Interesting

Don’t believe them …

/ Tony / 1 Comment

I used to be a cook. From 1971 to 1986 I was a cook at the Leeds General Infirmary. In fact from 1983 to 1986, I was the Head Cook in the staff kitchen. All this is a little bit of background information for what I want to have a chat about. That chat is about pastry. Specifically short crust pastry. Now, when you watch these famous TV chefs preparing pastry (and I’ll not mention any names here) they will always tell you that it has to be done by hand .. No mixer/processor allowed!!! .. They will tell you that your pastry will be tough/dry/chewy and any other descriptive term for ‘bad’ pastry they can think of. They will tell you that you have to make it by had, if you want the best pastry. I want to tell you that’s a load of rubbish. When you are making enough pastry to cover pies that are going to feed 300+ people, making it by hand is a non-starter. Can you imagine trying to ‘rub-in’ 20lb of lard/margarine into 40lb of flour by hand!. You have to use a machine. If it works for large volumes, then it has to work for smaller volumes too. So here is my recipe for short crust pastry in a food-processor:

  1. weigh 8oz flour into your food processor with a pinch of salt
  2. dice up 2oz of cold butter and 2oz of cold lard into 1/4 inch dice
  3. chill butter and lard in freezer for 15 minutes
  4. add butter and lard to flour and process until looks like breadcrumbs
  5. add 3floz of very cold water and use the pulse function until the pastry starts to come together
  6. tip out onto a lightly floured worktop and gently kneed for a few seconds until all mixed
  7. wrap in cling-film and place in fridge for at least 30 minutes
  8. use as required

They key to this is the speed of the processing and the coldness of the fat. I takes less than 2 minutes to go from fat and flour to pastry, which means that the fat is still cold. I can assure you that it does work.

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March is going to be an expensive month I think. Firstly, there’s Mothers Day and then there’s K***s birthday. This is one of those significant birthdays too. The big ‘six-zero’. Looks like I may need to move some cash from my savings account, but it should not be a problem really. We are going away for a couple of days on the weekend before the big day which will be nice. We’ve been to the hotel before a few years ago and it was a nice place. Good food, good scenery and it will be relaxing break for both of us. R*** is away for the weekend, so there are no worries about getting back for him. Just got to hope the weather is better than present. It has got a lot warmer overnight which has led to the snow staring to melt into slush. Much fun!

 

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FrontBackNow, here’s a poser. Which is the correct way? Front or back?  Is there a right or wrong way? I have no real preference at all but I know how K*** feels about it. For her it has to be Front. There can be no argument and it can lead to a lot of tutting if I put it the wrong way around. I’ve been in houses that drop down the front and houses that drop down the back. I’ve also been in places that have different preferences in different rooms. I’ve also been in houses where the loo-roll is sat on the cistern behind, which is an odd if not difficult location. So this is not a poll, just wondering that’s all.

 

 

Well I think this is interesting …

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Youngest is doing his usual Saturday ‘thing’ and watching YouTube videos on my laptop. He does this every weekend, after he has had his wash/bath, he’ll come down and sit at my laptop until his lunch is ready. I was going to use my older laptop to do some work on but I thought I would give this a go.

So, I am sat at the living room table, with my iPad Mini and TechGear bluetooth keyboard, writing this post directly into the iOS WordPress editor! An unusual experience to say the least. I think I may have tried using the editor before on my laptop, but usually like to write posts using Open Live Writer (OLW), which is a free piece of software born out of the now defunct, Windows Live Writer. If you’ve not tried OLW, can I suggest you give it a try. Back to the post in question!

I found the settings for Tags and Categories and managed to add some, but it is a lot harder to actually work with. In OLW I have a single button that will post some work as draft. I can then go into the web version of WordPress, check for any errors (there usually is a couple or six!) before I finally post. The iPad app seems to offer the same facility, but it is going to take me a while and a lot more practice if I’m going to make a habit of it.

One thing I have found, it seems to quite difficult to centre a line of text. There must be a way, but maybe not with this keyboard.

** Update** I think I may now know why. The Techgear bluetooth keyboard is mapped for an Android no iOS. There are (apparently) a number of differences between the keyboards of the two systems

An interesting weekend …

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In fact, a very interesting weekend. So interesting for us, that I feel it is worth posting about. As I mentioned earlier, K*** has had a problem with her eyes and this has led to her spending much of the weekend trying to rest. She threw a sickie today as she didn’t think she would be able to cope at work, and it was probably a good idea. She is still in pain and and is still seeing the ‘floaters’ at the side of her head. She is going to ring the hospital tomorrow to find out if this is normal. She tells me that it seems to be improving, but only slightly and we don’t appear to have a time frame for improvement.

Now comes the interesting bit! R*** has been a real help. We rarely get a weekend where we do not have an issue with him. The usual issues range from a shouting episode to a full blooded melt-down and we always have a least one issue each day. But not this weekend. There has been nothing. He has been laughing, smiling, singing and generally having a good time. Of course there has been the odd time when he has been a little ‘grabby’ and squeezed my arm, but that has been when I’ve done, or attempted to do, something he did not want to do. And, the squeezing has been a kind of warning squeeze rather than the usual forceful type.

We have come to the conclusion, that he is somehow aware that his mum is not well and this has had some kind of ‘compliance’ effect on him. It maybe that he is just in a good mood, and that nothing has upset him this weekend, but it does seem very unusual, albeit in a good way.

He is on respite tomorrow and will be back on Friday and we will have to see how that goes. It is usually ‘okayish’ and there doesn’t seem to be too many issues, but it will be interesting to see if this current mood continues.

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That’s all for now. Just a little update that I had to share.

Is it a scam …?

/ Tony / 4 Comments

Yesterday, I received an email direct to my WordPress email from an organisation that calls itself  ‘My Trending Stories’. Having a quick look on their website, it seems that they collect posts from various people on various subjects.

The email drops a few flattering phrases into the body, such as “…and strongly admire the content. Your writing abilities and ability to engage readers is remarkable and a very rare asset…” and “…strongly believe that your writing aligns with our core value…” and concludes with “…we only allow a certain amount of writers on the website in order to provide mentorship and personal growth…”. Now, this all sounds very interesting and promising, but is there a catch? I emailed them back for more details, and the reply was very much of the same. It appears that I would have to post regularly eg two or three times a week and can even repost work I have posted on my blog at WordPress.

I did a little Googling around, and I understand that a number of people are among the ‘certain amount of writers’ that this site  is attempting to attract. I have to say, that I am a little intrigued, even interested, but I have doubts. Nothing I can put my finger on, but I’m a bit uncertain. Maybe it’s the commitment or maybe it’s the excessive flattery that worries me, I don’t know.

I would be interested to know if any of my followers/readers have had the same email or any experience of this site.

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Now for the “Rant of The Day.” I’m not the biggest fan of tennis. In fact, I’m not really a sports fan at all. But K*** like to watch Wimbledon, especially when it’s Andy Murray. So the point of my rant today is how it is shown on television. The BBC covers all the big matches, but they seem to like to mess around with the channels. Tonight, Mr Murray’s match was on BBC 1 until around 6pm when it was moved to BBC 2, to allow for the news. It then flipped back to BBC1. Why? Why could they not re-arrange the schedules and put the tennis on BBC 2 and BBC 3? It’s not as if they haven’t done it before. I have an idea, that it is to stop people from ‘live pausing’ the matches. That is all well and good and some of us can remember the days before live pausing, but it is a feature that a lot of people have and we should be able to use it. Come on BBC, get your act together.

Worrying day, going well …

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I was going to have a go at with the new Writing Prompt app today (might still do later) but things that we were expecting to go bad, didn’t. I shall elaborate.

Mrs H*** decide, some time ago, that she wanted the rendering on the outside walls replacing. It has become damaged somewhat, and the last paint job did not work well at all. The issue has DSCF0167been that the paint is flaking off and exposing the ‘bare’ render. It is not a small job and requires that the old render be chipped off and a new render applied. My personal view was P1010864that it just needed the rest of the paint removing and the render skimming. As ‘Master of The House’ I was, of course out voted and we went for the a full re-application. Whatever we had decided on, it meant that the house needed scaffolding erecting. Today was the day that the scaffolders arrived. We were both worried that the noise would upset R***, as because of his Autism, anything out of the ordinary can cause him a problem. He was brilliant, and it did not seem to worry him in the least. He skipped from room to room looking out of every window, just watching everything that was going on.

Then, just we thought that we had cracked it came the the ‘big hit’. One of the guys knocked on the door and explained, that because of the position of our satellite dish and the positioning of the scaffold around it, we would lose the signal. Now whilst (whilst or while … which would you use?) this was a bit inconvenient, me and Mrs H were not too bothered. But R***! He watches (at least it is on all the time) the same programmes every day. From around 8am until 10:30pm it’s ‘Nick Jnr Too’. He then switches to ‘BBC2 NI’ until 8am the next day. This happens all the time he is at home with us. Never changes. So how will he cope with this? He seemed to be okay when he was having his lunch and when he finished, I managed to load up Thomas the Tank Engine DVD. Surprisingly enough, he accepted this without any issue. We were both amazed. He is now on his 4th DVD and has even picked his own choice. This certainly not what we were expecting at all. There is a lot of finger crossing and hoping at the moment, as he could just turn at any time. We will know when  it gets to BBC2 NI time!

I’m not sure about this …

/ Tony / 2 Comments

When I say “not sure…” I mean I’m not about why I’m posting this, but here goes.

I’ll give a bit of background first. One of the aspects of the work I’m currently on, is the need to do testing of certain pieces of computer software. The testing involves working in a ‘clean computer environment’.  This basically means that the PC’s used to test have been stripped back to the standard they were when first installed. It’s a bit of a tedious process that usually involves sitting a room with eight or nine computers and the system manager. Nobody else. That’s the background.

On Friday I was to do the usual testing and arrived at the test room as expected. I was then told that there would be someone else testing. I got on with my work and paid little attention to what was going on. Someone came into the room and they were welcomed by system manager with “Hi there Helen. Can you sit at your usual seat?” Helen is not her real name.

Helen answered, and the voice she had sounded a little strange. Not a woman’s voice I felt. I was then introduced and I turned to say hello. It then became obvious, that Helen was actually a transgender person.

Now this is where I worry about this post. I sat there trying to understand how I felt about this person. The conclusion I came to, was that there was no feeling apart from the fact that they were testing like me. I didn’t feel embarrassed, uncomfortable, intrigued, worried, disgusted or anything like that. It was the first transgender person I had met (at least I think it was) and it felt strangely normal, whatever ‘normal’ means. Should I have had one or more of the feelings I mentioned? At the end of the day, Helen was simply a human being that had decided what they wish to look like, what they wanted to be called and how they wanted to live their life.

On reflection, I think I must have made the mental decision that on this occasion, I’m not entitled to have any opinions. It is what it is and they are what they choose to be. I have no right to approve or disapprove.

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Talking of decisions, I think I’m going to stick with Open Live Writer for my blog editor, well at least for the time being. It doesn’t seem to work too well with images as my entry into the Weekly Photo Challenge shows. I could not get the images to show how I wanted them too, and it looks a little like a rushed job. The blog template in Word seems to be better and so does the WordPress editor. Both appear to have better options for working with images.

A recent idea (as recent as five minutes ago) flashed across my mind. That was, I wonder if I could create an Infographic image of the pictures I wanted to post. I have seen a lot of Infographics floating around on the internet, and have been wondering for a while on using the idea. Not sure if it will work for a collection of images, but I think it will make positioning of the pictures a little easier.

I have that “must test this out” feeling coming over me again, so expect some more ‘quick’ posting over the next week or so.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Symbol

/ Tony / 2 Comments

I thought I would have a go at this. I’m not sure if it will work (fingers crossed I’ve got it right.)

I have been a fan of old British films for a long time now, and the first one I remember watching and enjoying was Brief Encounter. For those who don’t know the film, it is set in the Forties, when a suburban housewife and a doctor meet at a railway station and fall in love. Their love is doomed as both of them are from backgrounds that shunned extra marital affairs. The film starred Trevor Howard (real brother of Ashley Wilkes from Gone With The Wind) and Celia Johnson, and was written by Noel Coward.

The station where they meet is the station at Carnforth in the North West of England. K*** and I were having a few days break, and I wanted to see the place. It was a great few days away (a wedding anniversary actually, but don’t ask me which one) and the trip to Carnforth was one of the highlights.

I have a lot of photos from the trip, but this one is of the station tearoom, where the couple met and ultimately parted. The tearoom has been faithfully restored to the same as it was when Brief Encounter was filmed, and it was quite an unusual feeling to be sitting in the same room, effectively where two famous stars of the classical days of British film sat. I have tried to work out the actual position where we sat, in relation the film, but that was too difficult. A beautiful symbol of a bygone age that has been lost forever.

Odd experience – Blogging with Word 2013

/ Tony / 1 Comment

This is a bit of an odd one.

I usually use Word 2013 as my content editor. As I understand it there has been a Blog Post template since Word 2007, but it was only when I started using Office 2013, that I realised. It works very well. One of the down sides is that whilst it allows you to post Categories, tags are not handled. You can get around this by posting as draft and adding them from the WordPress (WP) editor.

Back to my ‘odd experience’. I sat up last night until just after 11:30, writing a blog post about the team building away day. Everything went well until I came to add the category and I got an error message basically telling me that Word could not get the category list from WordPress. Not a problem I thought, must be a glitch somewhere, I’ll post as draft anyway. But that failed with another error message telling me that Word could not register my account at WordPress. “That’s a bit stupid” I thought, my account is registered. Time for Google!!. There were lots of messages out with the same errors that I was getting. None of them very helpful but ranged from “reinstall Office” down to “use Blogger instead. After about 45 minutes, I gave up and resolved to try again today.

I was up around 8am and tried again. Same errors! “This is not good” I thought, “I’ll try Windows Live Writer (WLW)”. That worked, but as you cannot post draft from WLW, I had to be quick to check how the post looked.

As a last resort I rechecked Google for help and hidden amongst** the “reinstall everything” posts, there was one, that I had not seen the night before, that explained a fix that might work. This was:

  1. Open the Blogpost template
  2. Click on ‘Manage Accounts’ from the Blog Post tab
  3. Select the WordPress account and remove it
  4. Close down Word and reopen it
  5. Open the Blogpost template and you will be asked to set up a blog account
  6. Enter your WP details then restart Word

Ta Dah!! Everything back to normal and I’m happy again.

** Another one for you grammar hawks … ‘among’ or ‘amongst’ … which is more correct? I prefer ‘amongst’ as you can see!

Where does it all come from …..

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Like many people, I suppose, I take advantage of the spam filter   (Akismet) that is built into WordPress.com editor. I find it extremely good at catching the rubbish that certain people like to try and mess up my blogs with. Many of them are seem to be simply adverts for unwanted and unusable services, but occasionally something arrives, that makes no sense at all. A case in point is the text of the latest bit of SPiced hAM to hit my blog this week. I have copied into a graphic above. As you can see, it is gibberish. Now what, I ask (mainly to myself) is the point of this? Does the author think that we are that stupid as look at this text and say “There’s a website I must visit”?

My second point with this, is how does this ‘Monkey Gibber’ actually get to be an attempted post? When I found this particular gem, my stats for the day was showing no visitors and no views. As I understand it, if someone visits my blog, it is recorded as a visit. So how did it get posted if there was no visit? Anyone any ideas?

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Next week should be fun! When we moved to this house, nearly 20 years ago, we brought with us a double wardrobe that had sliding, full length mirror doors. About 10 years ago, K… decided that she wanted a fitted wardrobe and that the mirrored one was going to go in the youngest lads bedroom. This worked quite well until he started having some serious anger problems, which resulted in the mirror on doors being smashed. Of course, as is usual we were unable to purchase replacements due to the design being no longer available. So for the past four years, that particular robe has had no doors. A few months ago, K… decided that she wanted him to have a real wardrobe and one was ordered. It is going to be fitted next week. But …. Before it can be fitted, the old one has to be dismantled, and the floor made good enough for the new on to stand on. That is my job on Wednesday. Much fun! You see, two years ago we had real wood laminated floors fitted in that room, but not in the wardrobe space as it would have meant dismantling and rebuilding the thing. I have a strong suspicion that K… was planning this all along.

I suppose it could be called interesting …

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The day started quite well, this was yesterday and I know I’m a day late but I’m still recovering!!! So it was explained to me that it was a meeting with H****, the person who had done a ‘sensory assessment’ for R*** to explain the results of the assessment and how we can move forward. That’s how it was explained and that’s what K*** thought was going to happen.

It was quite a pleasant drive, and the traffic was a lot lighter than the last time we drove that way, a couple of weeks before. As a result, we arrived a good 25 minutes early. We of course tried to convince ourselves that it was better to be early than late. Eventually H**** appeared and invited us into the meeting room. As we entered the room, my heart sank and my brain went into overdrive or maybe meltdown, I’m still not sure which.

The room was set out with 4 tables, each with 2 chairs, and each table had a number of ‘tactile’ objects. “What’s this?” I asked K***, already knowing what it was. K*** shook her head and said she did not know. I could feel the frown lines on my head beginning to deepen. It was not just a meeting, it was a course. It was a ‘session’ and I hate that kind of thing, even when I know to expect that kind of thing. Another 3 nameless people came in along with the community nurse, J** that we knew. There was one of the large ‘boom box’ type cd players, pumping out some quite loud music. The ‘meeting’ started with H**** giving a brief introduction whilst the music was still belting out. K*** told H**** that she could not hear and received a smile and a nod in response.

The music was then turned off, and we realised that it was part of the ‘session’. It went on for nearly 2 hours with a couple of ‘exercises’ in which we were made to feel a little stupid. The first one, and the most stupid of all, was when we had to wear a blindfold, rubber gloves and were told to unwrap this object, then cut it into 4 pieces and place one piece in our mouths. I tried for slightly less than 30 seconds before stopping. It was supposed to show give us an indication about sensory deprivation. I felt stupid and angry, especially when we were told that ‘two people had done it yesterday’!!!!!

As I mentioned earlier I hate this kind of interactive group work. I have never understood why anyone would think it has any kind of benefit. To my mind, the only people that get anything from these ‘sessions’ are the people that organise them. So to all you that put normal people through the torment of ‘role play’ or ‘group session work’ or whatever you like to call them, just ask yourselves “Does everyone like this kind of thing?” I think you may find the answer is a huge NO!!!

What, when and why blog ?

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     And I think you can add “How” to that list too. I’ve been blogging for a couple of years now, well to be exact, I have had a blog for a couple of years. Over the past few weeks/months, I have been thinking about what it means to me. So I have decided to put down in writing “What, when and why I write a blog. Hopefully it might be generate some interest. I can but try.

What

     Well, I suppose what I write about is me. My opinions. My perspective on life, if you please. I sometimes write on topical subjects, but it is mainly about my life at home and work and family. A lot of the stuff I write is things that anger me. And there are a lot of things that anger me! It is a kind of release, when I can put down in words the frustration I sometimes feel. But then again, I often write, just about things that have happened. Everyday mundane things, and often when I read them back, I think ‘does anyone really read this rubbish’. I’ve often wondered if I would be better picking a subject, and writing about that. That is one of the main thoughts that passes through my head, when I sit down to write a blog post.

When

     I don’t have a fixed schedule for blogging. I just do it when  ever I fell like it. Or if there is something I want to get off my chest. When I first started, I wrote every day. Not large volumes, just a paragraph or two. I soon found that trying to keep that up was difficult. Quite often I write when something has happened that is out of the ordinary. I suppose most of the time, I write late at night, whilst waiting for the youngest to get off to sleep. Mrs H goes off to bed, then for then next half hour or so, we try and get R*** to settle. That 30 or 40 minutes is when I like to write. Very occasionally, I will write something at work, and email it to myself, to write up in the blog later.

Why

     Now that is the big question! Why? Why do I write a blog? In the beginning, I think it was because it appeared to be the thing to do. After all, everyone was blogging weren’t they ? Well I very soon realised that not everyone was doing it. In fact, out of a department of around 70 people, I was the only one blogging. As I was writing something every day, it became like a kind of diary. But that was not what I wanted. I did not want to bore anyone who read my stuff, with mundane day to day trivialities. Now, one of the reasons I blog, to keep up my interest in writing. I want to write more creatively, and have been advised, that I should ‘just write and write often’.

     I was asked recently, if I get lots of comments or hits on my blog. I of over egged and said yes. In reality, I don’t get many hits and I get very few comments, but it does not stop me. So I suppose, that one of the main reasons for writing a blog is to be read. To have something to say that might be of interest to someone else.

How

     My main blogging client, is Windows Live Writer. I have used Blogdesk, which was very good, but does not work with Windows 7. I also tried a strange program (or should I be very trendy and call it an ‘app’) called Raven, or Zoundry Raven. I did not have much luck with that one. I recently had a trial at using Word 2010. It was okay, there was a lot it could do, but as a fellow blogger said “….it was like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut…..” and I think that just about sums it up. For the time being, Live Writer ticks all the boxes.

 

So where am I now…

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I suppose that is not such a good title for a post, but then I’ve never been good with post titles. So…where am I now. Well work wise, things are moving on quite well. There still some issues with my previous position, but they are few and far between now. I have yet to get a permanent desk. Where I’m sitting at the moment is quite a good position. The person who will be a kind of mentor to me sits quite close by, and it is all together a good siting for a base. I do need a desk I can call my base, or ‘My Desk’ if you will. It makes me feel more of a permanent fixture in the team. Team, now there’s a word which I have not been able to bandy around for a while.

Mrs H problems with her arm, seem to have settled down now much more. Her arm is still very stiff at times, but the scar seems to be fading a little. Of course she can’t see that, and to her it looks horrendous. But it is nowhere near as bad as she thinks it looks.

R*** has got his placement at the college we want him to go to. It is a 50 week placement, with 2 weeks at home over Christmas. It will be 5 days a week, and we have even got the respite of 3 days per month at the same place. He has had one visit and there does not seem to be any issue with him. His one to one support worker thinks it will be great for him. Especially with the activities they are planning. I think the funding is only for 1 year, so we will probably have to go through the same stress next year !!!

The village play S**** was in last month went down very well. So well in fact, that they are taking it to another drama group to perform. It is something that some of the group have been looking at for a some time. Many of them though, just want it to be a ‘Panto’ group, with a few diehards that do something in the summer. S**** thinks that they could do lot more. He has got his name down at a quite famous Leeds drama society. They are doing a pantomime in January, and he is hoping for some kind of role in that. Fingers crossed, but he should hear something early September.

My car has been a bit unwell. It has been making a loud noise for a week or so. Someone said,that it sounds “…like a tank trying to fly…”. I did not think it sounded that bad, but then I was inside. It was only when S**** went to pick someone up last week that I really heard what it sounded like. I ummed and erred for a couple of days, but when the headlight failed, I thought I would call in the repair shop and have it looked at. I was expecting it to be a big bill, but it still came as a shock when he quoted the price. “The full exhaust needs replacing, it will take about 2 hours, and it will be £395.45.” In the end, the job took nearer 5 hours, but they charged me the quoted price, so I cannot complain about that. So I’m a bit lighter in the bank balance now. Mind you, I’ve had the car 7 years, and apart from MOT and servicing, this is the first major repair it has needed, so I think it is doing quite well. Of course, I’m now doing 100 miles a week more than before, which I suppose doesn’t help.

Review for second story …..

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Well, not so much a review, more a ‘requested critique’ if there is such a phrase. A casual ‘tweet’ from a fellow tweeter, led to me mentioning to @leztoomey (www.leetoomes.co.uk/) that I had written a short story. This further led on to him telling me to send it to him for a look. He read it, kindly said he liked it and offered some excellent advice. Many thanks for that. Take a look at his website.

I re-read the story, as a reader, rather than a writer, and he was of course correct. I now know that I have the bare bones of a story (not even a skeleton yet). I also know what I need to do, to turn it into a story. I think I have to develop the characters more. So I am going to take both main characters, and create a simple biography for each one. I’ll not necessarily use all the biog in the story, but I’ll at least have a good basis to involve them in the story. I think then I will have to define a formal structure for the story, and begin there. This could be an exiting time.

Free anti-virus

/ Tony / 1 Comment

Who uses free or freeware antivirus software, and which do you use.

For many years I have used AVG in it’s many free versions. I have never used a paid service, and have never felt the need to do so. Yesterday, I foolishly clicked a link on Facebook. I was trying to hide the post (or so I say) but hit the link instead. Almost immediately, AVG warned me of the threat, and dealt with it. As a precaution, I decided to do a full scan. Lo and behold, a trojan and a number of variations were found. These, unusually found in the uninstall files. As expected AVG dealt with the problem. A quick Google told me a little about the trojan, but also alerted me to the fact that AVG was reporting the infections, but that they were false positives.  I then had problems removing the so called ‘infections’, but AVG would not let me access them. The only way round was to disable AVG, restore the ‘infected’ files, unistall the software and download the latest versions. This done, I restarted AVG, only to be told that the files we still infected. Arghhhhhhhh.

I then decided that AVG was the problem, and it had to go.

I am now using Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE), and was just interested what others use.
(btw  MSE did not find any of the trojans that AVG found – is this a worry?)

Having a go …….

/ Tony / 2 Comments

I’ve decided to have a go at ‘proper writing’. Well a short (very short) story anyway. I spotted a competition, in the Wetherby News, to write a short ghost story for the Friends of Harrogate Library. I mulled over it for a week or two, then decided I had nothing to lose, and so, inspired by a fellow WordPress blogger (Sue Healy) I had a go. The competition closes on the 5th November, so I hope to hear something soon after. Fingers crossed it is not all bad.

Remember I mention a so called email course I was doing. Turned out not to be as good as I thought. There should have been 18 parts to the course, however parts 10 through to 15 did not get emailed. I emailed them back and asked to re-send the missing parts, and left a message on their message board, but to no avail. I still have 6 parts missing, so a bit of a disappointment.

Apparently, the youngest escaped from his class again !! This time he was just in the school grounds, but again, no message from school !!! They either think, that it is not worth worrying about and that he was quite safe, or there is some other reason, which is even more worrying. I think Mrs H, may have to talk to the Head or Deputy Head.

Now another blog ….

/ Tony / Leave a comment

The Yorkshire Life blog is up and running. I’ve done a couple of postings. they are a bit brief, but I think that is what they want. When I get time, I am going to sit down and write out a plan, of what I’m going to write about. I want to try and write a few facts about where I live, a little about me and mine, and something about what is going on and what has gone on. I have an idea (and it only an idea at the moment) to maybe interview some people about them and the village, from their perspective. I have a number of people in mind, but again I will need some kind of plan, and of course, I’ll need their permission to publish.

Eldest lads job seems to be going well. From what was 15 to 20 hours a week, has now gone to 35 hours plus. He tells us he is enjoying it and I think he is doing. However, I think he is enjoying the income more. He paying for more of the things he wants now, and when he goes to the Red Lion, he now has money in his wallet, and can buy me a pint !!

Bit of worrying news last week. When the youngest was at school, a fortnight ago, he apparently got out of the classroom, and climbed onto the class roof. His class is in a ‘posh’ port-a-cabin, and he had climbed up the fence behind, and on to the roof. There has been a couple of occasions, when has got out of our garden, by climbing the fence, and it is a real worry, as because of his Autism, he has no sense of danger. Although, here there are not many roads, some drivers seem to think they can drive at 30mph. Whilst legally entitled to, it is dangerous, with children about. However, the thing that bothered us most, was the fact that school had not told us !!!! Mrs H rang school on Friday, and was told, that he had not been in any danger, and it was all sorted. Still, they should have told us.

Random post …..

/ Tony / Leave a comment

So what has happened since the last time. Well not much really. I finally got a reply from Yorkshire Life magazine in answer to their appeal for bloggers about ‘Village Life’. I am hopefully going to write a monthly blog for the magazine (think it is the online version) about the village I live in. It has taken a while for them to get back to me !!! At least three emails to the various editors with no reply. But yesterday the reply came. I posted off a quick introduction about me, along with a couple of (scary) photos, so we will see what happens. Quite excited really.

Eldest son has got a job !!! Well done him !! He dropped off a CV at the Costa WetherbyCosta Coffee in Wetherby, just after Leeds Festival. Had an interview just over a week ago, then a trial day on Sunday last, when they offered him the job. To say he was pleased would be an understatement !!! He had his first day on Wednesday. A bit tiring he told me and his mum. Then yesterday, they told him that after a month or so, they will train him to be a manager !!! He could not believe it.

The drama group have started their rehearsals for the pantomime in earnest now. They are doing Cinderella, and the eldest has got a comedy part, as Norris the Gnome. I will may be asked to to do the tickets again, but I may decline this time. I quite enjoy designing them, but I really like a free hand, and there were so many ‘want this/that’ requests, that it kind of took some of the fun away. We shall see.

I have signed up for some kind of free email course on creative writing. I will get an email every day for about 10 days, which I have to work through. It looked quite reasonable, and there seemed to be a lot of links to the site, from various ‘e-learning’ sites, so I though I would give it a go. It is a website called Email College. Nothing to lose I suppose. I will let you know what happens. If it is any good, then I have have a bash as one of the others.

Something new ……..

/ Tony / Leave a comment

For the past 18 months or so, I have been using Windows Live Writer (WLW) as my blogging client. Why ???? Well it was free, it was easy to use and many people say it is the best client, working with WordPress (ya……shout out for WordPress.) However, since Monday or maybe Sunday, WLW has been giving me problems. Serious pain in the arse !!!! What was happening, was that I would be hammering away on the keyboard, and suddenly WLW was no longer running. It shut down !!!! There was no warnings, no request to save, no ‘are you sure…’ just disappeared. A frantic Google search, hinted that the problem lie with IE8. So off I trotted to the Microsoft website and I re-installed IE8, together with all it’s updates and such. Did it work ????? Well if I say, that I’m now blogging via a desktop client called “BlogDesk“, then I think that the answer may be obvious. I have a strong suspicion, that the problems may be Firefox 5 related. I updated to FF5 around the same time !!! Hmmmmm.

At first glance (and I will know more when this post has been uploaded), it is striking similar to WLW. So it will not take too much getting used to, which is a blessing. Seeing is believing !!!!

Holidays start tomorrow. I have a half day, and then all the next week offImage. We are having a ‘family’ weekend away to the Lake District from tomorrow. That should be interesting. There will be fourteen of us in, what they call ‘A Lodge’. This is basically a seven bedded house with six double beds, and two twin beds. The sleeping arrangements are going to be ‘fun’ to say the least.

We come back on Monday, and R*** is then on respite until the following Monday. I don’t know how he is going to deal with that at all. I have to go into work for an hour on Friday (sodding IT) and Mrs H is at a meeting on Tuesday, so the week is a bit split up really. What with that and the fact that S**** has got drama rehearsals all week, the holiday is going to be different.

Well here goes. Let me know what you think.

A struggle

/ Tony / Leave a comment

     It has been a long time since my last post. The title says it all really. It has been a struggle. A struggle to think of something to say, time to say it, and a struggle to find a point in saying anything.

     When I started this blog, it was my solid intention, to post little and often. That went by the board, when I found that, at times, I did not have the time to post. Then it became a weekly post, and consequently, random posting. Now as I sit here, waiting for the youngest to shut down his PC and settle down to sleep, I’m yet again wondering "What am I doing this for??"

     My other blog, which is an information/bulletin board/website for a school PTA, is still on going. However, that relies on people giving me information to post, and it is not always forthcoming.

Here is a random idea !!!!!

     I’m trying to write a novel. I’ve written just over 500 words, and the theme of the story has changed from a fantasy type to more of a ‘life investigation’, if that’s the right phrase. I think I would like it be about how a person integrates into a new community, and the ups and downs that follow. This may not be the final theme though. I’m finding it difficult to settle into any form of creativity. I think I may post random updates, on how I’m getting on.

A reasonable weekend …

/ Tony / Leave a comment

   I got the decorating finished on Saturday. Well, when I say finished, I mean all done bar the woodwork. That is going to have to wait a day or two. Saying that, there is not a lot of wood to paint. Just the door frames and the skirting board, so 4 or 5 hours should just about do it. About an hour per night (some chance).

   Youngest was out with his support worker today. We got the usual ‘no out’ from him, but then suddenly, he was fine with it. Off he went, without any fuss at all !! Really surprising. Might be a different story tomorrow, as he is off on respite for 4 days. He does not know yet, or more to the point, we have not told him yet. I shall leave that one to Mrs H in the morning.

   A busy day tomorrow. D*** is off, and I have a lot of renewal letters to get out. Plus three new zones to get up and running. Then there are the notices, and the normal daily stuff. I managed to get the Index done this evening, but I’ll need to check it in the morning.

All’s well that starts well(ish)

/ Tony / Leave a comment

   My Speed Awareness course went very well. In fact, I have to say, that I actually enjoyed it. The course presenters (is that the right name ??) were excellent. I feel I can name them, as it is highly unlikely that they or anyone on the course will read this. Well done Jo and Gary. It was not what I expected. There was no blame, guilt or fault, in fact we were all made to feel, as if it was just a momentary lapse of concentration. Although, we were left in no doubt, that we had done something seriously wrong and got away with it. Still it’s done, and at the end of the day, I was more aware of the speed I was driving. So job done. Mind you, a couple of the people were real numpties. Some of the things they came out with were quite funny, and some were quite worrying. What I found a little strange, was that fact, that by the end of the course, I was convinced that I knew some of the faces. I probably didn’t, but a couple of faces looked familiar.

Wonderful …..

/ Tony / Leave a comment

   This afternoon, I had to get something out of the garage. For some reason, I happened to glance upward. What a wonderful surprise. There, circling about 100 foot above me was a Red Kite. Absolutely amazing sight. When I first saw the bird, it was into the sun, and I thought it was a Buzzard, but as soon as it turned, and I saw it’s tail feathers, I knew it was a Kite. I have seen a pair of Kites before, flying over the A64, near to the A1/A64 junction, so I assume they must be nesting in the woods at Bramham Park. It was a rare treat.

   Youngest has had a day without medication, which is unusual for a Saturday. We have had a couple of Saturdays, when he has only had two doses, but have never gone a full Saturday without any at all. We will now see if he can go though Sunday without meds too. That will be a great success. Of course, there have been a couple of moments during the day, when it has been difficult. It tended to be around the times when fireworks were going off, but even then, he has been remarkably calm.

   Talking of fireworks, it has been very quiet this year. Mrs H thought tonight would be the busiest night, but it has been no noisier than any other night this week.

   Eldest is not coming home this weekend. He is going to see Eddie Izzard at the MEN Arena tomorrow. He has been looking forward to it for months. To be honest, I did not think their tickets would arrive. But all credit to his flat mate, he had booked it okay. Enjoy son.

   Now, the big question is …… do I go for a run in the morning ????  Mrs H seems to think, that I should go every morning !! I don’t think that is a good idea, but a short run tomorrow might be a good thing. We shall see how I feel, as I would need to get out at about 7:30am, if I’m to have a go. Watch this space !!!!

Happy anniversary

/ Tony / Leave a comment

   A very good day all told. We had a trip out to the McArthur Glen outlet at York. I bought Mrs H the handbag and purse she wanted, White Swan Innand I got a pair of trainers. I’m thinking of doing a bit of running. I need to do some more exercise. We then had lunch at the White Swan Inn at Deighton.  Mrs H had her now usual, Seared Scallops, and I had Pan Fried Lambs Liver. It is a nice pub, but the meals are a little too substantial. The scallops were only a starter, but were sufficient. My liver was cooked very well, but there was a little too much. Another thing I like about the place, is that it is one of the few places around here, that serves Jennings Cumberland Ale. I tried it by accident when we were in Appleby, a couple of years ago, and it is now one of my favourite draught ales.

  I do have a gripe from today though. I picked up three pairs of trousers in the M&S shop. All were the same waist size (don’t ask), and all were the same leg size. Pair number 1, fitted on the waist, but the leg was about 4 inches too long. Pair number 2, were perfect in the leg area, but would not fasten around the waist. Pair number three were, again 4 inches too long, and this time would not meet at the waist. Where do they get their sizing from ???? Three pairs of trousers from the same shop, and all three different.

   Then, at around 4:30pm, we got a knock on the door. It was a guy who said he was from British Gas. He launched into questions, ticking boxes on his tablet computer. The first questions were ones that a British Gas person would know. But then he asked who we got are gas from (tick in the box), followed by ‘how much is your bill’. I told him I did not know, and that Mrs H looked after the bills. ‘Can I speak to her?’ he asked. ‘Not in’ I replied. ‘When will she be in’ he asked. I was now getting a little pissed off with the guy. ‘What is this about?’ I queried. He claimed it was about getting me cheaper bills. I explained that I was not interested. I had to repeat this three times before he gave up. He told me that British Gas was cheaper, than the company we get our gas from, but would not tell me where he got the information from. I cannot be doing with that type of cold calling, and eventually closed the door on him, when he asked me if I was happy paying ‘the German firm’ !!!!! I am sorely tempted to complain the British Gas about the incident. When I say I am not interested, that is it !!!! I am not interested. End of story !!!!

An interesting day…

/ Tony / Leave a comment

   Interesting, may not be the correct word here. It has been a very good day. Despite the rain when I was putting the washing out, and despite the fact that the bed sheet is too large for the dryer. R*** has been in an exceptional good mood. We have had singing and laughing and joking with him. There has been no violent outbursts whatsoever. He has eaten his meals without any fuss, if fact he seems to have eaten more today than i have seen him eat in a long time. The interesting fact though, is that he has had no medication at all. It is now 10:20pm and he seems like is is almost ready for bed. Just need to get him to turn his PC off. Fingers crossed.

   I sorted out the problem I had with the windows Recent Documents folder. It seems there is a bug in Office 2007. If you open and save a file, from within the application, be it Word, Excel or whatever, then no shortcut is placed in the windows Recent Documents folder. However, if you open the file from explorer then it does appear. I don’t know why I was that bothered really, as I never remember to look in Recent Documents. I usually tend to use explorer or open the file from within the application. Live and learn.

   Whilst I am on about Microsoft and windows. I recently downloaded, and installed the new Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) software. It got good reviews in the final beta stages, and even more when the product was released fully. It has been running for about a week now, and I decided today to remove it. Since installation, a number of basic actions, have been taking a great deal longer than usual. Applications like Windows Explorer taking 20 seconds to open, and memory sticks too. Now, I have AVG Free, Spybot S&D, Adaware,  Windows Firewall and Windows Defender. Do I really need yet another security product ?? MSE is supposed to be good, and from what I read, it is supposed to do away with Defender, but it cannot be a coincidence that as soon as I remove MSE, everything seems to get back to normal.

  Today is a bit of a blogging celebration. I have now posted everyday since 11 July 2009. Feeling really pleased with myself. It has sometimes been a bit of a bind, trying to think of something to post, but I have managed it, even if it has only been a short paragraph posted from my mobile. Here is to the next three months.