Sunday, May 15, 2005
Visitors
The most notable event of last week, on Friday 13th , was the visit of Carol and Jim Steele with their friends Viv and Ian. I started teaching in Germany with Carol on the 1st September 19 (wait for it) 72. We have known each other quite a while.
We had a great evening as can be seen from the photos.
The following morning, early, I had to be north of Southampton for one of my observed runs on the motorbike. I could have chosen a better time than after a late night. Anyway, the run went well and I didn’t make too many mistakes. I went out again this morning, Sunday, to ride around Southampton so that I can get to know the roads and their problems i.e. potholes, speed cameras, awkward hills, traffic light sequences etc.
I have been busy collecting photos for the ‘Geograph’ site. I have been doing this whilst out walking, rambling, cycling and driving around. If you want to see my photos go to the site, click, browse and put in ‘Stuart Buchan’. Sue and I went for a local walk this afternoon and I managed to collect a few more photos.
We had a great evening as can be seen from the photos.
The following morning, early, I had to be north of Southampton for one of my observed runs on the motorbike. I could have chosen a better time than after a late night. Anyway, the run went well and I didn’t make too many mistakes. I went out again this morning, Sunday, to ride around Southampton so that I can get to know the roads and their problems i.e. potholes, speed cameras, awkward hills, traffic light sequences etc.
I have been busy collecting photos for the ‘Geograph’ site. I have been doing this whilst out walking, rambling, cycling and driving around. If you want to see my photos go to the site, click, browse and put in ‘Stuart Buchan’. Sue and I went for a local walk this afternoon and I managed to collect a few more photos.
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
Around the New Forest
Sue’s just said ‘Have you done the blog? I think she wants to read it so she can find out what I have been doing. What is taking up most of time at the moment is the training for the Institute of Advanced Motorists (motorcycle) and fiddling around with computers i.e. trying to make the laptop work faster.
An end to an era will take place on Wednesday when I deliver my old Gateway computer to the dump. I looked up to see if any charity wants it and they are very choosy, only computers up to 4 years old. The one I am throwing out is only 9 years old.
The motorcycling is going well, but don’t expect to see me on the MotoGP my cornering is not as good as Rossi. I am, however, getting to know the back roads of Hampshire and there are some very beautiful places that need exploring on foot.
I have started a new hobby for more info go to www.geograph.co.uk/ for a full explanation. It is photographing squares from the Ordnance Survey maps and putting them on the website, I am currently in 40th position for the number of photos submitted. Some of the photos are superb; mine are very mediocre in comparison. I’ll try for some better ones soon.
Sue and I have had a day pottering (Tuesday) I went for a very early motorcycle ride 0730 and couldn’t believe all the people that were going to work. I was hoping for clear run down the A31. Next time I’ll go mid morning. I was repairing bikes, next doors as well as ours. Sue was pulling weeds in the back garden and I was generally trying to tidy up.
Ron and I went for a great cycle ride last Friday and we were seeing loads of foals in the forest. As usual we didn’t have cameras so no photos from the ride. Maybe next time. I went out cycling on Sunday and got a few photos, which you can see here, plus a couple from my Saturday ramble.
An end to an era will take place on Wednesday when I deliver my old Gateway computer to the dump. I looked up to see if any charity wants it and they are very choosy, only computers up to 4 years old. The one I am throwing out is only 9 years old.
The motorcycling is going well, but don’t expect to see me on the MotoGP my cornering is not as good as Rossi. I am, however, getting to know the back roads of Hampshire and there are some very beautiful places that need exploring on foot.
I have started a new hobby for more info go to www.geograph.co.uk/ for a full explanation. It is photographing squares from the Ordnance Survey maps and putting them on the website, I am currently in 40th position for the number of photos submitted. Some of the photos are superb; mine are very mediocre in comparison. I’ll try for some better ones soon.
Sue and I have had a day pottering (Tuesday) I went for a very early motorcycle ride 0730 and couldn’t believe all the people that were going to work. I was hoping for clear run down the A31. Next time I’ll go mid morning. I was repairing bikes, next doors as well as ours. Sue was pulling weeds in the back garden and I was generally trying to tidy up.
Ron and I went for a great cycle ride last Friday and we were seeing loads of foals in the forest. As usual we didn’t have cameras so no photos from the ride. Maybe next time. I went out cycling on Sunday and got a few photos, which you can see here, plus a couple from my Saturday ramble.
Eyeworth Pond - an artificial pond used as a water source for the old Schulze Gunpowder factory near Fritham.
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
An afternoon geocaching
Monday 2nd May was a lovely day, plus a holiday, so everywhere was busy including the New Forest. I decided that this would be a good time to do some geocaches as some new ones had come on line in the area. Instead of finding something at particular coordinates you can do this in reverse where you locate something specific and then log it as a find.
A cell phone mast disguised as a tree is one of those to be logged. I knew there was one of these en route to a normal cache. It is a very poor example of one, see photo.
After doing the normal cache we then did the ‘palindrome cache’. You have to find some coordinates that are a palindrome (reads the same backwards as forwards) I had been working on this for some time and had found some coordinates that are near here, and accessible, about 3 miles away in the New Forest. The coordinates are N 50 50.505 W 001 44.100. After parking the car it was just over half a mile to the location. As the journey became more difficult I had to leave Sue behind because it was hilly and very boggy. At one point I flushed out a deer. At the location I managed to get a photo of the GPSr with the palindrome coordinates showing on it.
A cell phone mast disguised as a tree is one of those to be logged. I knew there was one of these en route to a normal cache. It is a very poor example of one, see photo.
After doing the normal cache we then did the ‘palindrome cache’. You have to find some coordinates that are a palindrome (reads the same backwards as forwards) I had been working on this for some time and had found some coordinates that are near here, and accessible, about 3 miles away in the New Forest. The coordinates are N 50 50.505 W 001 44.100. After parking the car it was just over half a mile to the location. As the journey became more difficult I had to leave Sue behind because it was hilly and very boggy. At one point I flushed out a deer. At the location I managed to get a photo of the GPSr with the palindrome coordinates showing on it.
