I aint afraid of no ghost!

A while ago I was invited to take part in a paranormal investigation with Jason from Ashford Astro, it was originally scheduled to run through from October 30th through to October 31st. Unfortunately the event was postponed and was now going to take place on Saturday 12th November. This struck me as a good thing because the event wouldn’t be marred by the whole issue of All Hallows Eve.

over the following two weeks Jason mentioned that he had a total of five places to offer, I was definitely wanting to go so I asked him to book one for me, Lukey showed some interest and after giving it a bit of thought he decided he was in. Huzzah! Luke and I set off from foggy Folkestone at 16:00 heading for Jason's where we would trade up from the Ford KA to a Jag, and at 17:00 we set off to a place called Sible Hedingham in Essex, no I’ve never heard of it either!

Jason had mentioned that he expected the run to take about two hours, en route we chatted about our various experiences and what we could expect from the evening. Jason also gave us an insight into one of the chaps that would be there. The fella in question was going to be the medium for the evening, I have to be honest and say that I did develop some preconceived ideas about John, The image I had in my head was that of a Derek Acorah type who was probably a bit mad, I’m happy to say that was not the case. Jason's estimate for our travel time was spot on and we arrived at the venue just a tad before 19:00.

The venue was brilliant, the building dates from the 16th century and contained many original features. we were introduced to the other guests and John gave us a run down of how the event would progress and split us into teams. My initial thoughts of John were shattered as soon as I met him, he is a warm and welcoming chap who had none of the stereotypical attitude of certain media hungry mediums. He joked about himself and what he does, although he takes what he does very seriously. During the meet and greet and general chatting to get to know each other better I found myself being constantly drawn to a fireplace. The main fireplace was very impressive and a second, slightly smaller one, backed onto it from a room opposite. This room was used as the pubs restaurant, The fireplace was large, about five feet wide and three feet high. What was odd about was the fact that the whole thing was giving me that all to familiar urge to clamber in to see where it went. I’ve been near fireplaces that were much larger and never got that feeling before which is why I found it so odd. Earlier John had asked us all to mention anything that we felt or saw so I made him aware of the way the fireplace was affecting me. He said he’d tell me a bit more about it later in the evening. After a cuppa we were taken in to the restaurant where we were prepared for the event and we set off on the first investigation of the night.

We headed upstairs to the lounge, we investigated this area for about 25 minutes, one chap said that he thought he heard someone breathing in one corner of the room so many photos were taken. Although there was little in the way of actual activity a few people did say that they felt like they were being touched or pushed, oddly a lot of this seemed to be centred on the girly types, one person became very overwhelmed to the point that she was feeling ill and rather exhausted so the first investigation was bought to a close for a cuppa.

During the break we were all sitting chatting when the K2 meter started going mental so we started an impromptu EVP session, although the lights on the meter danced back and forth they were so intermittent as to be random, a few times the meter appeared to be responding to questions, but not often enough to be able to make a definite decision.

The second investigation took us to a bedroom that featured a large walk in wardrobe that had originally been used as small room and it still had the original doors. They were made from a very dark wood that might be oak, but I don’t know my oak from my willow. a few minutes into the investigation I put my hands on one of the doors, after a few seconds I had to move away from the doors, in fact the vibe I got from the doors was so overwhelming I had to leave the room. Once out of the room I calmed myself down and regained control of my emotions. Shortly after leaving the room John bought one of the lasses out of the room,he asked me to tell him what I had experienced. I told him that it felt as though a wave of every possible negative emotion had washed over me, hatred, anger, and bitter rage and it seemed as though it was all wrapped up in unbridled misogyny. John said that I had felt exactly what he expected.

We soon moved from the first bedroom to a second bedroom, no sooner had we all gathered in there someone said that they thought they heard a door close and went to have a look. It transpired that it was a cat flap being operated by one of the house cats. It was at this point I realised that the people I was with were not the sort that would hear something and straight away claim supernatural activity, go take a look and come back with some out landish tale of doors closing on there own, but were prepared to be honest and open. Sadly the second room yielded no activity of any sort so we left and returned down stairs for a break and a cuppa.

After this break we split into our arranged groups, the group I was in headed down to the cellar, unfortunately we experienced absolutely nothing, however the lack of feeling in both the cellar rooms was very noticeable. As a group we agreed that there was nothing of merit happening in the cellar we would head back upstairs to what was referred to as the hub.

After the first set of group investigations John asked for a volunteer to spend ten minutes in a part of the building known as the barn and then take a walk around the churchyard, I was up for that so I said I’d go. Into the barn I went where I spent my allotted ten minutes talking to myself, again no activity save for the ringing of a church bell and the hooting of an owl. Satisfied that the barn was a let down I headed for the church. Walking round the church was an odd experience. I expected to feel something simply because I was in a graveyard at stupid o’clock in the morning on my own. However I felt totally at ease, not even a little uneasy because of where I was, I must admit I found that a bit odd.

I returned to the pub where I sat watching a monitor that was showing the feeds from four IR cameras and chatted with the chap who was the tech for the event, I look forward to seeing the findings as there was some intriguing stuff.

One more investigation that also yielded very little. The other teams had slightly more eventful investigations towards the end of the evening, Jason reported that a plastic cap from a beer keg was thrown across one of the rooms in the cellar and that some plaster fell from the wall in the other, normally that would sound fairly mundane but Jason’s a sound minded chap and I’m sure that there was more to it than plaster just falling. Luke had some experiences in the barn, he told us that his group saw lights and were getting knocks on request.

After a while the event was bought to a close and Jason, Luke and myself headed home. I’m slightly less sceptical than before and I would certainly do more of these events, Luke tells me that he feels the same way.

I got home at around 08:30 on Sunday morning and went to bed, when I woke up I reviewed the audio recordings from my digital recorders, there’s nothing particularly unusual on the recordings except for the one from the very first investigation of the lounge, at about 13 minutes in there is what sounds very much like a growl or snarl, there were no animals in the room.

So there you have it, my experiences from my first, and hopefully not last, paranormal investigation. I met some cool folk and was made to feel very welcome.

In closing I send huge thank you to Jason for taking Luke and I along and also to the other folks who were there for the warm welcome and making us feel part of the team. Finally to the residents of the venue for allowing us into their home.

Blessed be.

A bad day

Every now and then I have to go to a gym, not to do rubbish exercises, it’s a work activity, a few months ago I was going along quite regularly and getting weighed every two weeks. I managed to shed about three stones, quite an achievement for me I thought. Many of my friends have noticed a reduction in my size and my clothes are noticeably looser. Today I went back to the gym for the first time since March and got on the scales, I was a bit annoyed to learn that I’ve gained half a stone. One of my mates has signed up to a site that helps you track the calorific intake and exercise you do. It’s a well known fact that me and exercise aren’t the best of mates but I think I need to start doing a bit more. According to the blurb that healthy types blabber on about, doing 30 minutes of light exercise that gets you slightly out of breath will help you get closer to an ideal weight. So tomorrow is, with the best of intentions, the start of a new regime. I plan to walk home after work, From work to home is approximately 1.5 miles and should take about half an hour, so that should do the trick. I’ve signed up to the same web site to aid in my efforts so all I need to do now is find the will power to stick to my guns regarding the calorie intake. If I’m honest, that’s where I’ll struggle. I have a very sweet tooth and a tendency to over do things where cake is concerned so I think the thing to do here is avoid the cakes all together. Whilst I’m happy to walk home after work I don’t fancy the idea of walking home in the rain, I want to lose a bit of weight, not contract double manflumonia.

On a more serious note our little Ujio headed off to Ashford via the lukeymobile this morning, he’s, Uji not Lukey, off to have an operation called a Femoral Head and Neck Excision, basically the ball on the top end of his femur is being removed. It sounds horrid and I don’t doubt that it is. Because of the seriousness of the op, Uji will be staying in Ashford overnight and Sue will be taking us to collect him if he’s allowed home tomorrow. Herself called the vet earlier and was told that he’s had the op and it she was told that the procedure had gone well and to give them another ring a bit later for a more detailed update. The good news is that he’s up and about and walking on three legs, he’s had a howl and had something to eat and drink. All very good signs that he’s doing ok and he should be home tomorrow, even if only because of the howls. I’m sure he’ll be up to no good and bothering his sisters in no time. Plus herself will be able to relax when he’s back where he belongs.

So with Uji doing well, Ronnii bathed and Izzy looking longingly at herself in the hope of a pickled onion Monster Munch, I shall leave it there.

 

TTFN

Exercise is good for, apparently

Yes I know it’s been a while but things have been a bit up and down of late, herself has been very poorly after more radiotherapy and I’ve been a bit lacking in motivation. We returned to the Western Heights a week ago.

On the Saturday before I was at the shop and struggling with the early stages of a bit of a cold. I played a quick game, which I won, and then Sue ordered me to go home based on her conclusion that I looked like I had recently died. So I did as I was told, a rarity for me, and headed home. Upon arrival I told herself that I was being pursued by the grim reaper and was going to bed. I have a rather odd immune system, A streaming cold usually results in me being out of action for a day or two, I went to bed and slept for a few hours. I woke up feeling groggy, herself gave me some pills before I went off. I rose at about 19:00 and joined herself in the front room. I continued to rest on the sofa and we had a relaxing evening. I went back to bed a bit later, took a couple more tablets and settled for the night wrapped up. by the morning almost all signs of the previous days malady had gone and I got a text from the Manky one saying that they’d be collecting me at 10:30. they arrived and we headed down to Cassa del Lukey to collect the rest of the party and then off to dover.

When we arrived at Saint Martins car park and were informed that a hole had been discovered, more info was soon forth coming. Apparently the hole was only big enough for the tiny girly type that was in attendance to squeeze into. We headed off to investigate, my response to the earlier assessment of it only being big enough for the girly types was a resounding PAH! In I went. Having spent my formative years curtailing the best efforts of girly types to join our group of young ne’er do-wells in our explorations of all thing Napoleonic, I wasn’t going to let a girly type get one over on me by exploring without me, it could be dangerous and there may be spiders and other things that make the girly types scream as they activate scaredy-cat mode. We spent about fifteen minutes exploring some rather spectacular passages and rooms and then we headed over to Saint Martins Deep Shelter as a few of the party hadn’t been there before. I never get tired of visiting the Heights and, hopefully, I never will.

Once we exited the Deep Shelter we headed over to the Redoubt. The place is as spectacular as I remember. It must be at least twenty years since I last visited the fort and it’s as grand as I recall. The Western Heights Preservation Society have done some brilliant work in restoring the place to it’s former glory. There was some chaps doing re-enactment who were equipped with muskets, they are rather loud. and the representatives of WHPS were on hand to answer questions about the fort.

We spent a good few hours there watching various displays of life as a British soldier during the Napoleonic wars before heading over to the grand shaft, which we descended with gusto, the problem was that once we reached the bottom, we had to climb back up. By the time I reached the top I was knackered. My knees were rather angry with me for making them climb up 150 steps, and they weren’t overly impressed with the fact that I had to climb more to return to the car park.

Despite the climbing of stairs and the deafening booms of the muskets, it was a fantastic day out. I looked over at the castle from the ramparts of the Redoubt and felt a longing to return to Dover Castle. I must chat with the chaps about it and get something planned.

Thursday 27th saw an impromptu trip to the shop to collect this months copy of White Dwarf, I’ve been looking forward to this issue more than any other this last year as it features the details of the new Necron models and codex. Something that has been long overdue since fifth edition was released. I know that I have a separate blog for the gaming events but the new Necron release is rather special, I shall be nipping down on Thursday to collect my order so that I can, with luck, have the new models painted and the new rules committed to memory in time for the next adult gaming day. It’s on the 20th November so I’ll have two and a bit weeks.

I was down at the shop again on Saturday, I played what could well be the last game I play with the Necrons using the old codex, I went up against Tau and won, huzzah.

Sunday saw me and five of my friends set off along the shore towards Samphire Hoe which lies between Dover and Folkestone, we managed to get about three quarters of the way there before we were blocked by the sea as it hadn’t quite gone out enough to allow us to walk along the final stretch. So we stopped for a spot of lunch before heading back.

On the way one of our number noticed a hole in the cliff, I don’t know how high up it actually is but it’s certainly higher than a three storey house. We reach the point on the walk near the hole, I gave it some careful thought and consideration and started to scramble up the cliff. I managed to get to a point that was probably twenty feet away from the hole. I couldn’t see a suitably safe path that would take me up to the hole so I decided to turn back. I probably took three steps away from the hole when it occurred to me that I was so close, how difficult could it be to cover the last stretch? So I spun on my heels and set off in an effort to reach the hole, surprisingly I made it! The tunnel I was stood in the entrance of was probably about ten feet high eight feet wide, it appeared to go back some distance. The entrance also house a six feet around steel tube that turned out to be a drain sluice. Well I figured I’d gotten this far so I might as well take a look inside the tunnel. I scrambled past the steel tube and headed along the passage. I had no idea what the tunnel was or where it went. As I progressed I felt the pressure in the tunnel change, “that was odd” thought I, but I continued in. I then started to hear a rumbling noise, I thought at first that it was just the sea being amplified, oh how wrong I was. suddenly the rumbling turned into a roar as a train screamed past the opposite end of the tunnel. I now realised what the tunnel is, it’s an old access passage for the Abbotts Cliff section of the railway line between Dover and Folkestone. Deciding that there was no point exploring any further I made my way out of the tunnel to find that Chippy had ascended the cliff in order to make sure that I was ok, apparently I’d been in the hole for ten minutes. It really didn’t seem that long, more like five.

I started my climb back down the cliff and I have to admit it was much easier getting up, I had a couple of worrying moments where I lost my footing or slipped on the clay of the cliff, but I made it down unharmed so all was well in the end. After we left the tunnel we headed back to the sea wall, shortly after we were back on stable ground we stopped for a short break and I swear I saw a penguin, it was only a little one but I’m certain it was a penguin. The chaps didn’t believe me and mocked me about it for the rest of the walk, but they can mock all they want, there so was a penguin, so there!

Eventually we made our way back to the East Cliff Pavilion and back to chez Lukey for a well deserved cuppa.

So there it is, an eventful week full of fun and excitement, I think the outings will be put on hold now until the warmer weather returns. (he says trying to sound all sensible)

Until next time…

Exercise is good for, apparently

Yes I know it’s been a while but things have been a bit up and down of late, herself has been very poorly after more radiotherapy and I’ve been a bit lacking in motivation. We returned to the Western Heights a week ago.

On the Saturday before I was at the shop and struggling with the early stages of a bit of a cold. I played a quick game, which I won, and then Sue ordered me to go home based on her conclusion that I looked like I had recently died. So I did as I was told, a rarity for me, and headed home. Upon arrival I told herself that I was being pursued by the grim reaper and was going to bed. I have a rather odd immune system, A streaming cold usually results in me being out of action for a day or two, I went to bed and slept for a few hours. I woke up feeling groggy, herself gave me some pills before I went off. I rose at about 19:00 and joined herself in the front room. I continued to rest on the sofa and we had a relaxing evening. I went back to bed a bit later, took a couple more tablets and settled for the night wrapped up. by the morning almost all signs of the previous days malady had gone and I got a text from the Manky one saying that they’d be collecting me at 10:30. they arrived and we headed down to Cassa del Lukey to collect the rest of the party and then off to dover.

When we arrived at Saint Martins car park and were informed that a hole had been discovered, more info was soon forth coming. Apparently the hole was only big enough for the tiny girly type that was in attendance to squeeze into. We headed off to investigate, my response to the earlier assessment of it only being big enough for the girly types was a resounding PAH! In I went. Having spent my formative years curtailing the best efforts of girly types to join our group of young ne’er do-wells in our explorations of all thing Napoleonic, I wasn’t going to let a girly type get one over on me by exploring without me, it could be dangerous and there may be spiders and other things that make the girly types scream as they activate scaredy-cat mode. We spent about fifteen minutes exploring some rather spectacular passages and rooms and then we headed over to Saint Martins Deep Shelter as a few of the party hadn’t been there before. I never get tired of visiting the Heights and, hopefully, I never will.

Once we exited the Deep Shelter we headed over to the Redoubt. The place is as spectacular as I remember. It must be at least twenty years since I last visited the fort and it’s as grand as I recall. The Western Heights Preservation Society have done some brilliant work in restoring the place to it’s former glory. There was some chaps doing re-enactment who were equipped with muskets, they are rather loud. and the representatives of WHPS were on hand to answer questions about the fort.

We spent a good few hours there watching various displays of life as a British soldier during the Napoleonic wars before heading over to the grand shaft, which we descended with gusto, the problem was that once we reached the bottom, we had to climb back up. By the time I reached the top I was knackered. My knees were rather angry with me for making them climb up 150 steps, and they weren’t overly impressed with the fact that I had to climb more to return to the car park.

Despite the climbing of stairs and the deafening booms of the muskets, it was a fantastic day out. I looked over at the castle from the ramparts of the Redoubt and felt a longing to return to Dover Castle. I must chat with the chaps about it and get something planned.

Thursday 27th saw an impromptu trip to the shop to collect this months copy of White Dwarf, I’ve been looking forward to this issue more than any other this last year as it features the details of the new Necron models and codex. Something that has been long overdue since fifth edition was released. I know that I have a separate blog for the gaming events but the new Necron release is rather special, I shall be nipping down on Thursday to collect my order so that I can, with luck, have the new models painted and the new rules committed to memory in time for the next adult gaming day. It’s on the 20th November so I’ll have two and a bit weeks.

I was down at the shop again on Saturday, I played what could well be the last game I play with the Necrons using the old codex, I went up against Tau and won, huzzah.

Sunday saw me and five of my friends set off along the shore towards Samphire Hoe which lies between Dover and Folkestone, we managed to get about three quarters of the way there before we were blocked by the sea as it hadn’t quite gone out enough to allow us to walk along the final stretch. So we stopped for a spot of lunch before heading back.

On the way one of our number noticed a hole in the cliff, I don’t know how high up it actually is but it’s certainly higher than a three storey house. We reach the point on the walk near the hole, I gave it some careful thought and consideration and started to scramble up the cliff. I managed to get to a point that was probably twenty feet away from the hole. I couldn’t see a suitably safe path that would take me up to the hole so I decided to turn back. I probably took three steps away from the hole when it occurred to me that I was so close, how difficult could it be to cover the last stretch? So I spun on my heels and set off in an effort to reach the hole, surprisingly I made it! The tunnel I was stood in the entrance of was probably about ten feet high eight feet wide, it appeared to go back some distance. The entrance also house a six feet around steel tube that turned out to be a drain sluice. Well I figured I’d gotten this far so I might as well take a look inside the tunnel. I scrambled past the steel tube and headed along the passage. I had no idea what the tunnel was or where it went. As I progressed I felt the pressure in the tunnel change, “that was odd” thought I, but I continued in. I then started to hear a rumbling noise, I thought at first that it was just the sea being amplified, oh how wrong I was. suddenly the rumbling turned into a roar as a train screamed past the opposite end of the tunnel. I now realised what the tunnel is, it’s an old access passage for the Abbotts Cliff section of the railway line between Dover and Folkestone. Deciding that there was no point exploring any further I made my way out of the tunnel to find that Chippy had ascended the cliff in order to make sure that I was ok, apparently I’d been in the hole for ten minutes. It really didn’t seem that long, more like five.

I started my climb back down the cliff and I have to admit it was much easier getting up, I had a couple of worrying moments where I lost my footing or slipped on the clay of the cliff, but I made it down unharmed so all was well in the end.

Eventually we made our way back to the East Cliff Pavilion and back to chez Lukey for a well deserved cuppa.

So there it is, an eventful week full of fun and excitement, I think the outings will be put on hold now until the warmer weather returns. (he says trying to sound all sensible)

Until next time…

Lordy lawks, what a bloomin’ week!

I haven’t been keeping up with blogging, to be honest I haven’t been able to put my mind to it. I should have done a post last Sunday but I was too knackered and sore so I thought I’d do it on Monday instead. bad idea as I was in more discomfort than Sunday. Why, I hear you ask, was I  so ache ridden. Well the reason is that on Sunday I went back to the Western Heights in Dover, this time there were more bods coming along and I had set myself a personal goal of accessing a part of one of the places we saw on our previous visit.

On arrival at Saint Martins car park we learned that some of the chaps were already in the deep shelter, this was a relief as I was sure that it would have been sealed by now. We spent some time exploring the shelter and accompanying Gun batteries before heading down to the Grand Shaft. Whilst exploring the gun placements it was noticed that Saint Martins Battery was running alive with the most annoying creature known to man, a beast so foul and toxic that the mere thought of them sends a shudder down my spine, my hair stand on end and my stomach churn. What vile animals could promote such feelings of dread and repulsion? Children! Don’t get me wrong, not all children are evil minions from a hell dimension, I actually do know a handful that are quite pleasant to be around and I can stand more than ten minutes of. The children that were out in force on Sunday however were the worst kind. CUBS, I assumed that they’d been taken there for a day of history, it seemed as though they’d actually been handed blue smarties and cheap cola on arrival and told to run free like little apes released from a zoo. There were some adults who were alledgedly supervising the little “darlings” by supervising I mean sitting on the floor scoffing cucumber sandwiches and nattering about who’s doing what to who and when*, whilst ocaisionally shouting things like “do be carefull” and “mind you don’t fall”. So wanting to put distance between us and the horrors we headed down to the grand shaft. After walking down a 200 year old flight of steps our ears were assaulted with the yelps and screams of yet more cubs. It transpired that the walk down may not have been in vain, the gates to the Grand Shaft were open, Woo Hoo! We made enquiries about the possibility of going down the shaft, only to be told, by a very glum adult cub that the shaft was only open for the cubs. I looked around at the 40+ kids who were running here and there in a pattern that could only be explained using the chaos theory. It seemed clear to me that they were more interested in playing “hit the small kid with a stick” than the history of their surroundings. So having no luck with Captain Grumpy we headed away from the Grand Shaft and I led the party in search of a Tunnel that I half remembered, sadly my memory painted a better picture of the tunnel so we  made our way towards the engineers tunnel via a route that was last trodden by Raptors, or so it seemed. Fortunately it turns out that badgers are excellent path finders and he soon had us back on track. As we were walking through the early Cretaceous forest I noticed that an access door to the Drop Redoubt was open, my heart stopped. I absolute do not condone vandalism and I would not damage a property to gain access, but if someone else has chosen to make access possible, I would certainly take advantage of it. I mentioned To the Badge that if we could get in, we would go for it. Further along our walk we saw a group from the WHPS (google it) on one of their work days. When we got to them we enquired about the chance of a walk round the redoubt, we were politely told no as there was already a tour in progress and the next one, at 2pm would probably be full, of cubs, and Health and f*****g safety wouldn’t allow us to just wander around on our own. We decided not to wait and headed off to the North Entrance. After scrambling through a very small hole into the drawbridge mechanism pit we tried to find a way of getting up to the top of the fifteen feet wall to further explore the place. We managed to get a fair few of our number up and it was so very worth it. during the explore of the system I took a picture of a hole that I fell down in my now distant youth and we eventually headed out and on to the Detached Bastion where we finished a brilliant days exploring.

That’s about it, no painting or astronomy this last few weeks as Smiffy’s been away with work and family commitments and the sky’s been rubbish.

Hopefully there’ll be something a bit more exciting over the next few days. but before I go I would like to bring something to you attention.

Please visit the website below and read the info then sign the petition. Lets work together to save the little chaps life.

http://www.savelennoxpetition.co.uk/

Thank you

One day like this a year would see me right.

So where was I? You know about the new scope, right? Yeah ok so did we talk about the day out fossil collecting? No? ok so that’s where we start, Sunday June 3rd, I’d arranged with a few good mates to head off down to Cliff End for a spot of fossil collecting, unfortunately the weather, and the tide was against us. So not a great deal of fossils were found and rain stopped play. We headed back to Rye for a pint and then headed our separate ways. To be honest if it hadn’t been for the company, I would have been rather disappointed with the day. Oh well some things just aren’t meant to be. 12 days later I’d planned to get together with a few friends again to view the total lunar eclipse, the weather put paid to that too. I spent the next two weeks carefully watching the weather forecast to keep an eye on how things were shaping up for the 3rd July. With June being unusually cold and wet I half expected today to be a complete wash out. Having no alternate arrange as stand-by a cancellation due to poor weather would have been bad form. I woke up and snuck in to snatch Uji from his Mommas arms so that she could get a bit of a lie in and I took the pups down stairs for their breakfast. I spoilt myself with a bowl of sugar puffs. I generally don’t bother with breakfast but today I figured I’d need the extra kick and sugar puffs do the trick quite tastily. When herself arose I took Ronnii for a quick stroll and headed down to chez Luke to join up with the rest of the away team. After a quick brew we headed off to Dover and the Western Heights car park.

The first port of call would be the Knights Templar church and then over to Saint Martin’s battery. Since we were there I thought I’d look to see if the deep shelter was accessible, to my surprise and elation it was, I won’t go into details on the how, suffice to say we could get in, oh sweet joy. After a minute or two getting everyone in we began exploring what is a short tunnel system that was built in the 1870’s, it was used as a shelter for troops during the first and second world wars, after a short walk along the ground level passage that gently slopes down and turns to the right, we reached the top of a flight of stairs that headed down to the main shelter area. The construction of the shelter is similar to the construction of the tunnel complex in the cliffs above the Eastern Docks and the deep shelter of Lydden Spout. It features two long passages that have rooms between them. These rooms would have served as sleeping quarters for the men who manned the guns that defended the towns’ western side. After the deep shelter, we head down from the battery and through the wooded area below where we came across the main entrance for the deep shelter. Sadly this is not accessible, rumor has it that a major collapse has long since filled it in. After a bit of debate it was agreed that we’d skip the Grand Shaft and head straight over to the Drop Redoubt Fortress. Work on this imposing building started way back in 1779 and was completed in 1807. It was built as part of the defenses for Dover during the Napoleonic war, but fortunately never saw action. Work continued through the 1800s and many features were added, including five bomb proof casemates. Four Caponiers were added with access to the top of the redoubt; officers’ quarters and cells were also added. During the Second World War the Redoubt was home to a squad of commandos who were under orders to destroy Dover Harbour if the enemy managed to invade the country. This unit of commandos was top secret and the lines leading to the fort were mined. Also on top of the redoubt can be found the Bredenstone, also known as the Devils drop of mortar. It is actually the remains of a second roman pharos that stood opposite the one located in what is now the grounds of Dover castle. After a walk around the Redoubt we walked along the lines and headed to the north entrance, although we managed to gain access through into the machine room that still houses the mechanism for operating the drawbridge, access to the main sections of this part of the defences is near impossible without strong rope and the ability to climb walls like Spiderman. One of our number, the smallest and lightest was elected to scale the remains of a severely rusted spiral staircase that would have been incredible in its time. When it was realised that the spiral went up but nowhere else we gave up on the North Entrance and scrambled out again. I did find a toad, but it may have been a frog, I can’t tell the difference, I’m not sure there is one really. We then set off for the detached bastion. A really nice walk through wooded, almost glade like, area that could be a million mile from the town and a million years in the past. I did worry that we may have disturbed a pack of Raptors when one of the away team sneezed like a girl. We even threatened to have him sorted out by a Diplodocus, it didn’t work and he sneezed again, no raptors though. Odd that I can be relieved and disappointed at the same time. Finally we reached the access point for the bastion; my heart sank when I saw that it had been sealed with half inch thick steel plating. we’d come so far and I must admits my hopes were rather high, so I thought I’d have a walk round the western side of the caponier to see if there was another entrance. As we turned the corner we spotted someone leaping out of the building, apparently when Dave tapped on the steel plate with his stick he put the fear of the Rozzers into the youngsters that were there. Initially they were a bit concerned that we may have been there to tell them off for being there, they were rather relieved when we told them to make way as we wanted in. The detached bastion was commenced in 1804, also as part of the Napoleonic defences, however because some chap in wellies sent old boney packing at Waterloo it wasn’t completed. It was added to in 1859 but still incomplete. After 1945 it was no longer needed by the military and abandoned. Then Her Majesties government turned the, rather grand, citadel into a youth detention centre and many of the passage ways were blocked of and sealed up to prevent the inmates doing a runner.

I had a thoroughly brilliant day and visiting the playground of my youth restored some very happy memories and we must do it again. I haven’t told the guys that there are other parts to explore, and although they’re not as grand as the places we visited today, the western outworks are worth a trip as it rounds of the exploration of Dovers hidden past. I’m sure the chaps would be up for it. What has surprised me is that I can still squeeze myself into the places still. Next year I shall watch out for the open day and we can visit the redoubt and get a look inside, that would make for a good day out and has the added bonus of being able to ascend the Grand Shaft.

It is, however, a great shame that the tunnel systems and fortifications are being allowed to fall into such a bad state of neglect and disrepair. Although I like the fact that the pathways in the lines on the western side of the lines twist through thickly wooded areas and I wouldn’t want to see that cut back, I would like to see the buildings at least partially restored and the walls given a coat of white wash to cover the graffiti.

Ok, so I lifted the title of this entry from a song, but it’s very pertinent to the day. It was spent with some very special friends and in some very special places. Not much could have made it better, save the presence of my nearest and dearest, and one or two friends who shared my childhood adventures on the western heights. Some are still around; one left us all too soon. So I dedicate today’s entry on this blog to tunnel rats old and new.

By the way, pictures of the day are available to view on Facebook and Picassa, a video will also be available once I’ve converted and edited it.

I'm making perfect sense, you're just not keeping up.

Hello, sorry it’s been a while, I have to be honest nothing much has happened in my wild and, more than slightly, off kilter world. We have a new member of the family, he arrived a few weeks ago and already he’s worked his way into my, far too soft, heart. He’s only a little one so we should have many happy years with the little fella. His full name is Ujio Pocket Samurai, Uji for short and he’s a Chinese Crested, for those not in the know it’s a breed of dog. He’s mostly bald with just a few tufts of hair around his feet, on the end of his tail and on his head, hence the crest. He’s a lively little thing and we I was a bit worried about how Ronnii would react to him. It’s turned out rather well, she growls at him now and then and the other day we had a moment where she put him in his place and he did the doggy equivalent of a panicky squeal, but he does that a lot, I gently put my hand on him and with the noise he made you’d have thought I touched him with something red hot with the noise he made. We think he may be a complete wimp, one of the many good things about having a very young pup, he’s coming up to 15 weeks old, is that he’s very playful and this has bought Ronnii in touch with her inner pup a bit. She’s had a go at playing and she and Uji have had a couple of gentle playfights. these are a joy to watch as Ronnii is such a quiet little thing, she gets a bit excited when she sees her lead and does what can only be described as jumping for joy. At the moment Uji’s a bit of a handful, but once he’s got the grasp of house training there aren’t many problems we’ll need to over come. I haven’t told Trudes yet but I am becoming rather fond of the little man, Sunday Trudes went to her folks for the day and the three of us had a very relaxed day with some quality bonding time. I’m please that Ronnii’s taken to him though although I suspect that because he’s so young there may be a possibility that she may get a bit protective of him. If you visit Ujis blog there’s a video of them playfighting, I have to admit it is rather sweet to see.

On Friday 20th May Trudes took delivery of a very large box that was addressed to me. The box contained a box, which contained another box, inside box number 2 was another box. Inside this third box was three smaller boxes and a shiny tripod. In the three smaller boxes were the optics and controller for the telescope that connects to the tripod. I am now the proud owner of a Celestron Nexstar 127 SLT Maksutov-Cassegrain Astronomical Telescope. All I need now is a decent clear night to give it a run and get first light, I suspect the first object I see through it, other than the alignment stars, will be Saturn. It’s quite high in the sky fairly early on in the evenings so it’s a brilliant target for telescopes. There will also be some really wonderful objects to view as the year goes by and I’m looking forward to some great nights observing and, if all goes well, sharing those observing evenings with some fairly stellar mates, Do you see what I did their? There are two things that I am really looking forward to seeing through the new scope, the Moon is one, it’s going to be rather special, and Jupiter! Oh that is going to be absolutely mind blowing! Fortunately I have an adapted webcam for Astrophotography, one of the things that the 127 SLT is particularly useful for is lunar and planetary viewing so I should get some really good images, watch this space! Amongst all the bits and pieces that were in the box was a screwdriver, sadly it wasn’t sonic! I am so pleased with the scope I think I shall call it Winona!

There hasn’t been much in the way of painting over the last few weeks, but with the short nights ahead I should use that time to get on with the stuff that needs doing

Something silly!

A disclaimer: The blog author wishes to make it abundantly clear that the text below does not infer or imply a dislike of all things American. This post is not intended as a racial slur or a rant in favour of Anti-Americanism. The intent is to promote the humour inherent in the views of those who are passionate about the television series Doctor Who.Over the last few days I’ve been active in an online discussion based on the statements below:

The latest Pirate outing for the Who shows the commercial desire to beg fiscal favour from the American market.
An obvious pillage of Depp's franchise, as to make the Who instantly familiar to the American audience
The previous episodes were festoon with star spangled reference
To flatter to enrich BBC coffers
Isn't there a basic essential Englishness to Who?
And aren't we losing it as commercial forces corral to Americanise the franchise?
All the great American standards will be s[t]ucked into the creative vortex as Moffat resells the Who as distinctly American in flavour.
Expect future programs to include: Western, War Movie, Romantic Comedy, Horror, Action, Gangster, Melodrama, Social Conscience, Musicals

The author of that twaddle continually refers back to this as a support for the debate, when some makes a post that disagrees with or disproves his claims they are either ignored or the comment is cherry picked for any possible comment that supports the opening comments.

I did a bit of research and looked through the last few years of Doctor Who episodes, I was intentionally looking for any link, no matter how tenuous, to the Americanisation of the series, this is what I found:

Rose: The first thing we see is the American continent from space, the episode also features a conspiracy theorist, the episode also features animated shop window dummies.

End of the world, A song by American band REM, robotic spiders similar to those in Runaway with Tom Selleck and Minority Report.

Dalek: set in Utah and features many American characters.

The long game, Adam Mitchell leaves a message on an answerphone, the first commercially available answerphone was in the US.

Fathers day, the first time the tradition of Fathers Day was observed it was in Fairmont West Virginia.

The Empty Child: American Air force, “Are you my Mummy?” The modern series of Mummy film star Brendan Fraser, he’s American don’t you know!

The Doctor Dances: features music from American band leader Glenn Miller.

Boomtown, A nuclear Power station is going to be built, the first operational nuclear power station was built in Idaho.

Bad Wolf: There are wolves in North America, and it features an American character.

The parting of the ways, Features an emergency hologram of the doctor, an emergency medical hologram featured heavily in star trek: voyager, The link; emergency hologram doctors.

The Christmas invasion, the doctor quotes the lion king, a Disney film.

New earth, set in new new new new new new York.

Girl in the Fireplace, Set in France, the French assisted the American during the war of independence, this episode is clearly a nod of gratitude for that help.

Rise of the cybermen, over the course of the two parter we see airships, one of the most famous airships is the Hindenburg which crashed in America.

The idiots lantern, the Doctor was planning to take rose to New York to see Elvis Presley, you can’t get more American than Elvis, The Doctor sports a very Elvis like quiff.

Smith and Jones, the title is clearly a reference to a series set in the old west called Alias Smith and Jones, also features a moon landing, the first man on the moon was American.

Gridlock, Gridlock is the American term for a traffic jam, and again new new York.

Daleks in manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks: New York Again High rise buildings, elevators not lifts, lots of American accents The American iconography in these episodes are too many to list in full.

The Lazarus experiment, marvel comic rip off: a good old mad scientist, with an experiment gone wrong, and an outrageous super-villain on the loose. The monster is very scorpion like in its design, the Scorpion King featured an American wrestler known as “The Rock” The Rock is an alternative name for Alcatraz, a notorious American prison.

Blink: Billy Shipton refers to Sally Sparrow as “hot” an American term used to express how atractive a male finds a female.

Utopia, Has an American in it.

The sound of Drums, features a track by Rogue Traders entitled Voodoo Child, The F-101 Voodoo is an American jet fighter .

Last of the time lords, features the Valiant, Chrysler, an American car manufacturer built the Valiant and the plymouth Valiant, it also made the Chrysler valiant, The USS Valiant NCC-74210 featured in a DS9 episode of the same name, DS9, as we know is an American series.

Voyage of the damned, In 1912 the Titanic was sailing to New York.

Planet of the Ood, An Ood says Do’h! A phrase in constant use by Homer Simpson.

Eleventh Hour, Young Amy gives the doctor an apple, the Big Apple is an affection term for New York City ,

The time of Angels, the City of Angels is Los Angeles, which is where Hollywood is!

There have been 76 episodes from Rose to The Doctors Wife

Discounting the current season, 29 of those episode contain blatant or concealed references to The United States, 6 of those contain or indirect references to New York City.

Bearing in mind that many of the links are extremely sublime, my intent with the above was to illustrate the fact that if you set your mind hard enough to find a thing you will find it even in the smallest reference. If you were to do the same you would find links to almost any subject you chose,

Peeps, pups and Vikings

It’s been an odd weekend, Friday was very busy for herself, she went shopping for the grub for Saturday, I got invited to go into Folkestone for a few beers with some bloomin’ good mates. I must admit that I felt a bit of a heel at the thought of leaving herself to sort everything out, but she pointed out that she would probably get on with things if I weren’t getting in her way. Taking this as a cue to leave her to get on with it, I got the next bus down and made my way to Chambers. They were holding their annual beer festival, the first drink of the day was a (not very) lemon cider, to be honest I don’t really like cider much; I used to drink it a lot in my younger days, so it didn’t really grab me. My second drink was a pint of Strawberry Fruli, this stuff is incredible. It can only be described as a melted strawberry mivvi that has fermented just a little bit to become a strawberry flavoured lager, I say strawberry flavoured, what I mean is, being clouted firmly around the head with a punnet of strawberries that has cunningly been disguised as an alcoholic drink, you really can’t taste the alcohol. It was then decided to head down to the Pullman, a place that I haven’t been to for many years, mainly based on the reputation that the pub had, it was always a bit of a chav bin. Fortunately the reputation has been lost and it seems to be a decent place to sit and chat whilst enjoying a pint. I was studying the pump labels when it was pointed out to me that they sold my favourite beer, Doombar. I have to admit that I really like this ale, so I had a pint. We headed into the beer garden where we sat and talked and told lame jokes, and I had another half of DB. All too soon the afternoon came to an end and I headed home.

Saturday morning I woke with a start, quite literally as herself came bursting into my room, loudly informing me that it was five to nine, she scared the pants of me, well my PJ’s actually. I let out a bit of a yell, although she says I screamed like a girl. To that I say PAH! Last minute sorting was done in anticipation of the arrival of Clare, Neil and their pups JD and Max. They arrived at eleven and we had a cuppa and Clare handed Trudes a bag full of goodies, at we point she got all blubby, the great girl! Ronnii was extremely well behaved, she only growled a little bit, the most surprising of these was when Clare tried to help Ronnii onto the sofa, I can only put it down to the fact that there was new people and two strange pups in the house. JD & Max are lovely pups and so different, JD was content to lay on the sofa and take in all the events going on around him, A quiet retiring little chap but not unfriendly, in fact quite the opposite. Max on the other hand is very curious and explored the house and garden and followed Ronnii everywhere, but he too is very friendly and gentle. Trudes bought out some frozen yoghurt and peanut butter treats for the pups and the Schnauzers tucked straight in, Max made very short work of his and realising that his brother appeared to be having difficulties, he offered to help. JD didn’t bat an eyelid, he just looked at Max nicking his treat and let him get on with it. The treat was retrieved and put back in JDs’ bowl and he wasted no time in preventing Max from having another go at pilfering his treat. Shortly after this the pups were treated to a slice of Ronniis birthday cake. It was quite a remarkable looking thing, if you weren’t told that it was made specifically for dogs you wouldn’t have known, it looked quite yummy and our two canine guests soon cleared their bowls. Sadly Clare, Neil and the pups had to leave and set off back to Clacton. It was so nice to meet them all, I was impressed by the good behaviour of the pups and Clare and Neil are extremely nice people, it was a bit saddening to see them leave.

Later that day a contingent of friends from Folkestone and Ashford arrived, and we had a good time chatting and enjoying the sun. A friend from Dover also dropped in and it was nice to see him, even if he has had an extreme haircut.

The time that we spent with our friends was far too short over the weekend and the house was restored to just Trudes, me and Ronnii, so she said that I could watch Doctor Who. I’d been looking forward to this for about two months, and for me it wasn’t disappointment. The episode started off with a bang and delivered the highs and lows we have come to expect from the series, I can’t wait to see the next episode.

Sunday was nice and relaxed; herself had gone off to Thame for a dog show and to catch up with friends from the rescue. I stayed at home with Ronnii and caught up with a few hours of mind numbing TV and sleep on the sofa snuggled up with my pup, bless her!

Monday was very quiet, Trudes was recovering from the excitement of the dog show, fortunately she had a brilliant time, but it had worn her out somewhat. I had been invited to see Thor with a couple of mates on Monday night, it was a last minute thing as I wasn’t sure that I’d be able to afford it, but my sweet missus had kept some cash by so that I could go, aint she lovely!

The film was good and I recommend it, but I can’t say too much except that the lads will like it because it’s yet another comic book adaptation and the girls will like it because the chap who plays Thor is, well let’s just say that he has serious on screen presence. Oh yeah, Anthony Hopkins id brilliant as Odin!

So that was my weekend, Friends old and new, adorable pups and Norse gods.

Free time….

It’s still very strange in the house, but things are not too bad. I miss Richie terribly but I will come to terms with him not being here. Smiffy came up on Wednesday for a spot of painting, he commented on how quiet his welcome was, I guess that anyone who regularly visited the house will notice Richies absence for a while.

Wednesday and Thursday were spent at work after a two day break, and we then went into a four day weekend for Easter. I’m looking forward to this weekend as we will be having a few friends over for a celebration of Richie and Ronniis birthdays and our sweet little Molly Popples A fitting way to remember the pups that we have had the pleasure of welcoming into our homes over the last year.

Friday was reasonably hectic, herself was up before me and set about making preparations for the weekend, a trip into town for supplies was in order. I set about sprucing up the bathroom and washing and filling a paddling pool. I then got a call from my bro’ asking if I would be joining him and other friends at Chambers for a couple of beers. I initially declined as this would mean that Trudes would be left to do the sorting on her own. Herself had a different view on this and she said that if I went out I wouldn’t be getting in her way and she would probably make better progress with me out of her way. So I headed into town to catch up with some good friends and have a couple of pints. The first was a half of a not unpleasant lemon cider, although not overwhelming in the lemon department it was rather refreshing. After that I had the obligitary pint of Frulli, a strawberry lager that is extremely nice and is one of the few lagers I could happily spend the day drinking. We left Chambers and headed down to the Pullman, I thought it had closed, fortunately I was wrong. A quick glance at the tap badges and I was very pleased to see that they had Doom Bar on tap oh sweet joy! Those of you who know me well will be aware that this is my favourite ale, describing it as delicious does not do it any justice at all. All to soon the afternoon drew to a close and we headed our separate ways. some to Ashford, some staying in town and little old me heading home on a bus, well eventually, I had to wait half an hour for the bus.

There’s a few last minute things to do before the big event, one of which is to bath Ronnii so that she is all sweet and shiny for her day.

Sunday will see herself head off to Thame with a friend to attend a dog show, I’m a little worried that she may not come back empty handed, I know there are going to be some wonderful pups there and she’ll have trouble not ‘napping a couple, as for me, well with herself away and it being just me and Ronnii, I shall make the most of the day and spend the time walking my pup and painting models.

I’m not sure about Monday yet, I do know that I may have to avoid the net for most of Saturday to avoid spoilers, herself has said that she has no problem with me watching the Doc on Sunday whilst she’s away, so that’s something else I can look forward to, although there is one cloud over the Doctors return and that is the loss of Elisabeth Sladen earlier in the week, the beeb has announced that there will be a fitting tribute to her on Saturday night. I had the good fortune to meet her twice. The first was at a convention in London and the second was at the SFX weekender in February last year. She was very warm and friendly and chatted to everyone that waited to meet her and for the whole time I was in the line up I never saw her looked dismayed or downhearted at having to shake the hand of yet another fan, I also saw her interaction with Tom Baker and you could clearly see that the two were great friends.

I’ll let you know how the weekend goes and my thoughts on Impossible Astronaut, until then enjoy your weekend and don’t stay in the sun too long.

Middle aged meanderings!

It’s strange how these things affect us, when Molly left us I was totally devastated and could hardly stop blubbing, Richie has been gone just over a day and although my heart hangs heavy, I’m not blubbing quite as much. Trudes says it’s because we have Ronnii and didn’t have to face the silence of a dogless home this time, maybe she’s right. Trudes got home from the vets and she said that Richie’s passing was very calm and quiet, he didn’t complain and just fell asleep in her arms and drifted away. I’m so pleased that our little man suffered as little as possible in the end. I think it also has a lot to do with the vet that he saw, Anthony is such a gentle man, one of those types that is doing his job because he care about the animals he sees rather than that they are just a down payment on a posh car*. He treated Molly with respect and dignity at her end and Trudes said that he was just the same with Richie. He went so far as to alter his schedule so that he would be the one to help Richie on his way.

The house is very different without him, Richie that is, not the vet, that would be odd. Last night Trudes was about to ask if I’d given him his tablets, she stopped herself when she realised, for me it’s walking him that I really miss, he would stop and check the smells on everything, lamp posts, trees, bushes, Ronniis butt! I couldn’t help but have a giggle at the way he would spin around before setting to his business. The annoying way he would bark as loud as he could when he saw another dog. Ronnii and I had our first walk without him last night, I am sure she misses him sticking his nose up her bottom or shoving her to one side for the best pee spot. we’d probably got halfway on our usual route when she stopped and sniffed the air then she looked around with a quizzical “something’s missing” look about her, she then gave a dismissive shake of the head and we continued on our way, a few steps later she stopped again. this time she walked around me almost searching for our lost companion. Ronnii’s spent he morning today wandering from the front room to the kitchen and back and occasionally coming over to me or Trudes all at a loss. She definitely senses that something’s not right.

For the afternoon we headed into town and walked down to the harbour, where we, the human members of our party, had a cuppa and a packet of crisps, the pup had to settle for a dish of water and a cookie that she found rather distasteful, something that Trudes confirmed apparently £1.10 was a bit over priced. After the cuppa we headed down to a, not quite as crowded as the rest of the beach, corner where Trudes rid herself of her stylish yet affordable shoes, took Ronniis lead from me and marched into the sea with little miss fluffy butt close behind, as the waves lapped at Ronniis little furry paws she did what any dog would do in that situation and sat down. She now had a soggy bottom to match her soggy feet. After the paddle we headed back to get some chips whilst Ronnii took in the sights and piscine aroma wafting from the various fish mongers on the harbour. We headed home and had to be collected by the friend that was visiting, she was supposed to arrive at 3 but came fifteen minutes early. We spent the next hour or so catching up on events since we last met up and then she and her little lady headed off. I headed down to check on a feline friend, I was rather surprised to learn that Ronnii was not completely worn out after the mornings stroll and was desperate to join me. It turns out That she does seem to get on with cats and Obi took quite a shine to her, there was head butting which is always a good sign.

The next thing that will be different for me will be coming back from work, I won’t have captain shouty welcome me home with woofs and wags, Ronnii may be excitable but the shouting won’t be there.

We’re also having company tomorrow evening, Smiffy’s due over for an evening of painting, that’s something to look forward to.

I’m back at work for two days and then of for the Easter holiday, there’s a slight chance that Trudes may be away for the day on Sunday, she’s asked if I would like to go along but I wonder whether it may be good to let her have the time out.

It’s a few days away yet and you never know I may change my mind, I do that from time to time.

Anyways, ta ta for now.

Goodbye little friend

A sad silence has fallen upon the house, in yesterdays post I mentioned that Richie’s health had seriously deteriorated over the last couple of weeks and that we would soon have to make a very difficult decision.

Today we said goodbye to our brave little man as he crossed the rainbow bridge to run free and chase squibbles with his sister.

It was not a choice we made lightly, but it was made for him. It is better to remember the way he was rather than watch him become a shadow of the happy little chap he has been. Every that day we put it off would have meant that we would have lost him piece by piece. Now my precious boy is at rest and free from the pain of his dodgy ticker and he is running around green fields and splashing through babbling brooks without a care. I don’t doubt that little Molly Popples was waiting on the other side of the bridge for him and they were soon swapping tales about their lives with us and how they made us laugh and cry.

Trudes, in her wisdom, sent me a poem that she found; I guess she knew how this would make me feel. If only there was a glue to mend a broken heart, I have put the poem here so that others can read it; it may help you to understand why the older and not typical cute dogs need a loving and caring home.

Richie had a hard life until he was taken in by TLDR. We suspect he had been beaten and he had had his front left leg broken, either through a kick or being hit with something. He’d lost his right eye, either to an illness or an injury. Add that to a heart that was wearing out and you had a pup in need of a lot of love. I’m not saying that another family would have loved him less, but nobody would have chosen to take him on if they were presented with him or a more appealing dog. But he was ours heart and soul, and we loved him the way a dog deserves to be loved, with gentleness and a warm bed.

I don’t doubt that there are those who think me foolish for being so emotional over what is, after all, just a dog, but they’re not just dogs. We take these animals into our homes to be our companions and our friends. They rely on us for food, warmth, shelter and care. After being involved, albeit on the sidelines, with an animal rescues I am shocked and saddened at the way some people treat their pets, and I wonder if they would treat a person in such a way? They clearly have no respect for life or the joy that a pet brings into our lives. Trudy says that when we lose a pet we don’t grieve for them but for ourselves, that may be true but it doesn’t dull the pain I feel right now.

The Legacy
When humans die they make a will
to leave their homes and all they have
to those they love.
I too would make a will if I could write.
To some poor wistful, lonely stray
I leave my happy home.
My dish, my cosy bed, my cushioned chair, my toy.
The well loved lap, the gentle stroking hand,
the loving voice.
The place I made in someone's heart.
The love that at last could help me to
a peaceful, painless end,
Held in loving arms.
If I should die, Oh do not say,
"No more a pet I'll have,
to grieve me by its loss"
Seek out some lonely, unloved dog
And give my place to him.
This is the legacy I leave behind -
'tis all I have to give.

You may think me daft or over sensitive for being so emotional, those who know me well will also know that I love animals, I always will, I can’t walk past a cat without saying hello, and I get great joy from having dogs in my life, something I thought I would never say.

If you have a dog or a cat that shares it’s life with you, grab it, hold it tight and tell him or her that you love them, and show them that you do every single day, you never know how much longer you will have with them so you need to treasure every moment.

That’s me done for now.

Goodbye little friend!

 

A sad silence has fallen upon the house, in yesterdays post I mentioned that Richie’s health had seriously deteriorated over the last couple of weeks and that we would soon have to make a very difficult decision.

Today we said goodbye to our brave little man as he crossed the rainbow bridge to run free and chase squibbles with his sister.

It was not a choice we made lightly, but it was made for him. It is better to remember the way he was rather than watch him become a shadow of the happy little chap he has been. Every that day we put it off would have meant that we would have lost him piece by piece. Now my precious boy is at rest and free from the pain of his dodgy ticker and he is running around green fields and splashing through babbling brooks without a care. I don’t doubt that little Molly Popples was waiting on the other side of the bridge for him and they were soon swapping tales about their lives with us and how they made us laugh and cry.

Trudes, in her wisdom, sent me a poem that she found; I guess she knew how this would make me feel. If only there was a glue to mend a broken heart, I have put the poem here so that others can read it; it may help you to understand why the older and not typical cute dogs need a loving and caring home.

Richie had a hard life until he was taken in by TLDR. We suspect he had been beaten and he had had his front left leg broken, either through a kick or being hit with something. He’d lost his right eye, either to an illness or an injury. Add that to a heart that was wearing out and you had a pup in need of a lot of love. I’m not saying that another family would have loved him less, but nobody would have chosen to take him on if they were presented with him or a more appealing dog. But he was ours heart and soul, and we loved him the way a dog deserves to be loved, with gentleness and a warm bed.

I don’t doubt that there are those who think me foolish for being so emotional over what is, after all, just a dog, but they’re not just dogs. We take these animals into our homes to be our companions and our friends. They rely on us for food, warmth, shelter and care. After being involved, albeit on the sidelines, with an animal rescues I am shocked and saddened at the way some people treat their pets, and I wonder if they would treat a person in such a way? They clearly have no respect for life or the joy that a pet brings into our lives. Trudy says that when we lose a pet we don’t grieve for them but for ourselves, that may be true but it doesn’t dull the pain I feel right now.

The Legacy
When humans die they make a will
to leave their homes and all they have
to those they love.
I too would make a will if I could write.
To some poor wistful, lonely stray
I leave my happy home.
My dish, my cosy bed, my cushioned chair, my toy.
The well loved lap, the gentle stroking hand,
the loving voice.
The place I made in someone's heart.
The love that at last could help me to
a peaceful, painless end,
Held in loving arms.
If I should die, Oh do not say,
"No more a pet I'll have,
to grieve me by its loss"
Seek out some lonely, unloved dog
And give my place to him.
This is the legacy I leave behind -
'tis all I have to give.

You may think me daft or over sensitive for being so emotional, those who know me well will also know that I love animals, I always will, I can’t walk past a cat without saying hello, and I get great joy from having dogs in my life, something I thought I would never say.

If you have a dog or a cat that shares it’s life with you, grab it, hold it tight and tell him or her that you love them, and show them that you do every single day, you never know how much longer you will have with them so you need to treasure every moment.

That’s me done for now.

What to do?

it’s been a quiet couple of weeks, I had Monday and Tuesday off last week. Monday was herselfs birthday so I took the day off so that I could ensure that she had a nice relaxing day. Her plan of a lay in was scuppered when I took her tea, toast and pressies at 09:30. You can find out what her pressies were on her blog. I nipped into town to grab a bit of shopping, where I picked up two cakes. one being a simple chocolate sponge with cream filling, the other being a rather special chocolate cake. When I returned from the town I offered the birthday girl a cup of tea and stuck a couple of candles in the first cake. I sang her the standard birthday song and as I put the cake in front of her I mentioned that it was a bargain as it only cost a quid. that evening two close friends came to wish Tea a happy birthday, I offered tea and cake, as you do! This time I bought out the posh cake, although herself claimed that she was wise to my ruse I think she was rather surprised. Ronnii, our Yorkshire Terrier, was due do have a “routine” operation at the vets Tuesday morning. This time herself got her lay in as I left for the vets at ten past eight and didn’t return home until just after 10:00. I made myself a cuppa and put some coffee on for the missus. no sooner was the tea on the table when my phone rang. It was the vet asking if Ronnii had been sick in the morning, I told her that she hadn’t and that she was in good health when we set off to Hythe. I was told that the little madam had been sick three times since I left her and as a result she may not be having her op, the nice lady from the vet said that she would have a word with the chap who would be doing her surgery and see what he suggested. a few minutes later nice lady rang back saying that the dogtor was not happy to operate on Ronnii in case there was something wrong and he didn’t want to put her at risk. So I set off to collect her. This was done and I thought that I’d wander her along to the shop to assess how she was. would you believe the little minx was absolutely fine and walked along the high street with no problems, one elderly gent did mention how amusing it is to see a big chap like me being controlled by a small pup like her, I chatted with him for a minute or two about how special Ronnii is and how I have no problems walking a small floofy dog. Since little Molly Popples I have certainly become a small dog man.

The weekend was relatively quiet, Friday we heard some excellent news about a situation that my closest friend has been dealing with, it has now been resolved and, hopefully, the whole debacle can be put away and the parties involved can move on. I certainly hope so.

I was at the shop for Saturday and Sunday, but the events there can be read about on the Hythe Tyrant blog.

I got home on Sunday to discover that Richie had been very difficult throughout the day, we suspect that he may have the doggie equvivalent of dementia, this does actually tie in with the heart problem. Since his heart is not working too well he may not be getting enough oxygen to his brain which would cause the symptoms Trudes has described to me. He’s getting very forgetful and when he goes out to the garden he stands still as though he’s trying to remember where he is, she has also said that he wakes up in the night and looks at her with a sort of “who are you?” expression on his face. She says that he also comes downstairs in a way that seems he’s checking the place to remind himself of where he is.

I have noticed it more over the last week or so and each day it seems that a little bit more of our little man has gone. We knew when we fostered him that we would have a limited time, but that doesn’t make it any easier. When Richie first came to us we had not long said goodbye to Molly and I tried very hard to keep a distance between me and him. It didn’t work, by the end of the first week he was well and truly ensconced in our lives.

Ronnii and I are off to Hythe to have another go at getting her whowhoectomy done. This time I’m going to stay with her until she has had the pre-med and then once she has dozed off they can take her off and do what needs to be done. We suspect that she may have been ill at the vets because she had become distressed at being left at the vets, on her first night with us she was very sick and we took her down to meet Anthony and introduce her to the people that would be providing her vet care, she had a tummy bug and other than that she was a very healthy dog. We’ve had a few scares with her, the most worrying was the semi-necrotic polyp, but she sorted that herself the grim little monster. I have to be honest and say that I’m worried about the operation, when we took adopted Ronnii we were told that she was about five or six, our vet has since examined her more thoroughly and has determined that she is closer to ten maybe eleven, this means that there is a higher risk involved in what would be a routine procedure. The problem with keeping pets is that we get attached and grieve when we lose them, but I don’t think that our house would be a home without at least one dog scampering around.

So I’m off work for Monday and Tuesday again so that I can take Ronnii down to Hythe and  and keep a watchful eye on her whilst Trudes goes into town should she need to. If I get chance I may paint but I may just sit quietly and read a book.

We may also use the time that I’m home on Tuesday to prepare the house for Saturday as we will be having a few friends over throughout the day as we’ve planned to celebrate the pups birthdays, plus a certain temporal travelling medic returns to our screens on the same day, but that my have to wait until later in the day or even the next. Since there’s also a possibility that herself is off to Northshire on Sunday we may not get to watch it until the following Monday, but that’s a bank holiday so if I avoid the net and contact with humans I can avoid spoilers.

I’ll keep you posted on the situation with Richie

keep smiling

Stonking

I finished work tonight and headed down to Hythe to waste a bit of time in the shop, more on that in the other blog! By the way I left for work this morning armed with my scope in the vain hope that the sky would be clear

With that fact clear, on with the rest of my twaddle. The problem with dropping into the shop on astro-Friday is that the shop closes at five and the bus to Ashford leaves at five forty, what to do for half an hour except stand at the bus stop looking bored? And nip into Waitrose for something to scoff on the journey, Cheese sandwich always goes down well, especially when I haven’t had to make it!

I was tempted to nip into the camera shop and see if he still had the Meade 2x Barlow but I thought better of it, what with a rather important birthday looming on the event horizon, I’m gonna get a slap for that one!

The bus journey was uneventful apart from Mr & Mrs Chav having a "who can hit the hardest competition, it ended in a row as these things usually do. fortunately a substantial amount of extremely geeky reading material distracted me and made the journey pass rather quickly. After loitering around with the Ashford contingent we set off to Woodchurch for what was probably the most anticipated talk of the year. We weren’t let down, Drew’s talk was nothing short of brilliant. it was informative and entertaining and I really enjoyed it. I had hoped that there would be an opportunity for a little observing but the weather was against us and a mist had set in allowing only the brightest stars to be seen, not so great for telescoping. There’s hope that we’ll get an evening in over the next couple of weeks, I hope so.

My plans for the weekend have been somewhat scuppered by a foolish Facebook post early this morning. although I wrote “a weekend of (insert expletive meaning clump of earth) all, what I meant was A weekend of gaming on Saturday and painting on Sunday, there are mumblings of wanting the kitchen table cleared off, Herself wasn’t overly impressed with the way I phrased my plans for the weekend and has insisted suggested that we sort out the garden. my idea of concreting it went down equally well. I suspect I may need medical attention after she’s read this post.

However I have realised that “sorting out the garden” actually means “setting fire to stuff” so I’m in and I may purchase a bag of marshmallows for Sunday night, I wonder how easy it to cook sausages over a dustbin shaped incinerator?

Keep an eye on the blog, there may be pictures of Sunday nights conflagrations, I do love a bonfire!

Of course the problem with having a raging inferno in the garden is that the smoke will have the same effect as cloud and obscure most of the sky so a bit of astronomy is probably a no go.

So I plan to enjoy a weekend of arson and and the hope that there may be cake as a reward for making the garden a bit neater

I hope you enjoy your weekend, even if you’re not lucky enough to be setting fire to stuff

Aren’t telescopes brilliant

Yesterday I was lurking around t’interweb catching up and gaming news and general faffing when I received a text from Manky asking if I’d be up for a spot of telescoping on Monday night, I enjoy astronomy, but it is definitely a hobby that is shared with friends, and if the friends that you share it with are also interested in it that’s even better. So not wanting to turn down the chance of getting together with some brilliant mates and stand in the middle of a field on a rather cold night I readily accepted. I put together a list of targets and spent the day looking forward to seeing friends and some fantastic sights. When I got home I walked the pups, they were very pleased to see me, and set about gathering my chattels that would be needed for the session. I also managed to fit the flexible focuser that I bought for the Meade a few weeks ago. Just after six i made my way to the field we had arranged to meet in and made use of the last of the daylight to set the scope up. By the time the Manky and the rear admiral arrived I had set up the scope and had managed to pour a cup of coffee. Manky and I set about getting his scope set up and all that was left to do was wait for it to get suitably dark so that those of us with GoTo facilities on our scopes would have something we could use to align our scopes. This was actually quite cool as we watched various stars blink into existence as the sky darkened.

Once there were a sufficient amount of bright stars available we aligned our scopes and turned our eyes to the wonder of the night sky. The Great Nebula in Orion was first light for me, but I had a problem. My swanky new flexible focusing rod is weighted at one end and this made it difficult to maintain the scopes focus, just as I’d focused an object into a crisp clear image as soon as I let go of the rod the thing would slip down and cause the image to go a bit fuzzy. Not having any tools or the original focussing knob I couldn’t swap them round, although I think it may have been a bit of a fools errand in the dark, I settled for having to physically hold the rod to keep any objects from blurring. I must admit it was a bit of a pain but I wasn’t going to let it ruin the evening for me. Steve and Andy arrived a bit later, last time he came down Andy mentioned that he had found something that he thought might be a Mammoth tooth but he wasn’t sure so I offered to take a look at it. He bought it along with him tonight, sure enough it is a Mammoth tooth, and a beautiful specimen at that. Although I was examining it in torch light I could clearly see the tell tale grooves that are typical of the tooth and there was even root visible. The tooth also had remains of enamel and was considerably worn. It is remarkable that I was holding something that was part of an animal that disappeared about ten thousand years ago.

There was a total of nine chaps on the field, including a friend that I hadn’t seen for a couple of years. But for me the highlight of the evenings observing had to be the Moon, Just off full and as it rose across the channel it was orange and as it passed behind cloud there was a very thin band that gave the impression that the Moon had a ring system. the colour and the cloud also gave it an other worldly appearance, making it look more like a gas giant rather than our familiar Moon. As it rose higher it started to lose the orange tinge and was soon becoming the familiar silvery white colour that is so easily recognised.

All too soon the evening came to an end the cold and  fatigue getting the better of us, plus we all have to get up for work in the morning. so we packed up, said our goodbyes and headed home.

the first thing I did when I got home was fuss my adorable pups, Trudes would be cross with me if I didn’t say hello to them first, I don’t think Ronnii was to happy at the thought of me going out and not taking her. then once I’d said hello to Trudes i changed the focusing knob on the Meade back to the original one, it may be fiddly and in an awkward position but at least the image will stay sharp. I’m not sure what to do with the flexi-rod, I could try shortening  it so that there’s not as much weight on the end or I could pass it on to someone who may be able to make use of it. If it’s new owner finds it causes the same problem I may shorten it and give it another go.

All in all I had a fantastic evening, it wasn’t as cold as last time we went to the East Cliff and the Moon was well worth the wait. Pictures from tonight are available to view on Picasa and Farce-book go take a look. Maybe next time I’ll take the webcam and laptop and get some decent pictures with that. I hope that we get another evening out soon, all we need is to find a place with a little less light pollution and we’ll be sorted.

Thank you to everyone that came along tonight, it was a brilliant evening and I look forward to doing it all again.

Aren’t telescopes brilliant

Yesterday I was lurking around t’interweb catching up and gaming news and general faffing when I received a text from Manky asking if I’d be up for a spot of telescoping on Monday night, I enjoy astronomy, but it is definitely a hobby that is shared with friends, and if the friends that you share it with are also interested in it that’s even better. So not wanting to turn down the chance of getting together with some brilliant mates and stand in the middle of a field on a rather cold night I readily accepted. I put together a list of targets and spent the day looking forward to seeing friends and some fantastic sights. When I got home after a rather good day at work I walked the pups, they were very pleased to see me, and set about gathering my chattels that would be needed for the session. I also managed to fit the flexible focuser that I bought for the Meade a few weeks ago. Just after six i made my way to the field we had arranged to meet in and made use of the last of the daylight to set the scope up. By the time the Manky and the rear admiral arrived I had set up the scope and had managed to pour a cup of coffee. Manky and I set about getting his scope set up and all that was left to do was wait for it to get suitably dark so that those of us with GoTo facilities on our scopes would have something we could use to align our scopes. This was actually quite cool as we watched various stars blink into existence as the sky darkened.

Once there were a sufficient amount of bright stars available we aligned our scopes and turned our eyes to the wonder of the night sky. The Great Nebula in Orion was first light for me, but I had a problem. My swanky new flexible focusing rod is weighted at one end and this made it difficult to maintain the scopes focus, just as I’d focused an object into a crisp clear image as soon as I let go of the rod the thing would slip down and cause the image to go a bit fuzzy. Not having any tools or the original focussing knob I couldn’t swap them round, although I think it may have been a bit of a fools errand in the dark, I settled for having to physically hold the rod to keep any objects from blurring. I must admit it was a bit of a pain but I wasn’t going to let it ruin the evening for me. Steve and Andy arrived a bit later, last time he came down Andy mentioned that he had found something that he thought might be a Mammoth tooth but he wasn’t sure so I offered to take a look at it. He bought it along with him tonight, sure enough it is a Mammoth tooth, and a beautiful specimen at that. Although I was examining it in torch light I could clearly see the tell tale grooves that are typical of the tooth and there was even root visible. The tooth also had remains of enamel and was considerably worn. It is remarkable that I was holding something that was part of an animal that disappeared about ten thousand years ago.

There was a total of nine chaps on the field, including a friend that I hadn’t seen for a couple of years. But for me the highlight of the evenings observing had to be the Moon, Just off full and as it rose across the channel it was orange and as it passed behind cloud there was a very thin band that gave the impression that the Moon had a ring system. the colour and the cloud also gave it an other worldly appearance, making it look more like a gas giant rather than our familiar Moon. As it rose higher it started to lose the orange tinge and was soon becoming the familiar silvery white colour that is so easily recognised.

All too soon the evening came to an end the cold and  fatigue getting the better of us, plus we all have to get up for work in the morning. so we packed up, said our goodbyes and headed home.

the first thing I did when I got home was fuss my adorable pups, Trudes would be cross with me if I didn’t say hello to them first, I don’t think Ronnii was to happy at the thought of me going out and not taking her. then once I’d said hello to Trudes i changed the focusing knob on the Meade back to the original one, it may be fiddly and in an awkward position but at least the image will stay sharp. I’m not sure what to do with the flexi-rod, I could try shortening  it so that there’s not as much weight on the end or I could pass it on to someone who may be able to make use of it. If it’s new owner finds it causes the same problem I may shorten it and give it another go.

All in all I had a fantastic evening, it wasn’t as cold as last time we went to the East Cliff and the Moon was well worth the wait. Pictures from tonight are available to view on Picasa and Farce-book o take a look. Maybe next time I’ll take the webcam and laptop and get some decent pictures with that. I hope that we get another evening out soon, all we need is to find a place with a little less light pollution and we’ll be sorted.

Thank you to everyone that came along tonight, it was a brilliant evening and I look forward to doing it all again.

how things have changed

I’ve been chatting on Facebook with an old school mate, as a result I’ve been reminiscing about my school days. When I was at school all the brilliant stuff had been done, man had been to the moon, we’d sent probes to Mars and Venus and the Voyager and Pioneer probes were on their way to the far reaches of the solar system. Whilst I was there we were not allowed to use calculators and digital watches were a new invention and cost a million pounds. Computers were things that made spaceships work or tried to murder you, and we were told that they’d never be useful in the home. One thing that has surprised me is how much of what i was taught at school was wrong, Just a few examples are that all Vikings were rampaging barbarians, the Romans were thieves who stole whole countries from the native inhabitants. having taken the time to properly learn about these things is how I have found out that my history teacher was one of the many of the teachers who were wrong, the Vikings were civilised farmers for the most part and the Roman occupation was all done rather peacefully, the real problems started when the Iceni decided that they weren’t too keen on the thought of being disarmed and felt it necessary to tell the Romans to get stuffed. there ya go a bit of history for you. when I left school it all started again, space shuttles huge great leaps in computer technology and digital watches were now cheaper than a house. One thing I was never really interested in at school was sport, I always had issues with sport, the teachers would prattle on about team building and camaraderie, blech! Most of the sporty lads at my school were gits, the chap i referred to earlier is an exception to this, I don’t recall him being particularly sporty either and cross country runs were just an excuse to bunk off for a smoke, note that I didn’t use the word fag so as not to confuse our colonial cousins.

would I do it all again? probably, it depends on whether or not I can know everything I know, although I do see a few paradoxes forming there, my super spiffing digital watch that cost me less than twenty quid would be hard to explain, although I could just let everyone think that I’m a millionaire.

I have to be honest and say that tonights post is somewhat rambling, I have no idea what i wanted to write about and still don’t, so I hope you’ve enjoyed this odd little entry, I do something a little more interesting next time. Who am I kidding it’ll be more of the same old twaddle, I think the reason for the randomness of the post is the fact that very little has happened this week, I hope something rivetting happens over the course of the next few days otherwise I won’t have anything to write about until late next Monday, I’m meeting Piers Sellers don’t you know, well I say I’m meeting him, I’m going along with a few friends to hear him talk, whether I get to speak to him remains to be seen, either way I’m looking forward to it.

Right I really am babbling so i shall stop before I cause a diplomatic incident or end up upsetting the digital watch collectors society.

ta ta

Is it the end of the month yet?

The reason for the title is down to the fact that I have two brilliant events to look forward to, the first is this month’s astronomy club, our chairman will giving a talk on Earth impact, woo hoo! A subject that is a favourite of mine as it ties in with two of my past times, Astronomy and palaeontology. I’m really looking forward to hearing what Drew has to say, he’s a great speaker and I’ve enjoyed all the talks he’s given. The astronomy club is blessed because we have a wide range of members, from the absolute beginner through to consulate professionals; Sir Patrick’s a member you know. As a result we also have some great speakers, other than Drew I won’t express any favourites on here, but I’m sure that a certain chap will know that I also look forward to hearing him prattle on speak. I’m having trouble putting my next talk together, if I haven’t got a decent foundation laid down for it by the end of June I think I may change the topic, after all November is a long way off so it’s not like I don’t have time, he says half way through March!

I’m also hoping for good weather for the 25^th, firstly so that I can get some observing done, through Dave’s scope with my Meade and also because a sterling chap called Jason has bought a bit of a beast and I want a clear sky for him so that he can show off his new toy to the other members.

Then on the 28^th we go off to Cranbrook astronomy group to meet a chap called Piers Sellers, I’m very excited about this because the man in question is a bona fide NASA astronaut. I’ve never met someone who’s been in space before so this one’s special.

Now for a bit of a moan, here we are in a bit of a financial crisis. We’re all having to tighten our belts and give up a few cakes luxuries. So does the BBC really need to spend a god awful amount of money sending Dr Brian Cox to a desert in the middle nowhere to blow bubbles in order to explain how all the stuff in the universe gets made? The sequence would have worked just as well if he’d filmed it on the beach at Camber Sands and he wouldn’t have needed to hire a Mustang to drive to the desert, he could have gone on the train.

I can understand with wildlife programs, we don’t get Outer-Mongolian tree Frogs in England, but do we really need the creation of everything explained by a bloke blowing bubbles in the middle of the Navajama Desert? I bet if Dr Brian Cox had to fund the working holiday from his own pocket he would have suggested filming in Bognor. Don’t get me wrong, I like his program, I like anything to do with the exploration of space and time, I even enjoy the mudslinging rows that Horizon usually descends into, but does it need to be done at the expense of the license payer? If they can film The Sky at Night in Selsy surely they can film a bubble blowing boffin in Brighton!

I would like to take this opportunity to express my sympathies to the thousands of victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

Blogville

This short entry is dedicated to all the wonderful people and pups that have earned a place in the hearts of my sweet girlie, As many of you know Trudes has been, and still is, very poorly over the past year and a bit. She doesn’t get out much as the treatment she has been receiving has made her extremely tired. However, she does get great joy from reading all the blogs posted by a gang of “pups” and they in turn have shown Trudes great warmth and affection and they have also made her laugh, something she doesn’t do much due to the way her treatment makes her feel. So to all the pups and peeps of Blogville I thank you for making my girl smile, you are all such wonderful folk.

Big hugs

Me!

Oh happy day, well night!

When I left for work this morning I was greeted by the most fantastic clear blue sky, the first for a few weeks now. A few weeks ago it had been suggested that some mates and me got together and did a bit of observing from the cliff tops in the east of town. After waiting almost two weeks, stupid clouds, I sent a message to a couple of mates suggesting we go tonight. Manky bought himself a sexy new scope a month ago and hasn’t really had a chance to use it, so tonight would be a perfect opportunity. I also messaged a the members of AAS so that they would at least be aware that plans were afoot. A couple said that they would be along so the more the merrier.

The manky one arrived just after 6 and we collected our third and headed over to the East Cliff and set up scopes.

After aligning my scope I set it to The Great Nebula in Orion, it’s in his sword, I got a stunning view and through the 3x Barlow it was even better, Manky said that he’d found the same object and asked if we’d like to see, WOW! the field of view was narrow but the resolution was simply astounding, I could clearly see the nebulous cloud and some of the stars that my (Trudys) trusty Meade can’t quite get. It was definitely a sight to behold. I faffed about with a list that I’d compiled earlier today and have to admit that it was a 50/50 split between what I could see and what I couldn’t but worth it anyway. It is at this point I must sing the praises of GOTO scopes, with my Tasco, which has to be manually pointed at an object you really have to know exactly where the object you want to see is, with a GOTO, once it’s aligned you only have to press a few buttons and the on-board computer does all the hard work for you. So much of the things you wouldn’t be able to find or involve calculating angles are easily available to view.

Dave and I both agreed that both our scopes have strong points, whilst his, amazingly sexy, piece of kit pulled in nebulas in brilliant detail, it seems too powerful for some clusters like the Pleiades, it’s almost as though you’re seeing through the cluster. Don’t get me wrong, I’m in no way anti Daves scope, quite the opposite, it is a superb set up and I now know what I want by way of a new scope, I would be more than happy with one exactly the same as Daves. But my (Trudes) 70mm Meade gives a brilliant view of the whole cluster plus a bit more.

Anyway, back to this evenings observing, Dave was using his scope manually and after a bit of head scratching and fiddling we managed to get it aligned and the GOTO functioning, at this point he pointed his scope at the same object mine was aimed at, the remnant of a super nova known as the Crab Nebula. This has been something I’ve wanted to see through a scope since I got my Tasco almost ten years ago, the Meade just doesn’t have the power, through the Celestron it could be seen as a faint fuzzy blur. I must be honest and say that I found it hard to hide my excitement at this and I almost danced around the field with delight, thanks to a very good mate I have achieved an astronomical goal. As the evening went on and the stars traced their arc across the sky our number three suggested we have a go for Saturn. Once again we had stunning views and through the different scopes we had a good variety of magnification. I’ve seen Saturn a few times now and it never ceases to amaze me. To think that when you look at Saturn through a telescope you’re seeing another planet, but it’s huge, in comparison Earth is a tiny speck. Another object we saw tonight was M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, it’s over two and a half million light years away and contains more stars than our own galaxy. Just about this for a moment, our galaxy contains somewhere around 200 to 400 billion stars, the Andromeda Galaxy has around one trillion, that’s a lot. it’s possible that out of the 200 to 400 billion stars in our galaxy there’s about 500 million planets within the parent stars habitable zone, if M31 has one trillion stars, how many life bearing worlds are there?

So after a fantastic, if somewhat chilly, evenings astronomy with some brilliant mates I’m home and preparing to give the pups their last stroll for the evening I leave you to ponder the deepness of a question that when it gets answered will change the foundations of the human race.

For the astronomers out there here’s a list of the object we tried to observe, those marked * were also seen through Daves 5 inch F1.5 Cassegrain.

M66, M65, M67, M48, M50, M93*, NGC2362, M41*, M3*, M13*, M42* (the great nebula in Orion), M33*, M1* (Crab Nebula) M31* (Andromeda Galaxy) M44*, NGC2903* and last but by no means least, Saturn. We also had a beautiful waxing crescent moon with earth shine.

I can’t wait for another clear night, but in a few weeks when it’s a touch warmer, as I write this I’m shivering and I’ve been in for about an hour. Next time we’re going to head to Woodchurch, it’s a bit more central for AAS members who may want to join us.

One last thing I need to mention is poor Jason, who joined us at about 8ish and spent the entire time trying to align the scope he had bought down, so the only observing he managed to do was through everyone else's scopes, bless him!