Wednesday, 12 May 2010
Wednesday Wildlife - A Seahorse
Monday, 10 May 2010
Some Formula One shots
I've been sorting through some of my photos and came across these. During the early and mid 1990s I went to the British Grand Prix and its qualifying days. This was one of my best photos – Ayrton Senna in a MacLaren. Senna was three times Formula One World Champion and sadly he died in the San Marino GP in May 1994.
This was David Coulthard's pit-crew at a subsequent event.
Mauricio Gugelmin had one of the best helmets and his car - the Leighton House March - had a super livery.
The Benetton was pretty smart too.
Bertrand Gachot in the 7-UP Jordan.
Michele Alboreto in the rain at Silverstone.
And the real rainmaster - Rubens Barrichello at Donnington for the European Grand Prix.
Erik Comas exploring the gravel trap!
Sunday, 9 May 2010
GP3
There is a new category of Formula 1 support race – GP3. It is like a mini version of the GP2 series and has cars with plenty of grip and comparatively little power. The youngest driver is 16 and the oldest (by far) 24. Many of them have a lot to learn but it could be fun for us watching them.
Paul Varhaug from Norway won (but was clattered off in the first hundred yards of the second race). A typical hero to zero of motor racing.
Irishman Robert Wickens came second in the first race and had some great close racing with third place Gutierrez. The UK’s Dean Smith was in fourth place.
Thanks Eurosport for yet another motorsport spectacle.
P.S. In the second race Wickens and Gutierrez (who started 7th and 6th respectively) were also racing wheel to wheel at one stage and finished fourth and third. Robert Wickens looks like a racer to watch in the future.
Saturday, 8 May 2010
And another funny week...
It is not normally in my nature to use my blog to moan but I really am fed up of feeling poorly. It's not so much getting over the triple by-pass (which has been remarkably quick and with few complications) but my neurological problems. Chronic pain and chronic exhaustion are a nuisance. This week in particular I've had the added 'bonus' of having over-exerted myself and caused my heart to play up. As you can probably tell by the bloodlessness (oops - that was bloglessness until the spillchucker got hold of it) I've spent a lot of time in bed and when I've been up it's been like walking through treacle - without the fun of licking oneself! Today, Saturday, I feel quite reasonable. It's amazing how it comes and goes. Hopefully, it will have gone for a while.
Jo has fully recovered from her minor operation last week but is still rather tired, though how much that is from working too much and her Vitamin B shortage is open to question.
Jo is currently cooking a real English breakfast for Richard, Catherine, herself and me. Mine will have plenty of tomato and black pudding. Yum. Richard and Cath have never had black pudding before and Rich has no intention of changing that. Cath is going to experiment and give it a try. On television in the background is 'Saturday Kitchen' with it's omelette challenge. The guest chefs have to make an edible omelette in as short a time as possible. It's always hilarious - if messy. Then, in a couple of hours there is the qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix. I haven't even watched the DTM, Motogp, GP2 or Touring Car races that I taped last weekend yet.
What I have managed this week is to read - a lot. After a couple of standard novels I decided that I needed something effortless but fun so I began the Terry Pratchett Discworld series again. This is the third time I've read most of the early ones but they are so funny that they bear re-reading. Pratchett has a wonderful way of expressing things. This piece about the witch Granny Weatherwax, for example, reminded me so much of geographically-challenged Partner-who-loves-tea:-
“Granny Weatherwax was not lost. She wasn’t the kind of person who ever became lost. It was just that, at the moment, while she knew exactly where SHE was, she didn’t know the position of anywhere else.”
On Thursday evening Jo drove Rich and I out to the polling station where our ballot boxes were not the old black metal boxes but a yucky grey plastic. Is nothing sacred?
In the days when I worked in Knowsley elections were, to a large extent, a non-event. It proved so on Thursday as well. The sitting Labour MP – George Howarth (a man I much admire) – retained his seat without any problem and the local elections went according to plan:-
There were no queues at our polling station but chaos at a number of others in the North West. When I worked in local government we sent some of our election staff out to Africa to assist in organising elections and to supervise them. After all the problems this week I think some of them may be sent out to Africa for good!
Until this week I'd not heard of polling stations running out of ballot papers (Liverpool-Wavertree, et al) ; queues that couldn't be accommodated (Sheffield Hallam et al) ; trouble verifying ballot papers; a discrepancy of 2,000 between the votes cast and those counted (Neston and Ellesmere Port); allowing a 14 year old to cast his vote (Wyre & Preston North); and sending out-of-date electoral registers to the polling stations (Chester). What a mess.
And, after all that, we end up with hung MPs. I mean a hung parliament.
What a week!
Jo has fully recovered from her minor operation last week but is still rather tired, though how much that is from working too much and her Vitamin B shortage is open to question.
Jo is currently cooking a real English breakfast for Richard, Catherine, herself and me. Mine will have plenty of tomato and black pudding. Yum. Richard and Cath have never had black pudding before and Rich has no intention of changing that. Cath is going to experiment and give it a try. On television in the background is 'Saturday Kitchen' with it's omelette challenge. The guest chefs have to make an edible omelette in as short a time as possible. It's always hilarious - if messy. Then, in a couple of hours there is the qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix. I haven't even watched the DTM, Motogp, GP2 or Touring Car races that I taped last weekend yet.
What I have managed this week is to read - a lot. After a couple of standard novels I decided that I needed something effortless but fun so I began the Terry Pratchett Discworld series again. This is the third time I've read most of the early ones but they are so funny that they bear re-reading. Pratchett has a wonderful way of expressing things. This piece about the witch Granny Weatherwax, for example, reminded me so much of geographically-challenged Partner-who-loves-tea:-
“Granny Weatherwax was not lost. She wasn’t the kind of person who ever became lost. It was just that, at the moment, while she knew exactly where SHE was, she didn’t know the position of anywhere else.”
On Thursday evening Jo drove Rich and I out to the polling station where our ballot boxes were not the old black metal boxes but a yucky grey plastic. Is nothing sacred?
In the days when I worked in Knowsley elections were, to a large extent, a non-event. It proved so on Thursday as well. The sitting Labour MP – George Howarth (a man I much admire) – retained his seat without any problem and the local elections went according to plan:-
There were no queues at our polling station but chaos at a number of others in the North West. When I worked in local government we sent some of our election staff out to Africa to assist in organising elections and to supervise them. After all the problems this week I think some of them may be sent out to Africa for good!
Until this week I'd not heard of polling stations running out of ballot papers (Liverpool-Wavertree, et al) ; queues that couldn't be accommodated (Sheffield Hallam et al) ; trouble verifying ballot papers; a discrepancy of 2,000 between the votes cast and those counted (Neston and Ellesmere Port); allowing a 14 year old to cast his vote (Wyre & Preston North); and sending out-of-date electoral registers to the polling stations (Chester). What a mess.
And, after all that, we end up with hung MPs. I mean a hung parliament.
What a week!
Monday, 3 May 2010
A funny old week...
It's been a funny old week. I don't seem to have done much - apart from put a few entries on my Wirral Blog - and yet I'm quite tired. Partner-who-loves-tea had a minor operation on her neck on Thursday and is home and recovering well. Friend-who-loves-otters resigned his job and that will have a major impact on the next eighteen months as he would have had to go out to Australia for much of it. And Brother-who-blogs arrived back home from wintering (or is it summering) in New Zealand.
The sunny spell came to an end during the week but it's now (Sunday) shining again and the conservatory is heating up to its usual 200°C. Along the roadsides a wide variety of blossoms are now out and its heading from Spring to Summer - which is quite strange considering Spring only began a couple of weeks ago.
During the last stormy spell bits of chimney began to drop off so we decided to have it taken down for safety. It's not the chimney through which our lounge fire exits so we can still have an open fire. This chimney had long since had its fireplaces and chimney breasts removed. Indeed, it's hard to know where the original fireplaces were positioned. The roofer has done a brilliant job and after taking the stack down he matched up the old tiles and you would never know there had been a chimney there.
Liverpool FC got knocked out of the Europa Cup this week and then lost to Chelsea on Sunday. This latter was not such a tragedy as it might have been since it improves Chelsea's chances of keeping Manchester United from taking the Championship. There was plenty or motor racing at the weekend ne I've taped it to watch at my leisure.
And that's been my week. I hope yours has been OK.
The sunny spell came to an end during the week but it's now (Sunday) shining again and the conservatory is heating up to its usual 200°C. Along the roadsides a wide variety of blossoms are now out and its heading from Spring to Summer - which is quite strange considering Spring only began a couple of weeks ago.
During the last stormy spell bits of chimney began to drop off so we decided to have it taken down for safety. It's not the chimney through which our lounge fire exits so we can still have an open fire. This chimney had long since had its fireplaces and chimney breasts removed. Indeed, it's hard to know where the original fireplaces were positioned. The roofer has done a brilliant job and after taking the stack down he matched up the old tiles and you would never know there had been a chimney there.
Liverpool FC got knocked out of the Europa Cup this week and then lost to Chelsea on Sunday. This latter was not such a tragedy as it might have been since it improves Chelsea's chances of keeping Manchester United from taking the Championship. There was plenty or motor racing at the weekend ne I've taped it to watch at my leisure.
And that's been my week. I hope yours has been OK.
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