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.

Erratum

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Sept 4th and hot weather is still here, 29°C, threatening thunderstorms too
It was Uzbekistan not Kazakstan that had a sparsely reported massacre referred to in a recent entry.
One big Oops from me!
I’ve edited the entrynow, such is the beauty of online blogs. My points in that post remain the same though.
Here is a feature on the matter from "Green Left Weekly"
Me stuff: Had a swim in the sea off Harlech beach yesterday. It was so warm! Well, Warm for British coastal waters anyway. The waves were no more than 6" high, so that counts as dead calm,  perfect swimming conditions. Seabirds were visible diving from the air to feed. Memorable!
We also stumbled across a charming little waterfall in the hills behind Llanbedr. We will be back!

What is going on?

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The world’s richest nation is at a low ebb.
The first lootings struck gunshops,
The armed forces have been sent in with "shoot-to-kill" orders.
There is no drinking water, and the floodwaters are full of pollutants.
Armed gangs patrol while martial law has been imposed.
We have seen no stories of heroism, bravery or humility.
US oil prices have shot up, now gasolene has rocketed to nearly the price we normally pay.
thousands have drowned.
 
What is going on – they knew this was coming…

Radio

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RADIO : Been listening to a lot of radio over the last week. It seems that radio listeners hear news that otthers don’t. There’s a story about a massacre of Usbebekistani protestors that is of the same scale as Tianenmen Square. I’m trying to find some links to post here but they aren’t easy to find. That parallels the story in that it was presented as the "forgotten atrocity".
Here’s an art related one. The Italians are fund-raising to preserve their artisic heritage in an innovative way:
Shock tactics to save Italian art
Wales again tomorrow for a few days. Then back to sch..
 

Mammatus

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28°C, ++thunder
 
What a day- thunder lightning and lots of lovely rain. We may have seen mammatus clouds ( hope I spelt that properly). Here’s a site about them: Hastings
It’s so hot & close now that I have the fan on in here.

On a different tack: BBC on painted portaiture.

 

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 ?!

recuperated

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Cycling: 42 miles in stunning weather., 24°C.
Summer’s in the last phase- golden fields, but the trees are looking slightly caramelised. Hedgerows are laden with berries, blackberries are the tastiest & some roads take a long time to travel along. the ones at the top seem the nicest, more sun or fewer little hands/paws,  I don’t know.
Webdesign: more CSS shenanegans. It’s rather fiddly I have to admit! Setting up pages to use as templates seems like a good idea but then the layout changes when areas are marked-up as editable regions. Oh well, getting used to the idea now though, but Dreamweaver offers to link with a CSS editor. Now I’m curious- what is a css editor like to work with?
 
Here is a good site to get some ideas, w3schools. I learn’t a lot from these pages.
Me recovered from that enigmatic ill-feeling of the last few days- don’t know what that was all about.
 

Vera Drake

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Film
A most powerful film by Mike Leigh. It’s about a well meaning woman who performed back-street abortions in 1950. The setting was perfectly re-created, beautifully shot and lighting was interesting. It was a very closely observed study, full of compassion at the same time as traumatic to see. There wasn’t anything gruesome shown, but the personal focus is what made it so powerful. It’s not a film to recommend if you want a romantic night out at the flix. But it will leave you not knowing how to follow it up, no point putting on any music, or watching anything else on the small screen. I’m not giving anything away.
My rating= 10/10!

We’re going to have known nothing like it (again)!

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GCSE results day.
News report this morning must have bene easy to plan- just use the same report as lat year, add the same controvesy and film a high ranking school as they open their results. Then have a debate about it getting easier, standards and kids working hard.
Easy television.
Art: Stone, art & public/private money all debated on the  BBC
It seems the press have ignored the facts behind the story in case it spoils their sermons.

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.