Merry Christmas everyone.
Enjoy the festive season, and our thoughts go to all those who have to work over this period.
and to keep an eye on Santa
For a number of years now we have kept an eye on Santa as he travels round the world, thanks to NORAD.
Keep an eye on him yourself:
Christmas Party
Well tonight was the works Christmas Party. An evening of fine food, a couple of comedians, disco and live band.
A chance to let your hair down and relax.
Hope you all have a good Christmas and your Christmas parties go well.
Harry Potter
More snow and a forecast of more to come. This made us decide to commute to work in the car again. Not our favourite form of transport for the trip to work. The journey was accompanied by heavy snowfall so the right decision was definitely made.
After work, we went to a local restaurant for a meal, followed by a short walk in the snow to a good coffee shop. Cinnamon Latté of course!
Then off to the cinema. We had been promising ourselves a visit to see the new Harry Potter film since it was released in November, but it was not till tonight we managed to find the time.
Overall a fun film and a nice night out. As always the film had its good parts and as always for us book lovers, it missed out parts we wanted to see. A film is always a compromise, certainly I would hate to be a screen writer, but overall it was well worth seeing, and has whet the appetite for the final part of the series.
Birthday Post
Another Birthday passes by, unfortunately I had to work and it was quite a busy and hellish day all told.
Tonight was a nice meal out, good food, good drink, finished off at home with a rather nice bottle of red wine I had for the occasion.
Thank you everyone for the presents and thanks to my dear wife for the wonderful weekend photography course last week. It made a lovely birthday present.
The Cold Returns
The weather in Lincolnshire has improved massively in the last couple of days, allowing the normal motorcycle commute to recommence. Yesterday still had icy roads leading to the village leading to an interesting and challenging start to the commute. Caroline decide to walk down the first road while I slowly road along the ice covered road with my feet down on the ground sliding along.
Once into the village it was an easy commute into town.
This afternoon the cold snap returned and it started to snow, luckily it was not too bad and we got home safe on the motorcycle.
Its been good to get back on the bike, you really miss it, and this has been one of my longest breaks off the bike.
Final farewell of Harrier Jump Jets
Lincolnshire is very proud of its RAF heritage, its known as bomber county. Since the end of the second world war bases have gradually closed but we still have many airfields and RAF bases.
Today was the final flight from RAF Cottesmore in Rutland for the Harrier jump jets based there, but to say good bye the squadron took a final flight over Lincoln and the Lincolnshire airbases and towns.
Unfortunately I missed the fly pass but did manage to catch there practice flight yesterday. It was an impressive flight, and an impressive demonstration of formation flying. As a part time pilot myself (wish I had more time to fly!), I certainly appreciated the fly past.
The Harrier jump jet was a truly great demonstration of British technical achievement, but was retired early due to the financial crisis and the need for defence cuts to save money. The Navy is also losing its Harriers and its aircraft carriers.
Lets hope we have no war, or major humanitarian disaster that needs a British aircraft carrier. I know we need to save money but sometimes the choices made, do seem potentially fraught with danger.
Good bye Harrier, you proved your worth, in the Falklands, Iraq and the Balkans to name just a few. I salute you, the designers, engineers and aircrew that worked with you. Its the end of an era.
a Trip to North Yorkshire
Friday found us instead of commuting to work, heading to North Yorkshire, one of our favourite holiday destinations, to have the weekend enjoying some landscape photography.
Lunch time was spent in a lovely pub called ‘The Hare & Hounds’ at Staxton.
Caroline had her customary steak and ale pie while I had the Whitby Scampi.
We arrived late afternoon, in Robin Hoods Bay a rather delightful old seaside fishing village.
We were pleased to note that the snowploughs had been before us. Only a few days earlier the village had been completely cut off for a week.
After a few beers and a meal in the hotel, we retired for the night as I had my large format photography course starting next morning.
Cold and Frozen – the water pipes that is
Another freezing cold day, we got up this morning only to find we had no water. A quick check round found no damage (yet) so we suspected frozen pipes. The main kitchen tap was also none functioning so it was most likely the main feed into the house.
We tried to turn off the stopcock only to find it frozen. At this point we decided we better not go to work just yet, just in case we were looking at a flood should a frozen pipe burst, so we sent a quick email work to let them know.
The radiator in the kitchen had stopped working the previous day, and the kitchen had been very cold, that together with record low temperatures for the time of year, the most likely place for the frozen up pipe was where it comes into the house, in the cupboard next to the cold kitchen.
The kitchen radiator was an easy fix, take off the plastic valve cover and then a gentle tap with the hammer and we had heat again in the kitchen.
We then took turns gently heating the stopcock with a hair drier. This did not produce any effect, so it was a trip outside to where the water meter was located. Once again we directed a gentle heat onto the water meter using a hair driver.
After about 10 minutes we had running cold water again and we were able to turn off and back on the water stopcock.
With the central heating turned up, we kept an eye on the pipes for a further hour before finally grabbing a much needed shower, something to eat, and then we headed into work as the fog started to roll in.
We then heard that Alan my father in law had the same problem. After work we headed up there and once again directed some gentle heat onto the water meter. Once again we soon had the water flowing.
Finally we got back home, only to find our neighbour waiting for us. She had no cold water either. We gave her some instructions and she said she would try them out in the morning, and if she had any problems she would let us know.
A Lazy Sunday Morning
A very lazy Sunday morning was in store for us today. We had no intention of going out, so first job was to ground some fresh Italian style roasted coffee beans. I always keep a few whole beans in the freezer, in a plastic airtight container.
We are very lucky here, as Lincoln is blessed, not only with the usual array of Starbucks and Costa Coffee houses, but some very good top rated independent coffee shops, and two top coffee bean retailers, one of which roasts the beans themselves twice a week.
With the beans ground and the expresso on its way, I turned my attention to a very indulgent porridge. Organic rolled oats from Lincoln market and milk; with fresh cream and unrefined brown sugar to top it all off. Yum Yum.
So the morning had us settling down in front of the TV to enjoy Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, one of Caroline’s favourite musicals.
And if you have some beans left you can even practice your photography on them or if your feeling daring, go out into the garden and make Snow Angels.
