Today, we went for a long walk through West Dean Woods to Cocking Down (no jokes please), seeking vistas of bluebells. We found some, but not the great swathes that we had hoped for, although we were rewarded by plenty of patches of bluebells, drifts of wood anemones, a glade with masses of milkmaids and lots of primroses, cowslips and violas and bugle. We did enjoy fabulous views across the Weald, and also over Selsey Bill, the Solent and the Isle of Wight. We also passed a number of Andy Goldsworthy‘s chalk balls, which are slowly and surely mellowing and dissolving into the landscape. All of this was followed by tea and cake in the visitor centre at West Dean.
This evening, a trip to the cinema to see Under The Tuscan Sun (mostly romantic slush clearly aimed at an American audience that has never travelled to Europe, but harmless enough and quite entertaining) has been followed by fajitas and flopping on the sofa.
If married life is like this, then bring it on.
Month: April 2004
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Bluebells
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Cackleberries
Yay! I’ve converted Hels to the wonder that is a goose egg. We’ve just had some (well, one each – you don’t need any more) for brekkie with lovely bread soldiers. Heavenly.
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New headers
You should now see a different random header graphic each time you load this page. There are ten different graphics, five that you’ve seen before and five that are completely new. How exciting is that?
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Howzat?
Well, it’s the first day of the new county cricket season today, and Sussex kick off at The Oval against Surrey. I’m not entirely confident that Sussex are good enough to retain the title, and would probably put my money on Lancashire. And Sussex’s one-day form is absolutely abysmal – to win the county championship and yet come last in the one-day competition in the same season must be some sort of record.
Either way, I agree with Chris Adams’s assertion on the news this morning that the domestic game is certainly alive and kicking and giving some good and entertaining cricket – a fact reflected in attendances at Hove which have been steadily increasing for some time. -
Shove It
Addictive puzzle game. That’s made your day utterly unproductive.
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Mortgage
My friend Claire is now working with MortgageForce, so if you’re in the Chichester area and in the market for a mortgage, give her a shout.
This announcement was brought to you by FriendPlug, the plugging service for friends! Are you a friend? Do you need a plug? Then call FriendPlug today! -
Line fault
I’ve just called BT support, and the problem does indeed seem to be a fault with my phone line. So an engineer will be coming out to see me at some indeterminate point in the future.
And, in other encouraging news, my account reckons I’m running a tight ship with PFE – to have such a small loss at the end of the first year of trading is, he reckons, extremely good indeed. Of course, we won’t go using phrases like "technically insolvent" around Hels, as she doesn’t like that sort of thing! But since the principal creditor is me, I don’t think I’ll be calling in my debt any time soon. -
Techno
Well, the good news is that my home broadband connection works fine. I’m increasingly suspicious about line noise on my work connection – that would explain why increasing the TXPower eases the symptoms.
The bad news is that, by connecting to the interwebnet rather a lot at Hels’s home, I’ve racked up a mighty phone bill for her. Hopefully my accountant, who I am seeing tomorrow, will suggest some creative method of making that tax deductable. I think I just need her to issue me with an invoice. -
Calling all techies
Here’s one for all you techies out there.
I have an Intel Anypoint™ 3240 DSL modem which I use for my work broadband connection to BT Openworld. Since the PC shananigans of last week, I’ve had to reinstall it and its drivers.
When I connect, the connection stays good for only a few seconds and then the modem locks up. The light stays green (i.e. it is trained), but no traffic is passing in either direction. The only way to remedy it is to unplug it from the hub and reconnect it.
I’ve checked the connection and checked the phone line. All appears normal.
Having searched the web for a solution, I’ve found that by going into Device Manager and increasing the value for TXPower (currently set at 06, 00 is the default), I can increase the amount of time before the connection dies. But the connection still ultimately dies, nonetheless. I’m told the maximum value I should assign to TXPower is 12.
Any suggestions?