Florence Day 3 - part 2!

So after hitting the sheets for a nice sleep from 08:30 to 10 am and a nice refreshing shave and shower I was back out. I decided upon a trip to Il Duomo the biggest most famous church in the city. After walking through the main body of the church I decided to hit the 463 steps to take me to the top of the tower, the highest point in Florence. The fact that weather is pretty rubbish actually worked well with the misty scenes. Again all pictures shown here taken on the iphone5 (but I took duplicates on the proper camera for later comparison!).

After this it was shopping, including some lovely Italian leather for my gorgeous gf and then a change of shoes and socks as I was soaked again!!!!!!

A quick lunch on the way to the conference centre and into a great afternoon session on preclinical drugs to treat Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. Great day (so far!)!

Florence Day 3

Ok, so it's still rather early, 08:18 to be precise but the alarm woke me over fours ago. Yes, up at 4 am and quickly ready before a 45 minute walk across town to get to this spot, which a friend and colleague had told me about. Amazingly, it was n't raining when I set out, nor cold which was good because having arrived at my destination I had some time to wait before the sun came up. Well, as expected it never did but I think I got some decent snaps anyway. All of these shots were taken with the stunningly good camera in my iphone5, can't wait to get home and do some comparison big prints versus the Panasonic micro four thirds camera to compare!!! The last two pictures (which were of course taken first) were in the virtual dark and I could not take them with my camera!!! It did start to rain again as I headed back to the Hotel San Maria Novella where I am staying but that was ok. After a hearty breakfast, I'm ready for a nap I think ;-)

Snapseed

There are quite a lot of apps available for iPhone photography and post production. In a rather boring lecture this morning I tweaked what I took last night using an app called Snapseed.

Below is the before and after......

What do you think?

Bloody weather!!!!!

Is it too much too ask for a bit of sunshine? Here I am in Florence and the forecast is for it to rain for the full six days I'm here :-(

Apparently, the sun is shining in Warboys!!!!

Florence

This place is amazing! Better than Verona? Certainly! Better than Rome, not sure, indeed more time to explore!!!!

First full day and after 8 hours in the lecture theatre I walk out into ...... rain and dusk. Bummer :-(

Oh well, so I wander downtown to hit the markets and the shops and decide to try out the HDR function. If you're not aware this takes three photos at different exposures and combines them so that everything is no too dark or bleached out. The shots look amazing considering the lighting conditions and the fact that it's a camera phone!!!!!

More to follow ........

Technology

So a few days ago I finally upgraded my phone. I've had an iPhone 3GS for three and a half years now and I've loved it. The things that it can do are amazing, beyond the phone and texting, even with pictures, I've used mine as a camera, for music and videos, a GPS for getting places and geocaching, a compass, a torch and for great web access. Anybody who says their non-smart phone is fine because it just does what it says on the tin is naive about what a smartphone can do and quite frankly is missing out on life!!

My good old 3GS was showing it's age though. For some time, as the battery got lower it would just shut down until I could plug it into a wall socket. Unfortunately, the % battery remaining was no longer 30 or 40 when this would happen but more recently had moved to 60 or 80.

So the new iphone 5 in black arrived at the weekend (Kate and I got new ones together). It was expensive and the monthly contract has gone back up but boy was it worth it!! As well as working at what seems lightening fast pace the screen (which is a critical part of course) is just wonderful. I'm liking the voice control with Siri too (now if only I could work out how to convert him into Kylie!!!).

What is actually quite scary though is the camera. It's early days and I've only taken a couple of shots and viewed them only on this wonderful screen but could it be that they are actually better than those taken on my £1000+ worth of Panasonic / Olympus micro 4/3 camera gear?????

Pictures from Florence to follow..... and that's another story :-)

P.s. How appropriate, I've just realised this is my first post from a phone

Water

Pictures to follow!!

I’ve met a few people over the years who sat they are drawn to water. Many of us say we don’t drink enough water, many of us are drawn to lakes, rivers or the seaside to enjoy leisure time. The other day when it was cold and bright I spent an enjoyable lunchtime walking down by the river in Cambridge. When I moved down from Scotland in 2002, it literally took me years to get over not being close to the mountains. My house was 40 minutes drive away from Loch Lomond. I walked nearly 50 of the Munro’s (and a pretty select 50 too!!) and then seriously got into landscape photography and the lochs played a big part in my foreground interest.

 

But over the last few years I have come to realise that Cambridgeshire is a rather wonderful place to live. From the city itself through to St Ives, Wimpole Hall, Ely, Fen Drayton Nature reserve, St Neots, Paxton pits and even up to the coast at Hunstanton. There is lots to enjoy and little to complain about, and I don’t ……………….. anymore!

These pictures were taken on a lovely lunchtime walk along the River Cam. Even urban cityscapes can come to life with a bit of the wet blue stuff!

Where I work

Pictures to follow................

 

I’m really lucky in many aspects of my life; in fact, let’s face it, pretty much all aspects of my life.

One of them is where I work, what I do and whom I work for. My company are pretty awesome really. On the back of my PhD and previous experience in pharmaceutical research I now have an exciting and stimulating job, working with a group of great people, allows a little travel and pays well.

But beyond the “walls” of work the surrounding area is quite nice too. I have a nice safe place to run where the floor is very level and there is limited traffic, allowing me to zone out if I want. And whilst I used to take time to walk around the park as part of my lunch break the running has taken over so I rarely do that now. But in an attempt to take a few more pictures I threw my camera bag into the car the one day a few weeks ago when it was very bright and cold and managed to capture some decent images of the surrounding area. In years or decades to come these will act as a good reminder!!

The Faceless by Simon Bestwick

Interesting this one, and I’m not quite sure how much I liked it even 24 hours after finishing it!!!

The story is essentially of an evil family who brought mutilated war hero’s back to a local sanitarium after the first world war but used their suffering for their occult purposes. After all this had dies out a pedo ring with occult tendencies rediscovered what was going on and managed to harness the powers of the previous horrors for their own uses. The story centers on one individual who is a tv psychic. His show is made up but he does have the sight and is eventually tricked back to the home town as the final part of the jigsaw to allow all of the “spindly men” (the dead and deformed soldiers who usually have to wear masks as they suffered facial damage) back onto this plane. In the end all hell breaks loose and the goodies fail to stop the oncoming onslaught (this makes a refreshing change!) and everybody bails out of the country as it is consumed with evil only for the one remaining heroin to take flight to Europe with her unborn child. However, she may hold the ability to reverse things!! Set up for a sequel?

Good, but at times frustrating, especially towards the end. However, after a little while and the dust settles I’m now thinking that was actually better than I thought whilst reading it.

Lee Childs - Jack Reacher - The Killing Floor

Thought it was about time I gave Jack Reacher a try. There’s a bit of hype about the film coming out this year, although why you would get someone as short as Tom Cruise to play somebody who is supposed to be 6 ft 2 I’ll never know!! Kate (and her Dad!) seem to have read them all up to the most current as well so I felt like I was missing out a little. Apparently, the early ones are the best and towards the end of the series the quality drops off as it seems the author is just on a mission to get a novel out every year. I had recently read The Innocent by David Baldacci, in which he introduces John Pullman, a hard man services investigator, arguably a bit of a copy of Reacher, and I liked Pullman quite a lot. So, this novel starts out with an unbelievable coincidence. Reacher just happens to get off a Greyhound bus and walks for miles through the rain to a town where unbeknown to him, his brother was murdered a few days ago. As he eats his breakfast in the diner he is arrested and taken to the nearby prison for the weekend along with the softy banker who seems to be linked somehow. The banker is in fact a central figure in a counterfeiting scheme based on the town and after lots of people are brutally murdered whilst Reacher figures things out he eventually gets to kill all the bad guys, including he who blew away his brov. A decent novel it rolled along quite nicely without ever having me racing back to my Kindle. I liked the writing style and found it all quite enjoyable really, but it would n’t make my top ten. I think I prefer John Pullman to Jack Reacher but I'll read more of both.

Florence

I'm a lucky boy, more work travel on the horizon. This time, a week in Florence :-) I'll be there for a conference from the Wednesday to Sunday, well actually I'll miss the last day to travel back to avoid missing another night with my kids but I'll also be there on the Tuesday for a one day seminar on medical imaging. It will be March by then so I should see some sun. I've just been on Tripadvisor and booked the second most popular hotel in city (the most popular was a 40 minute walk from the conference centre!). So, now I just need to find a way to upgrade my three year old Panasonic GF1 camera before then ........ if only I could decide what exactly I want!!!!

First and Only by Peter Flannagan

This has to become my favorite book. A great and novel story, wonderfully written with oodles of depth, characterization and splashes of the kind of smarmy humor that I like. It’s the story of a psychic who has seen that he will be murdered at the hands of a serial killer in five days time. Some years ago, as an adolescent, Psimon (yep, corny, I know) witnessed the serial killers first murder, that of a priest in a confessional box. Psimon himself was only spared by the approach of two work men. Now able to hone his psychic skills in many ways he has seen the meeting of the killer and himself and so has enlisted the help of a desperate ex-SAS man to help. One of the nice touches in the depth of the plot comes from the background of small actions that Psimon carried out that are described clearly but their purposes are left unanswered until the very end. It comes together quite nicely (a better ending than Cottam’s “The Colony”) which was a near miss but First and Only has a finale worthy of note. Favorite lines of the text….. “So what happens if we don’t do as you say?” “We sink your f*****g boats!!” Moved over Angel and Demons, there is a new king!!!!!

Don't Sweat the Small Stuff by Richard Carlson

I used to read quite a lot of personal development books and I believe I am where I am now (doing ok in the pharma industry) in part because of the lessons I’ve learned from them. Books like “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” and “How to Make Friends and Influence People” all contain reminders of how we should act and might have forgotten or not place enough importance on such behaviors or, occasionally, teach us new behaviors. Like many other “Don’t Sweat………”takes the format of very short chapters (a couple of pages) or one could almost call them lessons. There are many useful things in there to remind how we should act when faced with irritation or adversity (what is this person / event trying to teach me?) and I do think that is one of the keys of a contented life. I think in Buddhist teaching it is known as “mindfulness” where you are not upset by each issue that crops up every day and that you can put it into perspective of the big wide world and your whole life. It may seem like a raw deal today but ask yourself ……………… in a year’s time ……………… how much will it really matter? Now to practice living that philosophy even more than I already did and truly master it. I think life will be even better and I’ll be even more fun to share it with 

He’s a boy-superstar……

Three years ago when my eldest son Tom did his GCSE’s he did pretty well, coming away with a eight of them including five at grade B. That was pretty amazing. This summer it was Robin’s turn and although I had a very busy August so did n’t write, last night I went to his awards ceremony at Swavesey Village College which has inspired me to put finger to keyboard.

I always knew he was a bright lad, but the problem is that he is not overly interested. Don’t get me wrong, I get the impression that he is quite interested and tries somewhat but he’s just not dedicated, in the way that he is to playing games on his laptop. This last point I thought would be his undoing. Apparently not though, he rocked up with GCSE grade A results in maths, English literature, English language, chemistry, biology, physics, geography and history with B’s in Spanish and RE to boot!!!!!!!!!

As he was on a performance bonus system it turned out to be an expensive summer for me ;-)

The Colony by F G Cottam This was a stunning novel– right up until the last few pages it could have been my best read ever but tn very sadly it fizzled out without any real climax. So I’ve read Cottam before; The Waiting Room must have been one of the last real books I read before the arrival of my Kindle last Xmas. That was a very solid and interesting ghost story. I’d marked the author down to revisit later and having recalled my intention I had a look on the Amazon reviews to see what else he had out. This seemed quite interesting and had good reviews. Based on the tale of a Scottish Hebridean island where all of the inhabitants went missing at the turn of the century. Recently, a wealthy newspaper owner was to solve the mystery and it looks like it’s to boost the sales of his flagging newspaper but the reality is that he is a UFO-ologist, determined to prove that the islands inhabitants were taken by visitors from another planet. He enlists the help of various experts such as geologists, phsychics, medics etc to go up there, and at the last though a cleric, in order to ensure that all angels are covered. However, even before our intrepid party lands the security team sent ahead suffer a fatality and then discover the empty craft of a rival news team. The horrors of this story are n’t spawned out of alien beings but in fact voodoo, the curse of a vodoo priest brutalized and murdered by a sea captain coming back to haunt the living. I have to say it was a very powerful and unusually for me had shivers running down my spine on a number of occasions. There are two entities to deal with (although one gets sort of forgotten at the end), there is the daughter of the sea captain who flies around (quite literally) with wholey black eyes and then the black demon. The final confrontation with the demon though is over in what can’t be much more than a page or two (remember, I’m on my Kindle!), there is no build up of intensity to the story it’s like a balloon that somebody lets go of before they’ve tied it. On saying that, I will read this author again because overall it was an excellent novel, just work on your endings man ;-) Now, finally I guess, I have a date with a girl with a dragon tattoo!!!

Getting together :-)

Huge, huge couple of days since I got back from Japan on Friday. The trip to the land of the rising sun was a rollercoaster ride and probably deserves an entry of its own but too much of it would be company secret. Anyway, what has happened since has dwarved it by miles. So, last night I told Robin and Chloe that Kate, Ava and John would be moving in with us in the next six months. Chloe punched the air and was delighted. Robin was content too. Last night I also told my mum who was very happy for us. Tonight I told Tom on the phone and Kate told John and Ava. John had a similar reaction to Chloe but Ava needs a little time to get used to what will be a massive change in her life. I am so unbelievably thrilled that things are going to start really moving forward now and hopefully by the springtime, we will all be living under the same roof. In the meantime Kate's Mum and Dad will be visiting this weekend and everybody will be staying here! I'm a very happy bunny!!!

David Baldacci - Zero Day

First Baldacci that I've read. I actually spotted this on the Amazon Daily Deal and thought it was something Kate might enjoy. We read it at about the same, although she started first I managed to just beat her to the line, moohahah!!!!

And a good read it was, we both enjoyed it, in her case some much so that has moved directly onto another story by the same author, and whilst I'll certainly read more of his I prefer to mix things up a little more!

John Puller is a bit of an ex-army James Bond - Lee Childs kinda guy who is sent to investigate the murder of an army intelligence officer and his whole family. One of things I liked about this book was it was n't at all obvious who had done it until right at the end, in fact, I did n't even know who to suspect the author kept his cards so close to his chest.

However, it was well written. Puller is an engaging and believable character. The plot roled along nicely and continually with barely a boring moment and the ending was well executed.

At £0.79, it sat nicely with my northen beliefs of value ;-) 

A Clash of Kings by George R R Martin

Another huge tome by the bearded one that I read on my kindle. On the whole it was quite good, although I felt that after the battle was done on about 90%, it just needed some kind of sting in the tale as in volume 1. In this book, the second of the series, magic comes into play and takes a very sinister and destructive role.

In the main this is the story of the final fued of the Barotheon brothers and how the victor, Stannis, goes on to loose his battle against the Lannisters. Whilst in east, Daenerys is wandering round a bit lost looking for supporters and an army to take back to the mainland to persue her claim to the throne. Those bloody baby dragons are taking forever to grow up - I wish they would get a move on and do something useful!!!

Up North, the bastard Jon Snow goes with other warriors beyond the wall to learn that the Wildlings are amasing to march on the south. He decides to become a turncoat.

As I said, all-in-all a decent story but nothing spectacular and I'm not sure it was as good as the first book (although at 800 pages I think it was longer). Sadly, the next three boooks don't get any shorter but their customer reviews do get worse. I'll take a break, but I think I'm compelled to move on with them!!!

October - and the temperature has dropped!!!

Ok, so it's been a while, I know, I know ;-) I've been busy!!! I've read a couple of books that I'll need to catch up on, actually, I can think of two but I suspect there might be at least one more! So, it's Saturday morning and I've been up since 06:45 waitnig for a delivery van. The new 3 piecve suite is coming this mornnig and I'm super-excited. I left the family home with just the horrible sofa bed and as I suspected I was going to moving form rented house to rented house for a few years (and I was strapped for cash) I did not buy a suite. Well, now I have my own palace and I not supporting my ex-wife so heavily I finally made the purchase and now i'm sat here like an expectant father. The other sensible thing I did in the last couple of weeks was take out some redundancy insurance. As the pharmaceutical industry in this country contracts rapidly I doubt I'd be able to find another job quite so well paid (actually, anything like so well paid) but if I can make it through to Xmas past the deferall period then I would qualify for a high enough monthly return to be able to get buy for a year. Actually the thought of a year off is rather nice!!! Hopefully things will be fine though. Our new global head of R&D came to visit us this summer and seemed very impressed. He likes the idea of doing research in the UK and has actually asked to submit a (small) expansion plan. On top of that we have just had one chmeist hand in her notice and we were immediately granted permission to rpelace her. Beyond that it's travelling time again. Tomorrow evening I'm back on a plane to Tokyo for a week of fun!!!! Hopefully there won't be a problem.

An Early start at Houghton Mill

Years ago when I used to live in Scotland and take my photography very seriously I'd think nothing about getting up hours before dawn to be at a wonderful viewpoint in anticipation of the perfect light. These days, that essentially never happens ... until Wednesday morning of this week!! Being on my tod this week I decided to set the alarm for 5 am and headed down to the east facing Houghton Mill near Huntingdon.

The Swarm by Rob Heinz

Not your average read this but good nonetheless!!! Set on an island just off the American coast (only separated from the mainland by bridges) the place is thrown into turmoil one day when most of the community stop what they are doing and walk like zombies to a beach where they start to mate, only to wake after it has all done. It becomes clear that only the people who can reporoduce have become invovled and one of those that is n't films the whole thing on his iPhone and posts it to the net. The government quarantines the island and starts to hunt down the women who won't voluntarily temrinate their pregnancies. Prior to this a worker at the refuse department has discovered a small clearing where the land seems to eat scrap metal...... and after a while, even dead bodies. Nearly all of the swarm pregnancies do get terminated ...... all except one and it is the lead up that birth and the steps taken to keep it hidden that help build the story. All hell breaks loose at the birth!!! Great book :-)

My Kinda town......

I like where I live very much (now, but we'll come back to that later!). I recently moved further out from Cambridge where I work to Warboys, which is just a few miles north of St Ives and Huntingdon. If the only important thing in deciding where to live was where I liked then I would have moved to St Ives. I love the town. It has a wonderful atmosphere and the river running through it and bridges help to make it really pretty. I stopped off there the other evening to take a few photos and have a walk around and noticed just how many pubs and restaurants there are. I've now counted at least 5 pubs, including The Tap Room, our favourite. It was a really busy place come 8 pm on a Tuesday night, a bit like a seaside town, buzzing. It was suggested to me that this is bacuase of the people who tie up in there boats overnight ....... quite possibly. I first met my wonderful gorgeous gf on the bridge by the Dolphin Hotel so that will always hold special memories for us. First date was in the little cake / coffee shop overlooking the river and the second was a picnic just a short walk the other side of the hotel. Have I always liked living here .... in Cambridgeshire ...... no!! When I first moved down from Scotland and being a Yorkshireman at heart I really, really missed the hills. I used to love to walk them and photograph them and even just look at them as I drove past. It has taken me the best part of ten years but now I can say at last that I really love living here :-)

The Dark Path by Luke Romyn

This was going cheap on amazon (did I mention I'm from Yorkshire?!?!), appeared to by pretty much my genre and had good reviews. It did not disappoint :-) Started reading this just before we headed out to Spain and finished it in the sun, quite probably next to a massive bowl of mussells, a canya and my gorgeous girlfriend!!! The story of a dark assasin who is quite simply the best. He can get into anywhere, torture and kill his victim and be away before anybody or the security systems have noticed. As amazing as he is, he one day wakes to find himself tied to a bed and talking to "Priest" who recruits him to stop the "Sons of Soderrah" sacrificing the second coming in order to return their dark lord to this realm. Full of demons and aliens creatures, the devil makes an appearance at one point disguised as an old woman and the archangel Gabriel plays a significant role in the climax!! A great action packed story with a dark and admiral hero but what really takes it up a notch is the cranky, miserable, sarcastic and dark humor of the hero, especially in the scene where he and Gabriel start to take the piss out of each other!! Great read.

Summer Vacation - part 1 - Mazarron

The first week of my holiday I spent in Mazarron (Murcia, Spain) with Kate. Her sister has an apartment out there and offered to let us stay. We flew in style, Ryanair, and it went as smooth as silk. The apartment is lovely which is good as Kate's sister, brother-in-law and nephew are about to move out there permenantly. The weather started out hot and simply got hotter. It was great. Enjoyed my siesta's and really enjoyed our late nights! We ate really well with lots of sea food at the local restaurants, usually on the paseo (promanade to those of us from Yarkshire!). Mussels, clams and chopitas (tiny whole fried squid) all went down very well with the aid of a canya (small beer) or three and the lovely local and cheap wines. Speaking of cheap wine we were buying awesome local wine form the supermarket for a Euro a bottle (78 p) and even in the bars and restaurants the average was about 5 Euro's - my kind of town. The beach, town and whole locality was all stunning :-)

Going Acoustic!

Been thinking about getting an acoustic for yeasrs now. Never really been sure what I'd want so worried asbout wasting cash. Anyways, decided to take the plunge as few weeks ago when I saw as Washburn W10 black on Gumtree in Cambridge for what seemed as good price. Well, basically I love it!! There is only one problem ..... I'm not sure whast size it is but it is very large and that means it is very loud. The kids get fed up of trying to play it if they are trying to watch tv so it lives upstairs. I've already decided there will be asn upgrade for xmas and that it will be smaller one, as Tasylor GS mini would be lovely. Speaking of smaller ones, I've managed to talk Chloe into starting lessons next term on the very same instrument, so the smaller one in the picture was a secondhand eBay bargin!

Arghhh my eyes! What's that?

... it is in fact ....... the sun!!! Would you believe it that after a rotten first half to the summer the day after the kids break up from school it starts to shine. And it has shone wonderfully for the last four days and the forecast is for another three days of glorious sunshine. On Monday I was daft enough to go out for a 5 mile run at lunchtime when it must have been pushing 30 degrees. Needless to say it was not one of my quickest efforts. Today, I have ridden then 20 miles into work form Warboys and let Andy go for a lunchtime run on his own. Even he has decided to cut it bsack a little though!! It won't last I'm sure. But then again, two weeks from now I'll be in Spain, lying on a beach, hopefully with a beer in one hand and a cocktail in the other :-) Evidently, it's roasting out there!

The Annual Cycling Jaunt

It rained, boy did it rain!!! …… and it rained and it rained and it rained !!!!! The date was booked miles in advance and as there are four of us and I for one have to exclude every other weekend due to the kids, it would have been hard to find an alternative. So with the rain having bucketed it down over night and the forecast for a rainy morning we meet up at Stanwick Lakes. This year was group was ……. The three stalwarts of Steve, Andy and Moi …….. and the new comer …. Michael. Apparently, Bren was a bit skint and would rather spend his cash on beer than a new inner tube!!!! Shame. So, I arrive and it’s hissing it down. Steve, Andy and Michael are hiring their bikes (you know, just in case there is a rush!!). Having secured their steeds they promptly leave them at the shop and we head off to the café ….. as if there is any chance it might stop raining in the near future. And in the café it is back to the old ways. I’ve had Alpen not that long ago so just take a coffee. The boy’s are on full English’s (full European’s?!?!?!). It’s not going to stop so after a while we have the obligatory photo in the dry and then head off. Il pluet – big time. But you know, once you “give yourself” to the rain and the mud, it is actually quite brilliant fun :-) The guys got free waterproof trousers with the hire bikes but I don’t like them anyway as they make me sweat too much. So, I’m in my green shorts that I got from America. Before long, my legs are just pasted in mud, but apparently, that does n’t stop the wee biting things doing their biting thing :-( It does indeed rain all morning but calls a halt around noon, by that time we’ve done a big muddy loop to the south (including a little wading for Steve and I) and we are back at the café. Steve says there are a couple of pubs to the north, one about two miles away and the other about double. Well we never see the closer one and before we get to the second one Andy is getting tired and grumpy (brings back memories of the wonderful SDW). As we pull at one place about a mile from the second pub I notice it is 1:50 and joke with Andy that they probably stop serving food at 2 pm. Bad joke, we end up in the nearby café having a sandwich! Another great day with wonderful lads who I am lucky to have as mates:-)

Reader's block - three strikes and ......

..... you're out! I rarely give up on a book. In fact, up until the last few weeks, I can only think of one novel that I have not finished and that was some years ago (The Time Traveller's Wife) but now I have two more to add to the list. (I have also failed to complete Emotional Intelligence on two separate occasions!!!) Failure number 1 was Fifty Shades of Grey!! I starting reading this because of all the hype around at the moment and because Kate is well into the series and was encouraging me. Having being told that the first hot scenes start around 21% I decided I give it until 25% by which time I would have a flavour for the writing and any other kind of plot that might be there (I'm so niave!!!). The plot was awful and the writing was shockingly bad, seriously!!!! Even the sex scene was quite uninspiring, if I wanted that kind of thing I reckon Pornhub would be much better ;-) Failure number 2: Fluke by James Herbert. By this time I'm not feeling the Kindle love so I revert to the tried and tested Herbert but make the crucial mistake of swaying from his norm. Two chapters in and I'm struglling with the man reborn as a dog! Dumped, for now, but I think I will come back to this one. So now I'm into a real paper book that I noticed on the shelf the other day. I remember Tom bought me it for Xmas before I knew I was getting a Kindle. Harlen Coben, Miracle Cure. In a couple of weeks Kate and I are off to southern I'm not encumbered!

Game of Thrones by George R R Martin.

This is an epic 861 page thriller. A cross between Lord of the Rings and Camelot it builds up on the quarrelling dynasties of the Seven Kingdoms. On the one side is King Robert Barothean and his new “Hand” (right-hand man) Lord Eddard Stark, on the other side are the inbreds. Far away Denearys wed the lord of the riders and at the very end of the book, in the ashes of battle and her husbands funeral pyre, she hatches the dragons. Get stuff, but the next book is over 900 pages!!!!! My favourite character is the Imp, such a wicked sense of humour :-) The picture is from the dvd series, which is now mine too and we are working our way through it!!!

A Sporting Weekend!

It seems to be all happening in the world of sport! No sooner is Euro 2012 out of the way following England’s incredibly average performance than Wimbledon and the TdF get started, and the Olympics are just round the corner. So Andy Murray finally got the final of Wimbledon. Partly down to the fact that Nadal suffered some freak loss at the hands of a guy who I’ve already forgot about. On saying that he still had t beat the likes of Tsonga and Ferrer to get there. He met up with the amazing Roger Federer who was after his 7th crown. It started well with Murray forging a late break in the first to take the set. I’m thinking Murray is 25 and Federer is essentially quite old in tennis terms at 30 so as the match goes on he should have the fitness advantage. Hello – thinks I, there could something a foot here! Alas, it was not to be. I can’t remember if Federer took the second set before after it started to rain but the delay whilst the centre court roof was brought across seemed to be the tipping point and Murray never saw another set. Still, no need to cry in the courtside after match interview Andy!!! Who do you think you are – Paula Radcliffe ;-) The TdF is probably my favorite annual sporting event and this year’s edition is well and truly underway by now. In fact, it seems that this is one place where there is a realistic chance of a first British, nay English winner. Bradley Wiggins seems to have been around for ages, seemed to swap from track cycling to road ages ago. Finally he has come of age and with the loss of some of the big favorites such as Andy Schleck (injury) and Contador (banned for being a drug-taking cheat – apparently) he is one of the joint favorites with last year’s winner, the Australian Cadel Evans. It has gone very well so far, in the prologue, the mountains and today’s 42 km time trial was won by Bradley to allow him to extend his lead over Cadel to around 2 minutes. Fingers crossed for the rest of the race!! And finally, this weekend the Olympic torch came to our region. I was encouraged out of bed at 6 am on Sunday to head into Huntingdon to watch it. It was good fun once the race stopped and there was a great sense of community spirit, which is unusual and was lovely.

And that was the week that was!

Busy one at that. It culminated today when I had to present to our company's global Chief Medical and Scientific Officer. He was the head of all research at GSK and then took over the Bill and Miranda Gates foundation before joining us. He was, is, a great guy though and was genuinely excited by what I (we) had to present to him today on his first visit to Cambridge. This week has also been about the footy as well though. England drew with France 1-1 at the Euro Championships on Monday and tonight beat Sweden 3-2, as I ate strawberries and drank cider, as you do :-) On Tuesday I, we, spent 7 hours in a cubicle at Addenbrooks with a little person awaiting an endoscopy, which did n't turn out well :-( On the plus, I side managed to ride to work this week on two consecutive days, first time since moving out here to the sticks! First day was very hard coming home as I was low on food. The second was surprising much easier, probably thanks to the pub lunch, and I managed the 19 miles back in 59 minutes. Pleased :-) And tomorrow ....... the seaside!!! Lowestoft, fresh salty air and a Mr Whippy, with luck. Hopefully, next week will be quieter. I'm telling myself that I've managed to talk my bosses out of me going to Japan in July. Am I kidding myself? Time will tell.

The Others by James Herbert

Herbert is one of my favourite authors. When I used to read a lot as a teenager I read stuff like "The Rats", "Fluke" and "The Magic Cottage" ... and enjoyed them all. Returning to novels last year I read another Herbert which was very good, one of my favourites of the year. I'm not one of those people who can read the same author consecutively, I like to have some diversity. So, after a few other authors I returned to Herbert and read "The Others" and it was ................ ok. Yep, it was quite good, nothing special, but pretty good. The story of an errant 1940's film star cast into hell. He is given the opportunity to redeem himself in a new life. All this happens in the first chapter and seems forgotten as the real plot, of a deformed private investigator takes shape. He is enlisted by a greiving widow to find her son, who was born terribly deformed and, apparently, dies a few minutes after birth. After some chasing it turns out that a doctor is taking malformed newly born children (and "monsters") and keeping them under his old peoples home. He carries out experiments on them and .... get this ...... produce bizarre porn to earn his funding!!!!! Our hero eventually rescues them all, apart form those who perished in the fire, but boy, did the finale get dragged out some!!! I've procrastinated loads about it but I've finally decided upon a change and will revert to another teenage love of mine ..... fantasy. I've downloaded Groege R R Martin's "The Game of Thrones". I'm not sure it will be my thing. Sounds like it is a bit like the bbc series "Merlin" and it's 864 pages. Watch this space!!!!

Seed by Ania Ahlborn

This was an excellent read!! Never even heard of this author but trawling the kind of stuff I like on the amazon Kindle page came across the good reviews it gets. I like a bit of scary, spooky otherworld stuff to my stories to add that little something extra. This had it all. A great plot, not the ending I had envisaged and it did n't end well for most of the cast!! Jack Winter did n't have the best childhood but things started turning out really sour not long after he started hanging out in an old disused cemtery out the back of his Mum and Dad's trailer. After many visits he sees a haunting shadow-like creature with a long sinister jagged smile staring at him through the bushes. Tha moment shapes the rest of his life. As a grown up he thinks he has left it all behind but one night years later driving home witrh his wife and two young girls in the middle of the night he flips the truck when he sees those two eyes in the road ahead of him. In the aftermath it is clear that his 6-year old daughter saw it too. From there on the family seem haunted by strange occurances usually accompanied by scratching noises in their house walls. Now, he is not the only one it is chasing. Charlotte, starts acting somewhat schizophrenic and certainly psychotic as, as times (like her father), she seeems possessed by "Mr Scratch". In the end she does what Jack did, she murders her family and goes off to meet the devil and set up the cycle again thorugh the next generation. I ceertainly did not expect 10 year old Abigail to be hung from a tree by her sister using her own small intestines just before Charlotte rammed a knife into Jack's stomach and twisted it until he died!!! No happy endings here to say the least but a fine tale, jumps straight in at my number 2 :-)

Return of the prodigal son

He's back again!! My eldest son Tom came back from University on Saturday after his first full year of Physics in Leeds. It was the first time he had been to our new house and I had done his room out at some cost and time so it was special all round. We picked him up from St Ives at 10:30 on Saturday morning and having stopped at Tesco Huntingdon weheaded back home. He was with his gf of two-and-a-half years so it was great to see both of them. The sun shone brilliantly all weekend and so we had a great bbq on Saturday in the garden. The teenagers played wonderfully with the little people (my 6 year old and Kate's six and nine year olds) and I sank quite some beers ;-) I'm looking forward to having him around for a very long summer. Now to see if I can achieve what I failed to last year ..... to convince him to get a job!!!!

Children of the Fog by Cheryl Kaye Tardif

Enjoyed this although was kept somewhat confused by the formatting!! How so? Well, reading it on my Kindle I keep an eye on what percentage of the book I've read, just as I would watch the page numbers in a real book. I was pleasently surprised and intrigued when what I thought would be the ending came at 25%. The book rolled on nicely with the plot thickening through a good a story before at 64%, what's this, oh it must be another false summit .... well, I've fallen for that before so this is not the end. Well, actually it was. The book finished at 64% and the rest of it was part of the author's next book to get us drawn in! (It did not work with me as I have started something new!!). This is the story of a lady who has a criminal and a womaniser as a husband and whose sole joy in life is her 6 year old boy ...... until he is abducted and apparently killed by "The Fog". A man steals into homes like mist and who takes two children, a girl and boy, every spring. In this case our heroin comes into her son's room just as The Fog is taking the boy and she is warned that if she says she has seen the abductor the child will be returned in "little bloody pieces". She sketches a picture which she hides but her husband finds it and gives it to the police. The Fog calls her later and tells her that if she says nothing more then she can come and get her son but as she approaches the car where she thinks he is tied up she stumbles over a trip wire and the automobile explodes, killing him. She leaves town ............... looking for somewhere to go and finish the children's book she is writing for her son before ending it all but led by "signs" from conversations with her son in her head she is led to a place where, with the help of dead children, she solves the mystery and restores her happiness. Very good book.

Forty-four!

Yep, there goes another birthday, and apparently, I'm 44 now. Never really been hung up on age. Turning 30 and even 40 was never a problem, but I am starting to get a little apprehensive about being fifty, even though it is still six years away!!! Does age matter? Maybe! Of course we all change physically and mentally. Physically, I laughed out loud this week when I did my regular run more than minute faster than I did last week, when I was 43 ;-) My wonderful girlfriend of well over ayear now is five old years younger then me ....... maybe I am having that mid-life crisis - not! So as a 44 year old man what do I really want from my life this year? I'd like to be a little fitter, sure, maybe loose a cm or two off the old waisteline but there are n't many guys in their mid-forties who can't say that. I'd like to great hpotos of the people and landscape around me and I'd like more time to enjoy riding my bike, on and off road. What else, well, having moved to Warboys I now live just round the corner from my amazing wonderful girlfriend but I want more. I now have the 5 bedroomed house waiting for her to move into, but she has a 6 year old and 9 nine year old who need time to get their heads around things. My kids maybe need a little more time because they don't know Kate and her fsamily as well as I do. It will happen though, things are moving in the right direction :-)

Taunting the Dead by Mel Sherratt

Another cheapy off Amazon read on my Kindle and just finished yesterday. Set in Stoke-on-Trent of all places (but why not) this is story of the murder of a ganster-ish type of businessman's wife, of how she is sleeping with (and we find out from her autopsy that she is pregnant by) the henchman, who is told by the boss to kill her knowing full what he has been up to. He tries to get her best friend's husband to do the job whilst the henchman's thug of son overhears most of this and goes on to do the the hit himself. The ganster is a real good looking charmer who has massive sexual chemistry with the female DS leading the investigation so it all turns into a pretty decent plot. Well told, intrigue kept high and believable characters, even in Stoke on trent, the home of Slash ;-)

The Phoenix conspiracy by Richard Saunders

Read this ages ago and forgot all about it until yesterday. So, this was another freebie off amazon on the Kindle, I've got a feeling I might have read some of it on the a plane on the way back from Japan in Feb. Anyway, a cross between Star Trek and Star Wars this one, not brilliant but ok. One of the Federation's most trusted generals uses his spaceship to destroy a seemingly innocent trading convoy of aliens before legging it across the galaxy. Our hero is dispatched to bring him to justice with his new second in command, a beaustiful young lady who was the second in command of our criminal until just before the attack. The intrigue rolls out as the chase goes from one end of the galaxy to the other and, would you know it, but when the dust of the intergalactic firefight settles our badie is a goodie after all !!!! Plenty readable though, kept me entertained for hours and as a freebie it did of course appeal to my Yorkshire nature!!!

Windmills, the modern type. Not Dutch, no tulips and no Amsterdam. I'm having a wonderful Bank Holiday Weekend so far, and the joy of it is of course that there is no work tomorrow, Monday :-) The weather has not been good for the last week or so. Today, I drove through or past three "road closed - flooding" signs ...... but the water had almost gone and it was just that nobody could be bothered to come and remove the signs. The message is that it has rained loads in the last week or so, there are a lot of flooded fields around St Ives. But before that it was that glorious April weather of heavy showers, deep grey skies and wonderful sunshine to light it all up, if only fleetingly. To my shame, I did n't find time to get out with the camera, until this evening. Taking Kate into St Ives for a works night out I grabbed this on the way home. Windmills, the modern type, I think they look fantastic :-)

We're in!

It's been a long ten days. That's how long it has been since I got the keys to my new place. That day and the next Kate and I were both ferrying car loads of stuff from my old house in Bar Hill to my new one. On the Friday I had a van hired. I made two trips on my own moving stuff that one middle-aged guy (but not in mid-life crisis!) could handle. Then when my 16 year finished school there was just the heavy or oversized stuff and he was a star. We got it all across in the day. The next day i took the van back at 8:30, the kids went to their mum's at 9 and Kate and I spent most of the weekend unpacking or out buying stuff the house "needed". We stopped at 4 pm on Staurday and headedfor a chinese takeaway, stopping for a couple of drinks in the local, my new local, and then back here for teh grub, a couple of bottles of vino and real fire got lit. Smashing. Just over a week later and most of the boxes have gone. Finally, the internet is connected and the house is just wonderful. They say an English man's house is his castle but this is the first time I think I'm really loving where I live. Last week I left the car at work and cycled home one night. I'd done it before in 1h 9 mnis to 1 h 15. Last thursday night I did it 1:02:45, well pleased. Now it's down to the realities. There is a leaky pipe under one of the sinks and I think, actually I'm sure there is a bird or two in the loft. Time to re-learn some DIY skills :-)

Completed!!!!

It's done! No longer am I off the property ladder. I am now the proud owner of a 5 bedroom detached house in Warboys :-) I get the keys at 6 pm tonight.

No more renting, being able to just ring the agents when there's a leak or the washing machine stops working so I'll need to re-learn some DIY. On the plus side I should n't ever get kicked out of my home again. I've had to leave the last two houses I rented as a good tenenat because of a change of plan by the owner. That's a pain for me as moving means loads of effort and it costs quite a lot too. I'ts also not good for my children.

The house is in Kate's village. Things are going fantastic still. I keep pinching myself as she is well out of my league. And the house is big enough for all of us to live in ........ watch this space :-)

Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz

Ok, I'm slowing down, but that's a good thing because it means that I'm busier and part of that is that the guitar is getting a bit more attention!!!

Readthis on the Kindle, slowly because unlike many of Koontz's book it did n't really inpsire me.

Odd Thomas can see the dead. They never speak to him but can make signs. Elvis pops up quite a few times in the book. He also see Bodachs, shadowy creature which gather where misery and suffering is about to take place. This is story of Odd's attempts to stop a mass murder, surprisingly carried out by the State Police Department.

As I said, it was ok but not riveting.

I'm back to a cheapo Kindle daily deal by some author I've never heard of. Will rpeort back soon ........ oh hang on .... maybe not that soon ;-)

Thursday April 12th

Two big things happend on this day:-

Firstly: I was part of a three man team organising a conference at Leeds University and today was the day. Eleven very bright PhD students gave 20 minute presentations on their work. It was run by the Fine Chemicals Group of the Society of Chemistry in Industry, of which I'm a committee member. My company kindly sponsored some of the prizes.

I had to be at my sharpest to ask intelligent questions (!) and at the end of the day I had to sum up the afternoon. Then the three of us organisers got into a huddle and decided on the prizes, which I then announced and presented over the wine reception. Honestly, it was like being a judge on the X-factor but of course we were nice to everybody. Pictures show me awarding the first and second prizes and the whole group of speakers plus organisers.

We all then went our for dinner at a lovely French restaurant in Leeds. I drove three of the "kids" there and as we walked form the car I was talking none stop. It will be ok, it's not far and I know Leeds well. Wrong, at 9 pm, with a two and a half hour drive home I could n't find my wheels. Took me nearly half an hour. Bloody genius me :-(

Secondly: we exchanged contracts on my new house on this day. That was not without its hassels as there was a minor last minute issue that I struggled to sort out using just my iPhone in an area with poor reception. But it is done. On wednesday, I complete!!!!!!!!!