Woo Hoo!

Clocks went forward last night across the UK by an hour, so now we have gone into British Summer Time. It will now be noticably lighter in the evenings and darker in the mornings. Will be a great help to our farmers and the munitions workers needing to find their way home in the dark... only trouble is these days our farmers have lights on their tractors and we do light our street lights every night.

Isn't it about time we stopped this nonsense which dates back to WWII and stayed on GMT* all year round?




*Greenwich Mean Time

Highcliff

Just as you requested, Mum.

Saturday

Tomorrow Dad and I are taking a trip to (hopefully) sunny Dorset County. Mum wanted her ashes laid to rest at one of her favourite places, overlooking the sea. Spare a thought please, I don't think it will be a particularly pleasant duty.

Retro

Had every intention of posting about all sorts of meaningful things today but instead....

I found this in the attic the other day.














Yep that's a Commodore Amiga 600 from the early 90's, complete with "brick" power supply module and built-in TV modulator. How we marvelled at such technology!

Now the grand idea was to try to sell it on one of those well known auction style sites. Of course that meant it had to be unpacked and tested to make sure all was in working order. A functioning model probably attracts an extra Pound dontchaknow.

The trouble is as soon as I had installed Workbench, I then found myself gazing lovingly at games such Pacmania, Zool and Alien Breed. Anyone know where I can get hold of an internal hard drive cheaply? Think I might just be keeping this for a while longer, we'll see. LOL

Single Point

Crystal Palace 0 - 0 Reading

Reduced to 10 men, after a questionable refereeing decision, the Royals managed to come away with a point for the draw.

Uplifting.....

British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, demonstrates exactly how much Breast size has increased since his party came to power. Another uplifting triumph for New Labour LOL.





You can just imagine him thinking "I'd love to get my hands on a pair like that." Probably.




Sorry I just couldn't resist it when I saw this image.



Oh and apparently the Equinox today marks the first official day of Spring here in the UK. The Sun is now moving into the Northern Hemisphere and the good weather is on it's way....

Textured

Rather more promptly that expected (but I'm not complaining), my new textured coil pot was back from firing. The glazes used where blue-grey for the lower section and marbled blue on the upper. Please feel free to take a trip to Webshots to see more of this and my other work.

Hopefully next week my thrown bowls will be ready for glazing.


















So that left me to start something new. I'm going to continue with the coiled, organic form for the time being but came to the conclusion my work is pretty much stuck at a uniform height of around 12 inches (300mm ish). The new one I intend to make bigger- I've made a good start with the base which is about diameter 10 inches (260mm) so that should give me scope to do interesting things. More on that and some work-in-progress images as the weeks go by.



Elsewhere last night, the Royals travelled to Doncaster and grabbed a late winner (0-1), bringing a necessary three points back to Berkshire. Former Reading favourite Dave Kitson- who has just returned on loan from Stoke- made the goal. Nice to have you back Dave.















One final thought- just how good is Law and Order:UK? Bradley Walsh (second from right, above) is an excellent choice in one of his too few serious roles and isn't it great hearing BSG's Jamie Bamber speaking with his native accent, as the Police side-kick?

To The Unbelievers...

Apparently my claim to having eaten poached egg on Marmite toast has been disputed in some quarters. To paraphrase Blue Peter, here's an image I made earlier...














Oh and for anyone claiming to have Irish blood in their veins (not me), have a great St Paddy's day. Don't drink too much of the dark stuff LOL.

REME

For the first time that I recall (although sadly it probably isn't the first), two soldiers from our local army base the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers have been killed in an Afghan incident. As I drove past this morning to work, flags were at half mast.

Can't imagine what their families or colleagues must be feeling. Nothing more I can add is there?

Shaun Das Schaf

Many will know I love the adventures of Plasticine-built inventor Wallace and his dog Gromit but also the spin-off series Shaun the Sheep.


I was recently sent the link below for the German language version of the theme (thank you, Wunderlust). Quite funny although I think the guy finally blew it when he dressed as a giant sheep LOL. Here's the link: Shaun das Schaf. Enjoy!





Purists may also wish to visit the official Shaun site here and of course the Wallace and Gromit site, here.

What Went Wrong?

Reading 0 - 1 Ipswich.

Music? What Music?

For any out of towners reading this, YouTube and the Performing Rights Society for Music have been having a little disagreement over royalties for music and videos broadcast into the UK. Or something like that, there's money involved somewhere along the way. The upshot being certain content is now blocked from being viewed in the UK.

Anyway, Joe Blogs has this to say today on the subject. Go read. Couldn't agree more.