Weekend in Portsmouth

It was a back in time weekend last week (18/19 Oct), I used to live in Portsmouth in my early days in the Navy and both of my Girls were born there. After a visit to Bristol where we saw SS Great Britain, I said that there was better attractions and decided to make an effort to find a weekend to get there.
The Dockyard in Portsmouth has a reasonable pass, where you get access to 7 attractions and 4 of those you can revisit any time again through the year. The Warrior, Action stations, and two of the Museums are those you are able to revist, with the Victory, the Mary Rose and the harbour tour available on a one off basis. Another attraction within the Dockyard is the Costa Coffee, I do love those and am a regular visitor.

The Warrior is the natural first visit as it is just inside the main gate and ticket booth it is a magnificent ship, I have been on here before when I attended a dinner in celebration of the 100 years of the RNFA. The late great Alan Ball was the guest speaker who gave a very witty rendition of his selection to play in the world cup final in 66.

The Warrior is well furnished with artifacts from the time and gives a good impression as to what it would have been like to have served during those times. I believe that remarkably for that period the Warrior never actually fought in anger.

The tour round takes about half an hour and if you are 6ft like me then you have to have a bit of a stoop to your walk.

The ship was one of the first to combine steam with sail and it was interesting as an ex engineer myself, that engineers of that time were treated as second class citizens as the sailors did not like the change and felt it was there job to propel the ship through sail.

After the Warrior we went on to Action stations which is basically for kids and is very hands on, with simulators for the bridge, helicopter and the use of the GPMG and SA80 (prefered weapons of the matelot). It was ok and we had a go at flying the helo simulator very badly and took some shots on the guns.

Summers here its just 2 months late!

What a beautiful weekend we have just had, the weather does strange things. I was thinking about those poor people that had weddings etc booked when it should have been nice in August then you get a weekend like this in the middle of October (serves them right get married I suppose Not high on my list of recommendations). It wasn't all good on saturday though, that awful performance by England on Saturday night wasn't great thankfully they improved near the end. Ashley Cole should go and sit on that crap singing show with his missus, coz he was no no good at playing football. In the words of Ann Robinson "You are the weakest link Goodbye".

If I got booed as much as him I would not play for England again, heres hoping hey!

Sunday here in the Sunny South West was a busy day, we had a food fair here at the Barnstaple Pannier Markets, that was really good for sampling food including a very nice Paella which was cooked by a good friend of ours ex wife (see what I was saying earlier). She has a resturant in Barnstaple that we really should try. It wasnt the same for buying though, some of the prices were very steep, we bought a Guiness and Beef -Pork pie and that cost £2 and some Tomato soup in a bag that cost £4.

In the afternoon the dogs needed walking so we took off to Westward Ho! along with what seemed the rest of Bideford and Westward Ho!. The place was packed, one of the main attractions being the waves splashing up over the sea defences. Really good to watch but i really didn't feel the need to feel the waves on me too. Unlike some of the muppets in this area.

The Tea on the Green does a very good Cream Tea and even though I am trying to be good at the moment, it is just to much to resist. Row is great she only ever wants to buy one scone and says I only want a half of an half, Yeah really!! good job I never listen and buy two scones as they always go down very well. The Tea on the Green is a really nice place but unfortunately only opens in the afternoon, I am sure they would get a good amount of customers for evening meals if they opened longer.

Well its Monday evening now and although the afternoon improved it was a wet and miserable start to the week here, and the weather forecast dosent look much better, so maybe the summers not here after all.

One Down One To Go

That's the first bit of NEBOSH out of the way although there is still an exam to pass. I had my customary moan on the course questionaire though not about the course itself which was good but more about the facilities they used. There are so many better hotels / conference facilities in the area, why they used Gypsy Hill I do not know.
We finished nice an early on Friday so was able to get home and get some stuff done in the afternoon and spend another night in my house which has been vacant for weeks now.
I feel an email coming on now to Best Western not sure if I will stay there again when I go back for 2nd part of course.

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Day 2 Or Is It Month 2

Crikey this health and safety business is complicated. Loads of paperwork to plough through and reading well there is plenty of that too. Tomorrow I have to cram in a session of Dreamweaver back in north Devon after a day of this.
We learnt about policies today and as we were given more and more information I realised that I am going to have some work to do once qualified.
I have taken on a job from the tutor in updating his web site, it will be good practice and good to start building a portfolio.
The hotel never ceases to amaze, when we were a little late for coffee this morning the manager was phoning us up hurrying us up. I always thought the customer called the shots.

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Nebosh Day 1

Today was the start of hopefully a career change, doing the first part of my national certificate in Health and safety. We are based in a tacky hotel which belongs to the Best Western group and with the name should really be better than it is.
The room is poor, creaky floor single bed but expensive price and my old favoirite TV, almost has as few a channels on the TV as we did in Spain. I did bring a dongle to get TV on my laptop but you really shouldn't have too in the UK. How much does a freeview box cost? And aren't all hotels going to have to have them soon.
The course is quite expensive and the hotel has a number of conference rooms but we (12) of us are crammed into a converted bedroom. I am having problems in the classroom as the layout is at an angle to the board and I have these new varifocal glasses which need me to look straight at the board.
I always like to make some valid points in my course criteque and on day one i already have plenty.
Course isn't bad though and the food in hotel is ok, so not all bad. Homework to do so it's down to that now.

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Back home in Blighty

Arrived home this afternoon after an early start again and straight into a downpour at the airport, it wasnt to bad though as when we left Malga it looked like it might be one of those overcast days anyway.

Even better was that the taxi driver didnt rip us of either, although it was expensive he drove sensibly, got us to the airport on time and charged us 20 euros less than the one last week. the flight back was on time and only left a little late so by 1pm we were in Exeter and at just after 2pm we were back in Westward Ho!

The diet starts now, no more 5 course evening meals and cooked breakfasts, well not until the next time....

The weather has been awful since returning home, but I have done all the washing, unpacked and watched Utd beat Blackburn so a busy afternoon. I have also sorted this blog out, as it was annoying me whilst away, when you go on the edit site in Spain it comes up in Spanish so it is difficult to edit, perhaps at my next Spanish lesson I will have to learn the word for delete. I have my first follower on the blog even it is my sister....but welcome to her and you can keep up with your big brothers boring day and gripes.

Well its good bye to all this and back to good old England for a few more months at least....

Last Night

Been representing England in the sports today, I won the Table Tennis without losing a game including a game against a very competitive German who unfortunately had me and the wind against him. He was beaten into third place in the end by an English lady which was prob worse to him than losing too me.
We had a second game where you push counters through holes too score points, it was called Sjoerbak, I think it is of Dutch origin. After a late surge I came second losing to the English lady.
Tonight we go to the show and before it starts we get a glass of champagne and a certificate.
The wind was really strong today but we still got our last lot of sun, it's back to Exeter in the morning after enduring another ride in a rip off taxi.

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Almost Time To Go Home

Blogged twice today and lost it both times, really got to get to grips with blogging before we go away again. Sunset was really nice tonight and hues what I had left my camera in the room I have added a pic taken on the iPhone nut it really doesn't do it justice.

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Lazy Day By The Pool

Weather now back to what we came here for those nice lazy days by the pool, it has been just nice. It's funny though even when you want the lazy day you still keep in touch with what is happening at home. The papers are printed here in Spain and are in the shops just as soon as you get up and you are never to far away with a mobile phone. Business still goes on and at times the mobile can be going constantly, we need an out of office for the phone as well as email, though there is the off button but that is always harder to do.
Talking of technology I was disappointed to see last night that my blog is totally messed up with repeated posts. I tried with 15 minutes on the proper Internet to delete them but to no avail. I am not going to post anymore pictures now until I get home when I can edit them in the story properly.
Have posted my blog address on my Facebook account now so maybe some more people might see my ramblings.
Football tonight so might venture to the local English bar to watch Utd, the resort has a heavy German influence and a lot of the bars on the front are showing the Bayern game and suprisingly not one is advertising the Arsenal game. The hotel as usual in these parts has little or no UK TV, Sky news is all we have even though there are 23 other channels available maybe Technology hasn't quite took a hold yet.

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Market Day

The sun was out today which was a nice suprise as the weather forecast was for more rain. After breakfast there was a Market which was set up outside our hotel, it definately was just for us as this resort of Torrex only has one hotel and lots of timeshares / apartments. Usual stuff on the Market leather and clothes, not much fake stuff except for watches and sunglasses.
Spent the day by the pool otherwise well that's what we came for, and if the sun was out it would be rude not too.
I have been reading Bill Gates book The Road Ahead, I picked it up in a charity shop before we left. It is interesting to read his visions and how true they have become as the publish date on it is 95, as alot has happened in a short space of time since then.
Having trouble with lifecast at the moment I can't seem to post a picture with the words, but it is good to finally come to a hotel that has free wifi albiet only in the lounge downstairs.
I wish I had brought a laptop now, will try and get on the hotel Internet later and do some editing of my blog, I have tried from the phone but it is not easy especially as the home page of Blogger comes up in Spanish. Did you know that Lifecast?

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Malaga

Been having a good time and getting loads of practice in with my camera, trouble with it is that I brought what I thought would be the instruction book with me, but it only contains basic information
Just like the Iphone a complicated gadget has little or no instructions. There is a manual on CD but of course that is of little use to me in Spain.
Today we took the world record for waiting for Paella to cook, well over an hour, it was very nice when it came but god was it slow.
Managed to get in the pool this afternoon sun came out for a bit, could have set another record there for how far balls travel up your body it was cold in the pool.
An observation at dinner showed to me that we are not really liked on holiday, the Germans on the table next to us had far better service and we even got a telling off for taking orange out of the breakfast drinks machine. The manager was coming round doing a little check to see if we are happy and doing the subliminal thought process saying they are very good. Well Pablo and Miguel wont be getting any very goods from me! Nor anything else, this bear has a long memory.

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View From The Room

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Arrived Safe But Ripped Off By The Taxi Driver

After a very early start we finally took off from Exeter, it really annoys me when you get delays and nobody keeps you informed. We left half hour late no word from the captain to explain and a feable apology from a rather grumpy head steward.
She had real grump on throughout the flight telling someone off for going to the loo when seat belt sign was on and ushering us quickly off the plane at the end of the flight even though we had to go back on, as someone very close to me lost one of the passports. She has now been relieved of all passport duties.
Weather did not look too good when we landed but as the afternoon wore on it improved. The taxi from Malaga took three quarter hours and cost 80 euros I have never paid that much for a taxi in my life!
Hotel is really nice and cracking views as you can see in the picture, even got a red sky tonight which hopefully means the sun bed for me tomorrow.


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Malaga Here We Come

Exeter airport at some unearthly hour in the morning ( sat) is the start of our journey . I like the early start though as we will be in Spain for lunch. Hopefully the weather forecast is wrong as what I have seen so far the weather will be nicer here.
Still it's a break and whatever the weather I will enjoy it. Bought a new camera today, looking forward to getting to grips with it and publishing some nice photos on my blog. I have bought it mainly to do web sites, thinking once I have done my dreamweaver course I might start offering a basic service.


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Malaga Here We Come Again

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Antiques Roadshow

The day started off early and the sun and mist was up early providing nice views out of my bedroom window over the river.

Had a visit today to Wells in Somerset and popped into the Antiques Roadshow event that was being held in the Bishops Palace in Wells.

We had a lion (of which we have a pair) that we wanted some information on. We got there at 0930 and joined a large queue of folk with a variety of bags filled with there own treasures. There was the usual opportunists wandering round selling bottles of water (£1), giving out leaflets and getting you to fill in surveys. All a pain normally but stood in a large queue they helped pass the time.

We came to a bit of filming just before we entered the main part of the grounds and was suprised how long it took to film what will probably be a 2 minute peice on the TV. The lady in the photo had a sword and the film crew filmed the expert in a variety of directions always being aware of continuity etc but like I said they must have been doing the peice for half an hour.

That said it took us an hour to get from the end of the queue to the grounds and we were then a little dissapointed to see the queue still snaking further inside the grounds. It was almost two hours before we got to the desk in the picture on the left. At this desk were some experts who looked at your item and then gave you a ticket to go to another queue to see the relevant expert. Fiona Bruce the presenter was working here whilst I was queuing she looks younger in the flesh and a little skinner, unfortunately she had gone off to film some stuff by the time we reached the front.

It wasnt to bad from here on, we had ceramics and the next Queue wasnt too long, we sat down with the expert Eric Knowles he was impressed with our lion but hadnt seen one before, he took it off to another expert who hadnt seen it either, this seems to trigger other people in the background and we then had a researcher arrive who offered to take some extra pics and our lion will be featured in Homes and Antiques magazine in the ask the expert section. We did give the experts an idea of who we thought made the lion and they looked it up and confirmed it in their encyclopedia. It had a nice value and we really enjoyed the experience of the day. We were there for about 2 and half hours and had our 5 mins with an expert, bit like their filming. Hopefully I will get my ugly mutt on TV I was walking past a big old cupboard thing they were filming , but with half and hour of film for a 2 minute peice I wont hold my breath....

Falmouth Tall Ships

The Uruguayan Tall ship and the side of the Russain Ship "Mir"

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Tall Ships At Falmouth

The weather tried to spool our fun and the extras put on accomodation and car parking, but we had a good time. We got there early afternoon just as the heavens opened all the worse since we left the sun yes sun in N. Devon.
It was a bit of a walk through a flooded dockyard to the ships but worth it in the end, there was about 10 ships berthed in the port and I suppose the poor weather was a benefit in the queues to get onboard was minimal.

We went on the Uruguayan which was neat and tidy and then went on the huge Russian called Mir. This is the masts of the ship it was huge and must take some crew to get the sails up.If these ships are in a straight race and are not operating a hanicap system then the Russian is a definate winner. What would have been nice would have been some crew dotted around the ship giving you some information about the ships, the only info I gleaned was that the Uruguayan was bulit in Cadiz in 1930.. The parade of sail is tomorrow before the race starts at 5pm but I wont be there to blog on that as we are off back to Bideford for our Carnival. I will though blog on that on Sunday.
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Tarka Trailing Woes

Sometimes when I sit down to write this blog I think I should have made notes throughout the day. After relaxing I now don't feel as upset about the trials and tribulations of the day. Today the weather,well the rain stayed away and I decided to get back on the Tarka Trail once again. I have the afternoon off on a Thursday, originally it was to attend college where I was studying a Foundation Degree in Computing (that was a long story but basically I quit and I now use the afternooon for a sporting afternoon.)

After yesterday I set up my Iphone GPS and had my itunes going and off I went, I chose once again the Bideford to Barnstaple section. The wind as always was behind me so the first few miles flew by. I sometimes wonder if it would be better going the opposite direction so I have the wind in the face at the start and one time I did take the Bideford to Torrington section. You guessed it the wind was still behind me and the homeward section was just as bad. The route is not as nice on that section neither, I prefer the sea views rather than the river. The trail is a public place but it is part of the cycle network, so when you are walking on it yes you should be aware that a cycle may come past at some stage.... I think there should be notices telling people that, as the amount of time you have to second guess what the pedestrians are going to do is unbeliveable, oldies walking two a side but still covering the whole width of the trail, you politely inform them you are coming and they then become startled rabbits in headlights!!! What a cycle on a cycle trail I didnt expect to see a cyclist...

Another problem on the Trail is dogs besides the usual inconsiderate owners who cant pick up there crap, is them wandering around without leads. Of all the stupid rules in this country, cant say this, cant say that, cant have funny men on my jam, Noddy has to be non gender specific etc etc, why cant we have a sensible rule that dogs must be on a lead in a public place? On the trail not only do you have to worry about oldies doing their startled rabbit impersenation but you have to figure out how fast you have to go to get away from their snappy Jack Russel.

Anyway 2 hours and 26 miles later, I had survived the trail and was extrenely tired as the wind was really strong for the back 13 miles...

Off tomorrow to Falmouth for the weekend the Tall Ships are open to visitors on Friday then they sail on Saturday afternoon which should be something special. I will blog the highlights over the weekend ( might try my lifecast blog again on the iphone)

Im Back been loafing....

After actually getting comments on my blog, I have been feeling really guilty that I havent been keeping my blog up to date. I could make loads of excuses but i havent got a good one so I will just post again and get on with it.

I had trouble doing this blog at this time of the evening as I got my new Home hub from BT (which by the way is excellent), but what it does have is, a standby setting on the hub. I thought that 10pm would be a good idea, its time for bed and no real need for internet....trouble is there is no going back on that once you have reached 10pm and your wireless shuts down. I have had to trawl the instruction manuals and have only been able to come up with the solution "reset to factory settings"

Anyway as I am here posting now the factory reset has done the trick...

I wanted to talk about a really good cheap application on the iPhone, (I don't normally pay for apps as there are so many free ones about but this is brilliant). Its Itrail basically it uses the GPS in your phone and tracks your movement and gives you results at the end. I used it on Sunday on a little walk we did up the Tiverton canal, but tonight was even better. I have been using the Gym quite alot recently but with very little success except for extreme tiredness, so I decided to have a break tonight and go on a bike ride. The neighbours aside I am really lucky in this house as I live so close to the Tarka trail. It is basically part of the national cycle network and as you can see from the google image is that it follows the river and coast here in Bideford (the blue line is my route on the trail).

I didnt use it on my way out but stopped at the 6 mile point (my bike computer told me that) and set the trail up. It has one draw back on the Itrail in that it will not work in the background, luckily Itunes does so started my music and then set up the trail.

I stuck it in the back of my rucksack and wasnt sure if the GPS would pick up the satellites from there but on arrival home here was my route...the GPS measured the route at 5.43 miles but i am happy to except the 6 mile of the cycle computer as I feel Ive done more...

The weather was awful on the way back but it actually felt better than being stuck in the gym and my trusty stead is here in the picture opposite.

Apple have been getting on my nerves just recently aside from the fact that they have produced the best phone ever with some great applications. It seems every week there is going to be a big apple announcement, the technical forums start buzzing with rumours and everybody gets excited. This week there was supposed to be yet more fixes for the phone, but what did we get an up dated Itunes. this must have had 5 updates at least in the last few months, though ranting aside have you used the Genius function? that is quite good and after spending ages reloading the new version it was actually worth it with this update.

Genius looks at your tracks and then selects similar either 25, 50, 75 of them and puts them into a playlist, which is really useful if you want to create a random playlist without all the hassle of going through and selecting individual tracks. It is quite good at getting similar tracks, I put in Oasis and got a good rock orientated playlist which helped my cycle ride this evening.

So well done for that Apple but let us get used to the latest updates before you spring more on us....

What A weekend

The weekend is now over and the Great British weather suprises us yet again. Managed on Friday to do the BBQ for all the office staff, though we only sat outside until 8pm before the cold got to us.

The BBQ went well though and after an afternoon preparing for it, the event was well recieved. Had fun putting up a gazebo ( those things are sent to try us and however proud you are its not a one mans job).

Saturday was a total suprise the sun came out!!!!! We were so suprised we changed our plans and just sat out to enjoy it. More suprises in the mail, I told you how I had ordered an upgrade to my BT broadband, well the nice UK based lady actually had the equipment delivered toot suit and it arrived on Saturday. No more ramblings about how good BT is though until I have had chance to install it. (I expect that will be another post in its self).

I was not impressed with the football this weekend any chance I had of being a pundit with Match of the Day went out of the window. I use an application called Premier League picks on my facebook account and after 3 weekends I have predicted 7 correct scores.... this weekend out of 9 games I got 1 right....(thank you Middlesbro). I suppose if Man Utd had played it would have been 2 right. I cant believe other people are getting all 9 correct as there was some starnge results.

Sunday was back to the cold of the new season that is called Autunm, I am so looking forward to a little sunshine break at the end of Sept in Sunny spain, you watch, the rain clouds will follow us down there. The flights and hotel are all booked and with extra leg room too (thankfully! I will probably come onto extra leg room later).

Another wet summer day in Devon.

Well they keep telling us we are going to get some sun to finish the summer off, but where the hell is it? Look at that packed summer beach and doesn't the cloud look good so low. At that time of night it should have been a stunning sunset.We are planning a BBQ tomorrow looks like I will be getting wet cooking it....

Been a bit of a tourist tonight and wasted £2 in 2 pence peices on the slots. They are rigged with extra metal those things, how can you get such a long line of 2p's tempting you hanging over the edge of the slot and none ever falling down?

Anyway it was good fun trying for an hour or so, I havent been down there for a while and the machines have changed so much. I was quite impressed with this Bingo machine where the balls come down ala lottery style, you either accept or reject depending on the numbers on your card. there is a prize then for lines or full house. If you can be pretty quick then the odds are in your favour to at least get your pound back for a line, so it was more enjoyable playing and not losing any money.

Another good thing of joining the tourists was a trip to get a couple of doughnuts for a quid they are delicious, though we have Hockings Ice cream here too and the van was temptingly close but there is no point in doing this training and stuffing my face, I justified the doughnut since I had 45 mins on the bike in the gym.

Had a shock today, phoned BT to upgrade my broadband and get one of the new home hubs as featured in the mini advertising saga with Kris Marshall. Anyway the shock was she was very helpful, was very proficient and she was based in this country! Good on BT I'm glad you have got my money for another 18 months. Lets hope I dont have any problems with it as I dont think I will be so lucky on the phone next time.

More useless items in the mail.

Getting addictive this blogging, I have had no replies but its strangely addictive as to sit down again this evening and post some more.
Today I finally got of my backside and went to the gym. Well I am paying them £35 a month (and havent been for three weeks). Its not a bad gym and its close to my house, but after a day at work there is always something better to be doing, last couple of weeks was the olympics but I have now ran out of excuses (Ann Robinson doesnt have the same draw as Sue Barker), and anyway the gym has tv's on the machines.
I recieved a what I thought was going to be a useful tool in the post today a sports armband for the Ipod / iPhone, so I was looking forward to strapping my iphone to the arm and listening to my own tunes rather than the gym's over bassed techno music.
There was a little bit of artistic licence on the packaging of the strap, my Ipod fitted lovely but the iPhone no way!
Once I had managed to get it squeezed into the pouch, the hole for the headphones was on the wrong side. Send it back I hear you say, well good idea but on the packet you have to tell them within 48 hours of reciept in writing and there is no return address, (it was bought through Play.com but dont think they provided it).
Story of my life useless items dropping through my letterbox, will have to get eBay going again.
Anyway a little jog to the gym and a small workout worked wonders and now as I write this I dont feel so bad sitting on the sofa watching the Football.
Great bit of football last night in the Coventry / Newcastle game after the referee decided 2 minutes of added time, then played nearly 4 allowing Coventry to take a really long throw in and score. I always like to see Kevin Keegan getting annoyed, pity they won after all anyway.

Now I set up my blog thought I would see how well I can post from my iPhone. Told you I liked gadgets, I have this great app called lifecast which allows you to post straight to Blogger.
Love this phone, a bit annoyed with the arrival of 3G as I hadn't had my phone long, after spending 300 quid on the 16GB.
Good on O2 though allowing free upgrades not sure if any of the other companies would have been so generous.
Anyway eBay will soon be getting a 2G iPhone and hopefully can get some money back. Loads of people moan about O2 but as far as data useage goes I think they are great. I have a Blackberry on Vodafone and am forever paying over the odds for data, at least on O2 unlimited data is unlimited and I for one will not be jailbreaking my phone to use on any other network.

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Introduction

Well I am a newcomer to this blogging and I dont suppose anyone will read my ramblings, but maybe it will help me if I put some stuff down?

To introduce myself I am divorced (10 years ago now), have since got engaged now (8 years), have my own house on the edge of the river at Bideford in sunny North Devon (well thats another moan) (the sun that is, not North Devon no moans about the area if youv'e not been you should !)

I bought the house a year ago and wondered why the previous owners would ever want to sell a place like this. A year later and I now know why.....F....ing neighbours! The picture has a view from my window over the river.

I work in the local area mainly in a place called Westward Ho! as featured on the 'One Show' BBC at 7 pm with the love birds Adrian and Christine, (naughty boy that he is, must be the Match of the Day curse since his co presenter on the main Sat night programme also has the wandering eye) . Sorry rambling on, Westward Ho! was featured on the 'One Show' as it was one of their unusual places as its the only place in Britain that has an exclamation mark after its name. it was also mentioned somewhere that it was one of the worse places in the country to holiday.

Now I know it is not the hottest of spots but it isnt that bad, we have a fair share of tourists, plenty of campsites a few good local pubs and the road network to visit lots of other places in North Devon. Just look at that sunset.

I have varied interests all of which give me plenty of things to ramble on about, I am a massive football fan, I used to referee to a reasonable standard and was an instructor etc so have many opinions on this.

I also love gadgets and have bought some good ones and have bought some rubbish, thank god for Ebay! though I must admit I need a clearout as still have some junk lying about. More about Gadgets later. I have to say though my worst buy has got to be my WiFi detecting watch. to coin a phrase from my old favourite Gran on the Catherine Tate show "What a load of f...ing crap" This watch doesnt even pick my wifi up in my house when its right next to the home hub radiating like a good one.

Walking is another hobby we have loads of good walks here in Devon and Cornwall further down the road, my real favourite though is the Lakes. What a beautiful place, and what a pity its so far from here and you have to negotiate the M5/M6 junction which at the best of times can take an hour to get through.