Bumping in to an old friend

Today was a bit like walking through town and unexpectedly bumping in to an old friend.  But with that socially awkward bonus:

You can't remember their name!

So I have just spent a little while fishing around on the internet and getting a bit grumpy and frustrated before finding how to get access to this, my old blog.  I eventually realised that what I needed was the Blogger legacy sign in.

But, hurrah! Here I am.

I had forgotten how much I had posted to this five to six years ago.  Lots of pretentious student waffle.  I'm not aiming to re-start blogging (amazingly Google Chrome spell checker doesn't have that as a word in its dictionary) again as I fear it would simply pick up where I left off, with the quality of waffle little altered.

Anyway, hello - I didn't die or anything.

Salvaging the cliff-wrecked car

Salvaging the cliff-wrecked car
Originally uploaded by redwelly.

Several weeks ago I heard the news-cum-hearsay that a car had been pushed off Consti. Apparently a Ford dealership had been broken into and five cars systematically joy-ridden and returned, before this Mondeo was taken to the top of Constitution Hill and pushed over the edge.

Despite a couple of half-hearted attempts to see the remains, I never spotted more than a piece of non-descript bumper on the cliffs.

But this evening the sound of a helicopter was heard, flying very low around the beach area. Natrally the response is to run outside with one's camera handy.

The insurance company (we suppose) has at last hired a helicopter salvage firm to remove the car wreckage from the base of the cliffs. So there, for all (around fifty more curious souls on the windswept prom) to see, was a curiously beautiful sight: A brand new, never-been-owned car, reduced by the sea to a bundle of rust, dangling forlornly below a small helicopter, over the beach of Aberystwyth.

It's still there (as of 11pm). Any takers?

He is not here...

He has risen.

This depends on whether you consider changing from Blogger to Wordpress to be an improvement. You'd be a bit silly not to really.

What this really means, to anyone who's still none the wiser, is that I have a new blog, getting towards being fully integrated into redwelly. From now on you can read it there.

In other words: click here to go to my blog in future.

If you have 'favourites' bookmarks to this blog, please update them.

Thank you.

Bank holiday

View on Flickr

As it was bank holiday monday, I resisted the urge to do some DIY about the house. Instead I went for a walk around my local area. It seemed bright and sunny at about 9am this morning, but was fairly cloudy most of the day, which made it feel less warm.

Still, I found this interesting biological feature.

Back to the grindstone tomorrow... trying to get some work done!

The Road Goes Ever On

The Road Goes Ever On
Originally uploaded by redwelly.

Give or take a few days, it has now been one single, rounded, whole year since I first posted on this blog.

Over the course of the year I seem to have significantly toned down the flowery prose, and slackened off from the flowery pictures too. I have not monitored the traffic too closely, but seem to get a fairly steady flow of about 30 hits per week. And I know who you are... mostly.

This photo was from the beginning of my return trip, unicycling back across Exmoor from Lee Abbey to Bath. The ride down on Monday was a great strain, and at 107 miles, is also my longest one-day-ride... with devastatingly frequent hills towards the end.

It inspired my first ever hitch-hiking experience, on concluding that I just couldn't trudge any further up this last(ish) hill into Lynton. A very nice man with a large estate car took me the half mile or so up to Lynton, and all ended well.

For the return trip I decided not to foolishly try to avoid the coastal hills, at the expense of all the other inland hills, so I went via Porlock and Minehead. It seemed vastly easier, and turned out to be only 93 miles too.

In between silly unicycle rides, I had a very pleasant couple of days visiting Tim, seeing Lee Abbey people/places and doing a spot of Celebrity Worship Leader Ogling with Stuart Townend.

Public Notice: There should be no sudden jolts, but you'd better fasten your seatbelts just in case. I have, at long last, got around to registering my own web hosting. Thus I can now install a 'proper' WordPress blogging solution website. For now at least, you shouldn't feel a thing...

So far, so good...

To keep you updated (don't worry, I won't be doing this every day), I have so far achieved four of my points. They are numbered for reference, rather than priority.

Number 5 - There is some evidence of spring, notably blossom on trees. I took a few photos of this, and scarcely need a list to tell me to take some more.

Number 13 - I got some rather worryingly grown up brown leather shoes, on sale. After a brief walk to the post box (see point 17), I haven't become convinced that they are the most comfortable ever, but hopefully I will get used to them.

Number 18 - last night it was on deserts. Very interesting. The bedrock of the program's graphic appeal seems to be new time-lapse steadying techniques - some incredible panning time-lapse sequences.

Number 12 - While I was in the shoe shop, working on number 13, a couple of lads with outlandishly 'alternative' styles came in, and excitedly examined the range of pink Converse Allstars trainers. The combination of blonde mop hair, ripped jeans and huge brown 'aviator' sunglasses was enough already! One of them turned out to be Dave, from school. He said his band, Oedipus (yes indeed) are playing in town on Saturday, which would be an ideal chance to bump into (perhaps literally) my old friends. Ace!

Number 17 - After buying a bottle of Quink (that's ink with added je-ne-ce-'qu'), I did this point just after last post today. D'oh! The sealing wax also stayed a-flame on the envelope for a while, so I hope it didn't damage the letter inside. My handwriting looks both surprisingly 'old fashioned', and less neat than usual. Very nice using a dip pen though.

Other points which have had progress on them are 14 - I bought a train ticket, 4 - I got four small canvasses and 19 - see the above post!

Things to do this holiday

I have now got three weeks stretching out before me, all termable 'vacation'. There are also many things which I wish to do during these weeks. Some I will do, some I will do in part, while there are sure to be some which I do not do.

Here are some of the things which I will try to do...

1. Complete my programming assignment before the end of the time allowed.
2. Read through my notes and the lecture slides for my modules which will be examined.
3. Set up a website which I can publicise to offer prints of my best photos and paintings for sale.
4. Produce three or more new paintings.
5. Take some good photos with my new (to me) second-hand old film camera.
6. Write a post on this blog once a week or more.
7. Write a post on this blog entitled "Seventeen Things Which My Portable Telephone Device Does Not Do".
8. Write up an illustrated account of our epic cycle ride of six months ago.
9. Sleep a reasonable amount.
10. Unicycle an excessive amount, preferably 100 miles per week.
11. Achieve the '100 miles in 10 hours on 1 wheel' unicycle challenge.
12. Meet some of my school friends which I have not seen since 6th Form.
13. Buy some shoes which do not make my feet wetter than the ground on which they walk.
14. Perform as a drummer in a rock band in a distant town.
15. Appreciate the meaning of life more than previously.
16. Write lyrics for a song.
17. Write a letter to the one I love, using a dipping ink pen and sealed with red sealing wax.
18. Watch an entire episode of the beautiful BBC's Planet Earth program.
19. Spend less of my time thinking about 'things I will do some day when I have time', and do them.

Nineteen things. That should keep me busy for a bit.

Now, as it's sunny and bright outside, I am going to start on number five, progressively nineteen, and possibly fifteen.