Malcolm's Funeral

I had to go down to Maidenhead for this. I had worked with Malcolm for over 9 years and been there when he had his stroke in 2006. I'd seen him afterwards, having made an amazing recovery. Sadly, he had another stroke and passed away.

Weird phrase that 'passed away'. It implies peace and gentleness. I've no idea how painful Malcolm's last moments were, but I hope that he passed gently into the night (see Dylan Thomas).

Gill and I went down and stopped with Jon and Trish. Jon and I went to the funeral. The word 'lovely' is wrong, but if a funeral can be lovely, Malcolm's was. He had many, many friends and pretty much the whole of the Maidenhead engineering team turned up. There were really moving tributes from his friends, the most poignant of which was Keith's. I cried like a baby* but felt better for going. Somehow, being there was important. Don't ask me why, I simply don't know. One thing really stood out - Malcolm never had a bad word for anyone. A remarkable generosity of spirit. I hope that I remember him through the years; he was a gentle man.

We ended up going out to eat with Jon and Trish and their family, so somehow the day was a lovely mixture of relaxing with friends and a fond farewell.

* Actually, that's wrong. I cried like a man.

Ashwell Show

I hadn't looked this up on the web, but when I did, I wanted to go. Not because of the craft fairs, horse riding, the hawk display or the dog shows, but because there was jousting. Wonderful.

This picture is a fake. Well, I took the picture of the hawk and of the blue sky, just not at the same time.

New Mountain Bike

After a bit of research, I settled on a Giant Yukon. It's got front suspension and disk brakes. Part of the reason to choose the Giant was value for money (the equivalent Marin was another £100), but mainly because the bike dealer in Royston stocks these. The 19" was too small, but the 21" was fine.

I picked it up this morning and went out with Steve this afternoon. It looked new for about an hour - it (and I) came back filthy.

Cycled to Ashwell

After the washout that was the APM, Friday dried out and the sun came out. Today was good and we decided to cycle to Ashwell in the evening (and go to the pub). Gill tried Esther's mountain bike; she really didn't like it at all - on the road or (particularly) off the road. Scratch that as something that we do together. It'll be me and Steve.

Carrots and Tomatoes

It has been raining a lot this week and I've been very busy at this year's APM. The carrots are my first, they're pretty small, I was just thinning. The tomatoes are starting to come in volume.

Angel

He's settling in nicely.

Angel

We picked up this little cat from Wood Green Animal Shelter in Heydon. He's very sweet, quite gentle. Why Angel? Lateral thinking, our other cat is called Salem and I liked the series "Angel'; also what is the opposite of the devil, right an angel. Seems to fit.

ps I didn't blog losing either Monty or Molly. Frankly, I was too upset at the time, hence the enigmatic photograph plus name blogs. Monty was run over in the lane next to the house; he'd found a way out and was hit by a car during the school run. Molly was unwell and, as it turned out, too ill to operate to help with her cancer. Both great cats and part of our lives. Maybe we shouldn't love them so much but cats are family and we do.

End of holiday

The journey back took 4.5 hours of mind-numbing boredom, but we got back. That was a lovely relaxing holiday for all of us. The sun is shining and it looks like there was little rain here. The vegetables are a bit dry, but otherwise ok. I pulled a row of potatoes - all looking large and tasty and we tried the first ripe tomato, which tasted absolutely fantastic.

Dartmouth Castle

We did another coastal walk, this time parting in the National Trust car park part way along. We walked around the cost to Dartmouth Castle.

The castle was very nice, well worth a visit.

Salcombe

We did part of the coastal path, starting at Salcombe, it was a really nice walk and a lovely day. Here are Gill and Steve sitting on a seat under the look out at Gare Rock, also the location of another geocache.

We ended up back in Salcombe shopping and staring out across the estuary.

Saltram

We first visited Saltram on a motorcycling holiday in 1983 or 1984. It was the second national trust house that we visited (we joined at Castle Drogo). Nice to go back, the place is looking good and Steve liked it too.

Geocaching on Hay Tor

We took ourselves off geocaching, here's Gill and Steve. As you can see from the track, we found them all.

Paignton and Dartmouth Steam Railway

Very nice, but didn't think much of Paignton - very like Scarborough.

Gill's old house

Gill's parents lived in Ashburton briefly after coming back from Canada. This is Gill outside 27 East Street. She played on the window sill as a 4 year old. The house is just being renovated and, apparently, is mid-18th century and used to be a gaming house.

Ashburton

One of Gill's OU associates, who she met online via Second Life, has lent us their house for a week whilst they're away on holiday. An act of great generosity. The drive down was a bit grim (long motorways, , rain), but Ashburton looks rather attractive with organic shops, decent places to eat and so on.

[Postscript: How to hack someone's internet. First, connect directly to their router using a cable. Then, having gained access to the internet, look up the default administrator user name and passwords from the internet. Then add the MAC addresses of your laptops to the router and, hey presto, you have access. Oh, yes, I rock.]