My blog - February 2004
Ashby de la Zouch Castle
February 28th 2004, 5:56pm
This afternoon I drove to Ashby de la Zouch to take some photos of the castle. I got there at half past three which only gave me half an hour before they closed. I did consider coming back later since there was only a small wooden fence, but it probably would have got too dark, and I don't expect they have floodlights on it like at Urquhart Castle. Anyway, I managed to get over fifty photos before I left, a few of which you can see over on the England Photos page.
Incidentally, I didn't think much of their signposting in Ashby. You can hardly see the sign pointing down a tiny side street in the middle of town, and then once you've parked there are two signs for the castle by the car park - pointing in opposite directions.
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Norah Jones - Feels Like Home
February 25th 2004, 3:50pm
I've not knowingly heard Norah Jones before (although I'm sure I've heard her on the radio or TV at some point), but since Amazon keeps telling me to buy her latest album I did, although I got it from Virgin instead when I was in town this morning, looking for things to waste my money on.
I have to say it's a really good album - not a waste of money in the slightest. I didn't even have to listen to it twice to decide that I am now a Norah Jones fan. If you want to check out what her music sounds like, go to www.norahjones.com. But make sure you plug some decent speakers into your computer, because generally music sounds pretty bad played over computer speakers.
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Scotland Again
February 23rd 2004, 10:01am
This last weekend I went to Scotland again. I drove instead of flying this time. It took me six and a quarter hours to get there, with no problems until I driving along the Crieff - Comrie road. The engine started losing power, and stopped altogether just as I drew up outside Andrew's house. Fortunately, the next day it was working fine again. I fitted a new fuel filter in case that was the problem, and was able to drive home yesterday without any problems at all. It took a bit longer though, because there were loads of road works all over the place, and the A80 was closed.
There'll be no additions to the photos page this time, as I didn't really do much while I was up there. It was fun though.
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A Proper Bookshop
February 18th 2004, 8:13pm
Yesterday I went into Gosford Books in Coventry to look for a book for a friend. I had a look over the novels section but didn't see it. There didn't seem to be any particular order to the books there anyway. So I asked the owner if he had the book. 'The Four Feathers, by A. E. W. Mason? Yes, here it is', he said, as he pulled it out of the middle of the shelf I'd just been looking at.
That's a proper bookshop, where the shop assistant can find a book immediately even when you don't know who the author is yourself. There was one in Nairobi that was similar. I couldn't remember the name of the author or the title of the book, so I described what it was about and the person in the shop said 'Ah yes, The Last Time they Met, that's by Anita Shreve'. Try that in Waterstones, and you'll get 'Have you looked in the fiction section?'
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Comment posted by James Ots at 8:13pm on February 18th 2004
One of my favourite passages from the book so far:
"Mrs. Adair... was naturally, behind her pale and placid countenance, a woman of tortuous and intriguing mind. She preferred to look through the keyhole even when she could walk straight in at the door; and knowledge which could be gained by a little manoeuvring was always more desirable and precious in her eyes than any information which a simple question would elicit. She avoided, indeed, the direct question on a perverted sort of principle, and she thought a day very well spent if at the close of it she had outwitted a companion into telling her spontaneously some trivial and unimportant piece of news which a straightforward request would have at once secured for her at breakfast time."
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Scotland Photos
February 11th 2004, 2:32pm
My latest set of photos of Scotland are now available on the inappropriately named England Photos page.
While I have a bit of space to fill here, I may as well mention Lifehouse, a band I discovered a few weeks ago. I've had their latest album Stanley Climbfall in my stereo nearly non-stop since then, and it definitely gets five stars from me.
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Comment posted by Paul Morriss at 2:32pm on February 11th 2004
Can you get yourself an RSS feed? It would be handy for me!
Comment posted by James Ots at 2:32pm on February 11th 2004
I'll have to add it to the php code sometime. I did think about it a while ago but thought there'd probably be no demand. But now I have an excuse!
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Snowman House of Horror
February 9th 2004, 4:11pm
Last week I went up to Scotland again, under the pretence of doing web design. But in the end I hardly touched my computer, except to view photos from my digital camera.
On Thursday a friend and I drove up to Inverness where we did some shopping and then went to the Dores Inn where we had the best mussels I've ever tasted. Not difficult considering I've never had them before though. After that we went to a backpacker's lodge in Drumnadrochit on the other side of the loch. Later in the evening we went down to Urqhart Castle, which was closed but not locked, so we were able to get in for free.
On Friday we drove back to Braincroft Lodge, via Fort William. The weather was terrible though, so we didn't get so many photos. Glen Coe looked like it probably would have been very nice if it hadn't been dark by the time we got there.
On Saturday we went to the book sale in Perth and bought a lot of books (and I left most of the ones I bought in Scotland. D'oh!). In the evening it snowed and we made Calvin and Hobbes style snowmen outside the lodge, which is the first time I've made snowmen since I was about ten I think.
All in all, not a bad half-a-week. (I'll put the photos up soon.)
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Comment posted by Maret at 4:11pm on February 9th 2004
come to Estonia to make some real snowmen here with real snow!!!. we have pleny of it right now.
Comment posted by Andrew F at 4:11pm on February 9th 2004
why do you call it 'Snowman House of Horror'?
There may be patrons of this site who are actually scared of snowmen.
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