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Saturday 2nd February 2008
Christ! Did we even remember the E45?
  
Today we did head south towards Oxford (or slightly south thereof), for to see Anna and Justin. We probably arrived in the early part of the afternoon. We went for a walk around Wallingford and the remnants of a castle that Cromwell probably ruined for the hell of it. It was around this point that I realised that my trusty digital camera of the past five/six (?!) years really had given up the ghost. The LCD screen showed just strange black/purple squiggles whilst trying to take pictures and even after taking pictures, it was just . . . black, all black.
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. . . and hence, Anna supplied these photographs. Only trouble is, they're a bit bigger (more pixels) than what I'm used to, or what Apache is used to. I think we're running out of memory here. Only 0.1 and 0.2 sizes work. Hmmmmm.
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Sunday 3rd February 2008
Blimey, I don't know. Is it something to do with the memory cache?!
   
Today we did go to Didcot Railway Centre (I think it was called that), which was all very well and lovely, but lacking in any moving trains. Still, A****** seemed to like it, although he was a bit confused as to the whereabouts of Percy (but, oddly, not James, Gording (Gordon), Edward, Henry or any of them lot). The answer to the title of this entry is, "No, it's to do with a self-imposed memory limit at the beginning of one of your scripts." Now changed from 40MB to 100MB.
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Monday 4th February 2008
Turn off the bright lights
Blimey, eh? So there I am, sitting at my computer, about an hour ago (or perhaps less) when all the lights go out and the computer shuts itself down. I hear M**** downstairs going, "Oh no," or similar and a couple of seconds later I realise it's a power-cut. These are rare things in Lancaster. I fumbled my way to the garage outside and picked out the three bicycle lights. We lit loads of candles and were just getting into the whole lack of electricity thing when, perhaps about twenty minutes later, the power returned. Shame it had been a cloudy night (for those at the back, I'm thinking of the stars here), the power-cut having affecting large parts of Lancaster (extent unknown). We tuned in on The Bay but after having announced, "We'll get back to you as soon as we hear something from United Utilities about tonight's power-cut," it just went dead. Silence.
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Saturday 9th February 2008
AARRRGHHH! PINK!
           
So there's me thinking, "Oh, maybe my camera does work after all," after finally getting an image on the viewfinder after jiggling around with the lens a bit. But how wrong I was. Today we did go to White Moss Wood, a very popular place for the 'gentle walker' (old people and children). The terrain was pretty much flat and very easy going (perhaps made slightly more challenging with A****** in the carrier). But yeah . . . my camera decided to render the sky that horrible pink colour again, thereby pretty much ruining these pictures. Grrrrrr.
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Wednesday 13th February 2008
Clive told me to wait here. We shouldn't need permits.
 
New camera arrived today; I only ordered it yesterday from Camerabox, but the courier dude turned up at about 08:30 this morning. These are just boring test shots (wow - my shirt - and also . . . the view from our bedroom) taken with said new camera, a Canon Powershot A570IS, taken at full resolution. Today A****** was a bit funny when I went to get him at lunch time, sucking his thumb, cuddling Eeyore, not exactly running to meet me (as what usually happens). Elaine explained that he seemed a 'bit tired'. The tiredness may be related to more teeth emerging (that was another carer's (Claire) prognosis based, among other things (no doubt) on his red cheeks); we're not sure. During the evening, I met Sam in town, for a few drinks at, initially, the John O'Gaunt and then The Sun, where this 'jazz' band was playing. Hmmmm.
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Thursday 14th February 2008
The longest supper
    
These are various pictures of A****** with his cousin Henry (M**** hosted lunch for my sister, Jo, sister-in-law, Hilary, and respective children: Joseph (I don't recall seeing Joseph, actually), Abigail; Henry). I wasn't around at the time (I had a meeting at Lancaster University), so these were taken by either M**** or Hilary.
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(Later on, around 6pm) Whilst A****** did eventually eat his dinner, I think he started eating at about 18:10 and didn't finish until a bit after seven o'clock. He was too busy chatting and singing, between eating the tiniest mouthfuls. It wasn't that he didn't like the food (some kind of gorgeous fish/potato pie thing) - he was just clearly in no hurry.
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More fun with the macro lens.
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Saturday 16th February 2008
Ducks, geese, hens, blah, blah, blah
    
This morning, as the last picture in this series should make obvious, we were over at Lancaster University. M**** was at work; A****** and I had visited "granny-gandad's" house, and were now looking for some ducks to feed our mouldy bread to. All of the ducks were decidedly tame and a bit threatening as far as A****** was concerning, but hey . . .
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The Stone Jetty
      The first picture here is, of course, the Midland Hotel, unfortunately located in Morecambe, and now currently being renovated. Shame they can't renovate the rest of Morecambe. The other pictures illustrate what, to me, are Morecambe's two other assets: the view out to the bay, and the Stone Jetty.
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. . . more pictures taken from our walk along the Stone Jetty, as sun-set approached. On the way back to the car and/or on the way back to Lancaster, we had a quandary: to head back home for dinner, or to risk a meal out somewhere. It seems like a hell of a long time since the three of us had been out for a meal (and perhaps long before A****** was potty trained).
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Bella Italia
  
. . . and so, in the end, we decided upon Bella Italia. The entirety of the meal was a very straightforward, stress-free event, all in all, perhaps A****** enjoying the novelty of the situation.
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Sunday 17th February 2008
Yet more gravestones and travel agents
     
This was another trip to Grange-over-Sands, but this time a day blessed with better weather than last time (albeit much colder). We parked the car in a street near Lancaster train station and got the 11:15 train to Grange. Then, at Grange, there was all the usual duck/bread/feeding thing (we seem to do a lot of this, probably because
A****** seems to enjoy it so much), following by lunch somewhere . . .
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. . . and then a gentle walk along the promenade, which reached its half-way point when we found a children's playground. A****** just played on the slide, as the chav family (Ryan, Eli and Tia - I kid you not) jostled/ran worrying close to A****** as he carefully and laboriously went up and down wooden steps leading back to the slide (but all to no harm).
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Saturday 23rd February 2008
Exit wounds, I gotta get the exit wounds
So yeah . . . M****'s at work, me and A****** are at home, but A****** got up at something like 07:30 this morning, unusually early for a Saturday for an A******. By about lunch-time, A****** was getting tired, insisting, "Want go back in bed," so I had to remind him we had to pick M**** up from town soon. In a time killing exercise, A****** and I went for a drive, up to Jubilee Tower, M**** ringing me when I had almost reached the car park. I left this photo in as it shows fairly clearly the urban sprawl that is Lancaster University.
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Sunday 24th February 2008
Nicky Nook again
    
Today we're in Nicky Nook (somewhere near Scorton) again. We were here last summer, but I lack the inclination to search back through the records (?!) to ascertain exactly when. The last picture in this sequence - of the hole in the wall - was taken as A****** kept saying something about this wall that we couldn't quite make out. We figured if we show him the picture later on he might be able to explain what the problem was, if even there was a problem.
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With time on our hands, we went back a strange way, heading towards Marshaw, but turning off towards Abbeystead, at the point (or soon after) where we were starting to get worried about exactly where this road was taking us. I guess we were skirting the edge of the Trough/Forest of Bowland. The terrain wasn't exactly bleak (though sometimes) but oddly bereft of people, buildings and marked roads.
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