Author Archives: Steve

About Steve

Man of leisure.

Fforest Fields Campsite, Hundred House

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Our second campervan trip was to Fforest Fields in Hundred House.  This was the campsite where I had stayed when I learnt to paraglide at least seventeen years ago.  The same family own the site, though they no longer teach paragliding.  The site has improved immensely since I was last there.  Large ponds have been dug which you can swim in.  The shower block is magnificent with under floor heating all run from a log burner and a huge store of hot water.   We arrived and were met by owner George.  We set up camp for the night.

The following day we went for a brief walk on the hills above the campsite.  The Welsh weather brought a drizzle, but not enough to destroy the walk.  In the afternoon we drove over to Llandrindod Wells to visit Tesco to buy some food.  The route we took was over the hills along some very narrow roads and cattle grates.  That night it rained heavily.

Sunday the weather had eased off, so we walked over to the pub at Hundred House.  This was a lovely walk along a stream, through woods.  The walk back was by a different route which took us over higher ground.  The pub was good, lovely big roast lunch with proper meat that had been carved off a joint, and good value.

Monday came, pouring with rain, forecast more rain, so we called it a day and drove home. 

VW T5 Campervan Conversion by CJ Van Designs

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Our VW T5 campervan conversion  was completed earlier this year.  Rosemary and I decided we wanted to travel more, and not be tied to hotels or tents.  We decided on a small campervan which is as easy to drive as a car, and can be parked in most normal parking spaces.  We went with the VW  campervan dream, well OK a modern VW T5 Campervan  dream.  We bought a two year old VW T5 kombi van coloured blackberry.  It is the normal wheel base, highline model with tailgate, 2.0 litre 140PS engine.  Blackberry is a metallic paint which the DVLA calls purple.  In some lights it looks almost black, whereas in the sunshine it looks a sparkling dark purple colour, to sometimes a brown.  It’s a fabulous chameleon taking on the colours of its surroundings. 

Once we had the van, we needed it converted. Problem here was there was an unbelievable waiting list amongst all the workshops we contacted.  We chose CJ Van Designs in Wiltshire.  Colin the owner was thorough and took us through the many options we could have.  His designs for cupboards seemed to be what we wanted.  We booked the van in for conversion.  In between booking the van in for conversion, and conversion day, we took the van (& tent) for a long drive through France in September. Eventually the day for conversion arrived in January, we said goodbye to the T5, and a few weeks later we had our campervan.  It was glisteningly clean, complete with a bottle of Champagne in the fridge.

The work we had done on the van included:

  • Reimo popup roof, colour coded to the van, which contains a bed
  • Riba rear seat which converts to a bed
  • Cupboards, under sink, under bed, over sink, over the bed & inside the tailgate
  • 12 volt power and lighting
  • 240 volt hookup
  • An extra power socket near the side door, for laptop & outdoor cooking with an electric frying pan
  • Refrigerator (240/12 volt)
  • Twin ring gas hob
  • Sink
  • Diesel space heater
  • Lighting, including lights for the popup roof
  • Insulation in van walls
  • Flooring & carpeting on the sides
  • Rail for connecting an awning
  • Rotating passenger seat
  • Safe 

We did not have to install extra windows as the Kombi van has windows on both sides to part way down the van.  The extra rear seats and original flooring in the van were sold off during the conversion.  New bench-seat/bed from Riba was then installed.

Much of this work is mandatory for the vehicle to be licensed by DVLA as a campervan aka “Motor Caravan”.  Without this complete work the van would not be able to be taken to music festivals like Reading festival where their requirements for a campervan mirror the DVLA requirements.

We took pictures  for the re-registration of the Volkswagen T5 Combi van to a Motor Caravan.  The photographs had to show the registration plate of the van, the fixtures, gas, water, sink, cupboards, table and bed.  These were sent to DVLA and a couple of weeks later we had the new registration certificate.

There are some of the extra items we want for the campervan: a bike rack and an awning.  Choosing the awning is difficult. Do we want a side-less awning to keep the sun off, where we can eat and cook in warm countries, or do we want a drive-away awning with sides where we can leave the tables and chairs under cover, and change our shoes and coats in cold and wet Britain?

 

Home Computer Problems

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Last weekend the laptop, a many year old Dell E6520, decided it should update Windows 10 to the anniversary version (1607).  There was much churning of wheels.  The machine restarted and displayed a blue screen, with the wonderful words that an error had occurred.  There was an error message DPC WATCHDOG VIOLATION.  It  restarted again, then went into recovery mode. There was a successful recovery to the old windows.  Phew! I still had an operable machine.  Of course in a few hours the whole process repeated.  The update was downloaded again, and then applied, and the DPC WATCHDOG VIOLATION message appeared.  This went on time after time.  What was I to do?

Google suggested incompatible drivers and pointed to the screen drivers.  I removed the drivers and the update started. The drivers came back and the whole error appeared again.  Another suggestion  was the disk was failing, and I should run a CHKDSK /R /F.  CHKDSK was started. The progress steadily increased until it reached 14%.  At 14% it hung for several hours.  Again there was  someone on the interwebs who said if it hung there for a long time, it was because it was trying to recover bad disk segments and therefore you had a problem.

The Solution

Gambling time had come.  Buy a new disk drive, and while we were at it, buy a solid disk, a Samsung SSD 850 EVO.   Amazon delivered next day. I replaced the disk drive in minutes. I then downloaded Windows 10 onto a stick and booted the laptop from the stick.  Yes it recognised the new drive, and yes it also recognised the laptop so I had a licensed machine.   I also no longer had all the Dell crap bloatware anymore.

The installation media was pre 1607 version, so fingers crossed while Windows updated itself.  This time no problems and now we are all up to date, and a FAST running machine.

The machine now is rejuvenated.  The solid state disk, boots in seconds and is operable immediately after I login.  Previously the machine took 10 minutes to become usable, because there was so much disk I/O from Dropbox indexing the files to find out what was had changed. Startup time was unacceptable.

Now its back to reinstalling applications, and recovering the data from the cloud.  Thankfully, with my FTTP connection this was quite fast.

A Buzzard in our Garden

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A Buzzard visited our garden, sitting on the fence between the paddock and the garden.  As I approached, the bird flew off and sat on the fence further into the paddock.  It then flew into the next door field.  In the process the Buzzard was mobbed by the Red Kites.  A bit of a change, the Red Kites themselves are normally mobbed by the Jackdaws and Rooks.

 

 

Weekend In Leicester

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We had a lovely weekend in Leicester staying with Valerie and Norman, along with Bill and Viv.   The visit started off with a chainsaw massacre  in the garden with a little bit of pruning.  After this hard work, our thirsts were quenched with a couple of pints at The Classroom Real Ale pub.  This is a real ale micro pub, twenty minutes walk away, serving some great ales straight from the cask.  I was very impressed with the quality of the beer and service.  Looking forward to a return visit.

Next day Bill, Norman and I went for a walk along the Grand Union Canal from the Navigation pub to Wistow Rural centre.  Lovely day, the canal had a thin layer of ice, and the outward walk was over frozen mud.  At Wistow Rural Centre we ate lunch and had a walk around the garden centre.  The pictures I have taken are of a model village, notice the campervan. The walk back was a little muddy as the mud had thawed.  On the way home we stopped off at a real ale pub called The Cow and Plough for a quick pint.

In the evening we took a taxi into Leicester centre for supper at the Ask Italian restaurant.

On Monday we had a walk at Bradgate Park. A large open deer park with a ruined house, some lovely oak trees.  We walked to the top of the hill where the Old John Tower is situated.  This 18th Century folly sits on the highest point of the Park and is one of Leicestershire’s most famous landmarks.   Lunch nearby in the Jade Tea Rooms.  Very reasonable and sizable portions.

 

 

 

 

 

David Bowie at the Proud Gallery

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On Thursday I traveled to London to visit the Proud Gallery on King’s Road to see an exhibition of photographs of David Bowie.  The gallery is a small gallery and had a selection of photographs of Bowie priced from a couple of thousand to over sixty thousand pounds.  Needless to say I was not buying.

I also visited the V&A gallery to see their small free exhibition of Glastonbury.  The exhibition was not about the music, but the performing arts side of Glastonbury.  I took a look at other sections of the V&A and have promised myself another visit.

Ate a late breakfast at an Italian restaurant on King’s Road, seemingly used by builders, which serves a good English breakfast.  I ate poached eggs on toast, Eggs Benedict no less, and drank a good coffee.

New year 2017 at Richard and Andrea’s

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We had an invitation to see the New Year in with Richard, Andrea, Norman and Valerie. R and I travelled over, stopping off at Hatfield Forest for a soup lunch.  The day was miserable, but still there were many out walking dogs and blowing  the Christmas cobwebs away.

Arrived mid-afternoon, played a frame of snooker against Richard, but unfortunately I did not uphold the Blasdale honour.  We had an excellent meal with lashings of wine and saw the New Year in with a spectacular firework and sparklers.

Next day we all went out for lunch at the Galvin Green Man.  A busy gastro pub with contemporary restaurant.  Part of the restaurant has a glass roof, which the torrential rain cascaded down.  There were some good beers on tap, I drank an Adnams Ghost Ship.  After lunch we said our goodbyes to Norman and Valerie, who left for home.  We stayed on for another night, and another frame of snooker.  This time the frame ended in a draw. 

The next day the sun shone and it was a beautiful sunny day. We went for a walk around Littley, saw the wedding venue Leez Priory with gorgeous leaning garden walls.  Lunch was at the Compasses which had some excellent beers.  Alas I was driving. The pub had masses of community notices, including one for a sewing group called Bitch and Stitch.

A very enjoyable two nights away.

Christmas for Red Kites

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We treated ourselves to a Lidl Spanish Serrano Jamon for Christmas.  I had always wanted one!  The day came and I carved a thin slice.  It was disgusting.  So the Red Kites, Magpies, Crows & Jackdaws had an early Christmas present.  The leg tended to move around the field overnight, badgers or foxes would gnaw at it.  There now is a white bone in the field.  It has taken from before the 20th December to now (January 10th) to reach that state.

Some pictures of the Red Kite on the Jamon, and a few after the juvenile kite flew off.

 

Berkshire Cambridge Society lunch

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The Berkshire Cambridge Society (BCS) 2016 Lunch was held at the Henley Business School.  Members from both the Oxfordshire and Berkshire societies attended the lunchtime meal.  The dinner was a buffet dinner, like the previous year, with very clever carved vegetable decorations.  The highly interesting guest speaker was John Baxter, former Group Head of Engineering BP and now Chairman of the Advanced Nuclear Research Centre and Visiting Professor in Nuclear Engineering at Strathclyde University.

 

Brian V’s Leaving Drinks

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Last year, I met up with a few ex Walker people at the Kings Head in Aylesbury.  Brian V had just recently retired and was having a leaving drink for those who worked, or were still working, in the Aylesbury office  (now closed.)  This photograph came to light from the original Walker Inventory Management team.  Chris, Glyn, Jean (later to become Mrs Glyn), Brian V himself, Tina and Tessa.