Job, Family and Churches

Oh… got some blogging to catch up on… sorry about that dear readers. As you’ve probably read on Sue’s blog, things are happening at work. We have a big review going on with everyone’s jobs. We’ve just got out points that they awarded to our jobs, and given us a chance to appeal if we think we are worth more points. Which I think I am. However, points make…… yeah cash. BUT, they haven’t decided what points make what salary. It’s all a bit crap. So as regular readers already know that I’m desperate to leave, this doesn’t help my happiness, or lack of it here.

Other things are going OK. Weather was bad over the weekend, so Sue and I watch some films. During which I managed to post some more photos onto my bus photo and train photo sites. Glad I’m catching up with that. It was good to spend some quality time with Sue.

Been doing some family tree stuff. One of my distant relations, Daisy Olding, was married to a Bertie Humby. Via genesreunited.com, I found a couple of people who are relations of Bertie. So all the people in their family tree must be relations of mine, albeit by marriage. So that’s another 3,800+ people to add to the tree (maybe)!!

Weekend before last we went to a book sale, one of the many books I bought was a book on parish churches. For years, every time I pass an old church I’d have a quick look. Well, since I bough the digital camera I’ve been thinking about getting pictures of them and that’s what I’ve been doing. Don’t worry Anne, this isn’t anything connected with religion, it’s just that they are interesting buildings. Anyway, up to now I’ve had the pictures on pbase.com, but in the process of moving them to this site. Done one page for Weyhill Church, Hmpshire. I’ll have get the other pictures on there soon.

Car Books and French Pipers

Well the weekend is over. Saturday was off to the book sale near Andover, bought a couple of nice books. Some for myself and others to sell on. Then off to our favourite charity shop in Enham. Again bought some stuff for myself and some to sell on. Then off to Popham. Piper is an aircraft manufacturer and there is sort of a Piper Owners club, with members owning the more vantage of Pipers products. It’s a French based club, but members around Europe. Each year they hold a get together and each year its in a different country. This year its England and Popham. However, only about a dozen aircraft took the risk and hopped over the channel. Mostly French but a couple of Belgium’s as well. Lovely aircraft though. Then the hevans opened. Was going to stop at Winchester Services (Southbound) for a coffee and a snack, but there was huge jams on the M3. So down the A30. Stopped off at a garden centre, Hoping that they would have a small coffee shop, but they didn’t. Picked up a bargain bush for only £2. Hope it will fill the gab in the shrubs we have in the gardens at the moment. The off to another garden centre near where we live, and had a meal there. That’s twice in two days I’ve bought a proper meal, gosh the expense of it.

Sunday was off to the boot sale near home. Hoping there was going to be a guy there selling model aircraft again. We bought some off him last time and re-sold them all at Popham at great profit. Well not bad profit. But alas the weather must have put him ff as he wasn’t there. However did pick up some Teddy bears from a weekly collection series that was going a few years ago;. Bought them before and re-sold on eBay, again for profit, so fingers crossed on them. Spend the afternoon on the PC sorting out more of the family tree. Checking my data against Birth, Marriages and Deaths on ancestry.co.uk. Came up with some more relatives I didn’t know about. Written to a couple of people that might be relations on mine. Then I sorted out some of the last picture I took on my Holland/Belgium trip in May.

In the garden I planted out the pumpkins, and no I’ve not been inspired by the Garden Fete show on TV so I have no intention of trying to grow the biggest pumpkin in the world, That’s a competition I could do without. I’d rather have a nice one that tasted lovely. I mean some of these largest veg entries are so ridiculous and you just can’t eat them. And to me that the point of it all, good food!

Hextreme

Well work this afternoon was fun for a change. Purely in the interests of research, we played an on-line game. A game written by my old mate SimonG. If you haven’t played his latest game Hextreme then you have really been missing out on bundles of fun. Now, I know that SimonG is normally rubbish, especially as he still refuses to add my blog to his blog ring, but this time he seems to have really excelled himself, or should that be Hexcelled. Anyway everyone at work was suitable impressed with it. Good game, well thought out, excellent programming. Well done Simon.

Popham

Popham today for the aerobatic fly-in. Big disappointment, not many planes. Stall did OK. Managed to sell quite a few of my spare slides, which is always good as the demand for them isn’t so much these days. Sue suggested that I even sort out my remaining slides. Quite a bit of work as they are all packed away.

Spend the evening, uploading my pictures that I had taken to Popham to the Air-Britain Picture Site. That didn’t take long. Then watched a bit of TV. Oh god work tomorrow

Happy Birthday to Sue's Dad

Sue’s Dads birthday today. So we invited Sue’s parents round for lunch and tea. Yummy food. In the afternoon we went for a walk around the Lakeside Country Park. Saw, what I think is a Whitethroat. Once confirmed that will be a new bird for me. Great stuff. Spend the evening planting the lettuces that Sue’s parents gave us into pots. We have found that putting them in pots is helping us control the slug problem. They still get to the lettuces but no so many and those that do we can pick off easier.

Quiet Zone

Some trains these days have ‘quiet zones’, where people can sit and be free of noise from mobile phones and personal stereos. Well that the theory, what mostly happens is that people completely ignore the fact they are in the quiet zone and still chat away on the phone. Most people are OK and will talk quietly. However what make it worse is when someone is on the train that demands that no-one uses the phone. That happened tonight when there was a couple on the train who were acting a quiet zone Police. One guy got a real mouthful when he phone went off. He moved to the back of the carriage, but the quiet zone Police man kept turning round and staring at him. He did suffer for long as another persons phone went off and they turned their anger at him instead. They were creating more noise and nuisance than the people with the phones. I think I’ll avoid the quiet zone in future… too noisy in there…

Black Swan

Passing over the River Test on the train I sometimes see birds. At low tide its gulls. At high tide its Swans. Today was high tide, so swans. Mute swans. Except one of them was a black swan. OK so I can’t count it as towards my Hampshire list, as its an escapee. I mean they have been brought into the country by man. Normally they live in Australia and New Zealand, but apparently about 10 of them have ecaped and are now living wild. So a rare bird none the less.

Bromsgrove

Had a day out of the office today. Went to Bromsgrove to get training in InterpOSe, Yes it is spelt that way with the capital OS and its software we use with our Ordnance Survey updates. We found out today that we can use it for more than that as well. So it was good training. Driving back Neil felt tired so I took over the driving. We had a hire car. A big Volvo estate. Quite nice. Driving seat felt quite high. Brakes didn’t feel that good though and if you opened up a back window you really got a thud thud thud sound. Couldn’t really work out why. Sue was out for the evening and so I was on the computer for most of the time. Sorting out photos and adding more books to readitswapit.co.uk

Caching

Sat and sorted out photo from my Holland/Belgium trip and upload the best ones to ABPIC. Tried something new today Rum and Coke. Quite nice. Think I will have it again in the future, once in a while.

Towards late afternoon Sue was obviously bored and I must admit, I thought a break from doing all the photos would be nice. Made a few suggestions as to what we could do and to my surprise she said that we should go and finish off the cache we started yesterday. The cache in question was Abbey Views and yes, it did contain good views of the Abbey. Just wish the footpath was better marked. One of the cows in the field had a really evil stare. Still got rid of a geocoin that we’ve had for far too long.

Happy Birthday Mum

Well today would have been my mum’s 80th Birthday today and as I haven’t been down to her grave for ages I thought that today would be nice to go down there. Decided to do a round trip. Do a couple of caches off the M27. Check up on our Ziegler Passage cache (apparently the box is now back), Quite visit to the airport. Visit the grave. Then off to Lymington for the market and a nice drive though the forest. Filled the car up with petrol. Got onto the motorway and saw the signs saying that the M27 was closed between Junction 2 and 3. Heard on the radio that the Police had no idea when it would re-open. Had the idea to go via Romsey. Unfortunatly everyone else had the same idea. Everything was solid all around. We got to Romsey by lunchtime and decided that it wasn’t really going to be worth trying to get to Bournemouth. Sorry Mum we did try.

Paul and Tim

Off to London again, another freeby on using one of my free tickets I get with my Rail Season Ticket. Thought I’d surprise my good mate Paul and my good mate Tim.. by waiting to see them off their train. It was great to see both of them as I hadn’t seen either of them for ages and they are both very nice people to know.

Good day was had it London. Not as good as last time though. Acton Main Line was a disappointment. Not many freight trains through. Rest of the day was good. Might do something different next time.

Ended up at London City Airport again. Good there of an evening. Nice way to finish off a busy day. Just sitting watching planes, there was also a couple of Ducks, a coot and a tern there as well.