For the avoidance of doubt.

It's bloody cold!

There's a garden under there somewhere.

Still a tad nippy out there.

Current Saturday night TV

Well I'm much relieved. It isn't after all, just me.

While I don't knock / condone all those who enjoy much of the current fayre that is Saturday night TV, it appears there are others, like me, who run for the hills or safety zone that is "the other room" to escape the current mindless, moronic flow of utter garbage that is pumped across the airways.

I've taken to listening to Radio 7 with all the old radio comedy classics. Hancock's Half Hour, Around the Horn and such like. Wonderful stuff from genuinely talented artists (most of whom are now dead) as opposed to a bunch of talentless cretins who are being manipulated to make the TV moguls like Mr. Cowell even richer.

Rant over. It's been a bad day.

M.

Ashes so far...

Have to say I'm thoroughtly enjoying the cricket down under. I guess a lot of that comes from years of being comprehensively thumped series after series, especially down in Australia. But the big change for me is the coverage itself. My lad who's 15, takes it all for granted, but when I was his age, all I had was some pretty iffy AM coverage on the "Third Programme" on the medium wave with Test Match Special, and the newspapers two days after the close of play. It was all very distant. That did add a degree of mystique to it all, and I often wonder how everyone would cope if we had to go back to that today.

 

Now, with Sky, it's live, in HD and in your living room. Complete with the technical analysis gizmos and a plethora of ex-players who provide both great incite and entertainment. What more could a cricket nut wish for? Well for me, only one thing is left, and that's before I'm finally nailed in my box, I simply have to get to Australia to experience it for myself. God knows how the "Barmy Army" can take two months off work and pay for a winter down under, so for me, it'll have to one Test, the huge question, is where? I love the look of l the grounds, everyone rates Adelaide, Perth looks gorgeous, but the MCG over Christmas is probably favourite. I've just dug out my piggy bank. Make that two piggies, doubt I'll be able to go without taking my lad, may have to wait until he's 18, at least we can have a few beers then :-)

De-icing under the moon and Venus.

--
Mark Haworth
Email: mark@willowhey.net

Gadget Show Live 2011

Just booked our tickets for next year at the NEC. Had a great day there recently for Top Gear Live, hoping this will be equally as entertaining. Sure Mikey may spend some time in the Games Hall while I meander around all the mobile comms stuff. Anyone been before? Really looking forward to it. It also includes a live show by the show's presenters. M.

A rather feeble effort.

Well the rest of the country has ground to a halt with the snow, and here in Southport, it's finally arrived too. Well I say snowing, I've seen better from the snow machine down at theatre during the Pantomime the year before last. Oh wait, it's stopped and the sun's out again.

M.

Giving Google AdSense a go...

Ok, I've been thinking of this for a while, looking at the web as an opportunity to generate some extra beer money (or more realistically to attempt to claw back some of my costs for the servers I have to pay for to provide some of the services that I offer).

I must make it clear, I know nothing about this, will I expect to make my million in the first week? I suspect not. What I need to know is for the inconvenience of having to host adverts, what revenue will it actually generate? If the answer is going to be precious little, then I'll be turning them off pretty quickly. There are all sorts of claims out there, most of which I'll take with a pinch of salt. By I pay out around £100 a month on servers, if I can begin to claim at least some of that back, I'll be fairly happy.

So, apologies to all who are wondering what the hell's going on, treat it as an experiment :-)

M.

Latest mobile phone ramblings....

Over the last few weeks I've had the opportunity to have a play with some new phones. An HTC Desire running the latest Froyo 2.2 Android software, a BlackBerry Storm 2, a Sony Ericsson X10 mini pro and the ubiquitous iPhone.

So, what's my thoughts? Phone reviews are very subjective, it all depends on what the user is looking for: ease of use, available apps, size, battery life etc. The mobile phone landscape has moved on at a pace of recent years, sure, "basic" phones exist that just do phone and text, but they now do so much more. In my view these smart phones shouldn't be called phones, but mini computers. Based on my statement above, what are my requirements for a phone then? Well, ideally it should be able to do everything I need on the move, and that will include personal email, Company email, GPS sat nav, web browsing and a few of the usual apps that are available for most phones. Most important though, I expect it to last at least a day with normal use. I'm not going to be browsing the internet all day on it, listening to music or other things that necessitates it being "on" all the time. I'll start using it around 6am and expect it to still be available for service until around midnight before it goes on charge.

Taking the last point first all phones except the BlackBerry fail this test miserably. Sure the others will get through if I make the effort not to use them as much, but it seems no matter how much I use the BlackBerry, it keeps on going. It's clearly the Duracel of the phone world, the Hobnob in biscuit dunking terminology. Since the battery of the X10 mini pro is so small, I can (and do) carry a charged spare so I can see the day out, it has the advantage that changing the battery is pretty easy and quick, unlike the Desire which is very cumbersome and the iPhone where you can't get at the battery at all (bloody stupid in my view).

One thing I forgot to mention, is that I travel abroad a fair bit, and don't like to feel restricted on the use of the phone just because of data roaming charges. Here again, the BlackBerry is streets ahead of the competion. On a "normal" day's use (assuming you don't do anything stupid like stream video), I can get by with less than 2MB of total data. That goes up to over 10MB with the others, the iPhone even more (it just consumes data like it's going out of fashion). I've a rough idea how BlackBerry achieve this, for example it doesn't bulk download all your email, it sucks data as and when you decide to read the email. In additon, I'm pretty sure the data is compressed too. It all helps keep the data comsumption down, which obviously extends battery life too. Nice one RIM.

So far then, two nil up to the BlackBerry.

And now to the more subjective stuff, what are they like to use? Everyone has preferences, and I'm no different. If you're looking for something that just works out of the box, requires very little technical savvy to to both up an running quickly and doesn't need "tweaking" every now and again, then the iPhone is for you. Downside to that, is the moment you want to expand the envelope (technically) with it, you're stuffed. The X10 mini pro has Android 2.1 on it, and to give it credit, it's pretty straight forward to use. The 2.2 on the Desire is better, but those not looking hard, it'd be difficult to tell the difference. The most important bit of usability for me, is how easy is it to type on the device? The BlackBerry Storm is touch screen, and being honest, it's not a patch on the normal BB keyboards, my old 8310 Curve is so much easier to use. The X10 mini pro has a slide out keyboard, but for an average bloke's fingers, it's too small. Kids or ladies maybe. The touch screen on the iPhone and Desire, once you're used to them, are pretty easy to use, but not (in my view) anywhere as near as good as a standard BlackBerry.

The Desire is a cracking phone, excellent screen, from an techie's point of view, so more "open" to be able to experiment with. Android seems to be all the rage, and rightly so. It's fast, flexible and very easy to personalise to your own requirements. Judging by it's popularity, it's clear other people think so too. The camera on it is the best of the one of the bunch. All round top phone.

A big issue for me is Company email. Our Company uses Exchange, but will not support BlackBerry connections, a huge disappointment (and error of judgement) in my view. Instead, we have to use DME by Excitor. Sure, it works pretty well, has clients for most phones, except for, you guessed it, BlackBerry. Coming soon I'm told (having written to them), but I may be waiting a while. In my quest for carrying just one phone, this rules out the BlackBerry (for now at least).

If I stick to my original mandate, the only answer then as to what I should use, is the Sony Ericsson X10 mini pro, assuming I carry the spare battery, which is really cheating.

If I *had* to carry just one phone, it would be a BlackBerry, but that's unlikely, since I normally carry at least three phones, one of which is always a BlackBerry. -)

M.

I'm not Swedish...

Working for a large Swedish company, and having their standard IT offering (laptop / phone etc), in many respects could be regarded as a good thing. No, change that, it is good, I'm employed and payed a reasonable (but never enough) recompense for my efforts. But being large, they have the ubiquitous IT policy, which means every time you connect to the internet on their equipment, it's through a proxy in Sweden. Which wouldn't be a problem if some websites didn't try to be so bloody smart and guess where you're coming in from and change the language of the page that's served up to you! Google, please note, I don't *do* Swedish, and to all other web site developers, if you're going to do it, make it obvious at the top of the page where you can change language. Rant over.

M.

And that reminds me...

Well maybe there are a few things worthy of note since my last blog. I'll endeavour to keep it brief.

Daughter Clare has settled extremely well at University in York (St. John). We all miss her, but so far she's managed a couple of trips home this term, and is also due back this weekend.

Mikey and I attended Top Gear Live at the NEC. See my facebook pages for pictures. A fabulous event which I can thoroughly recommend!

Liverpool's take over has been completed :-) Liverpool's performances are woeful :-( A season of consolidation at best, so long as we don't get relegated I'll be happy. Would guess we'll finish the season with a different manager to that which we started the season with.

Currently using / playing with three phones, a BlackBerry Storm 2, an HTC Desire and a Sony Ericsson X10 mini pro. All have the plus and minus points. But if I could ever get my Company email to work on the BlackBerry, it'd be a no-brainer for me. Hell is likely to freeze over before that happens though, or, I change jobs.

Oh, and Winter has arrived, it's damned cold today!

M.

The Ashes, bring it on....

Well, it's been a while since my last update, a lot has happened, most of which will be of no interest to those who find themselves browsing these pages.

What is of interest is the start (tonight) of the Ashes down in Australia where England look to retain the bragging rights to the little urn. All the omens are good, in fact have never been better, but what I say is never underestimate the Aussies, especially on their own turf. I think this series is going to be a lot closer than folk make out. I just hope that come January, England can be proud of its cricketers, whatever the result.

M.

LFC and all that...

For what it's worth, here's my "take" on the recent takeover of ownership of my favoured football team.

To me it looks pretty straight forward. Especially after watching Mr. Hick's "interview" with Sky last night. All they (the previous owners) are guilty of is exhibiting poor business practice. Put simply, promising the earth and not being able to do their sums financially. I'm quite sure they didn't buy the club because of their love for it, it was a business venture that went horribly wrong.

Sure, they've put money into it, maybe even some of their own, but the bulk was using borrowed money. If you've got money, for financial reasons, it's often better to borrow against that money for the new venture, but these guys never had their own money to fall back on. In taking loans to purchase the club without their own, they took a punt. That punt backfired, badly.

It's the same as me taking out a mortgage for a house priced at £250k (since that's what I have to pay for it now), only to find the house market crashes and in a years' time, and it's then only worth £200k. If I have to sell, I'll lose money. Simple. By the same arguement, I could "invest" a further £50k of my own money converting a loft or adding an conservatory. The house now stands me £300k, but if all I can get for it when I sell it is still £250k, it's me who's lost the fifty grand.

In stating they'll sue over the "being swindled by an epic swindle" is simply preposterous. Damn it, LFC have been looking for a buyer for nearly a year. There were only two bids, each for around £300m, in the absence of any greater offer, how the hell can that be classed as selling on the cheap?

As per the previous arguements, if the building society regard me as a risk, and withdraw my mortage, or I default on payment, they'll want to recover what ever they can, but they'll only get what the house will fetch on the open market. Clearly RBS regarded Hicks and Gillett as a massive risk, and wanted some cash back before the whole thing imploded.

I watched the first interviews that Hicks and Gillett gave when they purchased the club, waving wads of cash around and promising all sorts. That all looks a little silly now. The new owner's first interview was far more measured, no empty promises as such, just a committment that there's no real debt on the club now, and that everyone is going to work very hard at this great challenge to get the club back where it belongs.

No, I'm not suggesting all at Liverpool is now well, and yes, I still remain sceptical, but it appears to me we may have a least decided to travel down the right road this time. Time will tell.

M.

IT and all that....

These things happen from time to time, but I've had a few weeks from hell recently. Four separate PC's needing rebuild for different reasons. Thankfully all were backed up, but the time wasted was horrendous.

Tempted down the Apple route for next PC purchase....

M.

A sad day...

Where do you start? We're just back from three days in London watching a terrific Test match between England and Pakistan. Also took in some shows, "Avenue Q", "The 39 Steps" and "We Will Rock You". All fabulous and worth making the effort to see.

However, things took a turn for the worse on the journey by train home. A train journey that reminds me why I should in future always drive. And more than that, the news broke on Twitter about the betting scandal. I know there's been talk of bit for years, but the evidence on this one is damning.

I'm not going to let it spoil what has been a great few days, it's just a sad day for a great game.

M.

The Rose Bowl experience....

Well, now back from our weekend away watching the T20 finals down at the Rose Bowl in Southampton.

An excellent drive down there, we set off at 5.30am and were in the car park four hours fifteen minutes later. We've never been there before, and must comment from the outset it's a fantastic spectator venue, even though they're still building bits of it. Once complete, it'll be up there and even surpass some of the more "traditional" cricket grounds.

But now for the gripe(s). Two really, one the timing of the games. Trying to squeeze two semi finals and the final into one day is always going to be tricky. So from that point of view, starting at 11.30am isn't going to get you off to the best start. By the time it was all done, it was damn near 11pm. Way too late in my opinion. I understand it's right to have all those games on one, day, but surely start a little earlier? There were families there with young kids and it was clear some of them needed to get off earlier than 11pm. And number two, although it's only a short term problem I believe, is to address the parking situation. There's no parking near the ground at all, you have to park miles away and get the park'n'ride in. Trying to ferry nigh on 25,000 people away at the end of the last match, even though there were loads of buses around is always going to take a while. For us it took nearly 1.5 hours, and that's just to get to the car.

All that said, I'd go back, I just hope that next time, it's a little quicker on the transport front.

A great day of cricket too, just a pity that Lancashire weren't there.

M.

Wish Google would think things through sometime....

Google encourage you to use gmail, to the extent there's all sorts of bells and whistles to integrate all your email accounts into it. It has tools to import, filter, and, most importantly, when responding to a mail, make it appear to come from the address it was sent to.

So, you could have john.smith@myworkaddress.com john.smith33@somepersonalemail.com jsmith@xhotmailx.com all arriving in your gmail account automatically. Nice. When you hit reply, the mail is sent as if from the address it was sent to, i.e. your works address, personal address, whatever. It keeps everything nicely backed up in your gmail account. No lost mails, all archived. Perfect.

So, bring on the gmail app written by google for the google android phone. I'd sort of assumed the functionality above would be there. Sadly not. When you hit reply from you gmail app, the mail always gets sent from the native gmail address. How naff is that? If you google "send as" and "gmail map" you'll see I'm not the only one complaining.

So, it's back to poxy pop or standard imap in the email client and set accounts up individually. What a pain.

M.

A general catch up....

It's been way too long since my last update. I always have the best intentions of being "regular" on here, but never quite seem to make it happen.

Right, so what's to catch up on? Playing much more golf for a start and thoroughly enjoying it. Handicap's back down to 18, but can still improve on that. So far this year have played the Brabazon at the Belfry and both Royal Lytham and Royal Liverpool.  Old Thorns down in Hampshire too. All great courses.

Recently booked to go and see Professor Stephen Hawking's lecture at the Royal Albert Hall in October. Can't wait for that, just wish my brain had some more bogomips behind it to assist with the understanding.

Have a few shows to go too, Spamalot tomorrow, and the touring Les Mis soon. 

Later this month me and Mikey are off to Lords for the Test Match against Pakistan. We're likely to take a show in there too, just depends what we can tickets for. While in London we're hoping to get to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich.

All in all, lots of good stuff on. Work fine too, busy as ever, but still enjoying it, far better to be busy than bored.

Finally, (for now at least), very content with 2.2 Froyo (official) on my HTC Desire. Although it doesn't do some things as well as other phones, it is the first phone I've had that will actually do everything I want.

M.

Scary...

Just spent an excellent day down at Royal Birkdale watching the British Women's Open. It's a far more relaxed affair than the men's event and offers great opportunities to spectate close up to the players.

Mikey and I more or less spent the full day today following Laura Davies around. I must confess to not really being up to speed on the women players of today, but Laura's been around since I started playing way back when. And from what I saw today, I wish I could play like her too. Two over on the day, when the conditions were far from ideal wasn't a bad return in my view.

What I must learn, is to copy the swing tempo of these ladies, it's so slow, with so little effort you'd think the ball wouldn't go more than 100 yards, yet they regularly hit the damn thing far further than I can. There really is a lesson to be learned there.

Anyway, Royal Birkdale, a fantastic course which I had the privilege of playing last year. If I could only ever play one course again, this would be it.

M.

What is it about Lancashire....

Every time there's a sniff of a chance of them getting to a cricket final, I plan ahead and get tickets. This time for the T20 finals at the Rose Bowl.

And every time they get knocked out. Must be telling me something.

Still, Mikey and I will enjoy the day and play some golf.down there on the Sunday. All is not lost....

M.

Exceeding expectations.

Short, and to the point. I'm talking about my new HTC Desire, and it does precisely that! Great phone.

M.

Location : 24-32 Willow Hey, Southport, Sefton PR9 9,

HTC Desire....

Well, I'm now on an "Android" phone in the form of an HTC desire. Having used BlackBerry and iPhone for the last few years, I must confess it's taken a little getting used to. The iPhone just seems intuitive in its operation, the BlackBerry maybe less so. The Desire is similar to the BlackBerry in that respect, for the first day or so, you maybe wonder wht all the fuss is about.

I'm into my third day now, and I'm continuing to discover things the Desire can do that the BB and iPhone can't, I'm finally starting to "get it", and boy, I'm glad I stuck with it. Let's just say I'm very happy with it :-)

M.

Handicap heading South

I've been trying to get back into golf over the last year or so, nothing too excessive (in comparison to how often I used to play), but at least often enough to justify my membership fee. While it's clear I still enjoy playing, it's equally clear that I'm nowhere near as good (a relative term) as I used to be.

My target is to reduce my handicap from 19 to 17, it doesn't sound much, but it's proving to be very challenging. Three competitive rounds so far this year, and all have pushed ithe handicap the wrong way.

At least my lad Mikey is now a member, so I should at least see one of the family reducing their handicap, he's got more potential than I ever had, and I look forward to when his handicap will be lower than mine!

M.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

A new begining?

Only time will tell with the new coalition, but it has my full support. Would imagine some choppy waters ahead, just needs safely navigating. Fingers crossed.

M.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Politics...

Well there you go, finally an exit poll that got it right :-)

Rather liked Boris's take on the result, that the electorate had delivered a stinging rebuke to all parties. As to what happens now I guess is down to how courageous both Mr. Cameron and Mr. Clegg are going to be. History tells us there's likely to be another election before too long though...

M.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

LCCC

Got our membership through for Lancashire a few weeks back, so, on the way home from work last night, popped in to watch a couple of overs of the match against Kent. Very civilised! Really enjoyed walking around the pavillion and my ice cream :-)

M.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Less is more

I picked up my new car this week. Noticed one of those offers that was just too good to refuse, so for the first time in my life I now own a French car. God that sounds awful. How could I do such a thing? Put simply, money! While I can justify spending "that liitle bit extra" for something special, I couldn't justify spending what my previous car was costing in comparison to this. So, a Citroen it is, better economy, cheaper tax, cheaper insurance, and a cheaper payment :-) And in addition to that, it's quite comfy too :-)

This of course hasn't altered my view of the French! I wasted years of my life at school trying to learn that sodding language, and for what? Everybody speaks English, as of course they should when most of the world map should still be coloured pink ;-)

M.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Doctor Who

After a brilliant start to the new series, I must confess to being a little disappointed with the last two episodes. Maybe I'm expecting too much since it's really only a kid's programme. I'm really hoping the episode, a sequel to "Blink" by Mr. Moffat is as good as the first!

M.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Getting interesting...

Despite all the hype, I couldn't be arsed watching the "Leaders TV Debate" the other night. Reading the papers it appears there was an unexpected result in that the leader of the yellows appeared to come out on top. here in Southport there are really only two possible outcomes, a blue or yellow win and I'm guessing there may well be some tactical voting we'll see. This election looks as if it's going to be very interesting, but at least there do now appear to be some clear differences on policies that should allow people to make a choice. My mind's made up anyway :-)

M.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Volcanic ash.

Looks like Clare will be getting a few extra days in Dubai. Her flight back tomorrow has already been cancelled. Really not sure when she'll be home now, there's going to be a huge backlog to clear. Being pragmatic, there's not much you can do, but it sure is frustrating.

M.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

And so it begins....

Well it's here again, Mikey and I off to our first cricket match of the season, away to Maghull playing for the 2nd's. I'm really only playing a bit part this season, i.e. when they're short of players, but judging on last year, I should get quite a few games :-) Really looking forward to it!

M.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

The Masters...

I always make a point of trying to watch the Masters Golf from Augusta. To me, along with the clocks going forward, it always heralds the "official" end to winter and therefore a time to look forward to some better weather. Back in the late eighties and early nineties, there was a great deal of European interest in the event, with a few noteable wins for some British guys :-)

Recently, that's not been the case. Until this year. Granted there's still the final round to go, and as has been shown on many occasions, anything can (and often does) happen, but we now have two Brits in contention. I'm looking forward to lining up some beers and watching events unfold later tonight, after of course watching Liverpool beat Fulham this afternoon :-)

M.

The village pub...

Won't say where, but I'm stopping in a traditional village pub in Surrey with some "rooms above". Great to see most of the locals in putting the world to rights over a couple of beers, I could imagine this scene hasn't changed in centuries. Unlike "Town" pubs where folk often go to drink, people use the pub here to meet and discuss current issues while having a few scoops at the same time. It's how it should be!

M.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Doctor Who

Well, it's been and gone. The new Doctor in Matt Smith, with the new look and feel, production team, new music, everything really.

I really did have my doubts how it would stand up to the previous programmes, how could they possibly be as good? Well, if there's one body you should always trust, it's the BBC, since the latest version surpassed my wildest dreams. Everything about it was superb, script, production, acting, the lot. David Tennant is now but a memory (although an exceptionally good one), and I'm looking forward intensely to the rest of the new series, just hope it's all as good. Mr. Moffat always did impress me with his story lines, "Blink" especially. Here's to more of the same. At last, some decent TV on a Saturday night, all I need is "Time Team" on Sunday again, and all will be well...

M.

Well done Cambridge!

Call me old fashioned, but I always make a point of watching the Boat Race. My Dad sort of insisted on it, and I've just carried it on.

Now I can't help it if neither Oxford nor Cambridge thought I was good enough to attend their fine Universities, but The University of Liverpool did, so to them I'm very grateful. Snag is, they're not in the boat race. So who to support? I always regarded Oxford as the Arts and Cambridge as Science, hell Stephen Hawking works at Cambridge! Since I'm very much on the side of science and engineering it's always been the Dark Blues for me in the race!

I've spent time in both Oxford and Cambridge (although sadly not the Universities), both are *fabulous* places, but it's Cambridge I'll always have a soft spot for. Maybe in my next life I'll get there....

M.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Enjoy yourself Clare...

Well after a long wait, Clare is finally off to Dubai with her friend Kim. I'm sure she'll have a wonderful time given what I've heard of the place. It's a place I've no experience of, the closest I've been is a five hour stay at Abu Dhabi airport on a connecting flight to Malaysia.

Looking forward to seeing what Clare makes of it.

M.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

British Summer Time my arse...

I always look forward to that wonderful weekend in March when the clocks go forward, that, along with coverage of the Masters (golf) usually tells me lighter nights and better weather are on the way. Only this year, it's brought more snow. Global warming? Someone's taking the proverbial.

M.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Well done to all the chaps at Cern!

I've been following with great interest the news from CERN, and specifically the Large Hadron Collider. Everything clearly came together today with the first recorded collisions at seven trillion electron volts. Awesome work guys, God I love physics :-)

M.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Time Team 2010

What the hell's going on? I always look forward to January since it always brings a new series of my favourite (well one of my favourite) programmes, Time Team. Well it's now nearly April and still no sign. Come on Channel 4, sort it!

M.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Really must get back to this...

January since me last update? Surely not!

Having given myself a good talking to, I'm now back on the case. Aim now is have have more updates, but smaller in size. The idea is that it won't take as much time.

And today's topic? The forthcoming election in the UK. No I'm not going to reveal my "colours" since I've gone off politics completely over recent years. I'd argue they all morph into one and the same party. What I miss are politicians with conviction who say what they genuinely believe in, and stick to it. I'm talking of the likes of Tony Benn and Maggie Thatcher. Poles apart on the spectrum, but both superb politicians. We need more like them now.

*But*, what must happen is that at least folk should vote. Generations have fought and continue to die for us to be able to place that "X" somewhere. Lord knows I can't really choose between any of them any more, but I know I'm going to vote. It's democracy, and I'd rather not have any of the other so called "systems" that exist around the world.

Rant over. Wonder if the Monster Raving Loony Party are standing locally...

M.

New Year's resolutions...

Well so much for the updates over Christmas, but suffice it to say a good an relaxing time was had by all!

Thanks to modern technology, I'm writing this somewhere over the skies of Germany on the way to Munich. My thoughts are that it takes longer to drive to Coventry than it takes to fly Southern Germany, granted Coventry is cheaper, but it makes you wonder.

Lots of resolutions for the New Year, firstly to keep this blog more up to date, but secondly to endeavour to enjoy a little more "me" and more importantly family time this year. The demands of modern life, especially work, are for more than they were a few years back, I'm sure I'm no different to anyone else in this, but I do aim to set more time aside and get the work / life balance back on a more even keel. That also means re-discovering my hobbies, especially amateur radio. I'm already planning some new aerials for when the weather takes a turn for the best before too long.

I'm sure we all enjoyed the recent snow, it's more than I remember for many a year, but delighted it's now all gone!

Enough for now, we've started our descent, just wish the bloke sat next to me would stop trying to take over the entire row, his elbows and legs are encroaching far too much for my liking!

Until next time.

M.
Mark Haworth
Email: mark@willowhey.net