Category Archives: Travel

Bristol

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19°C
Today is a day to remind oneself what an adorable city Bristol is. Imy wanted to see the university since it’s on her list top apply for.
Ten years must have passed since the last time I was in Clifton Triangle/village or Park Row. As the day wore on it all came back to me- bit by bit, there was no sudden revelation as I got out of the car. We went without a map. Things did click into place throughout the day. Finding my way around got easier and easier.
The traffic is still horrendous, but there is such a great atmosphere. We didn’t make it to Montpelier, so therefore saw no dogpoo.
Before we left, we (accidentally) found a cafe that I used to frequent for a final snack for the road. Everyone else in there was either reading  or writing, each one was alone. That is a rare sight in Cafes here.
 
We played onthe limestone slide near the Suspension biridge, shopped in Habitat. And best of all, I bought the new Arabstrap LP from one of the many record shops.  It was just like old times ( except I wasn’t on my bike).
Aand, there are still loads of cycle shops, at least 4 were visible.

Complain

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Part two:
here is the place to complain:
http://www.walsall.gov.uk/transport/default.asp
I’ve pasted parts of my previous entry to that page- with a few changes in grammar.  Maybe if they reply- I will post the answer here at some time.
As for "Me", I’ve cleared out your double post so it looks ok now.
OIL:Changed some pictures around. The new (finished again) fractured eye painting is in the Completed Oils photo section. You may have to open the little picture below to see how it was modified

Walsall Council

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Walsall council are incompetent. It’s a well known feature in the Education department- they failed their Ofstead 2 years ago. But it now seems to be the case in the Transport department too. There is nothing anyone could have done about inadequate drainage in Shelfield, Walsall; it needs  majour engineering work on the storm drains.
but…
The road was starting to flood yesterday at 17.00, then it continued to rain heavily for another 7 hours.
So why with the road flooded knee deep, did they leave the road open. Cars had flooded their engines in the lake that formed to add further to the blockage. There were no "Road Closed" signs, no diversions, traffic was just allowed to get on with it. Someone from the coucil will have travelled that way home yesterday, therefore seeing the flood- so the coucil DID know the road would be impassable. But they decided to leave it open!
Why?

Broken Derailleur

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16°C, light Westerlies

Cycle home with one gear 61.6 miles, broken derailleur in pocket- why?…

Well, it just broke off going up a hill in Ashby De-La-Zouch. The bolt had sheared dropping it into the rear spokes.

At first I was really puzzled- (hmm what to do?  is there a phone box nearby, do I need a lift home…can I fix it or make it ridable?) . Thanks goes out to the woman who offered to let me use her phone on Moira hill. She directed me to a shop in the town where I could buy bike bits. after getting a chain tool, I shortened the chain, took out the rear mech and rode home with one gear in use- 42 x 19. That’s a very low gear…

Home is 21 miles away.

The gear ratio was very low, but with rapid spinning I could get it up to 21 mph. and hills were no problem.

Fixing this is going to take some time.

Notice the autumnal colours! I couldn’t help wondering while out- are we going to get a blaze of autumn colours like we did the year before last.

Dinosaur- here’s the photo!

Pedal thinking

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I don’t know what category to put this entry in
 
15°C, much variety of sky, no rain.

Cycling today, ( incidentally 73.4 miles) – my head was full of thoughts.

think one:

The "Sprite" painting has to change- (NB :not only have I changed it’s name…), but the image needs to change also. The head is faaaar to big and needs ot be angled diffrerently. If you get your pictures down from the shelf regularly, you get to "know" them. Then you visualise  them when out & about. I thught this over and over while cycling today. So changes are afoot in the underpainting. This MUST be done before overpainting oily layers .

 

3D :The other think was "Mentalray"

Mentalray is a renderer that was included in my copy of 3ds max 6. Been running max 6 for 18 months now, particle flow is great, as is reactor 2 and all the new mapping tools. Just overlooked the new renderer, but having read some enthusiastic chapters in 3ds Max6 Bibile.

Later: Tried mentalray- it’s very fast! Faster then Max’s scnline raytracer. The difficult bit is using shaders it seems.

Clean arm

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only 44.8 miles today. Windy warm & close. Rainy bits too.
My hand doesn’t smell of that incident yesterday anymore.
AW38 Whitley renders. the mesh is near enough finished, so made some sample renders today so the Whitley-project people could have a look.

Infuriation

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23°C, SW winds
Flat tyre made itself noticable on Muckley corner round-about as the back wheel slid outwards. It’s odd how soft tyres behave on cornering, a bit like severe understeer.
If proved to be the most infuriating to fix. I put the spare tueb in to inflate when it in turn went straight down. So with a nearby garage, I sought out a bucket of water to find out which tube was the best. The bubble test failed- there were no bubbles. Then the obvious thing to do is put the tube back in the rear wheel then that went immediately flat too. I really hate it a perfectly fine thing that has nothing wrong with it except it doesn’t work.
 "narked"
there was an old guy who stopped to watch at first. He stood in a coat with a dried rollie cigarette stuck to his lip. He ended up helping out a bit. His voice was unclear but meant well.
Anyway- even after fiddling about with a bucket of water and the two innertubes, no inflation. Then after changing it around it decided to co-operate in part- so I rode home with only 70psi in the rear wheel.
Oh well, rambling to a quick finish- arrived home 40′ late.
Narked to pieces.

Wasps

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Hot & sunny, 27°C. blimey
 
wasps– you’re late this year. Only saw the first one today. Come on my little stripey foes, you only stung me once last year and not at all the year before! Your average is dropping, you’d better do some catching up!
51 miles today in hot sun, few clouds and it’s set to be same tomorrow. Last mad rush before new term.
Paint: that seascape is driving me nuts. How difficult is that ?!

Never seen it looking so good

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Wales! what stunning weather over the last 24 hours. No one on the beach at Harlech. Had supper at a quality beach-side cafe. wales really needs more of those- for as long as I can remember- Wales has aimed at the cheap & cheeful market. The days we have searched for decent places to eat has left us feeling a low opinion of the place. The silly picture below was taken just behind the beach this morning, there are similar ones at all the entrance routes to the beach.
READING:
"Swastika in the Gunsight" by Igor Kaberev.
It must have been written at a time of strong Soviet censorship, the writing style is quite different to what I’m used to. The storyline breaks up in unconventional ways which is refreshing.  I’d like more info on cultural references, some customs sound rather strange, or at least they sound strange. Apart from that- the book is full of action and the pace is good once you get past the first third. You get used to the oppressive propaganda language of the "party"- or at least you can read past it.

full up

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25°C; !; no wind. Perfect conditions.
Summer is moving into it’s last phase, the colours are fading, straw is everywhere and most of the grain harvest it is in. That means no more arriving home with a deep-chest cough from the clouds of brown dust whippped up by combine-harvesters. The downside of that is that the tractors are being released for hedge-trimming- the cause of 4 punctures already this week. I’m not complaining though, it is quite rare these days toget that many flats.
Dead trees everywhere.
Where are the wasps? Most years I have clocked up a few stings by now.
I have clocked up 68 miles today, but got home unusually tired which I blame an inadequate meal yesterday for that. The last ten miles near home I could see purple spots, and I felt quite wobbly on arrival.
One spoke needs fixing.
More on the dead trees: Royal forestry Society
Tomorrow I go to Wales for a few days. There are reports of large schools of dolphins inshore so I wil pack a pair of binoculars. The dogs like the beach as much as we do.