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{ Monthly Archives } June 2013

A week at Fawlty Towers

After three weeks away in Wiltshire preparing for the first equipment trial, I was contracted to spend the last week in June running another equipment trial for my other customer, this time at our Hampshire HQ. The actual work was much easier than the first trial – I’ve been working on this project for two […]

Thursday nights out on the town

Thursday nights were designated as the night to hit the town, to a tapas bar or a Chinese restaurant, or whatever. Usually that was a preliminary to the gang then moving on to sample the local bars and nightlife, but I simply wasn’t up for that. I was working some stupidly long hours (by my […]

Wednesday night is film night

I spent the first three weeks of this month away on business doing systems integration and testing for a major equipment trial at a customer site. Usually, when I’m working at that site I stay at a hotel at a service area on a nearby trunk road. That’s very convenient to get to work in […]

Christopher’s Tree in springtime

Last autumn Christopher’s stepfather, Peter, had the inspired idea of dedicating a tree to him at his local Woodland Trust. It’s a field maple, which should be hardy and able to cope with the worst the weather can throw at it. But it’s been a particularly long and bitterly cold winter, and young saplings can […]

Banks of wild garlic

I live on the side of a hill, with common land all around me. Sounds idyllic. But at this time of year there is a definite down-side to rural life. It’s wild garlic season, and there are huge clumps of it on the banks and verges surrounding the house. It looks quite pretty, with little […]

Should have been more patient

I mentioned a while back how disappointed I was with my aubretia – it was looking very sad and underwhelming compared to the purple spreads on the walls I pass regularly on my way to customer sites. But I think I wasn’t sufficiently taking into consideration the fact that I live on the top of […]

Duck Tagine

I’m not into purely decorative pottery; everything I make is designed to be functional. So there was no point putting my newly-fired tagine on a shelf and looking at it – I wanted to try it out. But I was very wary about using it for the first time. I have a friend who used […]

Genetic Sequencing

Hereditary breast cancer has been much in the news recently, what with Angelina Jolie revealing that she is a carrier of one of the dodgier BRCA mutations and having a double mastectomy. And bang on cue, the genetic consultant from Birmingham Women’s Hospital has been back in touch with our family to discuss next steps […]

Murder In Play

It was my birthday recently, and my Gran very kindly sent me a cheque as a present. I have a strict rule that any such welcome windfalls have to be spent on something identifiable and “extra” rather than just going into the general housekeeping fund and being spent on food or bills. My original plan […]