Moments in Time

Been a busy day today, for the most part I have been getting ready for the sailing trip, seems to take me ages to get all my gear together! Lorena has been absolutely fantastic as always keeping me on track and making sure that my stuff is all ready for the trip. Sometimes her energy is very impressive and I am very grateful for it.

Didn't bother to go out walking today, too much to do really and since I won't be walking for a week there seemed little point, on top of that is rained for much of the day anyway.

Finally pretty much packed and heard from Glen Hogg to say that we would be leaving about 19:00 which seemed pretty late for him after a long day at work. I reckoned we would end up arriving at about 23:00 in the dark so I suggested that it might be better all round if he got a good rest and a meal and that we set off refreshed in the morning which he seemed to think would be a better plan so we are leaving at 09:00.. Not quite sure what he really things about it but I'm sure it's the best thing to do.

Had a laugh at a programme about a cruise ship, Lorena and I thought we looked rather like the two characters on the left and right of this picture, taken on my iPad directly off the TV!

It was a right hassle getting all my stuff ready with batteries, chargers, cameras, iPad, MacBook etc. all requiring a lot of thinking about if I am going to get the most out of this trip. I just don't know whether I will get the chance to go sailing again, almost certainly not on a boat like this with just the skipper there, so I really want to try to make the best of the opportunity in terms of getting some video material. I just hope it all works out Ok and that we get on well.

Part of my problem is my desire to try to do things well and also the fact that I do different things so I never really get into a pattern of having all the right stuff available. I might be sailing or camping or walking or cycling or in the caravan and all these things require different gear in terms of what you can or cannot take with you. It wears me down sometimes but it's better than the alternative so I'm going to keep ploughing on!

Facebook Updated: August 01, 2014 at 03:45PM Exciting stuff today, pretty much ready to blast off for this out-of-the-blue sailing week. Heading up to Inverkip Marina of the West Coast of Scotland later today, it's going to be exciting! Hope the boat can cope with all the stuff I've packed :-) Hope to be able to shoot some decent video clips to look back on in the future, hopefully from above the surface.

Twitter Updated: August 01, 2014 at 05:25PM Facebook is not working. I guess the big question facing us is what will society do now? Talk to each other maybe!

Facebook Updated: Scenes in Alnwick Some street scenes shot in the historic market town of Alnwick in Northumberland on a beautiful sunny afternoon. This video is managed by Newsflare. To use t... Some video clips shot the other day around Alnwick, thought I'd better capture it whilst the sun was out!

The way things are looking the rest of the summer and then out trip to Majorca are going to be just great. Today I'm going to get in touch with Shepherd's Walks who should have contacted me by now as I want to get my MiniVentures up and running. I'm also going to do some more investigating about buying the kit I need for Majorca to switch the gearing on my bike to a compact setup.

Telephoned the guy from Shepherd's Walks about the Garmin GPS, the Oregon 650. Not at work today but they are going to send him a message and we will see if he gets back to me, if not I will just buy from elsewhere, not waiting any longer.

Lorena and I went out for a walk, Lorena turned back early to allow her knee to continue to improve but I pressed on around the circuit, got back as usual at around lunchtime. Had an interesting chat with the guy on the gate of the park, he told us that currently they are doing some filming for Downton Abbey at Alnwick Castle and will be filming a shooting scene in Hulne Park on Saturday. The chap is going to be in it as an extra (beater I think) and apparently The Duke of Northumberland is going to be shooting in the shooting scene itself! Be great to watch the episode when it comes out which I think is going to be around Christmas. Bumped into Elaine and her husband on the way home, they were on their way to Alison Slassor’s place.

Different experience for lunch today, a real treat :-) Got the single burner camping ring out on the decking and fried some lovely pork chipolatas (Taste the Difference, Sainsbury’s) which we had with burger relish in white finger rolls. Cooking outdoors just for some reason makes such an enormous difference to the taste and they were truly lovely. Burgers planned for tea!

This afternoon edited some of the video material I shot the other day which I quite enjoyed. Uploaded a clip of Lorena and I in the back garden and am currently uploading a much larger 15 minute clip (2GB) introducing MiniVentures and my little scheme.

This evening we had lovely beef burgers for tea, again in white rolls, with some feta cheese, olives, sun dried tomatoes, sliced fresh tomatoes and a little serving of pasta. What a splendid meal it was, couldn’t eat that sort of thing all the time, well don’t want to, but we really enjoyed it as a one off. I say one off but we still have some more sausages left and another couple of burgers!

The big news of the day came from Facebook, Glen Hogg posted that he was looking for anyone who fancied a trip on his boat for a cruise he is doing off Scotland next week. Oh the joys of retirement, I can go! Lorena showed me the post and seems keen for me to grab the opportunity so grab it I have. Looks like we will be taking the "Caledonia" cruising for a week, leaving this coming Friday! I feel pretty apprehensive about this but I just can’t pass up an opportunity like that, I think it will be fantastic. Glen is coming round on Monday evening to chat through it and hopefully then I will know more but I see this as an excellent recording opportunity, its going to be great :-)

Here is Glen's boat, the Caledonia, beautiful!

Video uploaded to YouTube: Loafing Around @ Home.

Facebook Updated: July 26, 2014 at 11:28PM 2GB video file uploading to YouTube, I'm going to sleep and it can just get on with it.

Facebook Updated: July 26, 2014 at 11:40PM Torrential rain here at the moment, heavy enough to cause local flooding for sure.

Facebook Updated: From cigarettes and alcohol to marathon man http://ift.tt/1o0Q0yQ Steve Way, 40, will compete for England at the Commonwealth Games, despite only taking up running in 2007. Now that is one hell of a story, truly inspiring.