I hate Halloween

I hate trick or treat. Ok the kids round where we live now aren't anything like the kids I used to live around in Bournemouth, but when 20 of them turn up on your doorstep at once and take nearly the whole supply of sweets you had bought the that's too much. Ok I didn't buy the sweets (Sue did) as I was quite happy to ignore the kids all night long. I don't believe in trick or treat. Another stupid Americanism, that we have seemed to have followed. Heard that the Police were getting phone calls at a rate of one every 20 seconds at peak periods about Trick or Treaters. Isn't it about time something was done?

More on those A11 roadwoks

Was chatting to my good friend Paul Gottle today, via the chat room on Simong’s website. I would provide a link to Simon G's website but seeing has he a refused* to link to my blog why should I. Anyway Paul, was in Norwich over the weekend as well. For a Hospital Radio Conference. He did some caching as well. He asked me about how we got on with the road closure. They had to divert down the A140 to Ipswich and then go across to the M25 from there. Huge detour. I was so glad that we missed all that

*OK so he hasn’t that that he wont do, he just ignores my repeated requests

Always road works on A11

Quick plane spotting trip round Mildenhall today. OK it was slightly longer than usual as I made a point of looking at the based KC-135's for a change as they seems to have rotated them with some US examples in the last few years. Made about 10. Then off home. Last night we were curing having to leave Norwich and drive down to Barton Mills but having noticed the signs saying that the A11 was shut at Attleborough which we passed last night we were glad that we did stay at Barton Mills and therefore missed the road closure. Stopped off at South Mims Services, Walked through to the park nearby where the North of London Travel Bug Hotel is. Even though we haven't cached for years the lure of travel bugs was too much. Took a handful of them to move down south.

A day in Norfolk

Quick trip to Felbrigg Hall, a National Trust property in Norfolk. On route passed a car boot sale. Sue and I can't resist a car boot sale. Picked up some nice items and one woman was giving some stuff away for free. Fellbrigg Hall was OK. However so many National Trust houses just look like one another. Rooms full of Victorian stuff, paintings, furnature etc. Had lunch here which was quite expensive for what you got. Didn't go round the grounds which look like as we didn't have time. We'll do them on our next visit. The off to my sisters for tea. Jolly nice day. Late finish and we had to head off to Barton Mills Travelodge. We’d heard stories about Travelodges overbooking their rooms as some people don’t turn up. And therefore, late coming being turned away. We arrived at about 11pm, just ahead of another car load. We raced across the car park to make sure we got in there first. They had said that we were the last ones to book in that night and that they had tried to ring us to see if we were still coming!

Beer please

Norwich Beer Festival. A Fine place in a fine city. Got there nice and early. Sue came in just to play the pub games. We won a packet of playing cards and a Good Beer Guide. Sue then went off to meet my sister and go and do some shopping / lunch and a good chat. I just drank beer and more beer. It was good. At tea time we headed straight back to the Travelodge where I fell asleep. Beer glass design for this years festival was a bit boring. Lets hope they do some special for next year, as it will be the 30th Norwich Festival.

Woodbridge, Suffolk

Leaving Baldock we head into Suffolk and staying the night at the Travelodge at Stowmarket. However, for the days entertainment we travel on to Woodbridge. We’ve heard that it’s a nice place. However we had a strange feeling. As we neared the town centre we’d realised that we’ve been here before. We did a cache in the park in the town centre. But on that occasion we didn’t stop long. I think it was a Sunday as the shops were shut anyway. But today today was a Thursday. So we popped into Buddens, bought sandwiches and went to the park in with the cache in it and eat our lunch. We both remember where the cache was but didn’t really look for it. Then off round the town.

One Charity shop we visited was the local Oxfam books Shop. Couple of nice books but their prices were ridicules. Books that cost £6 ten years ago, won’t sell now for £8 unless they are rare and unusual, which these weren’t.

At the end of the High Street was an Hotel and bar, We both fancied a break and so a quick stop for drinks. Which turned into a longer stop. But the beer was nice. Wanted to head down to the river before it got dark, which is on the other side of the railway line. Going over the bridge we noticed a woman waiting on the platform for a train. Nothing unusual about that you might think, but she had a video camera on a tripod. Oh something good must be coming through I hoped. And sure enough a DRS train with a Class 20 and a Class 37 slowly trundled through the station. With one nuclear waste flask in toe. Great stuff.

The river was nice. I did go for a walk further along the bank. Sue didn’t as she thought the path we be very muddy with the rain from the day before. However I discovered that the path was tarmac. Saw two more birds to add to my list. A turnstone and a Curlew. Had to turn back as it was getting dark and Sue was getting cold. Really must walk the whole length of that path one day. Maybe at low tide when all the waders are in..

RSPB

On 43things.com I have as one of my things I want to do as learning to identify birds better. You see, I like to get out and about and whilst on walks I thought it would be nice to put a name to the birds I see. So having bought VHS's, DVD's and books I'm on a quest to improve my recognition of birds. In fact, some might say that I've taken up bird watching as I've –

a) go out on days just to look at birds
b) tick off those birds that I've seen.

Well today was one of those days. Sue and I went to The Lodge, which is actually the HQ of the RSPB. Bit of a wet day but we spend most of the time in the hide watching the small birds on the feeders. Saw two new species for me today. Grey Wagtail and a Coal Tit. Now most of the RSPB reserves and other similar establishments will have a list of unusual birds seen in the last few days displayed somewhere on the site. It’s always been my aim to be able to add to these lists with my own sightings and today for the first time I did. As it appears that the Grey Wagtail in not a common bird at that area. Now how far should my ID skills improve before I mark my aim on 43things.com as being completed?

Baldock but not as we know it

Heading up to Norfolk to see my sister and her family. But first a couple of nights in our favorite Hertfordshire town Baldock. We always have lunch (normall the all-day breakfast) in our favorite café in the middle of the town and get a window seat and watch the world go by. Walking on up we noticed that there were some window seats free. Piling it we expected to be greeted by the little Chinese looking lady who’s always there. But wait a minute, there was a Greek/Turkish looking bloke. This took us back. Checking up to the menu behind the counter only to finds its not there anymore. Only then spotting the rather tacky laminated menus making the place look like a Wimpy but without the class (!) We’ll as we were there it would be rude to just walk out. So we ordered the all day breakfast and cups of tea. Sat down in shock. What’s happened to the Chinese lady?? Is this the end of Baldock as we know it. Then the food arrived. Much quicker that normal. Sue doesn’t like baked beans so was pleased that the breakfasts don’t contain them now. Hmm we seems to have two of everything was it just to just be one… tasty too. Quicker service, OK not the happy face of the previous person but still OK. Yum Yum, munched our way through it all. Went to pay and was charged less than normal. Maybe for once this might be a change for the good.

Beth Tweedle

Just finished watching a programme on Aircraft being cut up in the Arizona Desert after they had become life expired. Sue had already gone upstairs to read a book, but I was lounging around on the sofa. Nor bothering to move I decided to flick through the TV channels. Grandstand was on BBC1 with World Championship Gymnastics. I used to watch a lot of Gymnastics when I was younger. I was always in ore of them. You see, from a very early age it was obvious that I would never make a sports person, despite how hard I tried to become a footballer. At that time a Gymnast seemed to represent to me the ultimate athlete. Even today I marvel at the sheer strength of the male gymnast performing a routine on the rings and the sheer nerve of the women doing amazing backflips of a 4in wide bit of wood. And the un-even bars are just great to watch. It was on those bits of apparatus that Bitish woman Beth Tweedle was performing. Now I was already confused by the scoring. Last time I watch Gymnastics they were scoring out of 10. Now it seems that the maximum score they get is 19.5 ??? What a strange amount, why not make it 20... They could easily of done that by lets say giving a competitor 0.5 for finding their way to the gym.. mabye be.. perhaps… Anyway back to Beth Tweedle…. Who throughout her routine I was trying hard not to confuse her with Mrs Tweedy or Cheryl Tweedy or the like. Anyway she went and won the gold medal. The first British Gymnast to ever win gold in a major world event. Gosh - well done Beth.

Heather Mills-McCartney what are you doing???

To me Celebdaq is easy this week. Madonna. All the press coverage of her and her new son... Oh yes, this week getting over £10 a share dividend on that one. Then the god awful Heather Mills-McCartney goes and says stuff about Sir Paul attacking her. Why now Heather? If you had left it just a couple of days then us Celebdaqers would have had an easy week next week as well.

Name that Name (2)

Readers of my mates Stu's blog may rember his "Name the ..um.. Name" competition that he ran a short while ago. Well I'm trying to think of a name for a new aircraft related site, where I can show off my photography and generally chat about all thing aircraft wise. But having difficulty thinking up a name that is

a) simple to remember
b) Clean
c) is avaiable in either .com, .co.uk and or .net

So I think I'll do a competition with a prize of a beer* next time we meet.. so get entering

*or wine or what ever you want.

More to Life

After band practice last week, my fellow band members and myself has a chat about life. Dave is trying to become a professional illustrator, just like the famous Simon Goodway, but not so rubbish. Simon is a good photographer and would love to do that professionally. I am trying to build up my stall at airshows and spend some of the weekend buying in new stock. We all agreed that there was more to life than just working for someone else, especially as we all feel that our respective bosses don't appreciate us. We all want to go and do work that we enjoy and we are the boss. However, bills still have to be paid and so quitting our current jobs isn’t on the cards right now.

End of Season

Well last Sunday was the last Fly-in of the year at Popham. Had a stall as per ususual. Last few times we've been taking a lot more money than normal. It's been great, but all out decent stock has gone. Time to re-invest with new stock. Trouble is finding it. Still we have the winter to sort it all out.

Can you spot me?