It’s a fair old way from the Isle of Dogs to Cleethorpes, about 180 miles, but we made good time on the journey up there on the Friday evening,

On the Saturday morning we had a walk around Cleethorpes followed by lunch at the Ocean Fish Bar, and in the afternoon drove to Grimsby Docks to take some photos.

We didn’t manage to find our way to the actual dockside but did spend some time wandering around the Fish Market area and the fish processing buildings.

At the weekend, the docks are pretty much deserted apart from a few people working on their boats in the marina area.

When I was young, growing in Cleethorpes, you could always smell fish near the docks, and quite a long way down Freeman Street, which used to the main shopping area in Grimsby before most trade moved to the Riverhead Centre now known as Freshney Place. Now that much of the fishing industry has gone, the smell isn’t quite so pervasive, but the actual dock area still smells fishy.

These days most of the fish that is sold at the Fish Market and processed in Grimsby is caught by boats based in Scotland and there are a lot fewer boats based in Grimsby. The food processing industry still provides a lot of employment in the area, and the combination of Immingham and Grimsby docks are the UK’s largest port by tonnage, with lots of car and food imports passing through.

Sunday morning, I got up early and went to a car boot sale with my Dad. Lots of junk with a few interesting items scattered about but nothing worth buying.

On Sunday afternoon, my brother, sister-in-law, Vic and I went for a walk along Cleethorpes beach where there are some wild orchids growing. The weather wasn’t as chilly as it usually is on the beach so it was quite pleasant and we took some time taking photos.

Monday morning saw another trip to a couple of car boot sales. This time I found something interesting enough to buy. There was a stall selling old computers, including an old Amiga 500 and a Toshiba MSX machine, but I couldn’t really justify buying either of those, and they looked in pretty dirty condition. However on another stall I found a Psion Series 5mx in good condition along with a mains adaptor which I bought for a bargain £15.

I have the slightly older Psion Series 5 already, and to be honest I’m not sure that I’m really going to use either that much, but they’re nice machines, able to read and write to CompactFlash memory cards. The Psion Series 5 machines were pretty much the last great British-designed computer.

In the 80’s the UK lead the world in designing home computers with the Acorn and Sinclair machines, and Psion were one of the few companies that survive from that era. Sadly, they don’t made consumer devices any more, concentrating on handhelds for inventory tracking etc.

Let me know if anything on here doesn’t work any more.

We drove down to the Harbour Campsite on the Friday evening, arriving at about 9pm and putting the tent up as the night drew in. We then popped down the road to the Casa Mia bar for some food as we didn’t fancy heating anything up on the gas stove. After a good pizza and a beer (possibly the only drinking establishment in the area that doesn’t have Adnams!) we returned for the tent to sleep.

The next morning we were woken by the sound of rain falling on the tent. Not what we wanted to hear really, but we got up and cooked some bacon for breakfast.

Once we were fed we decided to walk into Southwold along the beach. That proved to be, well, not a mistake, more of a challenge. The wind was howling down the beach, blowing the rain horizontally into us. By the time we got to the beach huts marking the start of the the town, we were drenched, cold and red in the face from the wind. We retired to a coffee shop for a hot drink and to dry out a bit.

Having had a breather we wandered around Southwold, visited a few shops and popped into the Kings Head for lunch by which time the weather had improved, at least to the stage where the rain had stopped even if it was still overcast and a bit windy. We walked back along the edge of the common to the campsite and stopped to take a few photos along the way.

After a bit of time back at the tent reading the paper, we walked down the harbour to the Harbour Inn for some dinner and a couple of pints of Adnams beer. Back at the tent it was going to be a cold night so we wrapped up warm and went to bed.

Sunday was much brighter, though there was still a biting wind. We packed the tent up and went for a walk on the beach before popping into town for some fish and chips.

We then headed back home, having enjoyed the weekend, though better weather would have made it more fun.

A couple of days before his birthday this year he arranged to go to Rockingham Racetrack and take up the challenge.

Vic and I went along to watch, as did Vic’s mum, Joan, and Vic’s sister, Lorna. We took a picnic with us so that we could make a bit of a day of it

Rockingham is up by Kettering in Northamptonshire, but the trusty TomTom satnav got us there safely, albeit a bit later than we’d originally intended.

As we got out of the car we were greeted by the squeal of tyres as other attendees went through their paces in saloon cars on the skid pan. The smell of burning rubber hung in the air as the specially rigged cars swung around in a pretty extreme fashion.

We went into the huge observation deck/waiting area while Alan registered, and it was then a case of waiting for an hour or so for his group to be called.

When Alan was called, the rest of us walked down to the garage area down at the track level. While he was being briefed we had a look round a sample car they had parked in one of the garages, and watched some of the other customers driving a variety of Porsche, Ferrari, Lotus, Lamborghini and Mini cars.

After Alan and the other single-seater drivers had been briefed we walked over to the pit lane and watched some of the other guests on the track.

After a while it was Alan’s turn, and he and 5 other single-seater drivers headed out. The other cars are all out at the same time as well, so there’s a mix of single-seaters, sports cars and Minis all going round at the same time.

The single-seaters get about 8 laps each before having to come in, which is just about enough to start to get a feel for the handling of the car.

Alan thoroughly enjoyed the experience, and we rounded the trip off with the picnic back at the car-park.

Singapore was fun in a “how many shopping malls” kind of way. Bought a few bits and pieces; new camera lens, bag, trainers etc.

Vic had an allergic reaction to the anti-malarial antibiotics we were taking, so we had to visit the Raffles Hospital. As with our visits to hospital in Malaysia, the level of service, speed and cost really put the UK health service to shame.

Watched loads of films on the flight back home and stayed awake through the entire twelve and a half hour flight.

Sunday was London Marathon Day so we left town and drove down to Rye in Sussex, and then on to Camber Sands for a walk along the beach.

It was a bit fresh but it was nice to sit by the car and eat fish and chips.

Photos can be found in the usual place on my Flickr photostream.

We decided against going to the Glastonbury Festival this year, after the mudscape that was last years festival. Instead we’re going back to Bestival on the Isle of Wight in September, which we attended in 2006.

I’m writing this offline as we’ve been unable to find a decent internet connection. We did get online for half an hour on a shared dial-up connection in an internet cafe on Lombok but that’s been it. I brought the Macbook with me but none of the places we’ve stayed have had WiFi connections easily available.

We flew out from Heathrow around 6pm on 14th March. Fortunately the flight wasn’t delayed by the person running onto the runway that day. Changed at Singapore and flew on to Bali, arriving on the evening of the 15th.

Picked up from the airport by a driver from our hotel, the Bali Niksoma in Legian, which was a pleasant and unexpected surprise. We had a couple of nights in Kuta, picking up a few supplies and enjoying the warmth.

It was then on to the Tegal Sari cottages near Ubud in-land. The cottages were great, two storeys with plenty of lounging space and views over paddy fields. Three nights there, giving us plenty of time to look round Ubud and visit the sacred Monkey Forest there.

Next stop was Candi Dasa, on the East coast for just a single night. Didn’t like Candi Dasa much, there was no beach to speak of, the place we stayed (Kubu Bali) was a bit of a hole and the town seemed pretty empty. Had a couple of good meals at Vincent’s and Toke but I wouldn’t recommend Candi Dasa to anyone.

Early start next day for a short taxi ride to Padang Bai to catch the GiliCat fast boat to Lombok, which is about 35km from Bali. This takes two hours rather than the 4 hours by normal ferry, but costs much more.

We were picked up at Teluk Kode and driven the half-hour journey to Windy Beach Resort at Mengsit where we had a lovely bungalow on the seafront. Stayed there for 6 nights and really relaxed.

We’re currently back on Bali, staying near Tanah Lot.

More when I get a chance….

We flew to Nice on Friday 22nd from London City airport. It’s only a 10 minute taxi ride away and is a much more civilised way to travel when compared with schlepping over to Heathrow or Gatwick. The plane wasn’t full and the flight passed by quickly.

We stayed at the Hotel Splendid in Nice. The room was small but it was a decent hotel and only a few minutes walk from the sea-front.

On Friday evening we went for a meal at the Pot D’Etain restaurant near the hotel. Great food, lovely steaks but more expensive than we had expected for France.

That was to continue for the entire time we were away, as the Cote d’Azur is remarkably expensive. For example, a couple of ice-creams and soft drinks at the Negresco cost €23 (about £18).

On Saturday we walked around nice, up over the hill at the Castel and around the harbour. Great views over the beach and harbour from the top of the hill.

The town was very busy as it was the weekend of Bataille de Fleurs (Battle of the Flowers), part of the Nice Festival. The actual parade was all cordoned off so that only people paying for a grandstand seat would get a decent view. There was a funfair by the sea-front and the main beach road was lined with hundreds of coaches.

On Sunday we wandered around the Old Town and did a little shopping, though most shops are closed on a Sunday.

All too soon it was time to head back to the airport and for Vic to fly back to London.

After seeing Vic off at the airport, I caught a free coach to Cannes where the VMworld Europe 2008 conference was being held.

The coach took me to the conference centre where I registered and then caught another coach on to the Eden Hotel where I was staying for the rest of the week.

The hotel was great, very modern and nicely designed with a large fish pool downstairs by the reception. The one problem I encountered was that the only internet access was by dial-up. I haven’t used a modem in ages, and my MacBook doesn’t have one built in, so I had to make do with accessing the net at the conference centre.

That worked out fine though as there was so much going on that I hardly spent any time awake in the hotel anyway.

On Sunday evening I went out for a drink with our VMware contact and some of his colleagues and customers.

With a slight hangover on the Monday, it was back to the conference centre for “Partner Day” for all the VMware partners. Kingston Communications are a Hosting Service Provider Partner. I won’t go into details in the conference itself as it’s probably not interesting to 99.9% of people.

Monday evening saw the VMware Partner party with free food and drink, and awards for the best performing partners.

Tuesday was the start of the full conference and was very busy. The entrance for the keynote presentations opened at about 8:45 and the hall was overflowing. A full day of sessions followed, and in the evening there was a party of VMware UK & Ireland customers, with more free food, drink and entertainment.

Wednesday saw another keynote, more sessions and then the main VMworld Europe party in the building next to the conference centre. The party was great, loads of entertainment, from laser tag to robot wars, fire-eaters, tap-dancers, comedians, more free food and drink and finally, Madhen, a great covers band who I’d seen at the Kingston Christmas party in December.

Thursday was another day of sessions, and then a bus back to the airport to fly back to City.

A tiring week, but I learned a lot at the conference and Vic and I both enjoyed seeing a bit of Nice.

While we were away travelling we considered buying a digital SLR camera as the point-and-shoot Canon Ixus 430 was a bit restrictive, but the cost and bulk meant that we decided against it. Lugging a dSLR around along with the other stuff we were carrying would have been the proverbial straw…

We didn’t want to go mad, and buy an expensive camera only to find that we didn’t use it as much as we thought, so I ventured onto Ebay to find a second-hand one. Using the excellent JBidWatcher, I managed to bag myself a Nikon D70s for under £200.

It’s a 6 mega-pixel camera, not a huge number by current standards, but the potential quality of the pictures is much more important that sheer pixel count. The Nikon cameras record the number of shutter activations that they perform, and using Dr.Chung’s PreviewExtractor I found that this one had taken about 1700 shots, which isn’t that many for a second-hand camera.

The camera smelt badly of cigarette smoke, but that has quickly faded in the non-smoking atmosphere of our home and work.

The camera body alone wouldn’t be much use, so I’ve also purchased a new Nikon 55-200mm VR zoom lens, and a new Nikon 18-55mm zoom lens. I also picked up a very cheap 8GB CompactFlash memory card from MyMemory. The memory is supposed to be high-speed, but it didn’t seem particularly fast when I was doing continuous test shots using the camera. I tend to take single shots anyway, and being able to take 1,400 RAW format shots on a single memory card is great.

I’ve not had many opportunities to take pictures yet, but I’ve posted a few below. Other pictures and larger versions of these can be found at the Lazyllama Flickr Photos page.

We’re off to Nice for the weekend, and I’m then attending VMware Europe in Cannes next week, so I should get some chances to practise with the camera.

In March, we’re going on holiday to Bali, Lombok and Singapore for a few weeks which should give plenty of scope for pictures! My fourth time in Bali and I’m really looking forward to it.

After the usual trek right round the main dome, we got to the entrance to the Afrika! Afrika! site which is made up of a series of tents to the West of the O2.

Our complimentary tickets were, predictably, of slightly restricted view behind a pillar but that didn’t affect us too badly as the circus-like nature of the show meant that there was usually plenty going on.

I’m not a big fan of circuses, but I really enjoyed this show. It was similar in some ways to the Cirque du Soleil, but much less pretentious.

Some of the acts:-

• Amazing contortionist man who could pass his body through an unstrung tennis racket
• Two girls who juggled large tables and vases using their feet
• Phenomenal pole-climbing team who threw themselves up and down poles
• Trapeze-type man who could raise himself up using a couple of hanging straps and his own body strength.
• Astounding basketball-playing unicycle team, one of whom could skip inside three ropes while sitting on his unicycle.
• Stomach-churning contortionist girl who could perform unbelievable feats of bendiness
• Stunning tumbling and acrobat groups who could stand 4 high on each others shoulders.

So, all in all, a great show, loads of energy and a good evening out.

(Cameras were banned so the only photo I got was this blurry one of the logo projected onto the inside of the tent. The official website has a video clip of the show so you can get an idea of what goes on)

The Jubilee Line was out of action which didn’t help make the journey any simpler, but we got the DLR to Bow Church and the District Line from Bow Road to Dagenham East. For some reason which we’ve not yet worked out, the journey from Zone 2 to Zone 5 only cost us £1.

As the weather was looking a bit grim, we paid £18 each for seats in the covered part of the ground rather than £15 for the uncovered terraces. As it drizzled quite a bit during the game, I’m glad we did.

The stadium is pretty small, with a single seated stand and the rest being a combination of covered and uncovered terracing. It came across as a pretty friendly club though and there was no sign of any trouble.

It was the first time the two teams have met, as this is The Daggers first season in the Football League. They’re down in 22nd place, which is pretty much where Town were a month or so ago, before their streak of 4 League wins in a row.

The game started well with the Mariners showing some classy touches and doing the whole pass-and-move thing that they’ve been practising recently. Then it all went a bit “hoofy”. Wallop the ball up front, bounce it off a few heads, boot it back the other way, more of the same… for pretty much the rest of the first half.

Very dull to watch neither side really had any chances worth mentioning. Half time and a chance to investigate the culinary delights round the back of the Barking Stand.

The usual football ground fare, burgers, hot drinks and hot-dogs. The burgers were actually pretty tasty with proper onions unlike the nasty dried onion bits that they served on the hot-dogs at Blundell Park.

The second half kicked off much like the first, with Town having a few good chances and applying loads of pressure…. then it all went a bit “hoofy” again, despite Alan Buckley doing some sterling vocal work on the side-line to try and get the Town players to control the ball and pass it.

Things brightened in the last 5 minutes with quite a few chances at both ends and some pretty good saves from both keepers. Town were saved by the woodwork on one occasion but frankly neither side deserved a win.

So a goal-less draw in the end, which is better than losing, but Town were lucky that they weren’t playing a better side.