What are you doing for New Year?

It's NYE and I have no plans yet; no matter because I have ordered my new PC!

As a result I will be able to post more blogs etc, cos this current PC really struggles with editing pictures and opening multiple windows. Plus, I've signed up to the new Blogger which seems to be a wee bit slicker from first impressions (I'll reserve judgement though)

But this all poses the million-quid question: What do I do with my old PC?

I bought my current PC (the one I am typing on right now) Easter 2001, when I was living in a rented house atop cliffs overlooking the north sea (now a holiday home!). I needed it to keep me sane, because although admittedly beautiful, it was incredibly cold there and I needed to excerise my fingers to keep warm...

I kept the old PC (bought in 1995) as back-up, in case anything ever happened to the new one. I then moved house the following December, and again two years later. I have been in this latest house for three years, and I STILL HAVE THE FIRST PC!!!!!

The floppy drive doesn't work; which is why when I got this one I had to create a second email account, to post all my files over that I wanted to keep (this was before USBs and when CD-writers cost ££££'s) - the memory capacity was tiny, the monitor has long since been donated to charity (was the size of my mouse-mat). I also donated the external modem and floppies. I'll hopefully offload it to someone who can plant flowers in it or something.

So anyway I reckon I am about due a new PC - I have been very good and it was a good price in the sales, and it has been almost 5 years.

Now... there is nothing wrong with this PC - testament to my careful surfing and non-gaming ways no doubt - so I am going to try and persuade someone to take it from me. Someone who hasn't got one - which these days means someone who doesn't want one.... hmmm might be a bit tricky this one ...

The Magic Numbers, Newcastle 01 Dec 2006

We went to see the Magic Numbers last night, in the Northumbrian University Students Union venue. We were quite looking forward to it, having played the first album a lot and missed out on their first tour.

I bought the second album and after having it a while and only playing it a few times I realised we might have missed the boat a bit...

When we eventually found somewhere to park and got inside, the first battle was to get a drink which we knew immediately would be our one and only chance for refreshment as it took so fecking long to get served.

The room was large but hot and packed full, which should have been a great atmosphere but it was also Friday night and standing only, so psychologically I was already tired.

The band played fantastically well, note-perfect and sounded just like the album.



On the down-side, the band played fantastically well, note-perfect and sounded just like the album... however the girl playing the bass was fantastic! She thrashed her hair about and rocked as if she loved it... great stuff... and it's always good to see people in the flesh.

They did a version of Running up That Hill which was worth hearing (I think everyone's done a version of this now) but after that I got sick of the view of the posh blonde tart pouting right in front of me, so we left and headed up to Berwick.

A Trip to Kelvingrove in Glasgow, 25-11-06

Today I visited Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery, which has reopened this year after extensive renovation. I took along my mum and my Auntie Dot, for a girl's day out.

The Central Hall has two wings coming from it; we first went into the Expressions Gallery where lots of sculptures and busts were on display. Above all these were suspended lots of white heads, called "Expressions", obviously specially commisioned!



Close-up of some of the heads:



Below this, I loved the grasping sculpture "The Harpy Celaeno", by Mary Pownall:



Stopping to pose awhile:


I'm afraid I didn't get this girl's name:



This is a sad sculpture called "Motherless" by George Lawson (apologies for the toothy grins):



I was very pleased to see a section for Prehistoric items; axes, flints, and Aberdeenshire carved balls... and this big chunk of Rock Art which originally came from near Dumbarton, at a place called Greenland. Shame about the chalk...



The other "wing" was the Life Gallery, which had a real Spitfire suspended above - well - a load of stuffed animals. They had tried to arrange them in an interesting way at least; Dot got quite a shock when she turned and saw this badger! Then mum made friends with it:



The Life Gallery:



There was a nice variety of Paintings in the gallery, from Van Gogh to Lowry and Rembrandt... Not much modern stuff at all though.
There was a huge painting called "The Paps of Jura", by William McTaggart:



And of course there was the Hollywood attraction that is Salvador Dali's Christ of St John and the Cross, and Avril Paton's Windows in the West, which is chock full of detail.

If "Reading Aloud" by Albert Moore was on display I didn't see it here; although I saw it last time and was amazed at the size of it. Here's a gratuitous pasting from the Kelvingrove website:



So now to the facilities: well the loos were great but both cubicles I went into had broken locks!
The coffee shop in the main Hall took ages in the queue in order to buy frozen sandwiches. Downstairs in the Cafe we had more success; I'm told the soup was lovely and I can say the Haggis, Neeps and Tatties was bloody gorgeous!

Shops: there is one downstairs near the Cafe which appeared to be for school trips and postcard buyers; meanwhile the one near the back door (facing the Huntarian) was bursting with top quality souvenirs.

So, the parking was up after 4 hours and we headed to Glasgow Fort for some retail indulgences to end the day, before braving the gales and driving rain to head south.

Six Degrees of Separation

I woke up this morning (da, da-ra-ra-RA!) and I was thinking about Six Degrees of Separation, and how one would turn this into a website. It would be a fantastic website along the lines of Friends Reunited and be a search engine where you could put in your name and it would tell you how you are linked to someone else on the planet, as long as they had entered their details. Of course, upon registering you would be required to record everyone you know, including birth dates and locations. Then on the famous end, people could be linked by movies etc. Each link would have to be verified by providing evidence e.g. photos or references.

I was half awake, half asleep, working the potential maths problem in my head. My brain was in danger of exploding, which is when I woke properly, and realised it was an insane idea!!!

Turns out I wasn't the first to think of it (no shock there). Wiki says that there was an early website called sixdegrees.com which was like a social networking website that bit the dust. It probably imploded. Of course I had also (after a bit of memory-digging) heard of the game "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon".

I might look up the TV series and the film or the play etc... it's a concept that fascinates me.

Who do you know?

Webcam!

I know... I know... it's just sooooo boring when poeple say hey this is me on the internet! etc

It's like getting a new pen and writing "this is my new pen it is rather a good smart writer" on the nearest bit of paper or cardboard, usually the packet it came in.

Anyhoo, I got a new webcam! I can't believe I've never had one before!

So this is a gratuitous shot of me this morning: just for fun



It's really odd sitting here with a camera pointing at me. Feels like I'm on Big Brother! Better watch what I'm doing eh...

Onwards!

Muncaster Castle

Afer sitting around all morning we decided to go somewhere - and we had some vouchers to use up which were running out!

So we chose Muncaster Castle - in south west Cumbria. It's about 2 hours' drive from here and we got there at about 3pm.

I was last here when I was about 10-15 years old, and all I could remember was the huge bamboo "trees" in the gardens, they were so tall and it was the first time I had seen bamboo growing and not just the sticks (I was expecting to see pandas, because they eat it right, but sadly none that day). So I was pleased to find that in fact the plants really are that tall! And there really is quite a bit of it at Muncaster!

We continued down to the duck pond and spoke to the fowl.

The main house was next; what a fantastic view from the front of the house! Sadly the inside failed to impress as much, although the audio tour was very good, read out by the family that lives there (although I couldn't imagine anyone actually living there, surely?)
Most memorable was the gold-leaf and leather wallcovering, and the reeds used to cover the walls in a corridor. Of course, Muncaster is known by ghosthunters and there was an emphasis on this aspect; enough to creep me out occasionally!

The Heron Happy Hour was due at 4.30 and we dutifully went outside to observe. What a backdrop! What a day! This was a lovely spectacle; herons nest in the trees here, the tops of which are in line with the level of courtyard out in front of the house. They come every day to get fed; there's also a family of buzzards which have caught on - so it can be quite entertaining!

After this, we went round to the Owl Centre - the doors were closed! But thankfully that was just the exhibition bit... we could still visit all the "inmates" in the aviaries behind. And what a fantastic variety of owls! I took some lovleyphotos, unfortunately I didn't take note of all their identities / species. We also took some lovely video, including a chick getting swallowed for tea.

After a quick visit to the gift shop we were getting kicked out so we headed to Keswick for chiops on the way home - and had to endure the loudest most gobby southerners discussing who's room had the worst facilities (yawn) ... But the chips were lovely!

PICS TO FOLLOW!!