Well what a day it has been today. At least, from a weather perspective. We have had sunshine, rain, thunder and lightning. At one time we had a lightning strike so close that everything went red for me. I’m guessing it is like shining a powerful torch through your hand. Only in this case it was my eyeballs that were illuminated. The thunder-clap followed almost immediately. A couple of miles away they weren’t quite so lucky as a house in Havant was struck (See Here).  It was my wife’s birthday today so we have been quite busy with texts, phone calls and family visiting. So loads of cards, a couple of nice flower displays and plenty of cake. On a different subject I had another of those cold calls from abroad. I have started to take a different approach. Rather than berate them about the fact that I am registered with the TPS I now keep asking questions. Who do you work for ?, What is the name of the company that you work for ? Who pays your wages ? and so forth. I won’t answer any of their questions till they give me a company name. So far they just hang up, but not before they have squirmed like crazy. They don’t seem to want to give out which company they are actually working for. Always they imply that you requested that they call. Today I was told that I had complained that my broadband connection was running slow. The other day we were told that my wife had called during the Thursday afternoon, which was an out-and-out lie, as we were stood on the roadside talking to police officers. Somewhere along the A40 west of Oxford. And my wife had left her mobi at home and I’m pretty sure she didn’t use the landline. Don’t think the wire reaches that far. Aah wait a minute. Of course. We have digital cordless handsets. She must have used one of those. Amazing the range they have these days… over 80 miles is impressive don’t you think.

Councillor Sean Woodward the leader of Fareham Borough Council claims that the infrastructure will be put in place to support the 7000 new homes being proposed for land north of Fareham. Well to put it bluntly, he’s got his head up his arse.

Who is going to fund putting the infrastructure in place ahead of the houses being built ? Roads, utilities, shops, schools, surgeries, the list goes on.

Where are the jobs to sustain an influx of 7000 families ? The government can’t even magic that number of jobs into existence at a national level. How on earth does Cllr. Woodward think he can do that locally ?

The linked article mentions the proposed business park to be established at HMS Daedalus. That’s geographically the opposite side of Fareham and Gosport. The Gosport / Lee on Solent area is already a nightmare to get to during peak times. How much worse is it going to get with the residents of a new village (town ??) trying to cross the general Fareham area to get to work ?

The M27 and its feeder roads must be one of the busiest road networks in the country.

I am so glad that I work from home as much as I do. Unfortunately I still have a number of years to go before I can retire and make that a permanent situation.

The future as seen with the warped eyes of Cllr. Woodward is anything but rosy. Solent City creeps steadily closer.

Council leader says 7,000 home town is needed – Blue Day news – The News.

Off to the Isle of Wight today. We are going to visit Osbourne House having spent many years looking at it from across the Solent. We have always said we wanted to visit and finally we got our bums in gear and are going today.

It’s all a bit of an adventure as we are taking the car for the first time. We have been to the island several times in the past. Crossed by Catamaran and also by Hovercraft as well as the normal ferry.

Just hope the weather behaves. Lets hope  the Isle of Wight lives up to its reputation and has better weather than the mainland.

Spent a relaxing afternoon down at Selsey Bill yesterday. Sea was dead calm. Skies were blue and the sun was warm. It probably would have been too hot if there hadn’t been just the gentlest breeze puffing away to keep us cool. Oh that and a wonderfully chilled pint of Scrumpy Jack Cider which was downed  while we sat on the terrace outside The Lifeboat Inn. There were a about a dozen of us being entertained by a fisherman who was preparing Smoothounds. He must have had 6 or 7 boxes, each containing at least 10 “hounds”. The results of a an early morning fishing trip. He told the onlookers that he had been on the go since 05:30 that morning. While we watched he de-finned and skinned the contents of a single box before sitting down to have a pint. And that was just before 15:00. That’s a long day. This pub serves many fish dishes caught from their own licensed fishing boat. It was a shame that we arrived too late for the lunchtime menu.

Rest assured that we will return to try their menu in the future.

Well here I am again. Actually I haven’t been away but work has kept me so busy with the run up to a new product announcement, well 2 actually, that I haven’t known if I was being bored, punched, drilled or reamed. The actual announcement is today and thankfully I managed, by the skin of my teeth, to get all my stuff done. I really am getting to old for all this excitement or is it stress. Can’t really tell these days. To cap it all I pulled an all nighter earlier in the week  to catch up on another project which has “issues”. I wasn’t even able to relax for my birthday which seems to have gone by in a blur.

Anyway, it’s all done and dusted so I can relax, I hope. And the icing on the cake is that I am on holiday for the next week…… Yay !!!

What have I got planned ? Nothing really, a trip to the Isle of Wight to see Osbourne House is the only set piece. We’ll give our English Heritage cards a bashing and hopefully I’ll be able to get in some photography too.

And as for the view from the conservatory. Well it was sunny and dry but in the last few minutes it has clouded over, the temperature has dropped, the wind has picked up and it has started to rain. Well that’s fine, get it out of your system. Need it be dry for tomorrow as we are off to Stansted House.

This weekend is their Garden Show. We try to go every year and believe it to be one of the best in the area. Will try to pick up a couple of low maintenance plants to put into pots. This is also an opportunity to browse the food tents or should I say graze as there are plenty of samples of cheeses, chutneys, ciders and quite often a nice hot pasty. For the ladeeze there is always a splash of Pimms to be found if the weather is warm.

I’ve just been watching Mrs Blackbird preparing a slug for her lunch, wiping it from side to side, rolling it over, and wiping it again and again to remove the slime before downing it in one juicy swallow…..Yuuummmy !!!

As an intermmittent attendee at gigs held at The Wedge I am proud that they are getting the recognition they deserve.

Everyone should go vote for them at NME
Wedgewood Rooms celebrates 20 years with national recognition – A Weekend With – The News.

Think very carefully before buying your next kettle. For the last couple of years we have been using a Prestige kettle to boil our water for tea/coffee etc. Then it made with the pretty blue flashing sparks from somewhere inside, near the switch. Needless to say we had to say goodbye to our nice Prestige kettle.

As we like our tea and don’t like it made with water that has been boiled in a saucepan we dashed up to the local shops to get a new one. Did I mention that it was Sunday, so choice was somewhat restricted. Having surveyed the limited options we arrived home with a new Russel Hobbs kettle. We couldn’t find anywhere local selling the same Prestige kettle.  Mind you, we thought we were buying a class piece of kit. After all aren’t Russell Hobbs supposed tobe that bit better than most of the other brands ?

I guess I should have read the Which reviews first. Out of 195 kettles there are some Russel Hobbs models that make it into the top 47. Just not the one we bought. However, their review of our particular model did in fact highlight some of the issues that we have found.

This thing is everything that the Prestige wasn’t.

1. It’s slow
   It seems to take a long time to boil where the Prestige was very fast even though the RH is more powerful.
2. Unstable
   The RH doesn’t seem very stable on its base. When the boil really gets going the RB is a real rock and roller, wobbling about on its base. The Prestige just sat still and got on with the job.
3. It is very easy to overfill
   The RH level markings are on the inside of the casing, on the same side as the handle. So with the lid open to enable you to put water in you have to be deformed to hold the kettle under a tap and see what level you have filled up to. With the prestige there was a level indicator clearly visible towards the centre of the opening.
4. Noisy
   The RH should come with a health warning. The noise level of this thing is awful. The door to the kitchen has to be closed when we make our mid evening brew otherwise we can’t hear the TV. Even with the door closed you can hear it rumbling and gurgling away as it builds to a crescendo. The only time the Prestige made any real noise was when it needed descaling.
5. It doesn’t switch off when lifted off its base
   So when you put it down again the power reconnects and carries on as if there was water inside. Presumably it would turn off when it began to overheat.

Would I recommend this kettle to anyone…….Hell No !!!