Pictures don't do justice to the viewing of the International Space Station (ISS) from Barmouth beach, so I thought I'd try words instead.
Walk from the promenade through the sand dunes to the edge of the dunes by the sea which is at high tide. The air is very still and quiet. The edge of the dunes is now more of a cliff face than a dune thanks to the storms that battered them in February. Below the dunes is the sea, sky blue and gently lapping against the shore, with an occasional crash just to remind you of its power. To the north west is the Lleyn Peninsula with the remnants of the setting sun. The clouds and sky are various shades of orange. The rest of the sky is a very very deep blue, crystal clear. Many stars are making their appearance. As you stare at an emerging star you wonder if it is actually moving or not. To the south east is Cadair Idris. The clouds just above it are lit up by the moon which is about to rise. To the east is the town watched over and protected by the mountains behind.
It is time for the ISS to appear. Far out over the sea a white pinpoint of light appears heading towards you. Is it a plane? No, it is moving too fast. Is it a meteor? No, it is going too slowly. It must be the ISS. It carries on, right overhead towards the town. Shrieks of excitement from jubilant tourists can be heard coming from the prom. Then the ISS heads down to the mountains and disappears, all in a matter of minutes.
Monday, 28 April 2014
Saturday, 5 April 2014
Jennifer's Shortbread
The girls love to help with the cooking. Jennifer's specialty dish is shortbread. She makes it in batches usually for special occasions like baking it as a gift for her teachers at school at the end of term or for Christmas. The recipe book is a children's recipe book and is easy to follow. She hasn't tried any other recipes yet even though we try and encourage her to.
She can follow the recipe and do everything by herself (except the oven bit).
She can follow the recipe and do everything by herself (except the oven bit).
Dave and Bob
Spiders! We have spiders living in the house. I used to live in Basingstoke and had a real problem with spiders. There were loads of them, big ones, and they were all over the house. Perhaps spiders aren't keen on the sea air as we don't get many by the coast. The ones that we do get are in our bathroom, which is underground. They live in the corner of the bathroom in a 2 storey web. The spindly one on the first floor web is called Dave and there's Bob on the ground floor web. They don't bother us. However, the youngest isn't keen on them watching her when she's on the toilet; sometimes we have to stand in front of them.
Accepting them means that the children are accepting them too. They don't panic or freak out when they see spiders. Recently a big furry one appeared behind the shower unit. Later that day the youngest pointed him out as he'd fallen into the bath and made his way onto a sponge. I picked him up on the sponge and introduced him to Dave and Bob. He hasn't been seen since.
I doubt they catch many flies. There's no windows into the bathroom. Occasionally there might be a lost fly in there. Once they are groggy they are easy to catch and feed to the spiders. It's easier than swatting them and clearing up the mess afterwards.
Some people would just clear the web away and swat the spiders, but not us. They keep themselves to themselves, I clear their web for them when the bathroom gets cleaned so they have to build another one; it gives them something to do. They don't venture further than their web and after all, they are animals and have just as might right to live on the planet as we do.
They don't carry diseases but they do eat other creatures that might e.g. fleas, mites, flies, earwigs, mosquitoes etc. They fight each other so you should never have many in one place. Given the choice between a spider content to sit in the corner and a host of flying insects, we choose spiders.
Accepting them means that the children are accepting them too. They don't panic or freak out when they see spiders. Recently a big furry one appeared behind the shower unit. Later that day the youngest pointed him out as he'd fallen into the bath and made his way onto a sponge. I picked him up on the sponge and introduced him to Dave and Bob. He hasn't been seen since.
I doubt they catch many flies. There's no windows into the bathroom. Occasionally there might be a lost fly in there. Once they are groggy they are easy to catch and feed to the spiders. It's easier than swatting them and clearing up the mess afterwards.
Some people would just clear the web away and swat the spiders, but not us. They keep themselves to themselves, I clear their web for them when the bathroom gets cleaned so they have to build another one; it gives them something to do. They don't venture further than their web and after all, they are animals and have just as might right to live on the planet as we do.
They don't carry diseases but they do eat other creatures that might e.g. fleas, mites, flies, earwigs, mosquitoes etc. They fight each other so you should never have many in one place. Given the choice between a spider content to sit in the corner and a host of flying insects, we choose spiders.
Monday, 24 March 2014
Traveling with children
We moved from a busy town when the youngest was 1 year old. She travels fine in a car and doesn't get car sick. Now we live miles from anywhere. The car isn't a feature of our everyday lives so the younger two didn't grow up getting used to it and both get car sick. They do local journeys to swimming/gymnastics/karate etc and are getting better. On longer journeys we have to be prepared for car sickness. We've never made a big thing out of it and consequently they don't make a fuss, sick, clean up, and they're okay again. Spare clothes are permanently packed in the boot and true to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy advice, we're never without a towel. We also have a pack of wet wipes in the glovebox, two crab buckets and a bottle of water. The "sick buckets" as they are known serve us well, we can wash them out with the water and wipe the child and be on our way. We are so practiced that we can rival a formula one pitstop for a clean, empty the bucket, wipe and back on our way. I've also found a carrier bag attached to the headrest serves as a good rubbish bin. Otherwise the car just gets covered in crisp packets and old fruit.
Letting them have books or electronic toys would just make them sick so they don't have them. This makes for some interesting conversations in the car, and you have to be prepared to play 20 questions or i-spy endlessly. The youngest didn't quite master i-spy; "I spy with my little eye something beginning with P." After much deliberation and all of us giving up, she revealed the answer... purple turtle!
On another journey we passed a large building that we thought was a private school. It then transpired that the middle child would like to go to a private boarding school. We try never to be negative so told her she could if she saved up enough money, and going by her entrepreneur skills, it is is not an impossibility!
When they were younger we'd make sure they had a drink (water only), fruit, biscuits and crisps and whatever I remembered to bring. I think water is the best drink. If they have fruit shoots they drink them because they like the taste then we have to stop for a wee. They will only drink water if they are thirsty. As they are getting old, toilet stops are getting less frequent. However, we still have the habit of asking them to go to the toilet before we set off.
On long journeys they are allowed to bring a cuddly toy, a blanket and a pillow. They can get quite comfortable and hopefully snooze on the journey. It can be quite surreal with the wind, rain and storms outside and a picture of tranquility and warmth on the inside of the car. Also, I don't go around the corners fast with the children in the car so as not to make their travel sickness worse.
The eldest has an iPad, but still isn't allowed to use it as the others would watch and get travel sick.
We have taken them abroad to Spain. They've been allowed to pack their own suitcases (well, small ones) and given a list, i.e. 1 cuddly, 1 toy, Nintendo DS etc. On the plane they had their toys to play with during the flight. The youngest had a tea set and I was forever being asked if I wanted a cup of tea during the flight. They treated it like a fairground ride and I heard a "weeeee" as we took off!
 |
| Two of ours with the Butlins Skyline gang |
On another journey we passed a large building that we thought was a private school. It then transpired that the middle child would like to go to a private boarding school. We try never to be negative so told her she could if she saved up enough money, and going by her entrepreneur skills, it is is not an impossibility!
When they were younger we'd make sure they had a drink (water only), fruit, biscuits and crisps and whatever I remembered to bring. I think water is the best drink. If they have fruit shoots they drink them because they like the taste then we have to stop for a wee. They will only drink water if they are thirsty. As they are getting old, toilet stops are getting less frequent. However, we still have the habit of asking them to go to the toilet before we set off.
On long journeys they are allowed to bring a cuddly toy, a blanket and a pillow. They can get quite comfortable and hopefully snooze on the journey. It can be quite surreal with the wind, rain and storms outside and a picture of tranquility and warmth on the inside of the car. Also, I don't go around the corners fast with the children in the car so as not to make their travel sickness worse.
The eldest has an iPad, but still isn't allowed to use it as the others would watch and get travel sick.
We have taken them abroad to Spain. They've been allowed to pack their own suitcases (well, small ones) and given a list, i.e. 1 cuddly, 1 toy, Nintendo DS etc. On the plane they had their toys to play with during the flight. The youngest had a tea set and I was forever being asked if I wanted a cup of tea during the flight. They treated it like a fairground ride and I heard a "weeeee" as we took off!
 |
| On holiday in Spain |
HRH Prog 2
I won 6 free tickets to HRH:Prog 2. Eventually I found some friends to join me to make up the 6 (not all of them made it but that's another story). Last year I won tickets to Prog 1in Sheffield but couldn't find a single person to go with me.
The weekend was amazing. There were 3 stages, Prog, AOR and Blues taking up the three main entertainment venues in Haven's Hafan-y-Mor in Pwllheli. Having only a 1 hour drive to see so many bands was a bonus. I spoke to a local who had travelled 3 miles to get there but normally has to fork out £150 to see just one band elsewhere. (Pwllheli is on the west of Wales, as are we, so it is a long drive to get to any venues that have big names).
The check-in was painless. Straight in, name given and keys and information pack handed over. I'm used to turning up at holiday parks and queuing for ages with 3 small children. (Okay, so it's an unfair comparison as this check-in was spread over 3 days whereas normally holiday parks have to check in everyone in an afternoon).
The bands were from midday to after midnight. We'd checked out some of them on youtube beforehand to see how early we wanted to start watching. We started with Shattered Skies who appeared to be from Ireland. I'd describe them more as heavy rock than prog. The sound was so loud it was distorted so it was difficult to tell what they were playing. Whether it was my ears exceeding their limit or the PA's capability being exceeded I don't know. I did notice that the sound engineers were wearing ear-plugs so I wonder if they were able to tell how it really sounded. We then watched Chimp Spanner who sounded quite similar. After that came the Pineapple Thief. Their sound was a bit quieter so we could hear what was going on. There was more variety and texture to their music, I liked them. Of course havingsilly creative names means that these bands are very easy to find on google. The same can't be said for the band "A" who have disappeared without trace.
Then it was time for what for me was an excellent double bill. Focus then the Flower Kings. I last saw the Flower Kings at the Whitchurch (Hampshire) music festival. I saw Focus sometime after that but can't remember where. Focus were excellent. They played their hits and sounded great. Then the Flower Kings. I'm a big fan of their music before Rainmaker (2001) as they sounded a bit dull after that. Their latest, Desolation Rose, harks back to their earlier albums with more texture and different rhythms. A bonus was they played a medley of older songs. We left the Prog stage as we weren't keen on seeing the last band and due to time slippages it was getting late.
Saturday. A nice relaxing day in the caravan, late cooked breakfast (by me) and then dinner at the Mash & Barrel. It is always a challenge cooking in a caravan as you never know what is working and what equipment you have. The oven wouldn't light so I had to improvise with a piece of paper but apart from that I managed to make a decent cooked breakfast. The caravan was nice and clean. It only had a gas fire in the lounge but helpfully the booking in instructions suggested bringing an extra heater, which we did and it made all the difference.
We got to the Prog stage in time for Panic Room. There were few seats for non-VIP ticket holders in the stages, but we always managed to find a seat if we wanted one as there was a high turnover of people. Panic Room were great, I was tempted to go straight over to merchandising to buy their latest album. Then we had Hawklords. My gig companion wanted to get as close as possible and I'm glad we did. Their backdrop consisted of ever changing pictures related to the music. There was a lot of talking and weird sounds and some good grooves. Then came The Enid. I was aware of The Enid from an album many years ago and thought they were "a bit weird." I've now changed my opinion to, "SO weird." They had a very expressive lead singer who sang in a falsetto voice and played an electronic wind instrument. Also a guitar/keyboard player who made extensive use of a vocoder which added depth and texture to the vocals. I think a good singer can make or break a band and this singer was brilliant.
Graham Bonnet
My friends wanted to see Graham Bonnet so it was time to move to the AOR stage, which in fact was just yards away, past the conveniently placed outside bar. Getting drinks was painless. There were very small queues, if at all, although £4 for a pint of Stella was very steep for North Wales. We joined Graham whilst he was singing Since You've Been Gone, an old Rainbow song. I am a big fan of Rainbow and it never occurred to me that he would be singing Rainbow songs. I didn't know if he'd released his own songs before or after Rainbow, but he sang nothing but Rainbow songs. He did Stargazer, Long Live Rock'n'Roll, All Night Long, Lost in Hollywood, Catch the Rainbow and others. Also the band gave him a break and did an instrumental medley of bits of Rainbow songs. It was fantastic, his voice is still as good as ever and he still wears the sunglasses as I remember on the Rainbow videos (he is 66). I shall be finding out his tour dates now. (I've since discovered this appeared to be a Rainbow themed tour.) The AOR venue appeared to be the largest of the three, probably a reflection of the popularity of the music. Neither the AOR or Prog venues were too crowded. We only ventured into the Blues arena for a few minutes.
UFO
After Rainbow, I mean Graham, were UFO. I saw them at a previous HRH at Prestatyn. They were great then and still are now. Phil Mogg (lead singer) has such a happy-cockney-chappie attitude. He talks to the audience and seems really at ease. They played a lot of their hits and I distinctly remember they played a lesser known track from Obsession; one of their albums I own. We had planned on on going to see some blues after UFO but again it was late and the blues band would probably have finished by the time we got there.
Everyone was really friendly, something I've noticed about North Wales compared to the impersonal and cold south of England where I used to live. A guy sat next to use and started falling asleep. His pint tilted precariously, I told my friend to take it off him and put it on the table, which she did, the guy looked appreciative and carried on falling asleep, which he then succeeded in doing. In the south of England, he'd have been chucked out, here, the first bouncer asked him if he was okay, the second told him to go outside, but made sure he took his beer with him!
Overall a fantastic experience. An inexpensive and enjoyable way to see so many bands and have a weekend away. We've already booked for next year. We have no idea who is playing but the HRH people always have a good lineup, and next year there is also a Sci-Fi weekender on at the same time which will hopefully keep the wife happy.
The weekend was amazing. There were 3 stages, Prog, AOR and Blues taking up the three main entertainment venues in Haven's Hafan-y-Mor in Pwllheli. Having only a 1 hour drive to see so many bands was a bonus. I spoke to a local who had travelled 3 miles to get there but normally has to fork out £150 to see just one band elsewhere. (Pwllheli is on the west of Wales, as are we, so it is a long drive to get to any venues that have big names).
The check-in was painless. Straight in, name given and keys and information pack handed over. I'm used to turning up at holiday parks and queuing for ages with 3 small children. (Okay, so it's an unfair comparison as this check-in was spread over 3 days whereas normally holiday parks have to check in everyone in an afternoon).
The bands were from midday to after midnight. We'd checked out some of them on youtube beforehand to see how early we wanted to start watching. We started with Shattered Skies who appeared to be from Ireland. I'd describe them more as heavy rock than prog. The sound was so loud it was distorted so it was difficult to tell what they were playing. Whether it was my ears exceeding their limit or the PA's capability being exceeded I don't know. I did notice that the sound engineers were wearing ear-plugs so I wonder if they were able to tell how it really sounded. We then watched Chimp Spanner who sounded quite similar. After that came the Pineapple Thief. Their sound was a bit quieter so we could hear what was going on. There was more variety and texture to their music, I liked them. Of course having
Then it was time for what for me was an excellent double bill. Focus then the Flower Kings. I last saw the Flower Kings at the Whitchurch (Hampshire) music festival. I saw Focus sometime after that but can't remember where. Focus were excellent. They played their hits and sounded great. Then the Flower Kings. I'm a big fan of their music before Rainmaker (2001) as they sounded a bit dull after that. Their latest, Desolation Rose, harks back to their earlier albums with more texture and different rhythms. A bonus was they played a medley of older songs. We left the Prog stage as we weren't keen on seeing the last band and due to time slippages it was getting late.
Saturday. A nice relaxing day in the caravan, late cooked breakfast (by me) and then dinner at the Mash & Barrel. It is always a challenge cooking in a caravan as you never know what is working and what equipment you have. The oven wouldn't light so I had to improvise with a piece of paper but apart from that I managed to make a decent cooked breakfast. The caravan was nice and clean. It only had a gas fire in the lounge but helpfully the booking in instructions suggested bringing an extra heater, which we did and it made all the difference.
We got to the Prog stage in time for Panic Room. There were few seats for non-VIP ticket holders in the stages, but we always managed to find a seat if we wanted one as there was a high turnover of people. Panic Room were great, I was tempted to go straight over to merchandising to buy their latest album. Then we had Hawklords. My gig companion wanted to get as close as possible and I'm glad we did. Their backdrop consisted of ever changing pictures related to the music. There was a lot of talking and weird sounds and some good grooves. Then came The Enid. I was aware of The Enid from an album many years ago and thought they were "a bit weird." I've now changed my opinion to, "SO weird." They had a very expressive lead singer who sang in a falsetto voice and played an electronic wind instrument. Also a guitar/keyboard player who made extensive use of a vocoder which added depth and texture to the vocals. I think a good singer can make or break a band and this singer was brilliant.
Graham Bonnet
My friends wanted to see Graham Bonnet so it was time to move to the AOR stage, which in fact was just yards away, past the conveniently placed outside bar. Getting drinks was painless. There were very small queues, if at all, although £4 for a pint of Stella was very steep for North Wales. We joined Graham whilst he was singing Since You've Been Gone, an old Rainbow song. I am a big fan of Rainbow and it never occurred to me that he would be singing Rainbow songs. I didn't know if he'd released his own songs before or after Rainbow, but he sang nothing but Rainbow songs. He did Stargazer, Long Live Rock'n'Roll, All Night Long, Lost in Hollywood, Catch the Rainbow and others. Also the band gave him a break and did an instrumental medley of bits of Rainbow songs. It was fantastic, his voice is still as good as ever and he still wears the sunglasses as I remember on the Rainbow videos (he is 66). I shall be finding out his tour dates now. (I've since discovered this appeared to be a Rainbow themed tour.) The AOR venue appeared to be the largest of the three, probably a reflection of the popularity of the music. Neither the AOR or Prog venues were too crowded. We only ventured into the Blues arena for a few minutes.
UFO
After Rainbow, I mean Graham, were UFO. I saw them at a previous HRH at Prestatyn. They were great then and still are now. Phil Mogg (lead singer) has such a happy-cockney-chappie attitude. He talks to the audience and seems really at ease. They played a lot of their hits and I distinctly remember they played a lesser known track from Obsession; one of their albums I own. We had planned on on going to see some blues after UFO but again it was late and the blues band would probably have finished by the time we got there.
Everyone was really friendly, something I've noticed about North Wales compared to the impersonal and cold south of England where I used to live. A guy sat next to use and started falling asleep. His pint tilted precariously, I told my friend to take it off him and put it on the table, which she did, the guy looked appreciative and carried on falling asleep, which he then succeeded in doing. In the south of England, he'd have been chucked out, here, the first bouncer asked him if he was okay, the second told him to go outside, but made sure he took his beer with him!
Overall a fantastic experience. An inexpensive and enjoyable way to see so many bands and have a weekend away. We've already booked for next year. We have no idea who is playing but the HRH people always have a good lineup, and next year there is also a Sci-Fi weekender on at the same time which will hopefully keep the wife happy.
Saturday, 22 February 2014
Beach treasure hunting
The wife is always having fads; new interests that may or may not last. There's been the rats (which have been and gone), the rabbits (which are looked after mainly by grandma), playing the guitar (which seems to have stopped), the language degree (which is still going), karate (which is still going), netball (ditto), running (ditto). Okay, perhaps fads isn't the right word. Hobbies is perhaps better. I normally try not to start new hobbies as I'm too busy with work and children. If I had the time I'd spend it getting better on the guitar.
Anyway. With the storms, the beach has changed quite a bit. The sand dunes have been sliced into so they're now sand cliffs. Parts of the beach that have been covered up for ages have been uncovered. Various items have been washed up onto the beach. The strangest I've seen are clumps of goose barnacles, which are a valuable delicacy in Northern Spain. If they were still alive they'd be worth hundreds of pounds. This got me wondering what else may have been uncovered. A metal detector came to mind. I know that there is money on the beach as one of our guests found quite a bit last year for only short metal detecting trips to the beach. I wondered what else might be there.
Permit
You need a permit to do metal detecting on the beach. The bit between high and low tide belongs to the Crown. Whilst they encourage use of the beach, they still want people to realize that it is their land and should be treated as such. You have to sign a declaration to the effect that any major finds would be handed in which seems reasonable enough. You can keep small amounts of modern coins though. The permit can be obtained from here and is a simple procedure. I made sure I had the permit before I bought a detector, however, it seems to be a simple administrative procedure so I needn't have been concerned about not getting one.
Cost
Metal detectors seemed to be quite cheap, you can pick one up for £20. I thought that it might not be very good so was prepared to spend up to £100 to get what I thought would be a good one. A quick look on Amazon and the most expensive seemed to be £250. Then I started reading up on them which is when things got disheartening. I found this site which listed beach detectors. I checked the prices, £495 to over £1000. At that rate I'd have to find a lot of treasure to make it pay for itself. It wasn't worth it. Also, you can't just use any old metal detector on the beach, it has to be a beach metal detector. Land detectors would be set off all the time by various minerals and magnetic sand on the beach. I wasn't going to risk getting a standard one, it would have to be a beach one or nothing. Eventually after finding information in forums I found the C-Scope CS4Pi beach metal detector for around £260. The £250 detector on Amazon had a fancy control panel with an LCD display telling you what you'd found plus other bells and whistles. The CS4PI had two knobs and that was it! The best deal I could find was from http://cscopedetectors.com/cs4pi.php at £265 including batteries (which were already installed when I received it), headphones (which help with battery life) and search head cover (already installed). It took a few days to arrive from Northern Ireland.
Digging
You need something to dig up the ground when something is found. Looking through forums and websites you could pay a lot of money for something to dig the ground. As I was digging the beach I didn't think I'd need a "JCB on steroids" as one item was described. I could use our large selection of plastic spades. I did think I'd need some kind of sifter. A metal one would just go rusty really quickly so it would have to be plastic. I settled on a "heavy duty plastic sifter" from Mighty Oak Trading for £7.97. When it arrived it turned out it was originally from Maplin who sold it at £4.99 but is now discontinued. No matter, it was still a lot cheaper than prices that other places were charging. Some sellers on eBay were asking £30 for the same item.
Children
It didn't take much persuading to get the children to come along. "Would you like to come on the beach and search for treasure?" I had the two youngest with me. Unfortunately their idea of searching for treasure was to settle down and dig and make sand castles. However, it did leave me to get on with it whilst they played.
Treasure
Today was the first real outing with the detector. I think we were out for about 2 hours. In that time we found a coat hanger, a disposable BBQ, nails, screws, a lighter, several tent pegs, 3 beer cans, a pound coin, a five pence piece and a penny. The girls wanted a share of the coins so one had the 5p and the other had the 1p leaving the £1 for me. They aren't that bothered about the value at the moment so I got away with it. I decided that it would be a good idea to put the rubbish items in a bag and remove them from the beach. Firstly because I wouldn't have to find them again, and secondly it was making the beach tidier.
Of course whilst searching for metal treasure I found quite a few intact sea shells which I added to my treasure collection.
Anyway. With the storms, the beach has changed quite a bit. The sand dunes have been sliced into so they're now sand cliffs. Parts of the beach that have been covered up for ages have been uncovered. Various items have been washed up onto the beach. The strangest I've seen are clumps of goose barnacles, which are a valuable delicacy in Northern Spain. If they were still alive they'd be worth hundreds of pounds. This got me wondering what else may have been uncovered. A metal detector came to mind. I know that there is money on the beach as one of our guests found quite a bit last year for only short metal detecting trips to the beach. I wondered what else might be there.
Permit
You need a permit to do metal detecting on the beach. The bit between high and low tide belongs to the Crown. Whilst they encourage use of the beach, they still want people to realize that it is their land and should be treated as such. You have to sign a declaration to the effect that any major finds would be handed in which seems reasonable enough. You can keep small amounts of modern coins though. The permit can be obtained from here and is a simple procedure. I made sure I had the permit before I bought a detector, however, it seems to be a simple administrative procedure so I needn't have been concerned about not getting one.
Cost
Metal detectors seemed to be quite cheap, you can pick one up for £20. I thought that it might not be very good so was prepared to spend up to £100 to get what I thought would be a good one. A quick look on Amazon and the most expensive seemed to be £250. Then I started reading up on them which is when things got disheartening. I found this site which listed beach detectors. I checked the prices, £495 to over £1000. At that rate I'd have to find a lot of treasure to make it pay for itself. It wasn't worth it. Also, you can't just use any old metal detector on the beach, it has to be a beach metal detector. Land detectors would be set off all the time by various minerals and magnetic sand on the beach. I wasn't going to risk getting a standard one, it would have to be a beach one or nothing. Eventually after finding information in forums I found the C-Scope CS4Pi beach metal detector for around £260. The £250 detector on Amazon had a fancy control panel with an LCD display telling you what you'd found plus other bells and whistles. The CS4PI had two knobs and that was it! The best deal I could find was from http://cscopedetectors.com/cs4pi.php at £265 including batteries (which were already installed when I received it), headphones (which help with battery life) and search head cover (already installed). It took a few days to arrive from Northern Ireland.
Digging
You need something to dig up the ground when something is found. Looking through forums and websites you could pay a lot of money for something to dig the ground. As I was digging the beach I didn't think I'd need a "JCB on steroids" as one item was described. I could use our large selection of plastic spades. I did think I'd need some kind of sifter. A metal one would just go rusty really quickly so it would have to be plastic. I settled on a "heavy duty plastic sifter" from Mighty Oak Trading for £7.97. When it arrived it turned out it was originally from Maplin who sold it at £4.99 but is now discontinued. No matter, it was still a lot cheaper than prices that other places were charging. Some sellers on eBay were asking £30 for the same item.
Children
It didn't take much persuading to get the children to come along. "Would you like to come on the beach and search for treasure?" I had the two youngest with me. Unfortunately their idea of searching for treasure was to settle down and dig and make sand castles. However, it did leave me to get on with it whilst they played.
Treasure
Today was the first real outing with the detector. I think we were out for about 2 hours. In that time we found a coat hanger, a disposable BBQ, nails, screws, a lighter, several tent pegs, 3 beer cans, a pound coin, a five pence piece and a penny. The girls wanted a share of the coins so one had the 5p and the other had the 1p leaving the £1 for me. They aren't that bothered about the value at the moment so I got away with it. I decided that it would be a good idea to put the rubbish items in a bag and remove them from the beach. Firstly because I wouldn't have to find them again, and secondly it was making the beach tidier.
Of course whilst searching for metal treasure I found quite a few intact sea shells which I added to my treasure collection.
Wednesday, 22 January 2014
Hands up who got electrons for Christmas?
Hands up who had electrons for Christmas?
Many years ago I realised that my job in computing could be reduced to the description of "pressing buttons." A very simplistic one, but that is how it felt. Certainly a computer programmer spends most of their time pressing buttons. But as many jobs involve use of a computer nowadays, many jobs can probably be described as "pressing buttons" too. A friend of mine worked in manufacturing. He had an open day at the factory that he worked at which I attended. He showed me the machine that he used. It had a single button. He wryly showed us the button he pressed as if that was the sum total of his job. That was probably what was the seed to lead me to describe my job as pressing buttons.
A similar reduction can be done on Christmas presents. When I was young I got things I needed; socks, kettle, toaster, tools etc. As I got older and wealthier I got things that I didn't need; socks, radio controlled helicopter, singing snowman etc. Always the presents were things that you could see and touch and in the case of CDs, hear. You could say that presents consisted of molecules.
Then came the Kindle and digital music. With the Kindle and digital music came the possibility of buying electrons. The data is downloaded over the internet (wired and possibly wi-fi) to the target computing device to play or read the data. The data is transferred in the form of electrons, hence "electrons for Christmas." Amazon in the USA allows you to purchase a Kindle book as a gift for someone else. Amazon UK doesn't allow you to do so, yet.
So what next? Presents were molecules, now they are smaller i.e. electrons. Fibre broadband is being rolled out across the UK so next they will be photons. Soon people will be having photons for Christmas!
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