replaced by the dulcettones of a fellow camper snoring for England. I'm not sure what time it when I finally dropped off but come 6.30 am I was wide awake.

Had to wait around for the camp site shop to open at 8.30 so I could book someadditional nights.

Eventually headed off site at 9.00 to gather supplies... Let's hear it for sainsburies.

Spent the afternoon sitting in a field painting. I'm a studio watercolourist at heart but I always feel I should spend at least some time out in the field like a real painter. The only thing is, it's just not nice. It's windy, you get stiff from sitting in the same position for ages, it's just not like the studio. Anyway, got a half decent picture, but then I'm never happy with field results, I just can't give it the level of concentration the painting deserves.

Just returned from a short walk in the dark around the campsite, I was, believe it or not, searching unsuccessfully for better G3 reception as the connection on the campsite sucks.

Ah well, it's almost time to settle down for Murphy's Law....

Tomorrow's main objectives. Take photos, watch sun set from top of the Tor.

I'll blog images!

Random trip - Day 1

And so the sun sets on day one of my random and unplanned adventure. The day began slowly with a vague idea that I would head south. Needing to place a waypoint in my GPS I decided on Glastonbury as it's one of my favorite places.

I threw some basic camping equipment in the car and made a start.

The first bit of randomness was that the GPS tok me on a route that instilled in me a certain deja vu. It took me on the exact same route I used to drive to and from my college in Wednesbury, West Midlands some thirteen years ago. Once I reached Walsall the GPS told me I needed to divert from my old route and didn't need to visit my old stomping ground.. Yeah right! I knew that the campus had long since been sold for development and demolished, but I had the overwhelming desire to visit the site and see it for myself.
Where once stood the seat of learning that was Kendrick street campus now stand a multitude of uniformly boringlittle residential boxes. Gone is the large red brick main campus building, gone also the studio site which housed radio, tv and multitrack recording studios... I guess that's progress.












It was at this point in the journey that I guess the hitch hicker must have joined me. I didn't notice him until I was on the M5 and he jumped out in front of me. I had a bloody cricket on board. Sadly there's no photographic evidence as I thought better of trying to photograph a jumpy green insect whilst trying to drive on the motorway! Anyway he pinged around happily for a while eventually I realised I hadn't seen him for a while. I guess the little sucker must have pinged himself clean out of the window... Wow, bet that was a rush!

Eventually I arrived at the two oaks campsite in Glastonbury. I had no trouble finding it asI have been before. However, previous visits have not been on a bank holiday weekend. It was full! Thankfully the Island of Avalon campsite just down the road had spaces, though it s a bit too far out of town to make walking to the Tor a practical proposition. Still at least it's in keeping with the random nature of this trip.

Speaking of random nature, guess who thought he would be able to sort out provisions when he arrived? Not on a sunday after 4 you won't sonny jim! Bugger so tea is a trip to MD's (shame) and a quick trip to the local petrol station sorted coffee (gotta have coffee).

So dear reader, that's today sorted. Just time for a quick stroll by the stream , a bit of telly (grand prix highlights and then bed. Should be fun in the dark, guess who's light ain't workin'

Arse!

Test post.

Just a quick post to check blogger works from my PDA. Apparently it does!

A worthwhile persuit

Whilst the internet is undoubtedly a fantastic resource it is for the most part populated by websites created by owners who are, to a greater or lesser degree saying "look at me" or "see how clever I am".

Every now and then though I come across something that bucks this trend, something that is not "about" the site authors. http://www.tadcaster-ww1-memorials.com is one such site.

Basically the guys who run this site have set themselves the mammoth task of documenting and recording a permanent record of those men from their local town Tadcaster and its surrounding towns and villages who gave their lives in the great war.

They research and maintain the site at their own expense in their spare time and already the task has led them abroad to visit and record details.

The site isn't just a list of names though. The site creators are really going to town on researching each individual including, where information exists, detailing family history, the conflict they were involved in.

Even if you have no connection with Tadcaster or the surrounding area, take a trip over and sign their guest book. Who knows, you may even be inspired to start a similar project for your town.

After all isn't this what the internet should be about.

In Memoriam - Spencer Braithwaite

I recently discovered that an old friend of mine passed away at a tragically young age. I had not spoken to him for a few years, I just kind of figured that there was no hurry and we'd catch up sooner or later.

If there's someone you know who you haven't seen for a while don't leave it too long, you may never get the chance.

Here's to you Spen.