We got to the beach early

It was hot today, damm hot, I got up this morning and the sky was clear blue and not a cloud to be seen, a pointer of how the day was to continue. After dropping the wife at work and doing a couple of chore around the house I decide it was time to take my son to the beach. Now my son is not a great beach lover, he likes going to the beach but to sit there build sand castle and take a dip, that not is cup of tea. So I planned a nice long walk along the beach and paddling around ankle deep water in the process.

We got down to the beach nice and early, when we arrived a sea mist had descended over the beach and you could barely see 40ft away. As we walked to the beach (we parked on a side road to save the extortionate parking fees) the mist began to lift, we reached the beach kicked of our shoes and suddenly found the beach covered in broken shells, ouch.

By the time we got to the water line the mist had disappeared and clear blue sky return, there were very few people on the beach, the life guards were still putting out their flags and other kit. The water was freezing cold when we first entered but slowly as the our feet acclimatised it became more bearable. We even managed to see 6 little hermit crabs (they would all fit in the palm of your hand with room to spare), dear son was worried they were going to pinch his toes. When we reached the far end of the beach we sat and watched some people fishing and watched the boats leave the harbour out to the big wide sea beyond. By the time we had made our way back to the starting point the beach was crowded and still the people were coming onto the beach.

I think the whole walk was about 2.5 miles, add in the distance from the beach to where the car was parked and we are probably looking 3 miles. Not a great distance in anybody book but with my knees a mile stone none the less.

Unfortunately I overlooked one vital thing, suntan lotion, my son has got a very red neck now, his arms and legs are ok just the back of his neck, no doubt he will make me feel guilty about it over the weekend.

I am becoming forgetful so I must be getting old

As I mentioned yesterday I took my son out to the New Forest, went to a place called Wilverly Plain, it is on the Burley to Brockenhurst road. I thought we would take my single line kites out and give them an airing, so I dug them out the cupboard, got a couple of pegs to tie the lines to once in the air, a mallet for knocking the pegs in the ground and then we were off. Arrived without any problems, found a nice spot, started getting the kites out and.............. no lines!! It at about this moment that a little light goes on in the back of my head that says the lines and reel are in another bag in the cupboard that I did not pick up, a few choice words (under my breath so my son does not hear me) and I start packing up.

I remember there was a Revolution Kite in the bag (I won't explain what they are check out this web site: http://www.revkites.com ). Fortunately the lines are in the bag for this kite. It has been so long since I last had this kite out I can't even remember how to assemble it, I eventually get it together and attach the lines. On the launch instead of rising steadily into the air the kite veers off to the left. So I check it all connected correctly (as far as I can remember), try again same thing happens again. So now I check the lines are the same length, they are not, one line is about 3inches long than the others.............it is about now the familiar light in my head flashes on and I can remember the last time I tried to fly this kite, it kept veering all over the place and I gave up. The lines needed to be sorted out and as they were all different lengths (there are four lines on the kite and they all need to be the same length). I did not have the bits I needed to do it with me, so I had to pack up the kite and and return all of them to the car.

We ended up having a walk around the woods, dodging the muddy puddles and muddy dogs (my son attracts dog like a magnet) and was sporting a lovely mud splodge on his t-shirt from a 21 week old Great Dane puppy (looked more like a tiger with the black stripes in it fur). We manged to avoid the two tone muddy and Golden Labrador and the white and muddy Scotty dog.

The days entertainment ended when I had to drive the wife to an interview straight from work, because of the time she got out of work and the time of the interview she decided that she would change her clothes in the car on the way to the interview, its a amazing how many traffic ques you get stuck in at roundabouts and traffic light :)

Why me and to many e-mails

Why me? every time I have a holiday I have every intention of getting out flying (as in kites). It is now Wednesday, and I have yet to go out due to weather or family commitments, looking at the next four days I won't be holding my breath, no\low wind forecast for tomorrow and then in completely the wrong direction for the next three days. I can't bring myself to look at Mondays but I bet it will be perfect!! It is time like this that I wish I lived somewhere like Westward Ho! where the beach is on my doorstep rather than 2.5 hours drive away.

As it was absolutely pouring down today I decided to do a job I have been putting of for ages, consolidating my e-mail accounts. As much as I hate to admit it, I have 9 e-mail accounts a couple of them are old and just used for reference and a couple that just had the occasional e-mail from a mailing list or forum. So today I sat down and started to move forum logins mailing list etc. over to a couple of the e-mail accounts I intend to keep. Hopefully I will be down to 5 e-mail accounts by the time I have finished as well as un-subscribing from 3 mailing lists that I never read. Hopefully my e-mail client will stop creaking at the seams now.

Tomorrow I think I will go for a walk, I had intended to do that today (after deciding the wind was no good) but the rain put pay to that. Will have my son with me tomorrow so will need to make it interesting for a nine year old still thinking where we can go, have to be back by mid afternoon as I have to drive the wife to an interview just as rush hour starts.

We don't help ourselves

I was sat on the beach today and the wind was blowing quite strongly (it was 20 to 25mph while I was there) watching the kite surfer (I was actually trying to photograph them but with the wind buffeting me about and the fact my lens was not big enough........). Anyway one of the kite surfers went to his car and produced a wind meter, what followed next was a failure to read the manual for the wind meter as nobody knew which button to press to get the correct display, but it also revealed another problem, what scale should you display the wind speed in?? should it be as I have above mph, or should it be kph? but as kite surfing is classed as sailing then it should be measured via the Beaufort scale or knots, but then these guys are athletic so should we measure the wind like they do for athletic meetings, meter per second?????

If we are going to measure something that moves from "a" to "b" why do we need so many different scales to measure how fast it moved between the two points?? One of the web sites (its a sailing web site) I use gives me the option to have the wind speed in four different scales (MPH, KPH, Knots, Mtr/s), another web site (general weather) will let me enter the wind speed in one scale and it will convert it into the other fours for me. You watch the weather forecast (well the one I see anyway), the inland wind speed is measured in mph, but when it is measured over the sea it is measured via the Beaufort scale! Why are we trying to confuse ourselves, can't we have one scale that we use to record the wind speed and stick with that??

Unfortunately which scale to measure wind speed is not the only thing we don't learn lesson from. One of the most important aspects of safety in kite surfing is wearing a leash so that if you have to release the kite (let go) it won't blow away from you. You would think that with the kites costing upwards of a £1000 that the flyer's would be ever so keen to wear a leash, well apparently not for one flyer who lost (as in let go) his kite this morning, his kite proceed in the down wind direction (e.g. the direction of the wind), across a main road before impaling itself on a block of flats. Unfortunately I missed the action as I was facing the other way having just received a call on my mobile. First I knew about it was when I nearly got trampled by other kite surfer rushing to the wayward kite fearing there was a kite flyer still attached to it. A few choice words were offered by the would be rescuer concerning the safety of the flyer.

Bank Holiday and its raining

Yes it is bank holiday Monday and its raining but can't really complain and the last two days have been lovely, sunny and warm. Yesterday we made it to the Eastleigh Railway works (which was son surprise birthday present). I must say I was a little disappointed, while there were a lot of train outside the sheds the inside were basically gutted, (British railway, as they were pulled out of the buildings several years ago) when I visited the shed some 20 years ago at another open weekend they were full of carriages and trains in various stages of being rebuilt. I remember seeing a large display about the wheels (the old joke about the wrong kind of leaves on the line) with examples of wheels that had been flat spotted and another machine to look at the wheels for cracks. Yesterday those large empty caverns (with many in need of repair) were full of model railway stalls and memorabilia stalls.

Unfortunately we had to cut short the trip as my knee gave up and there was very little in the way of seating and the other half had the head ache from hell and forgot to pack the head ache tablets. At least we got back early which meant we could lounge around out in the garden soaking up the sun.

Not sure what today hold for us, will probably download the railway pictures from the camera, need to find my knee support that seems to have disappeared and subject to the rain and my knee might go for a wander this afternoon.

Part II

Well the early morning rain was just that, early morning rain, by 11-00am the sun was poking out from behind the clouds, daughter had taken her brother of our hands for a few hours so we jumped in the car and went to Swanage. I found my knee support and wore that for the day, made my knee fill a lot better walking around the town and up the damm big hill we climbed. Not sure why but we climb this hill in the park which takes you up to the cliffs between the coast guard look out at Dancing Ledge and the Durlston. Boy am I unfit (but then I knew that anyway), had to stop half way up, my excuse is it was a big hill.

Walking around Swanage I decided that I don't like those families that walk 5 abreast along the sea front, they wander along two of the kids will be fighting or chasing each other, the mum will be telling little johnny to keep away for the edge just as uncle Roy grabs him and pretends to push him over the edge, the husband is telling the mum-in-law that they don't sell that sort of thing in the shops any more, and the wife telling the husband to not be so rude to her mum and all the while totally oblivious to the obstruction they are causing.

Swanage has a nice little shop (well in fact it is two) Rainbows End, it sells clothing a hippy-ish, goth-ish type for both male and female although it is mainly female. Certainly not cheap but it is the stuff you won't find in the high street shops but when you see somebody wearing it you think I want one of those where did you get it.

We left early as daughter was working tonight so we had to be back to look after son. I was expecting a slow drive with all the traffic leaving Swanage but we flew back without any hold ups. Got home before son & daughter got back and managed a couple more hours of slow roasting in the garden before the sun hid behind the storm clouds, had one lighting flash so far, let see what the night brings.