8 Mile

Today my life started again. It had been suspended for various reasons - lots of things to do at work, busy at church, lots to do in general, no 'leisure' time. Well today was the first day I actually got a chance to enjoy. It was the harvest thanksgiving service at the kid's school, and so I walked part of the way there.

The service was great, everyone did very well and it was very enjoyable. After the service I began to walk down the road. I hadn't really decided where to go, so I just walked. I ended up in Downhill Forest, near downhill.

It was beautiful in all its early-autumn glory. I really enjoyed the forest walk, again surprised that I havn'e been around it before, and I only live a few miles away.

After this I walked home. And for that I now suffer. I have sore feet, knees, and hips. I hope not to move for the rest of the evening. It was around 8 miles in all, the 7 miles after the school can be seen here : http://routebuilder.org/ph

After the walk it was time to start the school runs. After picking up Kate we took the van over to Dads and picked up the boats. When Matthew eventually arrived home we headed to the beach at Downhill. Again this was great, I found I could operate the kayak with a completely different set of muscles, apart from when I fell out. The waves were fantastic, even a bit big for me!

A great time was had by all, and we have now returned home for a quiet night in :)

More pics at : http://picasaweb.google.com/simonmcc/20061013FridayFun

999

This morning started out pretty much like any other, except an hour earlier due to my current overtime arrangements. However shortly after the start of my journey I could see something burning, and as I approached the car park for the Balinrees Reservoir I could see it was a car. It was in full flame when I pulled into the car park, and had clearly been burning long enough for the fire to catch a firm hold. I could see that a rear wheel had been jacked, and so assumed it was a stolen car, burned to destroy any evidence. It was quite close to the trees on the edge of the forest, and so I decided to do the socially responsible thing and call 999. I asked for the fire brigade, and probably gave them relatively poor directions, but I was relatively sure that if they were on the road they would soon spot the huge fire.

We called back past this evening, and it seems to have been brought successfully under control without any damage to the surroundings. A little bit of extra excitement for a Monday morning!

Lost Season 3

Lost season 3 started in the US* last night. After the horribly disappointing Season 1 finale, the writers took stock in Season 2, and left us set up for a good 3x01, and we got it!

Standard bizarre season start, seemingly somewhere unrelated to the losties, but soon all is revealed. Here's hoping for a continued good season!

*NOTE Although I don't actually reside in the US, I get to watch this US show. Here's how I figure it (convoluted explanation coming up, you may wish to stop reading now). If I had more money, I would buy a house in the US. On a weekly basis I would travel there for a Wednesday evening, and watch Lost, and then pop back home (private jet, and private airport 2 miles from my house). Perhaps on one of my visits I would pop to my local electrical store and buy a slingbox. I would sign up for broadband in my US house, and use the slingbox to control my TiVo in my house in the US. Slingbox would stream lost to me at home, where I could watch it on my TV in the living room, meaning I could dispose of my private jet, and bulldose my private airport. However, because I am poor I use tvrss.net

Fun in the sun

This afternoon we spent a short time at Downhill beach, kiting, bodyboarding, and generally having fun in the sun! After fairly unsettled weather at lunchtime, the afternoon turned out to be glorious with hardly a cloud in the sky.

Communion Sunday

Today our Church family celebrated the sacrament of Communion. In our denomination we arbitrarily celebrate this sacrament twice a year. I felt it was a particularly enjoyable Communion - sometimes when you're not in the correct frame of mind, or feeling a little off the spirit of the celebration is spoiled.

The minister took a look at the historical institution of the Passover, and how that changed into communion at the last supper, it was a very informative and challenging look at what we were doing.

With my continued wonder at the world around us, and the surrounding universe, I felt freshly challenged by two lines of our final hymn :

'Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were an offering far too small;'

Now, there's a thought!

In the evening the text was "What should it profit a man if he would gain the whole world yet lose his soul." (Mark 8:36) outlining the relative importance of looking after your eternal destiny compared with any temporal activities.

On a Mission

Our Church (First Dunboe in Articlave) is running a mission this week, and it started today. Meetings are being held in the Church and Church Hall, and the Rev Alistair Smyth is our guest speaker.

We had the usual turnout for our Sunday morning worship, and a larger than usual turnout for the Sunday evening service in the Church. Alistair delivered an interesting and challenging message on both occasions, for both unbelievers and veterans of the faith.

We meet again on Tuesday and Wednesday at 7:30 PM in the hall, Friday at 7:30 in the Church, Sunday morning as usual at 11:30, and in the evening at 7 (I think).

I would urge anyone with access to the Creator to petition Him regarding all who will attend, that the word will not fall on deaf ears. Also we hope that those in the village who received a leaflet through their door will be persuaded to come along and join us!

Relay Racing

For better, or for worse my Dad had talked me into participating in the Lower Bann Canoe Challenge, as part of a relay team. The event was 10km, starting at Drumaheglis Marina, with the first relay changeover at Camus, and the second at The Cutts. The end of the race was between the two bridges on Strand Road, Coleraine.

It was interesting to take part, although it has to be stated that the sit-on-top model of kayak is definitely not designed for this type of venture. However, we didn't come in last, which I suppose was something. In fact, if you only count the relay teams, our two teams were first and second, although I should point out that we were the only two teams entered.

For a map of the race check out http://routebuilder.org/o3

Anyhow, it certainly made an interesting Saturday. Afterwards we took off to Downhill where I attempted to set up my new 4m PKD Buster kite, which proved largely unsuccessful due to hugely blustery wind conditions, and also apparently incorrect kite settings. It did fly well a few times pulling me at speed down the beach, mostly on my feet, but I will admit that my neck, hair and pockets all ended up filled with sand :)

On the Wee Agivey

This evening I returned to the "Wee Agivey" river where I spent many childhood days creating various dams, bridges, boats, rafts and other feats of engineering. This visit was not entrepreneurial, but rather fun.

After the recent persistant rain the river was swolen by 12-18" so Dad and I took the kayaks down. I was a little nervous about this venture, but I have to say it was a lot safer, and a lot more fun than I had thought.

The water was high enough to clear all the rocks, and parts were flowing nice and quickly. I think I would have preferred a little more of a flood, and I would certainly have liked a longer run. The run we were doing was probably 0.5-1 mile, taking about 5 minutes or so. We managed to get it done 4 times before sunset. Great fun.

For the location see : http://tinyurl.com/ebrw3

PKD Buster 4.0 Metres

A short while ago SWMBO and I had a falling out (well, to be accurate, she fell out, but that's immaterial). So if She Who Must Be Obeyed is not speaking, it seems she cannot be obeyed. This seemed to be a perfect opportunity to do something that would normally need approval, without getting approval.

So I ordered another kite. This time its a PKD Buster 4 metre traction kite, a well reviewed budget kite. I managed to pick it up from eBay for about £70, which is a very reasonable price for such a kite.

It arrived last night, and as stated in the eBay description the bridle lines were tangled. About 15 minutes of head-scratching, and string tugging later they were all untangled, and ready to fly. If only it wasn't dark and raining :((

Looking forward to giving it a try, and hopefully not ending up in Traction!

A beautiful September evening

Today was another long day. Recently every day has been a long day due to work stipulating that long days sould occur. That will solve program problems, you see.

This has been a long weekend too, cumulating with getting up a bit earlier today to see Sister-in-law off after a brief stay. Today has been a very peaceful day, we just went at our own pace, very little to do, and dinner made for us at Mums.

Tonight we popped to the beach at Castlerock, because we'd been telling the kids we could, but hadn't gotten around to it.

It was a beautiful evening, one of the nicest of this year, with no wind, hazy sunshine and not a breeze. The kids spent a while paddling in the sea, and digging in the sand, and then we decided it was time to go. On the way up the road we decided to pop over to Downhill to see what it was like there, and while standing on the beach, looking towards Benone, I could see a kite in the distance.

So we went up the road to Benone, and on the beach we could see the kite to the Downhill side, and took a drive down. We stopped, and I thought it was rude to sit and watch without speaking, and went over. Turned out to be a pleasant fellow called Kevin*[1] who had his 4m and 7m kites pegged out. After chatting briefly he offered me a go on the 4m, and it was great! The wind was fairly light, but still enough to pull me along much to the kids amusement - I think I need one of those! We played for a little while, and then drove off into the sunset, past Kevin getting pulled along the beach by his big kite.



*[1] This caused an argument in the car with a misheard name, there were two votes for Kevin and one for Gavin, so if your name was Gavin, please don't be offended!

Made it! (again)

Another fantastic Saturday. This whole summer we made a decision to *spend* more time, and waste less. As I see it varnishing, grasscutting, weeding and other temporal activities are a sure second to spending time enjoying the beauty of the creation around us, and doing it with our family.

After breakfast we had to do a message in Coleraine and enjoyed a walk along the river. Afterwards we decided to go for a walk around the Convent wall in Portstewart, which disappointingly now sports safety railings - I liked it much better when a 8" high wall was the only protection from the 20' drop. After exploring some rock pools, and playtime in the park we had (expensive!) lunch at Morelli's on the Promenade.

After that the time had come to head towards the beach for another Castlerock to Downhill epic walk, this time with full family in tow.

It was another good walk, however there was a strong wind blowing across the shore which made it a little unpleasant. It was great, we ended up wading through at the same place on the way back again, caught a little by the tide, but still a great experience (and no drowning).

After that we went home for tea, and a rest! The silage was being lifted today, and not wanting to waste the good wind, and large, smooth fields we got the kite and headed up the road to the nearest huge field. The wind was just perfect - strong enough so that the kite would lift perfectly, not so strong that it would abscond with the kids. They both had a couple of turns, Matthew is getting good now, able to twist it two full turns, take it up and twist it back again. I think Kate is getting the hang of it too, but its a bit daunting for her, she makes use of the safety brake lines more frequently.

After we got them into bed I headed out again to see the sunset and high tide. Unfortunately I missed the sunset but I did enjoy a walk on the beach. With the extreme high tide in Coleraine I decided to go there too, and wish it had been daylight, the scene would have been spectacular. The water was level with the banks for a good bit of the river, at the car park in the Water Margin I looked over the fence to see the water *almost* level with my feet. Not so bad as long as it stays on that side of the wall!

Castlerock to Downhill

Anyone who can stand the excitement of following my blog will be aware of my plans to walk around the coast from Castlerock Beach to Downhill Beach tomorrow. Today being the day before the optimum time, I decided to go for a trial run. The tidal data shows the Low Tide today at 0.1m above chart datum, only 100mm above where it is expected to be tomorrow.

And I wasn't disappointed! I got the whole way around the coast, although due to the timing I wasn't there early enough to go as far as I would have liked onto Downhill beach, but nevertheless I managed the walk from Castlerock to Downhill and back, mostly on dry land. There were two places I had to cross water about 12-15 inches deep.

I met two old men on the way round, one said that he had been walking the beach for 60 years, and had ever before witnessed the water receeded so far!

You can see the route we took here : http://routebuilder.org/m2 (Pretty cool tool!). 1.2 miles in total according to that, so a 2.4 mile round trip, that'll help in planning for tomorrows repeat attempt so we can arrive at the optimum time for the tides!

See todays photos here : http://picasaweb.google.com/simonmcc/20060908CastlerockToDownhill

Code like this shouldn't compile

I have just found this code in a code review I am conducting, methods should not be written like this. I have posted it here for your reference. If you find yourself writing code like this, turn your PC off and go home. Compilers should have an extra check to ensure tokens do not consist of check, test, etc and a class name.

    /**
     * @param obj1
     *            Object
     * @param obj2
     *            Object
     * @return boolean
     */
    public static boolean checkObject(Object obj1, Object obj2) {
        boolean matches = true;

        if (obj1 == null) {
            matches = (obj2 == null);
        } else {
            matches = obj1.equals(obj2);
        }
        return matches;
    }

In the dark

I set out for a walk to Mussenden Temple last night to try to get a few snaps of the sunset. It was very poor in the end, and I didn't get anything worthwhile. However on the walk back to the car I looked over to the East to see the Full Moon rising spectacurarly over the horizon. It was beautiful, but unfortunately partly obscured by cloud. See all

The hours around midnight again saw me outside well wrapped, and wielding my camera. As forecast it was a perfect night for the sky, hardly a cloud to be seen.

Again, I was aimed at the moon, but my favorite picture of the night was the one at the top of this post. You'll have to click to get the full effect, but basically it is a 15 second exposure of the night sky, picking up the view towards the sea from our house, and The Plough (The seven brightest stars of the constellation Ursa Major) in the sky.

Best moon picts of the evening below, or click here to see them all

Lunacy!

Anyone who knows me will be aware that I will point a camera at anything. Usually the results are poor, but I compensate by taking loads of photos.

Tonight I decided the moon would be a suitable subject, given its recent popularity. After many overexposed shots, and noting my clear lack of a camera suitable for these types of shots, I managed to get this shot, which I have to say is poor, but nevertheless much better than I expected.

Anyhoo, thanks to AF for the pointers that led to me standing outside, freezing waiting for the cloud to clear!

File EXIF information (for anyone vaguely interested :)

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2006 Perigean Spring Tide

This week sees a rather unusual tidal event. Since my recent interest in boating, and continued fascination with the coast I have read a little about tides, and the science behind them.

As you may know, tides are believed to be caused by the moon's gravity pulling on the water that makes up 2/3 of the Earths surface. As the Moon moves around the Earth it attracts the water towards it. This creates two bulges, one at the side of the Earth adjacent to the Moon, and another at the opposite side of the Earth. The Moon orbits round the Earth about once a day.

Another interesting factor in this complex system is the momentum the massive body of the sea, meaning the Moon has a similar effect to pushing someone on a swing, so that the highest tides actually lag a few days behind the new/full Moon. Just as with pushing a swing, it is important that the water is pulled at the correct time and the Moon does this well.

The Sun adds further complication to the equation by itself providing a weak pull on the seas. When the Sun, Moon and Earth are aligned twice a month at New Moon and Full Moon the combined force brings a a "Spring Tide", when the ranges between high water and low water are greatest. The Moon is full this month on Sep 7 2006 at 18:44.

The Earth's cycles provide a further input to the tides, with stronger tides being felt at the Equinoxes, in March and September. These tides are referred to as equinoctial tides, and will occur this year on Sep 23 2006 at 04:03.

Due to the eccentric orbit of the Moon, sometimes it is closer and sometimes it is further away from Earth, and therefore tides vary in magnitude. The point at which it is closest to the Earth is called the Perigee. This week it is closer than it has been in the last 413 day cycle. The Perigee will occur on Sep 8 2006 at 3:08 when the Moon will be a distance of 357174 km from the Earth. This month also sees the Northernmost Moon of the century on Sep 15 2006, at 1:27 a.m., and a Lunar Eclipse on Sep 7th

Although the combination of Full Moon, Equinox, and Perigee is not simultaneous, they are sufficiently close together to have a measurable combined effect leading to the largest tidal range for a quarter of a century.

The tide table for Coleraine presented below shows the lowest tide being on Saturday Sep 9 at 14:57 BST, conveniently in the middle of the afternoon.

Apparently when the tide is low it is possible to walk around the coast from Castlerock beach to Downhill beach, so come rain or shine I'll be out around with camera in hand to attempt the walk. Of course a storm with an onshore wind at sea could rise the low tide sufficiently to make it no different to a normal tide, so lets hope that the weather remains temperate. If there are no further posts to this blog please assume that I have drowned.


References :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tide
http://www.idialstars.com/pst.htm
http://www.fourmilab.ch/earthview/moon_ap_per.html
http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/scenario/tides101.htm

StaxRip - convert to AVI

After being used to AutoGk for ages, and its temperamental behavior, it was a great relief to find StaxRip - from the website :

"With StaxRip you can easily convert your DVD's, DVB captures and many more formats into MPEG-4"

Just tried it last night, managed to compress Ice Age from 3 VOB files to a 1GB AVI file, including the AC3 soundtrack, and the quality looks fine(certainly good enough for kids movies)The one pass mode seemed to work in almost real time... I didn't time it exactly, but usually these things take an age - good stuff

Thanks for the recommendation uknova!

The Red Arrows

Today the peace and tranquility of the North Coast was shattered by the roar of 9 Hawk T. Mk.1 jet planes screaming across the sky. The Red Arrows\ provided the finale for the fifth annual international air show hosted in Portrush in a spectacular fashion. Needless to say the entire coast was lined with cars and people wielding cameras, and I believe the coastline pretty much came to a stand still for the twenty minute show.

We hadn't really put a lot of effort into getting there on time, and so only managed to pull up on a kerb between Portstewart and Portrush, and therefore missed the centre of the action, but nevertheless it was a super viewing spot. Next year we will endevour to get to the West Bay area to get the full effect.




See more pictures here

Crash [2004]

While renting a couple of movies for the kids, I also picked up a copy of Crash, which is one of those annoying films - I think I didn't like it. See, what I mean is, well, it was slow, dull, perhaps not the action packed genre of film I really like. Thought provoking in parts, certainly packed with diverse charactors, all racist in one form or another, all mixed up about life. Certainly not one I'd wish to see again shortly.

IMDB for Crash

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to my other half!

This is the twelth birthday she has celebrated since I met her; soon I'll have known her for half of her life (isn't getting older fun?), and every year just keeps getting better! Thanks SWMBO for everything, and have a great day!

Birthday present pictured :) Happy bouncing!

Auld Lamas Fair and Barrys

With the bank holiday we decided to make a day of it, and so we got packed up and headed over to Ballycastle where the Auld Lamas Fair was in progress. We attempted to park in the harbour car park, but this year it seems to have been taken over by "travellers" and a huge ferris wheel.

Anyhow, we walked round the stalls, avoiding the showers, picking up a couple of little things for the kids, and in all had a nice time.

Afterwards we went home for some lunch, and then set sail for Barrys in Portrush, the traditional amusements of the triangle area. Again it was fun, the kids had a great time, they noticed the "ghost train" for the first time, and felt suitably scared after an unaccompanied ride through.

In the evening the wind was wild, so we got the kite and headed to the beach where SWMBO had a go for the first time. After several excuses she gave up, although I have to say the wind was strong, and it was pretty tough.

A Grand Day Out.

Announcing : Sunday

Sunday morning is normally busy for us - getting up, getting the kids ready and heading out to church, getting to church and the normal little tasks I do there (winding the clock, unlocking the doors etc)

Today was special, however, because I had managed to get another task. Last week the minister had joked about getting me to do the announcements, but when he discovered the person he was going to ask was working he reverted to me! The last time I had the focus in church I was about 15-16, I felt so nervous, and read so badly (in my opinion) I had point blankly refused to do anything like that since. This time I decided to give it a go.

The minister arrived at my house on Friday evening with the announcement sheet, which I had a quick skim over, and then left to the side until this morning.

I practiced it about a brazillion times before we left for church.

In the end it all went OK, or so I am informed. I started out well, welcoming the visiting minister, pausing to look over and everything, although as time passed I could feel my heart getting faster. By the end I was looking for words or sentences or paragraphs to leave out, but I struggled, and got there, with my quivering voice - or so I thought.

I was assured afterwards by people who I trust to tell me the absolute truth that my nervous state was undetectable from my voice! Unbelievable!

Later that afternoon we headed to Benevenagh, where we went for a walk to the cliff edge, so perhaps it was just as well it all went well beforehand :)

Saturday Fun

After the customary lie in (actually it was lie in++ today :) we eventually ventured downstairs and got brekkie. Afterwards the girls went to the trampoline, and the boys got the kite. I think it's fair to say we all had equal fun, with both boys having a good turn on the kite.






When we decided the wind had gone away the four of us got on to the trampoline and exercised until we could exercise no longer. In the afternoon we popped out to Mum and Dads to see what was new there. Much to SWMBOs trepidation we decided to go for a canoe on the River Bann in the evening, but first we had to visit SWMBOs parents for our "tea" (read tea = enough food to feed a horse for a week)

After all that food it was time to take to the water and so off we set. We met Dad at Camus picnic area, all piled into the van and left our car there. We had decided to launch at the Agivey Bridge, on the road to Ballymoney and so we parked in the car park there. To the amusement of the gathered fishermen we got the boats ready, and down the banks into the river where we managed a perfect dry launch. I was a little worried about the whole thing, especially the wake of water-skiers, but in the end I had nothing to worry about. The 3.85 miles (according to google earth) took us about 1 hour 10 minutes. Definitely a good first experience on the river, although I think I would prefer slightly faster flowing water - the Bann was like a lake.

Happy Birthday!

So for SWMBOs birthday we decided that a 12' Trampoline would be in order. So we ordered it and after much watching the road for a delivery van it finally arrived, and we got it set up tonight. Everyone had great fun, and quoting one of the participants with this kind of exercise it wouldn't be unusual to lose up to "5 stone"

Girl Escapes After Being Held in Cellar - For 8 Years

Unbelievable story about an Austrian girl held prisoner in a cellar for 8 years.

read more digg story

MOT: Pass!

Today my work offered a medical checkup testing for Cholesterol, blood sugar levels and blood pressure and I am glad to say that my readings were all normal.

I can continue my decadent lifestyle with my mind at ease.

Saturday Fun : Lego House

This afternoon we set about building a lego house, and about an hour later it was completed. Now you too can wonder at our creation.

The nicer side of N Ireland

Surround speakers finally installed

Anyone who has visited us within about the last year will be aware of our surround speakers sitting on the floor, or precariously balanced on the ends of the sofas. Well we are no longer makeshift - I popped over to Argos and bought a set of wall mounts, so the speakers are now exactly where they belong.

This is another credit point for my house of conduit - I was able to pull the cables from the back of the TV, up an unused conduit, and using the tiny access door from one of the bedrooms pull it across the ceiling and drill it down through. I love it when a plan comes together (eventually)

Google Adding Face Recognition Technology to Picasa

This will be useful for organising photos when it eventually comes along:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/08/better-way-to-organize-photos.html

Friday: Time to leave

7:30 on Friday morning saw us off for another morning walk, or climb as it turned out. We went to a spectacular viewpoint near Birnham, and it should be noted that the "walk" was steeper and longer than I care to remember. But due to the tight time constraints imposed by the Missises we made it up and down in record time. Its good that we both survived.

After much packing and goodbyeing we set off for home. After a 1 hour boat delay, finding a set of keys we forgot to return and multiple games of "Guess Who?" we were returned safely home. It is always nice to get back home after any holiday, but I have to say I could definitely have had another week this time......

Thursday: Parks, kites, and parks!

In the morning we had a few messages to do in town, after that we went to the park. We got the kite out, and it seemed to kill the wind instantly. The picture (left) is on one of the rare occasions where the wind was strong enough to lift the kite.

In the afternoon we packed the kids up and headed to another park, which was great fun for all concerned (I think the adults had more fun than the kids ;) )

Wednesday: More Hovercraft and Deep Sea World

This morning we took the hovercraft, and the kids to the park again. We went to a diffenent area, this one had a small paddling pool, which was only filled with about 2" of water - ideal for our hovercraft.



It went a lot better on this, and the kids got great enjoyment, however a strong wind hampered the fun by making the craft difficult to control.

They all had good fun at the park, and we visited the stoney beach on the way back, which is always a treat.

The other parents arrived back, and of course the kids behavior deterioriated instantly, but that would be expected. We decided to go to Edinbourgh, to Deep Sea World for the afternoon, and we had a fine time there.

Tuesday: Farm Park and Hovercraft

I got up early this morning and headed back to The hermitage where I enjoyed a pleasant morning stroll.

After breakfast we packed the kids up and went to a farm which had created a children's play park with attractions including go-karts, a wooden castle and trampolines. I think the pedal go-karts were the winner, with the kids getting the most fun from them, and spending loads of time (and energy).

Unfortunately the weather was quite unsettled, and we got a little wet a couple of times, but I don't think that bothered the kids.

In the afternoon I took a legion of the children (not the entire army) to a park where we tried out Boris' remote controlled hovercraft. It was quite good fun, but unfortunately it didn't like the rough terrain too much, and the battery didn't last too long. It kept the kids occupied for the afternoon nevertheless.

Monday: Shopping and walking

Today we took a trip into Perth and had loads of fun (sarcasm) doing a little shopping. It actually wasn't as bad as it sounds - I managed to spend a good portion of it sitting - either on the ground in the street, or at the side of an M&S isle.

After lunch the other parents departed, and we took charge of all 5 kids. Let the fun begin.

We took the kids for a walk to The Hermitage, which is one of the many scenic attractions in that part of Scotland.

At teatime, in an attempt to apply some discipline to the hoard of children we devised a system where each time one had to be spoken to they received a point, and the winner was the one with the least points. This seemed to work at treat, with the final scores being 0, 0, 1 and 9 (Doris didn't get scored as she is too little). The day passed off peacefully, and we went to bed to prepare to face another...

Holiday : Phase 2

Today we set out in convoy to drive to Perth, Scotland. We had arranged to stay with SWMBOs sister and family for 5 days in their home - the only condition was that we minded the kids when they went off for a couple of nights for their tenth wedding anniversary.

The boat was fine, the drive was fine and we arrived at a sensible time and got nicely settled in. Hopefully it will be a nice week.

Wanted : Glasses!

Today we took the kayaks out again, this time there was more sun overhead (periodically)

The waves were relatively small, and so my Brother-in-law decided to have a go - a great day for a beginner. As time rolled on the waves got bigger, but still manageable.

You may recall previous issues with kayaking and glasses - well it happened again. He lost his glasses, and it wasn't like last time where there was a possibility of finding them, instead the swirl from the waves was too great, and we couldn't see the bottom at all. (thats not him in the picture btw, but you get the idea. Read more here)

Kayaking in the rain

We will not be beaten by the weather. It was cloudy overhead, but we were still determined to get the kids to the beach during our holiday. So off we set to get the kayaks from Dad, and we borrowed a wetsuit too so that our guests could have a go in the kayaks.

Although it was showery overhead, it was warm, and with wetsuits on there was no feeling of cold at all. We had great fun in the boats and also pushing the kids in with the waves, although Boris fell out on the first wave due to bad parenting ;)

Another wedding...

Anyone who knows us will know that we have had an unusually high number of weddings to attend this year. Today marked the end of the marathon for us with SWMBOs cousin getting married. It was a fine day altogether, and we both enjoyed seeing family and friends, and also meeting new folks.

No more weddings this year. Phew.

Holiday : Phase 1

Today I finished work for a 2 week break. Out the door shortly after mid day, picked up by my wife, as my car is in the garage.

We took the kids to see "Cars" this afternoon, turned out to be a fairly good movie, the animation is fantastic. It won't be long before we see a film which is totally animated....

A day of firsts

Today, as you may know is a public holiday here in NI. We spent the day as a family, doing a few things we have done before, but a few we haven't.

1) Watching Chicken Little. The first time we watched this film, and hopefully, for me anyhow, the last! Very poor.

2) Walking round the resovoir. We live down the road from the local resovoir, and I have been aware that there is a nice walk around it, but have never done it. So today we decided to try it, and it was great! A lovely country walk, through a forest / hilltop setting.

3) Castlerock beach at low tide. Normally we walk on the East side of the beach, as the West side is water and cliffs, but today the tide was completely out, the lowest tide I remember, so we walked on the sand round the foot of the cliffs. This was amazing, to get right out round to a place normally well covered in dangerous waters.

4) Downhill beach at low tide. Having noticed Castlerocks low tide we decided to do the same at Downhill. When we arrived we got to walk away out round the cliffs there too, far further than is normally possible due to the water.

5) Trim Trail, and "The Cutts." By this time it was late afternoon, and we had not yet eaten. We popped into "Gareths" and picked up some suitably unhealthy chips and burgers which we decided to take to the Trim Trail to eat. After the kids had spent an age playing at the token park we walked across the road to "The Cutts," which is where the famous salmon leap is. This is a place where the Bann river drops about 10 feet in a short distance, regulated by a series of sluce gates. We had a walk around the lock gates, but we all felt uneasy because of the kids and the deep water :(. Anyway, that was another first for today.

6) I managed to trick SWMBO into visiting the 12th Day parades. We managed to get parked close to the end of the parade route, and so we got to see the tired Orangemen make their last few steps towards their buses. I think its fair to say we had a fine experience, and will certainly be going back next year for more ;)

7) Almost got drowned. Well, not me but Billy, a friend of the family from way back. The Story from the beginning : So we headed to the beach with the kayaks as is usual, and Dad told me that Billy may be there. When we arrived we saw that the placid, gentle waves we saw eariler had been replaced by huge monster waves, the like of which I believe have never before been seen (by mankind). We got unloaded, and down to the water, and sure enough Billy was there, raring to go. Out Billy and I headed, he was determined to go out far, I was determined not to fall in. He was getting on well, going out, coming in, and with a bit of swapping boats, I ended up in the water with my camera, with Billy and Dad in the boats. I popped out of the water, and the next thing I saw was an upside down kayak near the rocks, Dad paddling into the shore, and Billy nowhere to be seen. So I parked my camera on the rocks, and ran to see what was going on, but having no lifejacket I was very reluctant to get involved. I got the abandoned boats up onto the rocks, and went to see what was happening. By this time a crowd had gathered on the rocks, and by the time I arrived Billy had made it out of the water. Apparently he had been pulled by the current out round the rocks, and wasnt making any headway swimming ashore. He quickly disgarded his paddle, and used the waves to swim to the rocks, where he grabbed hold and climbed out. Shortly after this we gathered up, and packed the boats away for home. Thankfully Billy is safe and sound, and unbelievably interested to know when we're going again! See pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/simonmcc/20060712BeachKayak

An exciting, and interesting day.

The Hills Have Eyes [2006]

This was a welcome relief after the disappointment of Room 6, another one for the Horror category, I would say quite similar in premise to Wolf Creek.

It is all about a family who take a cross country trip, and run into some trouble after taking a shortcut. Quite a good story, and worth a watch if you're into that sort of thing. Some fairly gruesome moments, and I would say fairly unpredictable, as nowadays directors aren't afraid to ditch the hollywood ending for a real tradegy...

Room 6 [2006]

What an excellent title. You can automatically tell that it fits into that "Horror, Thriller" category. However, that is where the greateness ends. There are a few good scary moments, and the ending is satisfactory but it does go an awefully long way round getting there.

So I'm afraid its a thumbs down from me :(

End over end

The waves we saw last night looked like the best I had seen, so I thought I'd better call Dad, and give him the chance to have a go. He had been delayed, and was not home from work, but eventually he arrived at my house just before 10pm.

So, back we went to the beach, I wasn't sure how wise the whole escapade was, as the Sun was about to set. When we approached the waves looked even bigger than earlier, even a bit scary!

Out we went, and we had a fantastic time. However the waves were so big that on three occasions I managed to get the boat to go end-over-end. When the wave was breaking and I was paddling in with it, because of the height of the waves the boat had a tendancy to sink the nose. Apparently this can be compensated by leaning backwards, but these waves were just too big, and the nose went down, the back came up, and over we went. This is a thouroughly disorientating affair, as you are catapulted into the water on your front, below the boat, just before a breaking wave hits you. You just have to wait for the lifejacket to float you round, so you know which way is up, and then try to breath again.

After that it is a matter of removing water from your eyes, ears, nose and mouth. Then begins the fun of trying to get back in the boat with subsequent similar waves.

All-in-all a great evening, but it beat me in the end, and I just let the waves bring me in, and I think Dad was ready for out about the same time. He fell out for the first time just at that time, which left him really dissappointed. I told him the sea was just reminding him who was boss.

Raise your glasses

Yesterday was another glorious day, with temperatures in the low twenties, and so we decided that a trip to the beach was in order. SWMBO had been joking about how all the boating had been centered around me, so I decided she would get a chance last night.

We hitched up the trailer and headed over to Dads for the kayak. We arrived at the beach around 7pm got all suited and lifejacked up, got the kids into the water on their new bodyboards, and I pulled SWMBO around in the kayak to get her familiar with the waves. Like a duck to water she was quicky going on her own, paddling out through the waves, and surfing them in. She was very fortunate because it was another of those "perfect" wave night, where the waves bring you in nicely, but don't throw you out of the boat.

It was all I could do to persuade her to let me have a turn, so I had a short stint, and afterwards we let the kids have a short, and controlled go.

After that SWMBO headed out again, and I stayed, and played with the kids. Every once in a while I would turn to see SWMBO successfully surfing another wave, bot this time I turned to see her out of the boat and shouting. I began to run towards her (running in the water is never very successful, and I'm sure it doesn't look too graceful to the onlooker either) thinking she was in trouble, but as I approached I discovered the trouble was less serious. She had lost her glasses. We spent about 10 minutes in the waves looking for them, the waves were so big that visibility into the water was impaired by sand, and froth (and for SWMBO by eyesight ;). I managed to spot them once on the seabed, but that was just before a huge wave came. So unfortunately the glasses sunk, never to be raised again.

Thankfully this incident hasn't put SWMBO off kayaking, and she still had a fantastic time, and now she has an excuse to go shopping for a new pair of specs!

Another pleasant evening

The weather was super last night again, which prompted another boating outing. The waves were fairly small, similar to the previous night, so we decided to go out round the cost a little.

We started out at the West side of the castlerock beach (furthest from the barmouth, nearest the cliffs) and headed out around the coast. It was pretty tough going, which was a bit of a worry because the breeze (you couldnt really call it a wind) was in our back.

When we got halfway to Downhill, right inbeween the two railway tunnels, a train went through! It was a pretty unique perspective!

We persevered on around the coast, landing at Downhill for a break. It was a bit worrying, because the waves at Downhill seemed huge, but we managed to land without incident.

After a short pause, we set sail again back towards Castlerock, and to our great relief it was a lot easier, the tide must have been with us. About 20 minutes later we were back in Castlerock, and the going was so good we decided to keep going. We got about half way along the beach, and decided it was time to turn, knowing that the tide was against us. So back we went to our starting position, and landed again, emerging from the water almost completely dry. (this is the first time I didn't get my hair wet!)

I did a quick plot of our journey on Google Earth, and it seems we rowed just over 3 miles! So pretty good going... and great fun!

Let the mid life crisis begin

I figure why wait. Why put off the mid life crisis until mid-life. In fact, why even have your own when you can piggyback someone elses?

My Dad has been in "mid life crisis" mode for as long as I can remember, but recently he has taken up canoeing, or more accurately kayaking. He bought a kayak a few months ago, and has been relentlessly visiting the beaches / rivers to play.

He has been saying that I should go with him, and when he bought a second kayak my excuse list diminished drastically. In the end I gave in. I went for the third time last night, and it was great!

First time was about 10 days ago, and it was fun. Dad said the waves were the biggest he had ever been on, which I have to say was fairly intimidating, but it turned out to be great. Then we went again on Friday night past. It was freezing and windy, and really not an aweful lot of fun.

Last night was fantastic, we were out for about 90 minutes - the waves were a goldilocks size, not too big or too small, just right. We canoed out beyond the waves and went out around the cliffs a bit - the tide was perfect, and the wind was only a gentle breeze.

No photos unfortunately, I havent dared take the camera yet...

Mum, SWMBO and kiddies went for a walk along the beach while we were out, when they got back we got the kids into the boats and pulled them over the waves. They had a fantastic time. We'll definitely be doing that again... (hopefully tonight ;)

Growing up

Just a wee garden update - all coming up nicely, loads of lovely rain and heat over the weekend. It also got a spread of fertiliser tonight :)

Tourist Destination : North Korea

A very interesting photo diary of a visit to North Korea, the best place in the world to live according to the local government, according to everyone else in the world, it is the worst :

http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?t=82755

Edit: Related news article : North Korea has a missile that can hit the USA & they can't wait to try it!

Rolling onwards

After last nights 1/2 completed rolling I got a more robust hitch mechanism made up and put the roller on behind the mower again.

It may have been easier and less effort to roll manually, but where would the fun be in that...?

The roller worked much better in the light, I could see where I was going - definitely a big advantage!

Got the remainder rolled, and its looking great - all we have to do now is wait for the grass to spring up....

Gardening

Our expanse of field has now been sown out in grass seed for a lawn.

It was ploughed a few weeks ago, and didnt look all that beautiful with a lot of matted field grass showing even with the ploughing.

Last Saturday morning I hired a garden rotavator and set to work - a tough job with a ploughed field on a hill. Anyhow, I toiled for about 2 hours pulling up I would estimate around a googol of stones. At 10:30 it was time to do a 2-hour shift at the flower festival at church, so I went there.

On the way back I called with Mr Farmer who I had asked to come and help with his proper tools, so he told me he would be there later in the afternoon. It was a fantastic day, sunny all day, and roasting. I did a bit more with the rotavator, and then waited on the tractor arriving.

When the tractor started with the power harrow (or par-harra as we say here ;) it was amazing. In went poor quality, aweful looking soil, and out came beautiful, well worked soil!

After another googol of stones were lifted, and a bit of harrowing the ground was looking great.

On Monday when I returned from work at 5pm I went straight to the garden. My Father-in-law had been there during the day with the tractor and land-leveller which had removed the humps and hollows. All that remained to be done was raking the small stones away.

Raking took a few hours, and about 9pm we were ready to sow the grass seed. After sowing it needed another rake to cover the seed in soil, and again this seemed to take ages.

About 10:30pm it was raked and ready to be rolled. I managed to hook the garden roller up behind the lawnmower, and got about 1/2 of it rolled before giving up due to darkness and mechanical failure (of the hitch for the roller, leaving the comical scenario of me running down the hill after the runaway roller 8- )

Just before midnight I stopped. Job *almost* well done.

Quote of the day

Never go to bed mad. Stay up and fight. - Phyllis Diller

Littlest Update

We had quite an adventure on Friday, with our littlest going into hospital for a wee operation. I think it was more traumatic for mum, but we all survived, and it all passed off peacefully.

Anyway, she was supposed to rest for 24 hours, she probably managed 2.4 hours, so I suppose that's something. Her hearing seems to be a lot better, although she has some habits that will take some time to shake, like watching lips, and I also think she has a habit of not listening (you know, what your teachers always told you - there was nothing wrong with the hearing, its the listening that's at fault).

We are able to see an improvement, and that's good. She is also completely unscathed by the whole ordeal - she seems to think of it more as an adventure. The nurses thought the anesthetic had had a funny affect on her, they said she was very talkative; we managed to reassure them this was perfectly normal.

Thanks to all for all the concern and your support.

Thank You

So, to the producers of Lost I say "Thank You."

At last we get a few answers. More questions are opened up, enough for an intriguing Season 3.

Caution: Look away now..

Finally, we get to see Desmond, how he got to the island, to the hatch and how he began to push the button. We got to see Kelvin, his predecessor, and hear his story.

Finally we see the countdown go to zero, and see the real consequences.

Finally Michael has to own up to what he did.

Finally we discover that there is a way off the island, bearing 325 degrees.

We get to see that Henry is an important person. We see that the camp is fake, and it seems the others live elsewhere

We have the promise that Jack, Kate and Sawyer will be taken to wherever the others actually live. We find out that Mr Friendly's name is Tom, and that the survivors shouldn't really be told that.

We already suspected that the island was somehow invisible to the rest of the world, more confirmation this episode. Except for the EMP.

What of Mr Eko, Locke and Desmond? Where do the others live? What do they want with the 3 hostages? What was the light/sound? The one footed, four toed statue? Where did Sayid end up? What was with that bird?

In Season 3 I think we will find out more about "the others." Maybe there will be a search for the island resulting from the EMP detection. I loved that scene switch to polar conditions, that was fantastic, and a nice ending to the episode too. After the poor ending in season 1, I think I may actually be tuning in on October 4th, when 3x01 airs...

Little ears

It's (apparently) a traumatic time for our household, as our littlest goes into hospital for an operation tomorrow. I say apparently because it hasn't really worried me much, I've never been all that convinced that worrying has much influence over these situations.

Hopefully all will go well, and we'll have a fixed little one soon.

If any of you happen to know the Creator, and are on personal terms, we would appreciate if you could have a word....

24 Season 5

I have to say I was really enjoying and badly addicted to 24, season 5 until 3 episodes before the end.

At the end of 5x21 there was another one of those "it nearly finished, but not quite," and to be honest I had just about had enough twists. I just wanted it to be over.

SWMBO however thought it was fantastic right to the very end, which was incidently a departure from the normal 24 ending....

Anyhoo I'm just about to watch the last 2 episodes of Lost season 2 - all we can do is hope that its a departure from the Season 1 "worst season ending ever."

New TV

So we finally got our new TV, which I had ordered as a result of birthdays passing, and its great.

The problem with it is that its too good. TiVo with composite out is no good, and my amp doesn't do RGB, or composite to component conversion.

I had already ordered a component lead for the XBOX, and it works great. I had read on the TiVo community forum that it was possible to modify settings in one of the output FPGAs to change the output from RGB + composite to component. It requires a setting to be applied on startup, and more interestingly a lead to be created.

I found a good article on it, got the iron out and managed to make up the lead as described. I plugged it in, and voila - it worked first time.

I did however spend an evening trying to get the colours correct, but thats another story.

My amp does switch component, 2x component in to 1 output, so I set about changing the settings to make it work like before. I have to say, that amp is the most difficult thing I have ever had to set up, input -> output mapping is really annoying. The thing that gets me most is the lack of buttons - they use the same buttons for a variety of things, meaning you have to be careful with the order you press the buttons. Why don't they just put ethernet, and a simple web server? Even a serial connection.....

Anyway, got it all sorted in the end, and its a great job - both sources are set up audio and video through the amp. I am content.

Getting elder

The past week or two has been an odd time for me. At least two of those "once in a lifetime" events have occurred.

Firstly there was my Birthday, I'm getting older. I know they come every year, but it was a biggie, you know, an age that ends in a '0' - the reader may speculate as to the preceding digit(s). I don't really get that bothered about these things, but everyone seems to think that birthdays are exciting, especially ones that are multiples of 10, the arbitrary base of our numbering system. I'll only be this age once.

Secondly, and perhaps most peculiarly, I'm getting elder, or more accurately I'm in the process of becoming an elder. The fellowship to which I belong has recently decided that three new elders should be appointed, and so the process began. I was notified last week that I had been selected along with another person to be one of two new elders. This did not come as a complete shock as I had been pre-warned of the likelihood of this happening, but it was still a surprise, and a concern.

Many people seem to think that eldership is something that you earn, but that is just a dangerous misconception. Others recognise that it isn't earned, but still see it as a "promotion" in the church. Most people I talked to after the meeting of our Church on Sunday congratulated me, which I was a little troubled by, because I didn't do anything worthy of congratulations, although I suspect their motivation was innocent, and they were just trying to communicate their support as I take on this role.

I see the position as elder not as a promotion, or elevated status, but as a responsibility. A huge
responsibility. I feel truly unworthy of this responsibility. It is also a great opportunity, or probably will present me with many opportunities to influence the direction of the church, and also individuals, and I think that is one of the biggest responsibilities.

I have thought extensively, prayed and talked to friends about this and I believe this is where the Lord wants me to be, although it is well outside my comfort zone, so I have offered my acceptance. This is what faith is for.

There are a few formalities to get through yet, so it is possible that this rollercoaster ride will
crash, but that is in the hands of God.

A busy evening

Today I had arranged to meet a guy at lunchtime to pick up a cachecard for my TiVo. So part of the afternoon was spent reading about the steps to install that, in preparation for a busy evening.

Arrived home, and wolfed tea down, and then off to pick up SWMBO's new car. Over to Richard Patterson Motors again, where it was parked, waiting, ready to make its first trip to a new home.

When we arrived home it was time to get the kids to bed, and then start pulling apart the TiVo. Thankfully I'm not exactly what you'd call an "early adoptor," so hardware and software tends to be out years before I get round to trying it (the TiVo I bought was in the last available commercial sale of TiVos in the UK (cost £99)). Turbonet, Airnet and now cachecard have all been out for a long time, which means there are some great tutorials out there on how to install them. I used one from Steve Conrad http://www.steveconrad.co.uk/tivo/index.html

I had to unlock my TiVo drive again, and about 20 minutes installed the drivers. Simple. Then the playing began. The tut I followed enabled FTP and Telnet access, so I could immediately transfer files etc, and log in. A few settings to make the environment a little friendlier (like the installation of the 'ls' command), and then the real fun could begin.

Once I got the TiVo operational again, and was happy that it didn't need any more surgery, I replaced the cover and let SWMBO fix on eastenders, while I worked away at it remotely.

Being Tuesday it meant a fresh ep of 24 was available, so obviously I had to take a break to see that (5x20)

After that I continued to play with TiVoWeb and some of the great modules available for that. I finished up at 2am having played around with endpad for a while.....