Dragon60's Music'n'pictures

Found this link on MPolgara's blog...

2004-07-30T13:15:00.000+01:00

... and strangely (sic) we're the same type. I wonder how many other Worthians have similar types?

Category VI - The Strange
Attractor
Though you're not quite sure why, people are drawn
to you like moths to a flame. You really
are too cool for words.

What Type of Social Entity are You?
brought to you by

Real blog at last

2004-07-29T14:54:00.000+01:00

It's been a month. Exactly. Since my last entry here, I mean. I left it for a month, deliberately, in the hope that friends and relatives who were using it to catch up on wedding news would go away and not spot my inane dribblings and rantings.

Only, now that I come back to it, I find I have nothing to say. For now. I've read some excellent blogs: some with personal recollections, some with made up stuff. Once I get the hang of this html stuff I may even link to a few of them - but then, anyone reading this has probably already got most of them linked as it is. Oh well, never mind.

I realise that this post, and all preceding it, have had absolutley nothing to do with the title of this blog, but that will change. I promise.

Soon.

Probably.

Weekend in Glasgow

2004-06-29T13:51:00.000+01:00

Just back from a great weekend in Glasgow. Fairly boring journey, both ways, although much worse coming home on Sunday than going up on Friday.

Friday night was great, though. Gladys and I went out with my kids and my sister to the Scotia Bar, the oldest bar in Glasgow (although some claim to be older, the Scotia has papers to prove its claim) where imeediately Andy and I started on a pint each of Belhaven Best. We settled in at a table near the band, and finished our pint, following them quickly with a bottle of Fraoch (heather ale). Fraoch is a bizarre thing - it looks like beer, but tastes like... well... nothing I've ever tasted before. Slightly sweet, not unpleasant, but I couldn't drink it all night. Fraoch has been brewed in Scotland since 2000BC, completely destroying the Belgians claims to have invented brewing beer.

The band started and what a bizarre setup. A guitarist, who was okay, who also sang (not very well - well, actually, quite badly) and played "moothy" (harmonica), a bass player, who was pretty solid, a drummer, who really wasn't, and a sax. I kind of expected a jazz set, but no... they did country'n'western stuff. Improvised sax solos on a C&W backing - weird!! But then they started playing blues, and it got pretty good (or maybe that was just teh fact that we had moved on to Tennant's Velvet by that time)

Closing time meant a trip to the "chippie" for a haggis supper and a pizza supper ("supper" in Glasgow means "with chips" and everything is fried. Everything! Including the pizza!!)

Saturday was the reason we had gone back home, for my niece's 18th birthday party. It was great to see all my family again (hadn't seen most of them since New Year, except the ones who came down for the wedding) and a good few vodkas were drunk to celebrate.

Sunday was just breakfast and an 8 hour drive home.

Grammar. How good are you?

2004-06-24T11:15:00.000+01:00

Found this grammar quiz, lurking some way down Mpolgara's blog

You are the grammar Fuhrer. All bow to your
authority. You will crush all the inferior
people under the soles of your jackboots, and
any who question your motives will be
eliminated. Your punishment is being the bane
of every other person's existence, because
you're constantly contradicting stupidity.
Everyone will be gunning for you. Your dreams
of a master race of spellers and grammarians
frighten the masses. You must always watch your
back. If only your power could be used for good
instead of evil.

What is your grammar aptitude?
brought to you by Quizilla

Wedding Day

2004-06-16T10:21:00.000+01:00

I had promised a little more detail on the wedding, so here it is.

Friday afternoon my relatives arrived at Bristol airport from Glasgow, and we all went back to my house for food and then down to the pub for a few quiet drinks. We had arranged to meet Jaymeekae at the pub, but she had had some traffic trouble and didn't get there until really late (around midnight) so we went straight to Mitch's, the Best Man, where we were staying that night. Another whisky and some beer and a brief, confusing chat, with both jaym and I using the same PC.

Saturday, poor mitch was struggling with me. He was taking his job as best man very seriously, and I was drinking coffee, playing wit the computer - anything other than showeer and dress. Eventually we got ready, and went to teh pub where we were all meeting to set off for Bath.

We got to Bath nice and early, about half an hour before the ceremony, and found a pub to wait in :)

Lovely ceremony, and back to Corsham in the nice vintage Armstrong Siddley (which had radiator trouble and was overheating, and had to stop on the way to top up the water). Since Mitch was a bit nervous about his speech, we did teh speeches before the meal. Graham stood in for Gladys' father and made a nice speech. I then made a short speech, and finally Mitch got his chance to make me look like a fool. A very good speech which was funny, and at my expense, but was never nasty. There ar a couple of photos of me as a kid that he worked in, and I will link once I get them scanned.

Cinnamon is Corsham's Premier eating establishment, and Tony and Sara had pulled out all teh stops for this. Aberdeen Angus fillet steaks or 5 spice duck (with stuffed aubergine as a non meat choice) followed by Cream Crowdie with Drambuie and wild Scottish Raspberries or lychees in rosewater jelly with chinese gooseberries, finishing with coffee and handmade fudge. This was all washed down with the wines we brought back from France a few weeks ago.

Along with coffee I had some nice cigars, so Mitch and I went outside to have a smoke. As we stepped out, around teh corner came 2 friends whom we have not seen since November 2000, when they married and moved to Florida!! So we had some more champagne, and made sure they came along in the evening.

The evening party was great fun. I had organised a band, and a bit of a special item. The band played for a while and then we cut the cake. After the cake, I joined the band to play Gladys' favourite song, Misty. She did get a bit misty, too. After running through the song, I left the stage for our first dance, and the band carried on. Jaym left then (thanks for everything), to go to Redbull's, and we carried on partying. My friends must be real gluttons for punishment, cos they made me play again later.

Great buffet, while the band packed up and the DJ set up, until our taxi arrived at 11.15 to take us to the Bath Spa Hotel for the night, and everyone else partied on until around midnight.

One final thing. I finally remembered what it was I was sure I'd forgotten. I remembered it in the car on the way in to Bath for teh ceremony. I'd forgotten the CD of music for the ceremony, but it was okay, teh Registry Office had some there.

Happily married

2004-06-14T10:06:00.000+01:00

Well, it's done. I didn't run away, and Gladys turned up as well. Super service, super weather, great lunch and fine party in teh evening, with all our friends to share the day. For those of you who were unable to get there here's a few early release wedding photos

Just a brief sample, taken by our friends David and Christine, who flew in from Boston for the event. More to come.

Last post

2004-06-10T15:57:00.000+01:00

as a single man... probably.

I won't get a chance to blog tomorrow (relatives arriving by plane, need to be picked up and taken home/B&B) than I'm going to be a bit busy on Saturday to blog.

I don't know when I'll get a chance to update this next, but I promise photos, or at least a link to them, as soon as possible.

I still feel like I've forgotten something, and I still can't think what it is... Hope it's not important :o

Just Step Up!®

2004-06-08T17:19:00.000+01:00

This conversation happened in chat:

[moonman] lol
* Dragon60 wants to be an officer in teh order of Step Up!®
[moonman] done!
[Bosh] D60 is stepinUP and stepping out...
[Dragon60] I can be the official Step Up!® parole officer ;)
[Dragon60] to handle the ones that are Stepping Down!®
* moonman makes d60 a official Step Up!® officer!
[Dragon60] ;)
[moonman] nice!
[Dragon60] w0000t!!!1!11!!one!!
[moonman] ok! I must sleep, I am having visions of things not yet seen by man or woman
* moonman out!

You know it makes sense, Just Step Up!®

Venus transit

2004-06-08T13:16:00.000+01:00

It's the first time since 1882 that it's happened, Venus transits the sun. It's so rare that it has only happened 6 times since the invention of the telescope. It won't happen again until 2012 and then it'll be 2117!!

Now, many of you may be aware (but most of you won't) that I am an amateur astronomer. I have a telescope and everything. I would ideally have taken the morning off work (the transit occurs between 6am and noon in UK) but I'm on my own in the office at the moment and can't leave it empty :(

No problem... I'll just watch as the web watches it from my PC at work. Oh no I won't!!! Damn network doesn't allow streaming video (or audio for that matter, but Venus ain't making much noise here). There are a few pictures appearing now, and probably some spectacular ones later, but I reall wanted to see it for myself.

UPDATE: Best images so far from TRACE and SOHO
and Best ground based images as well as an explanation and streaming video

Kilts

2004-06-07T14:14:00.000+01:00

Ok, so I'm wearing the kilt for the wedding, and I ordered one for my son, Andy, from the same supplier as mine, so the wool will be absolutley identical: Chisolms of Inverness http://www.kilts.co.uk

So the postman arrives with a big parcel on Saturday morning, so I pick up the phone and ring the supplier to let them know it arrived safely, there's just 2 small problems. Firstly, the jacket is black and it should be green. This won't be a major problem. The best man is wearing the kilt too, and his jacket is black, and while Andy wants the green one, it will be nice to be not completely identical in the wedding photos. The nice lady in the shop assured me that the tailors would begin work immediately on a replacement, but to use the black one in the meantime. I don't suppose it will be a problem for them anyway, they'll just put it in the hire stock. Secondly, there are no accessories of any kind, so we went through the order again: belt; buckle; sporran; sporran chain; socks; flashes; and sgean dhubh (skee-an doo, literally "black knife"). So let's just hope they arrive before the weekend.

5 days to go...

2004-06-07T10:56:00.000+01:00

... and I must have forgotten something. Let's see: Photographer - booked, Jaymeekae is going to do those; Car - booked; Band - booked; DJ - booked; relatives arrive by plane Friday afternoon; accommodation for everyone - booked; wine - brought back from France; menus - printed and just need to be taken to the restaurant; buffet for the evening, and the cake - done; Hotel - booked. I just know I'm missing something, but I can't think what.

Comments and photographer

2004-06-04T11:24:00.000+01:00

Having dropped a few comments on other blogs, I thought it was easier to use Haloscan than the standard one here at blogger, so I've changed to halo. Unfortunately, it hasn't transferred over the comments that were here previously. They're still there, just lost somewhere in the big world wide interweb.

Jaymeekae and I worked out the details last night and she's definitely hoing to be taking the photos at the wedding. See you on Friday night, Jaym :)

Update: Halo hasn't worked correctly. It was there before I added this latest post, and now it's gone again. I'm gonna leave it like it is for now, and try to work out the html needed to make it work.

Rings

2004-06-03T13:47:00.000+01:00

Gladys picked up the rings yesterday from Nicholas Wylde. Having such an unusual engagement ring (I'll try and get a photo sometime) we had to have her wedding ring specially designed to fit. Of course, then I had to have a ring that was in a similar style, so mine had to be designed too. Also I managed to (finally) get my engagement ring ( a dress signet ring which bears my family crest as a seal) just in time for the wedding. I'll try to get photos and stick them on my smugmug at some point.

Oh, I've got to sort out the details yet, but I'm hoping (and it's looking good) that jaymeekae will be taking the wedding photos. And since the best man, Mitch, is Severen on Worth, we'll have a mini worthmeet at the wedding.

Weekend is over... back to work

2004-06-01T15:49:00.000+01:00

Friday night was fun. My mate, Jules, sings in a band, The Impostors, and they were playing a local pub, so we had a great night (and a fair bit of alcohol, so the car was left at the pub - important for later). Lots of photos taken, but I haven't managed yet to get them off the camera and into smugmug, but they'll be there soon. Mail me for the password.

Saturday morning I went up to Evesham for the Carnival. The band was playing on one of the floats (well, it was supposed to be a float, it was just a long flatbed lorry. One of the highlights of this year's carnival was an appearance by Chitty Chitty Bang Bnag (yes, the actual Chitty used in the film!!), so obviously we had to play the theme tune, twice :) Now my car was at the pub (remember?) so I had to use Gladys' car to get there. Having just driven all over France in mine (Landrover Freelander) I was used to a big 4x4, so driving Gladys' Renault Clio was partly exciting (light car, powerful engine) and partly wierd (small, low, 2 wheel drive). It's true what they say: drive a four wheel drive and you'll never go back to a 2 wheel drive.

Saturday evening we went to Bath to our Friend Jo's for dinner. Very nice evening, lots of alcohol (again). Now we went in Gladys' car, so once again we had to leave a car somewhere and get a taxi home. Only the taxi wasn't going to be available for at least an hour, so I rang my son, Andy, who very kindly stopped watching the movie he was watching and came and picked us up.

Sunday, we went to the pub to collect my car (remember, Gladys' car is still in Bath) and had a coffee while we were there. Whilst drinking our coffee, we decided to go to a favourite Chinese restaurant of ours for Dim Sum (which I discovered I don't like veery much of) and picked up Gladys' car on the way back home.

Spent the rest of Sunday cleaning and clearing the clutter from the living room for the impending arrival of relatives for the wedding (OMG, only 11 days to go, and I still haven't organised a DJ for the evening, or sorted out the details with the photographer)

Monday, we were going to go and see the new Harry Potter movie (released in UK on 29th May) but decided we'd be better spending our time on the house. But in the evening we went to Bath to see the Bath Philharmonic as part of teh Bath International Music Festival. Jason Thornton, who conducts the orchestra, is a client of Gladys and so something of an acquaintance. The programme was Mendelssohn "Hebrides Overture" (Fingal's Cave), Berlioz "Les Nuits d'Ete" with soprano Rosa Mannion, and Beethoven's 6th Symphony "pastoral". A nice way to round off a very busy weekend, and now back to work for a rest...

except that it's the first of a new month, so teh usual round of monthly reports, as well as the weekly project review meeting. Not much time then for anything but work.

Back from a week in France

2004-05-24T09:39:00.000+01:00

What a fantastic week. The weather has been spectacular, and (apart from teh Paris ring road) the travel was good too.

Photos can be found at:
http://Dragon60.smugmug.com/photos/4469335-S.jpg

Basically the week went like this:

Saturday 15th May

Left home at 3.15 am to drive to Dover and the 7.00 am SeaCat to Calais. Having decided to stay off the peage for this trip, we followed back roads and the N1 to Paris St Denis, and that's where it all went horribly wrong. Now French road signs are bizarre - they don't say the direction (North, West, etc) they state the name of a large town in that direction, so we ended up on the A1 going North and only noticed as we drove under Charles De Gaulle airport. Off the motorway, turn round and eventually got back on the correct road. Also, we hadn't been able to book a hotel for an overnight stop, so we started at 5 pm looking for a hotel for the night. After a couple of places that were fully booked, we found the "Clos du Vignerons" in Ousson sur Loire. We landed on our feet there - fantastic food. A 6 course meal, that was exceptional, and we booked a stop there for teh way back on the Friday.

Sunday 16th May

Left the hotel at about 10 am and drove the rest of teh way, still avoiding autoroutes, until Clermant Ferrand, where we picked up the A75 all the way to Lodeve. We arrived at Lodeve at about 5pm, shattered, and joined Chris and Rachel in several glasses of good wine.

Monday 17th May

Did nothing but recover from the journey. Oh and drink more wine.

Tuesday 18th May

Drove down to teh south coast, to Meze, where we had a fantastic seafood meal. Oysters, mussels, prawns, sea snails... and a nice chilled chenin blanc. On teh way back to Lodeve, we discovered a vinyard open for sales, Le Chateau de Haut Blanville. We were shown around teh cellar, where there are 450 barrels of wine maturing, and then tasted several of their wines. We bought a dozen each of the white, rose and red (for the wedding) and a half dozen of a beautiful oak matured Chardonnay for ourselves.

Wednesday 19th May

Went to the seaside !! Valres Plage, to be exact. Fantastic weather, burnt shoulders and feet. On teh way back to Lodeve, we stopped at Chateau du Grezan, a 12th century chateau, now a vinyard, and bought ourselves some more fantastic red and rose wine. Then a quick detour to St Andre de Sangonis, to buy some bubbly.

Thursday 20th May

A visit to Moureze in the mountains below Lodeve for a beer and some ice cream. Moureze is right in the mountains, with towering rock formations above the town and a chateua on teh top of one of them.

Friday 21st May

Leave Lodeve at 9am and up the A75 to Roquefort. A pleasant visit to the Papillon caves to see teh cheeses, and a picnic lunch before carrying on. The last couple of visits we have watched the progress on teh new motorway bridge at Millau. This bridge is almost completed and is extremely high. Currently, you leave the autoroute at 880m altitude and descend into Millau at 275m before climbing out the other side to 800m again. This bridge goes straight over the top of Millau, well over 500m above the valley floor. It is an amazing feat of engineering, but I don't know if this acoraphobe will be able to drive over it when it opens next year. An uneventful (apart from finding the road at Clermont Ferrand) remainder of the journey took us back to Ousson sur Loire for another gastronomic delight.

Saturday 22nd May

Leave Ousson at around 9 am and decided to deviate from the route to take in Champagne sur Seine. There was a market in the town centre, but unless you wanted fresh meat or poor quality clothes, there was nothing of interest. Back to the Paris ring road, uneventful this time, and back up the N1 to Calais. SeaCat back to Dover and a boring drive on British motorways until we got home at about 10pm.

All in all a great week.

Car Booked

2004-05-13T14:32:00.000+01:00

Ok. I've booked the car for the wedding. It's a 1959 Armstrong Siddeley Star Saphire in black over beige with brown leather interior. I'll try and scan a picture to add later.

Damn Micro$oft

2004-05-12T15:43:00.000+01:00

Three times ! THREE TIMES!!! winproj has locked up, each time needing a complete reboot, with the usual "windows was not shut down properly" routine. And each time I had to redo the data that was going in. I've been careful. After every new task added, I did Ctrl-S, but you can't save every single keystroke, so each time I had to go through the startup routine. Really annoying.

Concert 9th May 2004

2004-05-11T13:41:00.000+01:00

I conducted Avonbank Brass Band in their spring concert on Sunday night (which was also my birthday - they gave me a nice bottle of single malt whisky, my favourite, "Isle of Jura"). Photos taken by Gladys are at http://dragon60.smugmug.com

w00t!!1! I've got a blog

2004-05-11T13:30:00.000+01:00

Ok. So I'm late on the bandwagon as usual, but I have been busy. Anyway, this is mostly for updates to the wedding plans for my friends and family, and for music stuff and my pictures (photography and photoshop) especially those connected with Worth1000.

Right. That's enough to start - gotta sort out the formatting, and then order the car and photographer for the wedding... anyone know a good photographer? ;)