Category: Family

Family related posts; generally only of interest to fellow members of the Brown Clan and relations by Marriage into this mad house.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Snow Teddy – More Snow and More Pictures

Today saw us making a major shopping trip for the more elderly relatives. The shops were hell, very busy, but the main roads were all clear and safe. Some of the back roads and villages were more challenging, but conditions are definitely improving.  I hope we will be back on the motorcycle by Tuesday or Wednesday, if things continue to improve like today.

As the snowy weather continues, and thus so do the snow themed pictures. As you can see some people are getting quite artistic with their creation!  I decided not to publish the snow family I saw, lets just say that father snowman and mother snow-woman were anatomically correct. Interesting use of a banana there!  There were built by the IT department of a company who have offices in the centre of Lincoln.  One of the female project managers was heard to exclaim, ‘you can tell the snow woman was made by IT geeks, they have no idea how a real woman looks’.  LOL.

Our favourite was the lovely snow teddy bear, which we spotted as we drove through some northern Lincolnshire villages.

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More Snow – a commute by car

More snow greeted us this morning, so we first spent a while clearing the car and driveway.    This would be the second day in a row we would be commuting by car.  Warm clothing, a flask of hot drink and a shovel in the boot and of course a camera and off we set.

It was not far before we got stuck in the deep snow, a bit of shovelling and we got going again.  Eventually we made it to the main road, and from there, quickly made it into work.

With the weather so bad (well for the UK anyway), it was decided that anyone who had made it in by car should leave at 13:00 to guarantee they got home safe, so we headed home in the afternoon, only stopping for a few photographs in Lincoln.

Once home I dug out the laptop and proceeded to finish up some paperwork.  Lets hope tomorrow is less interesting.

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Sunday Morning House sitting

For a 40th Birthday present, Declan had whisked Alison away for a long weekend in Venice. That left myself, Caroline and Angela with house sitting duties and looking after Ethan and Sofia. Angela took the bulk of the duties on the weekend, with Caroline taking the Friday off work to help until Angela arrived for the weekend duties.

Sunday morning was French Horn practice for Ethan, a quick practice at home then Caroline drove him to his Sunday morning lesson.

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Backups

How many times have your heard that you must backup, and how many of you actually do so.

For that matter, of those that do backup, where do you keep that backup, in the same bag as your laptop so both can be stolen. Up stairs at home, only the one backup? When did you last test it?

Don’t worry I am not about to tell you a heart rending story of lost data, even though I know of people who have.

Just a reminder, disks fail, and we all live digital lives these days with cherished memory’s sat on our hard disks.

Please backup to at least two independent disks, test them regularly and why not leave one at a friends house, or at you office. Just think, if you house was robbed or burnt down and everything was lost, how would you feel if your favourite digital memories were lost forever.

Oh and please remember it’s the BBC UK Children in Need Day today, join in, or help out at an event near you.