Of course the Farmer's Market had loads of them - in all shapes and sizes. It was a nice day, really late Autumn warm sunny day which made a change to all the wind and rain we've have recently. I had fun wandering the stalls, tasting and buying before a trip around the city. You can see where I went here.

I wander around the Cathederal which is one of the nicest in England and browsed the second hand books in the sun. I have to say I was tempted by a set of the County magazines from the 60's for two reasons. Firstly, every edition had something in by John Arlott but also the photography which was a county not of weekend vistors but of rural scenes and men making lobster pots. Have a look at my photographic attempts from today.

After a long drive back through the countryside I finally managed to do a little gardening, clean and finish off, at least for now, the Army work. All in all not a bad day.

Posted by Mark at 10:35 PM | Permalink

If there were any ghosts or gouls abroad last night we scared them off. Full from way too much beef and squash casserole, lemon pudding, beer and wine Richard, Martin and I staggered around the block to inspect the various halloween parties going on. Adrian down the road won, his whole front garden full of skulls, gravestones and pumpkin lamps.

My own feeble attempts to make a pumpkin lamp failed at the first hurdle. After trying Tescos (moved onto Christmas goods and pumpkin-less) I tried Sainsburys which had, next to the butternut squashes, a few ornamental guords. I rummaged for the most evil looking one (so evil it didn't have a label) and went to pay. Chaos ensued as it was unlabelled but after the supervisor was called, and with a little bargining I was an evil guord owner for 20p. So, last night I set about carving it. Only to find, after nearly loosing 3 fingers and dulling my best kitchen knife, that ornamental meant plastic and it could be used to score a decent six off at the local cricket field.

We had more luck with the Scooby Doo goodie bag and the luminous green wand, a great investment for 99p even though it wont last to the next day once it's chemicals are mixed.

I've nearly done all the clocks and rebuilt the laptop to get sound back meaning I can use it again as a wireless radio to listen to yesterday's From Our Own Correspondent and the last Home Truths, a funny and bittersweet review by Roger McGough of John Peel's work.

Later I need to put my uniform on and do some more work for the Army. For now I think a trip to the country and the Farmer's Market calls....

Posted by Mark at 9:48 AM | Permalink

No sooner have I got to grips with Blogs, Moblogs and Photoblogs than Podcasting comes along.

There's a good overview of this new innovation at Wikipedia which is always a good read and reminds me of those week by week encyclopedia's I got from Mrs Odey across the road when I was a lad.

There's a full break down on Podcasting here with some links to resources. I have enough trouble writing this let alone sitting down, thinking about what I want to say and then recording it, rendering it to some slim format and uploading it. That said, I can see the attraction and it does remind me of the excellent Letter from America which I always enjoyed and frequently forgot was on. I wonder what Cooke would make of this years election and the recent Osama Bin Laden tape.

Maybe I need to sit and surf these links and explore the Pod....

Posted by Mark at 9:33 AM | Permalink

I've been trying to solution this system all day long for the Army - it's simple as deals go but there's some aspects to it I simply don't know about like how much access to a Microsoft Active Directory server you need and just how Microsoft Content Management Server works. Throw into that the fact that I need to work out termination costs on my limited range of fingers and thumbs and this whole process is taking far too long.

I can see me working all weekend on this: grrr......

Posted by Mark at 9:31 PM | Permalink

A picture of the Sea Cadets parading at Trafalgar Square on Sunday ....

Posted by Mark at 3:36 PM | Permalink

OK well maybe thats a little better now ....

The upgrade was easy and brings this up to the most recent level of software. The template will do for not until I get a little time to play around with one and make it mine.

I managed to fix my laptop as well, a bad DIMM and trip to PC World and it's fixed. I'm really pleased with that as fixing it if it was hardware would be a pain and I really can't afford the time to find someone at work and get them to do it.

Now I just need to catch up with where I am with all the projects, calls email and faxes.

Posted by Mark at 12:40 PM | Permalink

We're going to upgrade - I have the latest MT upgrade from SixApart so after a backup it's time to upgrade to version 3 and get a new look .....

Posted by Mark at 8:24 AM | Permalink

All it's done all day long today has rain. Dark, oppressive and on the patio furniture, still arranged from the last time I was sitting there in the sun.

We're in that fast down slope to Christmas with the shops clearing out essentials to load up with mince pies, chocolate and all the other largess of this season.

I want to be back in Stockholm, Summer or Autumn, sipping spiced tea and watching the world pass a coffee house window.

Posted by Mark at 6:34 PM | Permalink

Looking at the use the site gets I'm tempted to do a makeover and then close it.

There's a few things which need to change for sure but on the whole the majority of it really doesn't get used at all. Maybe it's time to finish up then perhaps keep this going and publicise it via one of the main blog lists.

One thing you learn about running a site is you need to have a market, even at this level. Loose your market and things get dusty very quickly.

Posted by Mark at 1:25 AM | Permalink

The first time we heard that in the House of Commons in the First World War. After singing it in the Second World War, courtesy of Buck Ram (later the impresario behind the Platters), this phrase re-appeared this week for 650 soliders forced to prop up the might of the American Army. Was this a political move ? Without a doubt. The States can easily pull up that many troops to cover if required, the political capital of having UK troops in an alliance.

We will be tarred with the American way of conducting war, the shoot first and ask questions later. In an alliance, it's a two way street and part of assisting with this should be an undertaking that the taking of lives will be kept to a minimum.

Posted by Mark at 11:22 AM | Permalink

Ok here's a rundown on where we stand.....

- work - confused and needs sorting - all I seem to get is dregs to sift through and I really need a solid project to work on
- health - well I'm up to 20 pushups, 20 sit ups and an hours walk without throwing up most days so that's a start - I need to build in some time for swimming and sorting it out
- charity site - becalmed - I've done work but it needs them to drive it now - I should give up and not own and let them sort it or let it wither - I've kinda done my side of the deal so it's up to them
- BFP - it's stuck with assignment three and a dodgy report back - kind of like my school days

I need to sort a lot out .....

Posted by Mark at 7:13 PM | Permalink

Being online at home most days lets you use or waste a lot of time. To date I have to say I've wasted a lot on many inconsequential things which over the years haven't amounted to a lot. Trying to turn that around is a slow, long process of breaking old habits but slowly, slowly I'm getting there.

One of the benefits of being online is the access you get to a wide range of media. I've just re-installed Winamp and have been listening to the radio stations. The days tend to divide into two with classical during the day and jazz from Kjaz in San Francisco in the late afternoon and evening, when the sun's low in the sky and the room warms.

Just what you need - sun and Miles Davies.....

Posted by Mark at 5:02 PM | Permalink