When the lady in Staples was helping me pack I kept on thinking that I am forgetting to post something, but I could not put my finger on exactly what. Considering I still had an disassembled container this morning I had to move fast so I unintentionally forgot to send the Aerodyne form that should be in the DHL package.

What can I say, ooops for the second time?

All went well and on the third jump of the second day just as I exited the Cessna 206 I apparently managed to hook my rig on the side of the door which resulted in a nasty tear in my container on the reserve parachute flap. I am suspecting poor stitching but will have to send the whole thing to Florida to be fixed.

Here are photos of the my sad-looking Aerodyne Icon Sport container:

However I always thought I was paying a bit to much for gas but was delaying the time to actually call up the gas copmany and ask for some help. I also had a guy come in and inspect the gas heater as part of my landlord’s annual obligation.

The company I am with is Swalec and recently they changed their website and, by chance, I received a recent gas bill which was as usual very high. i forgot to mention this company sends bills every trimester, so I did sometimes think that I just felt the bills were so high because of that. Well, the new website enabled you to report gas meter readings on-line. When I did that I noticed there were instructions on how to do that. Although I had reported meter readings on the phone before that I thought it might clarify a few things for me. i ws surprised to see that you were supposed to read the meter only to the decimal point and no more than that. The meter reading I had on my previous bills seem to always include an extra digit after the decimal point!

How could this be possible?

My best answer is - I have no idea. The initial meter reading must have been done by someone from Swalec and although some bills come based on estimated readings some come from actual meter readings and these were all done with an extra digit. First I thought I was mistaken but I re-checked the instructions and there was no doubt - they have been overcharging me (via meter readings) ten times (10x). If you look closer at the bill it says the unit us “cu meters” which is cubic meters or m3. That corresponds to the values before the comma.

I received a delayed re-vised bill where they re-calculated all bills payed after I moved in over a year ago. I had been overcharged by about five hundred pounds.

don’t let this happen to you, check you meter yourself and check the instructions - see how you broadband connection can repay dividends.

Insert from the instructions page:

Read the numbers from left to right, including all ‘zeros’ but ignoring the red number(s) or any number(s) after a decimal point.

So if you think your gas bill is to high it might not be all down to the increasing oil prices. Check.

In the early 20th century the sands were often used as a racing course and later, in the 1920s, it was used for land speed records. It was even used as an aircraft runway. Durine the 2nd world war the sands were taken over by the British MOD who used it as a firing range. It owns it to this day, but it is open to the public. There are, however many signs that warn visitors about possible unexploded devices. From 2004 the Sands are closed to vehicles due to safety reasons, but, on occasions, there are some rally car events staged there. Some episodes of BBC’s Top Gear were filmed there. Is an example…

To see the photos taken on this trip click here to enter Picasa.

For more information about Pendine Sands please visit the Pendine Sands Wikipedia page.

There is a good parking area by the entrance to the Sands. There is a Speed museum there as well. When I arrived there I could see many horses in the car park that were used for horseback riding on the Sands. As mentioned at the top the Pendine Sands are 7 miles long and I certainly didn’t really want to walk the whole length. Don’t get me wrong, they look spectacular but after walking for 10 minutes it feels a bit like a damp sand desert. But you can see a huge stretch of water - slightly reminded me of Daytona beach. However Daytona Beach beach is about 23 miles (37 km) long.

I later moved down the coast and visited the litle village of Laugharne. First I stopped at St. Martin’s church on the northern part of the village in which grounds the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas is buried in. After that I proceeded towards Laugharne castle in the southern part of Laugharne.

St. Martin's church in Laugharne

Laugharne castle

The Pierhead building in Cardiff Bay

Always wanted to see the capital of Wales but always ended up just drive pass it on the M4. The closest I ever got to the actual city centre was to visit the local Ikea store while I was still in the process of furnishing my small flat in Haverfordwest.

Here are some more detailed instructions for those who might want to see it also but don’t know how to get there. As I came from the west I took the A4232 from the M4 and got off going toward Penarth and Penarth Marina. There is parking available at the south end of the Barrage.

The only problem is that it is not that cheap. There is a P+R (Park and Ride) available close to the A4232 for £3 while at the south Barrage park it is £0.50 per hour. However, once there you can have a look at how the barrage locks work. After that you can take a walk on the barrage across the bay to Cardiff bay and Mermaid Quay. The other option is to walk to the inner side of the bay next to the parking lot and take the water bus to Mermaid Quay. A return ticket will cost you £5. As I had just missed the boat I decided to take a walk but you have to keep in mind the barrage is in operation and the locks that they use to get the boats in and out of Cardiff bay seem to be very busy. There are 3 locks at the barrage and once one of the bridges goes up you cannot cross. All you can do is wait.

The Norwegian church in Cardiff Bay

Once you get to the other side of the barrage you will see parts of the old docks that now sit there, abandoned. Just as you enter Mermaid Quay you will see the Norwegian church that was built in 1868 for the use of the Norwegian community in Cardiff. Today it is not used as a church anymore but has been converted into an arts centre and café.

The red dragon will lead the way / Y ddraig goch ddyry cychwyn

The Cardiff bay and Marmaid Quay offers a large variety of restaurants and cafés as well as some interesting architecture like the Welsh National assembly building, The Pierhead building… In fear of being an obvious geeky tourist I hesitated from taking photos of every single building.

The Cardiff Quay is a way out of the Cardiff city centre so it will take a bus or even better the Aquabus that takes you up the river Taff right to Cardiff castle and The Millenium Stadium. The trip takes just under half an hour. As the Aquabus rides along the Taff river you get a good view of the Millenium Stadium which offers tours of the place, just remember to go to the other side, to Westgate street. I found that only after I came home and researched it on the internet

... not an actual photo from Zushi

After going round the city centre I stumbled upon a sushi bar (Zushi) and gave it a try, never been to one of these places and always wanted to see what sushi was all about. Was a bit confused by the conveyor belt and what exactly each dish was - the menu wasn’t to helpful either as it only told you what price was associated with a particular plate colour. So I played it safe and ordered noodles from the menu - expecting a small overpriced dish of noodles and salmon but getting something that looked more like a huge salad bowl, like the one I have at home. There was also a strange wooden ladle in it. I wasn’t exactly sure what it was for: did they want to employ me and have the rest of the customers served with my lunch?? At the end I couldn’t resist myself and I had to ask the waiter - it is apparently to sip the stir the soup and noodles

Image via Wikipedia

After lunch I decided to head home. I was warned about walking the streets from the city centre to the bay so I opted in for a bus which, again, brought me to a steep learning curve situation where I was rather puzzled what to do next after I paid the driver. I kept on expecting the ticket to appear out of the box I just shoved some coins in, only to be directed by a patience-loosing bus driver that I had to take the ticket out of a different box - how was I supposed to know that??!! I am still a tourist you know To top my ignorance I asked a rather silly question which I found quite reasonable at the time - I asked the driver how will I know if it is the the right bus stop I have to get off. The driver smirked and told me that it will be the last stop of the route. - Well, again, how was I supposed to know that either. I come from Ljubljana where we on certain routes, like the no. 7 have bus routes that have the end bus stop somwehere else in relation to where the bus stops to go back the other way. Then, as another example, there is the number 2 route that is actually a circular route. So there

I came back to Mermaid Quay only to realise I would have to wait over half an hour for the water bus to the south barrage so I decided to walk again - it was, anyway, a nice and sunny afternoon.

Great trip, would advise it to anybody. I didn’t get to see all parts as planned but that can be left for future weekends.

P.S. The »The red dragon will lead the way« title is the Cardiff moto. In Welsh it is »Y ddraig goch ddyry cychwyn«

———-

http://picasaweb.google.com/Martin.McDowell/Cardiff

Dejan Fabčič

Najboljše želje po uspehu so namenjene vsem, ki se udeležujejo Paraolimpijskih iger, še posebno pa Dejanu, ki ga osebno poznam iz bivše službe.

Svoje prve nastope bo imel 7. septembra:

• 7. septembra: 200m mešano
• 8. septembra: 100m prosto
• 10. septembra: 100m hrbtno
• 12. septembra: 100m prsno
• 14. septembra: 50m prosto

Povezava do strani na OI v Pekingu >>

Ko je začel delati v isti firmi, kot jaz, je ravno zamenjal trenerja, kar je bila zanj odločilnega pomena (vsaj tako, kot se spomnim) na poti k vrhunskim dosežkom, ki so kmalu tudi sledili.

Oglejte si še njegovo spletno stran: http://www.logon.si/dejanfabcic/

• Atletika: Henrik Plank, Tatjana Majcen Ljubič, Jože Flere in Tanja Cerkvenik;
• Golbal: Gorazd Dolanc, Boštjan Vogrinčič, Ivan Vinkler, Matej Ledinek, Dejan Pirc in Simon Podobnikar
• Kolesarstvo: David Kuster;
• Namizni tenis: Bojan Lukežič, Mateja Pintar, Andreja Dolinar, Jolanda Belavič in Ivan Lisac;
• Plavanje: Dejan Fabčič;
• Sedeča odbojka: Saša Kotnik, Danica Gošnak, Alenka Šart, Marinka Cencelj, Emilie Gradišek, Boža Kovačič, Bogomira Jakin, Ana Justin, Suzana Ocepek, Anita Goltnik Urnaut in Štefka Tomič;
• Strelstvo: Franc Pinter in Damjan Pavlin.

Sam sem mnenja, da lahko tu organizirajo gatetrgajoče OI samo skup morajo stopit. Mogoče sedaj, ko je bila olimpijska zastava predana londonskemu županu, se bodo malo zamislili in z večjim zanosom zagrabili to priložnost.

(L-R) Nastia Liukin, He Kexin and Yang Yilin. (Photo from http://en.beijing2008.cn/)

It is possible, at least if the suspicions of a hacker »Stryde Hax« a.k.a. Mike Walker are true. There is a possibility that the Chinese gymanst He Kexin that won the gold medal at the uneven bars at the Beiging olympics in 2008 was born 01-Jan-1994 and not 01-Jan-1992 as the Olympic website now states, making the gymanst 14, which is under the required age of 16.

I first picked up the story on the TechRadar UK website but the suspicions were first raised in July by the New York Times and in fact draws suspicion on another gymanst as well - Jiang Yuyuan. The Chinese officials have produced proof of their age (it being over 16) so this could be down to a simple error in the xls documents Stryde Hax has found.

The NY Times article also refers to the Wikipedia page and at the time of me writing this it has stated He Kexin’s age as 01.01. (year disputed).

But if the rumours turn out to be true it could mean that Beth Tweddle, who qualified as 4^th could get the bronze medal.

Related articles

• Olympics: Gymnastics - Beth Tweddle misses out on medal as Nastia Liukin wins fourth of Games
• Olympics: Gymnastics - Chinese duo He Kexin and Yang Yilin embrolied in age controversy
• He Kexin, Gymnast At Center of Age Scandal, Wins Gold In Uneven Bars

Tenby harbour with the Quay on left, lifeboat station above it, Castle Hill in the centre top

I have put it off for a long time but a sightee-er to Tenby was well due. The town of Tenby lies on the south Pembrokeshire coast and if leaving from Haverfordwest can take the road across the Cledau bridge or you can, by saving the 75p bridge toll and, depriving the Pembrokeshire County Council :-), go through Canaston Bridge.

St. Catherine's Island with Castle beach in foreground

I had the privilege to see it on a beautiful sunny July day in 2008. There are a few parking spots close to town but the multi-storey car park is your best bet. See map here. I have been to a few British seaside towns but this beats them all with it delightful charm and lack off cheesy entertainment that so often can be found in the stereotypical British seaside town. As I was born in Portsmouth I feel free to slag it off as an example to my point.

I wanted to take the opportunity and see Caldey island, which is just off the coast from Tenby but at is was a Sunday and the island is de facto run by monks it was closed. All you could take is sightseeing boat trips round the island. I was on the seal safari trip. Besides getting really up close to some curious seals I had the chance to get a first seat view of the Tenby lifeboat being pulled back up into the lifeboat house. For those who are not familiar with the procedure of launching the RNLI lifeboats in Tenby is that they keep the boat completely closed-up in the lifeboat and when an emergency demands the service of the RNLI lifeboat that is quickly released and the boat slides down the slipway and straight into the water.

The new Tenby lifeboat station with the lifeboat in the foreground

The new Tenby lifeboat station

When the mission is finished it then returnes and is pulled back in reverse into the boathouse as seen in the gallery and in the photos above.

The photo of Bristol Cathedral chosen for the fifth edition of the Schmap Bristol Guide

I received a mail today from an on-line publisher of digital travel guides called Schmap that my photo of Bristol Cathedral was chosen to be included in the fifth edition of the Schmap Bristol Guide.

I received an e-mail a while ago saying that the photo was short-listed for it and I didn’t think my photos were good enough for somebody to publish them in a guide. Well I am still not a great photographer, maybe not even a mediocre one as my equipment is testament to, but I am still proud to be chosen none the less

The page with my photo can be seen here:
http://www.schmap.com/bristol/sights_churches/#r=none&mapview=Map&tab=Places&p=101075&topleft=51.46282,-2.60142&bottomright=51.44367,-2.58936&i=101075_17.jpg

Če izgleda, da bom delal reklamo za Wordpress, potem ste prebrali prav. Tale blog, ki ga trenutno gledate (poleti, leta gospodovega 2008), deluje v spletni aplikaciji, ki se ji reče Wordpress.

Blog sem začel pisati konec 2006 na Googlovem Bloggerju (a.k.a. Blogspot-u) a mi je bilo dosti omejene funkcionalnosti, ki jo je nudil Google. Kupil sem si majhen kos Bluehost-ovega strežnika in namestil Wordpress. Vsekakor priporočam bolj zavzetim in tudi nekoliko manj zavzetim piscem spletnih dnevnikov - slednji postanejo morda celo malo bolj zavzeti, ker je uporaba Wordpressa precej zanimiva.

Sama osnovna aplikacija ima ogromno funkcionalnosti, ki pa jih lahko še nadgradite - v mojem primeru imama dodatke, kot so Zemanta, mobilni vmesnik, prikazovalnik Facebook stanja, prikazovanje strani preko medpomnilnika (cache-ja) in še mnogi drugi. Za slednjega sem kar presenečen, da ni že v osnovni različici programa.

Precej dodelan imajo sistem vstavljanja slik in sploh raznih medijev (zvok, slika, film) in to precej bolje, kot je to v Google-u, grafičnih tem za bloge je na stotine in so na voljo preko Wordpressa ali pa jih lahko sami poiščete na spletu.

Ravno ta teden smo se namreč na kliniki, kjer delam, pridružili projektu DogsTrust-a, ki to poletje nudi kastracijo/sterilizacijo ter mikročipiranje za zgolj 10 funtov (okoli €12.6). Zgolj v informacijo, mikročipiranje v Veliki Britaniji ni v domeni države in zato ni “brezplačno”, kot v Sloveniji vendar tu lastnikom ni potrebno plačati takse v vključene v obveznem cepljenju. Tu obveznega cepljenja, tudi proti steklini, ni in tako tudi ni načina, da bi država pobrala kaj od tega. Seveda imajo posledično veliko manjši odstotek psov čipiranih, kot je to primer v Sloveniji.

Se vračam nazaj na temo subvencioniranje posegov na malih živalih. DogsTrust je precej velika dobrodelna organizacija, ki se je za ta dotični projekt povezala z največjo britansko mrežo trgovin za male živali Pets at Home. Vse kar zahtevajo od stranke je, da prikažejo, da so zares upravičeni do subvencioniranega posega in to velja za ljudi na eni od oblik socialne pomoči in plačajo 10 funtov. Potem pokličejo eno od klinik, ki je vključena v projekt (npr. nas) in se naročijo. Precej enostavno.

Sicer je podobnih dobrodelnih organizacij kar nekaj in nekatere, kot npr. RSPCA in PDSA imajo svoje klinike, kjer nudijo brezplačne ali precej cenejše veterinarske storitve.

Bom zaključil članek z napisom, ki ga je ustanoviteljica PDSA Maria Dickin razobesila nad vhodom v prvo kliniko v londonskem Whitechapel-u, novembra 1917:

Bring your sick animals.
Do not let them suffer.
All animals treated.
All treatment free.

Prinesite svoje bolne živali.
Ne pustite jim trpeti.
Zdravimo vse živali.
Zdravljenje brezplačno.

Mike in Roki (slika sicer simbolična in nima direktne veze s člankom)

In light of your failure to nominate competent candidates for President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately.

Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths, and territories (except Kansas , which she does not fancy).

Your new prime minister, Gordon Brown, will appoint a governor for America without the need for further elections.

Congress and the Senate will be disbanded.

A questionnaire may be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed.

To aid in the transition to a British Crown Dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:

You should look up “revocation” in the Oxford English Dictionary.

1. Then look up aluminium, and check the pronunciation guide. You will be amazed at just how wrongly you have been pronouncing it.
2. The letter ‘U’ will be reinstated in words such as ‘favour’ and ‘neighbour.’ Likewise, you will learn to spell ‘doughnut’ without skipping half the letters, and the suffix -ize will be replaced by the suffix -ise.
   Generally, you will be expected to raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. (look up ‘vocabulary’).
3. Using the same twenty-seven words interspersed with filler noises such as “like” and “you know” is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication.There is no such thing as US English. We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell- checker will be adjusted to take account of the reinstated letter ‘u’ and the elimination of -ize. You will relearn your original national anthem, God Save The Queen.
4. July 4th will no longer be celebrated as a holiday.
5. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers, or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you’re not adult enough to be independent.Guns should only be handled by adults. If you’re not adult enough to sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist then you’re not grown up enough to handle a gun.
6. Therefore, you will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous than a vegetable peeler. A permit will be required if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.
7. All American cars are hereby banned. They are crap and this is for your own good. When we show you German cars, you will understand what we mean.
8. All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will start driving on the left with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables. Both roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.
9. The Former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol (which you have been calling gasoline)-roughly $10/US gallon. Get used to it.
10. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips, and those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called crisps. Real chips are thick cut, fried in animal fat, and dressed not with catsup but with vinegar.
11. The cold tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all. Henceforth, only proper British Bitter will be referred to as beer, and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as Lager.South African beer is also acceptable as they are pound for pound the greatest sporting Nation on earth and it can only be due to the beer. They are also part of British Commonwealth - see what it did for them.
12. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as good guys. Hollywood will also be required to cast English actors to play English characters.Watching Andie Macdowell attempt English dialogue in Four Weddings and a Funeral was an experience akin to having one’s ears removed with a cheese grater.
13. You will cease playing American football. There is only one kind of proper football; you call it soccer. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which has some similarities to American football, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like a bunch of nancies). Don’t try Rugby - the South Africans and Kiwis will thrash you, like they regularly thrash us. No more Orange Bowl, Rose Bowl, Cereal Bowl or Super Bowl. From now on….. get used to the World Cup.
14. Further, you will stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the World Series for a game which is not played outside of America. Since only 2.1% of you are aware that there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable. You will learn cricket, and we will let you face the South Africans first to take the sting out of their deliveries.
15. You must tell us who killed JFK. It’s been driving us mad.
16. An internal revenue agent (i.e. tax collector) from Her Majesty’s Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all monies due (backdated to 1776).
17. Daily Tea Time begins promptly at 4 pm with proper cups, never mugs, with high quality biscuits (cookies) and cakes; strawberries in season.

God save the Queen.

Imeli so tudi hortikulturni šotor, kjer so imeli tudi nagradno žrebanje ter osrednji prireditveni prostor, kjer so med drugim imeli britansko različico pihalnega orkestra - v tem primeru so bili to igralci dud v tradicionalnih škotskih oblačilih.

Precej me je pritegnila tudi razstava starih (vintage) avtomobilov. Temu so zgovorne fotke v Picasi.

We did practical work on cerclage wire fixation, tension band wires, tibial intramedullar pinning, femoral external fixator combined with an intramedullar pin, femoral head and neck excision, cranial cruciate ligament operation (lateral patellar arthrotomy, meniscal examination and fabellotibial suture) and finally a V-recession sulcoplasty with tibial tuberosity transposition.

Sounds alien, I presume. These are just some of the most common orthopaedic operations performed on cats and dogs so, if, for example, you cat is involved in a RTA or your dog develops cruciate ligament tears these just a few of the procedures that are possible.

Tomorrow I start the two-day course which will hopefully tell a lot about the principles and tecniques of ortopedic surgery. The hotel I’am staying in is quite nice, and looks clean. My window is on the ground floor and is overlooking the lawn with lots of wild rabbits running around it. Cute.

O, I nearly forgot, for those who don’t know, this is Warwickshire - or Shakespeareland. Stratford-upon-Avon is just down the road.

Oh, yes, and this is my first post written exclusevly for this new blog website.

The official press release can be seen here: http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page6305.asp

The original press release on 26-Jun-2008 read:

Buckingham Palace press releases

ANNOUNCEMENT OF STATE VISITS TO SLOVENIA AND SLOVAKIA

26 June 2008

THE FOLLOWING STATEMENT IS ISSUED BY THE PRESS SECRETARY TO THE QUEEN

The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh will pay State Visits to: Slovenia, at the invitation of President Dr Danilo Tuerk; and Slovakia, at the invitation of President Ivan Gasparovic, during this Autumn.

Background
This will be the first visit by The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh to both Slovenia and Slovakia.

The links in the press release were added by myself and are not part of the original press release.

According to a press release on the Slovenian President’s website the visit will take place from 21st to the 23rd of October 2008.

The “big download” should have commenced at 10 am PDT but was delayed at least an hour an a half. I managed to get it at 19.30 GMT (20.30 CET). I encourage you to get you own here:

http://www.mozilla.com/

Update: as mentioned earlier there have been so many requests for download that the Mozilla servers just crashed under the pressure. At one time there were like 14.000 downloads per minute! With a 7 MB download that is 13 GB/s.

If you want to see the progress fo the download you can se a live counter here:

http://downloadcounter.sj.mozilla.com/

I used to live in one of those blocks of flats on the edge of the city and they are not as bad as you think. The views of the mountains was sensational and it took me a lot of self control to keep my head in my books while studying to be a vet in the local university.
These buildings is where we live and we are not Switzerland or Austria. Even better, we are Slovenia and these buildings are just one part of our history and architecture and shouldn’t be removed just because they are not picture perfect. They are a part of the history and it would be realy stupid to move everybody out and build them new sightlier accomodation just because the block of flats is to pig ugly. I may be a bit silly but close to Christmas the evening view of the Bratovseva ploscad, where I lived looked a bit like a giant Christmas tree

Ljubljana - on its way to primetime?
Bollocks.
If you ask me, it’s already there.

Channel 4 has been showing adverts names »Difficult is worth doing« introducing skydivers jumping from an airplane and make formations in freefall and one canopy formation.
It columnated on May 29th 2008 when a live TV add was broadcast from the Spanish DZ Lillo at 20:10 local time (CET). After exiting the aircraft 16 jumpers made 5 consecutive formations in the shape of letters H-O-N-D-A.

Here is a flash film on the Honda Accord website made about the advert.

A documentary on the whole project was made. See it by clicking the Youtube link here.