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Somewhat late, my weekly update. Fairly brief since there's a lot on and I'm pushed for time.

Tonight we have the first dress for "The Secret Garden", it promises to be an excellent show, so if you fancy an evening out, why not get yourself tickets? Over the last three weeks we've been building it, just got a fountain to finish off sometime tonight.

On the cricket front I've played a couple of games, once for the thirds, once for the seconds, and I didn't get nought in either of them :-) Mikey and I had an excellent afternoon out yesterday watching the International T20 at Old Trafford between England and the Aussies. We had members tickets (hence the blog title), so had the chance to be up close and personal with the players. Having been in the pavilion now, I'm going to have to join, can't watch from anywhere else :-)

Lots on at work, so nothing new there, but looking forward to some time off in October.

Finally managed to get a date in the diary to meet up with two Daves next week, it's been too long since our last whistle whetting in the Guest House!

Last week I had a sad trip to my Uncle's funeral. Always find funerals difficult, but this one was made much easier by a wonderful speech from the vicar and the knowledge that he (my Uncle) had been suffering very badly over the last few months. RIP Colin, top bloke.

Will try and update a little more frequently soon.

M.

A busy weekend.

Well, busy in many senses. We finally started the long awaited loft clearout, but having toiled for the day, and made several trips to the tip, it still looks no better, so we'll be continuing for some weeks to come I should imagine. We separated out what we thought might be worth a few bob on eBay, only to look and find it's not really worth the effort. More trips to the tip then :-) The idea has been mooted of a loft conversion again, there's insufficient headroom to make it a usable room as such, but there are other opportunities for a breakout area, maybe including a relocation of my radio room....

After a few weeks off, it's back to cricket today, Mikey's toe although not fully recovered looks ok to me, (even though the chiropodist says it isn't), so we're back in for the home game against Formby for the thirds. Just hope the weather holds.

Over the last week or so, I've also been helping out set building for the forthcoming Youth Theatre production of "The Secret Garden" down at the Little Theatre. We'll be there again tonight. It's all starting to come together quite nicely. If you've some time to spare, it's worth coming and watching :-)

Not been traveling as much this last couple of weeks since it's school summer holidays. Must confess it makes a pleasant change from one hotel room or another, although it'll soon be back to normal once August is done. Although work is never quiet since there's always something that needs immediate attention, in general, the number of meetings and request to be places does diminish as people take their well earned summer breaks. Talking of which, I must sort out what we're doing.....

A busy weekend of TV sport too, T20 finals day (well done Sussex although I'd have preferred Somerset to win), the USPGA (English hopes fading) so I guess I'll have to switch to the good ship Padraig, Murray through to another Master's final, capped with the return of the Premiership. Already watched Match of the Day, what the hell were Everton playing at? They looked dreadful. Frustrated at Chelsea's injury time winner, and disappointed Blackburn couldn't hold money bags Man City. Anyway, the big game of the weekend is yet to come with our visit to White Heart Lane. Having watched us get beat at home to Athletico Madrid in the friendly last week where our back four looked fragile, I can't claim to be confident. Liverpool's results in the pre-season friendlies this year has been poor, but I recall in the seventies / eighties, they used to loose the lot, but then go on and win the League. One can hope.

Right, time to check the cricket bag has everything in it, some pasta and ham for lunch, then off to the ground.

M.

Twitterage...

It appears that due to an ongoing DDOS attack on twitter, some of the features of this blog may not be functioning.

Wish some folk would just grow up.

M.

Sat Navs and traffic modules...

Have been changing Sat Navs around this week. My trusty (although now ageing Navman) was somewhat behind on map updates. Found out that map updates for it stopped nearly two years ago. What I liked about it was a traffic cradle I had for it that allowed connection to an external aerial. After many tests with the windscreen antenna, I soon discovered that an external aerial was an absolute must.

Anyway, I've now acquired my wife's Garmin Street Pilot with the traffic module built into the charger lead. Thankfully the maps can still be updated but that only happened after considerable faffing around with tech support since the unit doesn't auto handle the extra SD card I'd put in.

Bad news was (and I should have realised given my experience with the Navman), the traffic module's (GTM-21) performance with the piece of string that was supposed to be the aerial was none existent.

For those interested, the fix is to cut off the aeial close to where it's joined to the connector, use a pen knife to cut back some the charger lead to reveal the sheild, and solder on (using coax) an exterior antenna. Mine's a 2M/70cm dual band mag whip and I'm pleased to report the traffic signal is being received loud and clear all the time.

Until next time....

M.

Bits & bobs...

A collection of what's been going on this last week....

Spent a couple of days staying in London while working down South. The girls were already there on a short break so took Mikey down and stopped with them while I went off to a few meetings. The sheer pace of London astounds me, I'd far rather be in a sleepy rural village, how folk can cope with life at 100mph is beyond me. Sure, there are some great things you can see / do there, I always leave the place feeling totally cream crackered.

Whilst the conditions permitted, I' ve been trying (unsuccessfully) to take some photographs of the Space Station while it passed though the night sky. It's unmistakable to spot, so bright and traveling at such speed, but trying to get a shot at it is damn nigh impossible. It's too fast to have the camera on a tripod, yet the camera shake if you don't is too great. Must research some more, I'm sure there'll be a way.

Got my erroneous data charges dropped by O2 (while roaming in Jersey), looks like there may have been an issue with the data roaming actually being on even though it was off (which is what I thought), I've to update the phone and all should be well. Great jesture by O2, I was sort of expecting to have to pay it since it was only my word against theirs, but good on them for doing it.

Must valet the car today, I've already racked up 12k miles in not many months and it's badly in need of a clean, no excuses either I'm afraid, the sun is just starting to break through.

On the sporting front, Mikey's toe is still on the mend, although he's been told he can't play cricket for another 3 weeks, not what he wanted to hear. I've been playing (and enjoying) golf about once a week, but only played cricket once in the last month.

Managed to secure a pair of tickets for the last day of the Ashes test at Headingley, just hope the game lasts that long :-)

M.