No Longer An Island

Many years ago the sea levels were different and there were a bunch of ports around the south east coast of this island that aren’t really ports any more. There are rivers and waterways that connect them to the sea but silt and level changes have created new land.

I had a lovely time visiting the town of Rye. The aim was to find a hot chocolate cafe but we ended up in a Mexican restaurant and that was lovely. Great food and lovely Mexican music playing.

Los Gringos - Rye
Los Gringos – Rye

If I go to Rye again I will try to spend a little longer there and also look up more of the history. It is amazing that the Cinque Ports were once a thing but the geography changes have really made such a difference.

Lego 68 – Model 76923

According to this website the last Lego model I made was in 2020, it has been a while! I’m not sure why it’s been this long, probably my kids no longer need my help with Lego and I haven’t bought any – where do I put it? This model was bought for my cake-day by the Legend and it super pleases me. It covers two things I really enjoy; cars and gaming. This model is the Lamborghini Lambo V12 Vision GT Super Car which exists within the game of Gran Turismo 7.

Lamborghini Lambo V12 Vision GT Super Car
Lamborghini Lambo V12 Vision GT Super Car

I need to go and buy the car in the game and then take some scapes photos with it. I will post those here when I have completed that side-quest.

Lamborghini Lambo V12 Vision GT Super Car
Lamborghini Lambo V12 Vision GT Super Car

I’m hoping the car drives well. I’ve got a few races still to complete in the standard section of GT so I will be working on that.

My First Mesh

My house is too small to require a mesh wifi system. The router works pretty well when there are four rooms and they are two up, two down. There are a couple of areas of weak signal, especially when using 5G because there are brick walls in the way. A quick swap to 2.4G and it’s sorted though. The 5G signal has a higher bandwidth but the higher frequency doesn’t penentrate solid substances as well as the 2.4G signal.

I have installed a mesh at another house. It was a mostly harmless process. The TP-Link Deco system connects to the internet modem with an ethernet cable and then it all works! I did have to log in to the modem/router and tell it to turn off the wifi that it produces. Then everything is connected via the Deco unit. There are two mesh wifi transmitters and also a LAN going to a simple switch that connects the entertainment stuff up to the internet.

There is a gaming console connected to part of the extension of the mesh and even thgough there is a double wifi lan connection to the internet there haven’t been any complaints about latency. I am impressed.

Adventuring Summer 2024

The Legend and I have spent some time away adventuring and generally enjoying being away from things. We stayed in Crowborough initially and investigated things around there. I had to do some car “repairs” as I broke part of the bottom of the car being slightly impatient. We visited Pooh Sticks Bridge on a rainy day, which did keep the riff-raff away. Then we also tried to find the source of the river Medway. This wasn’t that easy. I knew where the source was and it is a spring on some farmer’s land. We walked to the spot but then could only really see the bushes and ferns covering the spring. We could hear running water but could only make it out a little further downstream where there was a small bridge. It was all rather overgrown but it was pretty cool to be in that spot.

Source Of The River Medway - Trust Me
Source Of The River Medway – Trust Me

The Crowborough campsite was below part of the approach pattern for Gatwick airport. Many aircraft flew overhead and it was great tracking them on the phone. There was also an amazing sound some of them made when flying over. It was a strange howling sound that I think is something to do with their engines spooling down or flaps extending. I’m not sure but it was gorgeous.

We then travelled down to the New Forest. The campsite was positioned on an old RAF Base and we were set up at one of the aircraft dispersal points along the perry track. The campsite was busy but after a couple of days most people went home so it became quieter and calmer.

Geeses - The New Forest
Geeses – The New Forest

We visited the Bovington Tank museum and had a ride in a tracked vehicle, watched a tank battle show and saw plenty of tin cans that burn soldiers alive if hit. Later that day we drove around collecting new supplies for our camp. We had a day of cycling which was lovely. I had never really explored the New Forest and it was great just pootling along enjoying the experience.

Sea Rex - The World's Largest Pliosaur
Sea Rex – The World’s Largest Pliosaur

I think possibly the best adventure was travelling the Kimmeridge to see the Sea-Rex. This is a skull of a pliosaur which was discovered in the cliff face of the Jurassic Coast. There is a BBC programme about it and this was most of the reason we visited this place. The display was really nice and we even got to see the Steve Etches at work in the lab. We had lunch at the pub opposite and then drove to Tyneham. This village was suggested as a place to visit by one of the workers in the Etches Collection.

Tyneham is an abandoned village. Everyone was relocated during the second world war and have never been allowed back to live. There’s a big local campaign but it hasn’t got anywhere so far. It was interesting to see. My most interesting piece of information was that when the village was compulsory purchased all the money went to the “squire” as he owned all the property. The villagers were given only the value of the vegetables in their gardens. I see most of the world in terms of a class struggle between the poor and the wealthy. This classically highlights this struggle that is a very long way from being resolved.

Kimmeridge
Kimmeridge

On the return from Kimmeridge and the Jurassic Coast we drove past a shop selling pretty cool outdoors and biking stuff. So we hung a quick u-ey and visited that place. I would recommend Guardhouse Sports to you. I bought the Legend her birthday present. While packing away and getting ready to return I saw some nice aircraft heading to Bournemouth airport ready for their airshow. There were a couple of RAF Tutors and then, the most gorgeous Saab Draken and Viggen of the historical flight. I’m not sure I’d seen these flying before so it was great to see them.

It was lovely to be away. Such a relaxing time.

Better Luck Second And Third Time

I went with KL to Brighton for the second time within a month. The plan was to experience the i360 and hopefully to be able to see outside this time. The last time we went it was foggy and we couldn’t see a thing. This time we travelled and the weather seemed good. We were lucky and the visibility was clear up to a height of around 150 metres so the views this time were excellent.

Brighton East, The View From The i360.
Brighton East, The View From The i360.

While enjoying the ride I accidentally knocked over an expensive drink of ginger beer so once we had returned to earth I told the staff. I also pointed out the various buttons behind the bar to K, these were the ones that controlled the UFO shaped observatory. The person in charge of the experience seemed so impressed I had taken an interest in his knobs that he asked if we wanted to stay on and ride again. We accepted.

While in the i360 I looked at the altimeter on my watch out of curiosity. Below is a picture of the watch once we had returned to earth the second time.

Brighton Day - Altitude
Brighton Day – Altitude

Apart from the disgusting hairs on my arm you can see I’ve marked four sections. The describe the following parts of the day:

A – Being at home.
B – The journey to Brighton.
C – The first ride in the i360.
D – The second ride in the i360.

It’s nice to see that parts of the watch that I paid for really seem to work. I’m curious as to how sensitive the watch is to pressure changes. I might investigate.

I’d Been Aiming For This

Over the time of playing the recent chapter/season or whatever it’s called of Fortnite I had hoped that the opportunity to jump the train in a vehicle would arise. I had tried before and it didn’t really work. But recently I did manage it and I managed to capture the video of it. I have removed the sound as other people were talking while I did this.

Not Bright But Excellent

For my birthday recently the Legend and I travelled to Brighton to experience the views of the south coast of England from the i360. This isn’t the latest iPhone or other shitty Apple device and it’s not the newest video streaming platform from the BBC. The i360 is a UFO shaped glass viewing platform that towers 138 metres above the beach. The platform starts at ground level and is then winched to max height where it stays for a while before being lowered back down and generating some power from the gravitational potential energy. The views are meant to be spectacular.

Monochrome i360 Landing
Monochrome i360 Landing

We had lunch in a restaurant close to the i360 on the front, the place was called Pinello and the food was delicious. I had a lovely mocktail. Next we joined the non-existent queue for the i360. Our bags were searched and we waited for the ride. There were about eight people in total in the UFO so we had a very peaceful time. Also, It was foggy. For the entire journey we couldn’t see a thing except white outside of the windows.

i360 In The Clouds
i360 In The Clouds

The Legend and I bagsed a sofa and we sat there enjoying the non-view and drinking flavoured champagne or something like that. After our landing back on Earth we perused the shop and then went to the pier to experience the sea-side proper.

Gorgeous Brighton Coastline
Gorgeous Brighton Coastline

Once the interesting things were completed we headed back home. As soon as we rose north of the South Downs the weather was actually sunny!

Brighton West Pier
Brighton West Pier

It Takes Skill

A favourite thing to do in the game Fortnite is to drive around and surprise people. Even better is to be in a convoy of a few vehicles just driving around the map because it’s fun. I recently drove through some of the Underworld and then somehow managed to park my Jeep exactly sideways in a corridor – it takes skill.

Just Park - Fortnite
Just Park – Fortnite

Delightful Television – Delightful Day

Yesterday the Legend crew took a trip to West Horsley House. It’s the location where most of the BBC series Ghosts was filmed. If you like the series then you’ll understand that the house is a pretty big feature of the show.

West Horsley Place - BBC Ghosts Filming Location
West Horsley Place – BBC Ghosts Filming Location

The open day was ticketed to avoid there being too many people around, also the car parking was somewhat limited. We rolled up in our luxury minibus, hired for the day, but not quite luxury enough for the wheels to be correctly balanced or the doors to close without needing an extra shove. Coffee and some snacks were downloaded into the living bodies and then we wandered around the place.

West Horsley Place - Fanny's Window
West Horsley Place – Fanny’s Window

There were plenty of Ghosts fans and superfans wandering around. I found it fascinating how much they changed the look of the interior for the show and the dressing that was required to do that. I also liked the fact that filming the show used almost every part of the house.

West Horsley Place - The Drawing Room
West Horsley Place – The Drawing Room

Seeing the same rooms and furniture that was used for Ghosts, and also some feature films, it was a lovely sense of familiarity along with the first time of being there. A bit like when I went to LA and saw things that I’d seen all along on TV and film. I think to get the most out of the time at the house it’s probably important to have recently watched the show and then re-watch it all upon return.

Tanks And The Forest

Towards the end of my summer period of “not-work” I went to the New Forest with the families. The weather was medium for most of the time allowing shorts and t-shirts but it did get chilly overnight in the tents. The campsite was Hollands Wood which was quite large but maximum occupancy levels were enough to keep it feeling quiet. Driving through the moors was very interesting – the idea that this level of wilderness exists in the south of England was surprising.

The maze of paths at Hollands Wood

One of the reasons the New Forest was chosen was that it was on the way to the Tank Museum at Bovington. People in my house play War Thunder and while it’s not my game of choice they are both pretty good at tank recognition – I am not. The number of tanks, the history, the show, the arena, all made for an excellent visit.

Sherman Tank - Fury - Bovington Tank Museum
Sherman Tank – Fury – Bovington Tank Museum

I found it interesting seeing all the different tanks and I took a lot of photographs, but, I will admit that once I got home all the different tanks kind of blurred into one! A big heavy metal thing with a gun sticking out of it. The kids had a great time and loved seeing the tanks in real life. We all had a ride on a Vietnam was era troop carrier, it took us around the arena a few times and was great fun if dirty and noisy!

Tracked Personnel Carrier - Bovington Tank Museum
Tracked Personnel Carrier – Bovington Tank Museum

I guess I’ll try and find another place like this for next year. Something with planes, trains and automobiles.