A quick 'thankyou'..

....to Bill Rodgers for the info re:tempalias!

David has got in touch with me via this method so hopefully we'll be chatting soon, and without opening the floodgates on a veritable tidal wave of spam!

Actually, it's ironic that David caught up with me on the blogpost all about the perils of the internet.

That it is a powerful force for good is beyond doubt, but like all tools, it's benign or malign application depends solely on the mind behind the hands of the user.

Blast from the past!

Wow! I've just checked in to blogworld to see a message in the comments section of yesterday's post from my old friend and room mate from student days David Martyn Jones!!

How fabulous! The problem I now have is getting in touch with him without publishing personal details on this public forum.

Hmmmm.

Anyone out there got any bright ideas?

Meanwhile, David, if you're reading this, my old Bournemouth address is still works (if you still have it) as Mum and Dad haven't moved in the intervening 22 years since we last saw one another.

It's great to hear from you and I hope all is well. Please get in touch if you can or via the comments section if needs be!

Email Spam Virus Warning

Most of us have email, so pay attention at the back, this is important.

There is a computer virus doing the rounds presently which I think is particularly sneaky.

I opened an email purporting to be from my sister the other day. It was an advert for the usual load of discount "Medicines" which is usually dumped firmly in the spam box by our security software.

In opening it, I may well have granted the spammers access to my own email address book. It's possible everyone on it will now be getting an email purporting to be from me but actually a similar advert with 'Trojan Horse' attachments.

Damn.

I've emailed all my contacts to warn them. Hope I was in time......

The way to spot this is in the Subject Box of the incoming mail. If it is composed of apparently random letters and numbers, then its the virus.

Don't open it!!!

It might be worth us all keeping our eyes open for this for a while, as it's going to spread......

Don't shoot the piano player, or even The Player Piano.....

We have just had a rather bizarre but nonetheless wonderful weekend.

Our chum Tom, who owns The Last Alvis, asked us over to a party at his place last night.

Tom is blind. He lives in a beautiful 18th century rectory. He runs the Cambridge Pianola Company.

He also has a superb collection of fine Alvis cars, which is, er, where we came in....

We went along last night to listen to some great renditions of late ragtime and early jazz music.

Nothing particularly unusual there, I suppose, provided you have a talented pianist and the relevant sheet music.

Unusual, then, in the sense that neither were present, yet the evening was a great success.

Yes, we were treated to an evening of music by the likes of Scott Joplin, Jelly Roll Morton, and many of their less famous but equally talented colleagues, brought to us, kind of ghostly, via the magic of the player piano and pianola rolls which were originally cut between ninety and one hundred years ago.

Actually, the device in use wasn't a player piano, but a much rarer 'piano player'. It works on the same principle of vacuum actuated keys, but is bolted up to an ordinary (in this case, Bechstein, so perhaps 'ordinary' isn't right...) piano, which it then 'plays'.

Astonishing!

Today, we returned to The Old Rectory for the Last Barbecue of 2010.

Fitting, then, that I should have the honour of bringing The Last Alvis out of its armoured bunker and on to The Queen's Highway and over to Tom's place for an Alvis Owner Club/ Alvis Register/ Pianola Enthusiast/ Quaker meeting House/ Everyone Else Jamboree in honour of Tom's birthday.

What a lovely Day!

Only wish The Ducks, and Mike P-J, who we know well, and Mortimer Bones, Maffi, Jim and Sarah, and Halfie, who we've yet to meet, could have made it along, as it was lots of fun and I think they'd have enjoyed the truly eclectic mix of people and interests!

Good Friends.

Yesterday we were going to go into Ely to pump out.

It was a beautiful morning for it, which was nice, as when you've got to go, you've got to go......

However, Bottisham lock, just downsteam from The Parish, was stuck. As a boat was in the lock and there was no clear indication of what was wrong or how long it would take to fix, we decided to turn about for Cambridge.

We haven't taken Pippin above Bait's Bight lock for a year or so, the density (and I use that term advisedly) of rowing crews being the main problem; the attitude to visitors of certain "Camboaters" being another.

The day however, could not have been better.

The sun shone in bright crisp autumn light. We shared the lock with a very nice couple on a cruiser, (actually the boat that had been stuck in Bottisham Lock, but had managed to free themselves after some opening and closing of paddles and re-setting of the system), and enjoyed the view, so much less wild and woolly than the run through the fens to Ely.

The Cam Conservancy have yet to prune back some of the waterside foliage, though. This is going to cause a bad accident one day. No doubt The Funny Silly Little Man won't be on hand to pull the bodies out of the water. He will most probably be elsewhere, pestering law-abiding boaters, when it all goes horribly wrong.

Of rowers, only one or two city crews were out, and they seemed to know more or less what they were doing, which was a nice change.

We also managed to pass that hulking great brute of a Trip Boat 'Georgina' without incident, or, indeed, any exhibited unpleasantness from her fabulously rude helmsman.

So all in all, an incident free trip in to Jesus Green.

Which is all you can ask for really........

When we arrived, we were met by James and Amy from Lucky Duck. They'd hailed us as we passed and came down for coffee and a natter while we did the necessary.

It was then decided that they should join us for a cruise back to The Parish. A quick pasta was cooked, to which James and Amy kindly contributed some ingredients, and we took it in turns to scoff and helm Pippin back home. Amy took advantage of the opportunity to do some serious carb-loading in preparation for a huge rowing event they are doing today (Sunday). They finally got to have some of our crumble too!!

Jackie then gave them a lift back to Cambridge as she wanted to do a bit of shopping, while I prepped some roast lamb for dinner with Jackie and Neil, our friends from nb Olive.

They arrived about 7.00 and a lovely time was had by all.

It's so good to have such friends.

Cafe Caveat!

Thanks Mike.

I was getting my Carpe and my Caveat muddled.

The only Latin offered at my Secondary Modern would probably have been found in the Dance and Drama Department.........

Sunset.

Finished work at 5.30 and drove through the rainstorm murk and rush hour traffic of Cambridge to the supermarket (there to purchase the three B's: Beer, Bread, and Butter....Well, Jackie is in London tonight......)

Arrived back at the Parish in the rain. First torrential, then pouring, then, miraculously, clearing...

When I got back on board, the sun came out, and, westering as it was in pre-sunset-sideways-gold, it lit up the willows in a way that would have even Richard Dawkins doubting his atheism.

The wind combed them.

The sun lit them.

Never were trees more beautiful.

I was put in mind of the following by W.B Yeats:

Had I the Heavens embroidered cloths,

Enwrought with Gold and Silver light,

The blue and the dim and the dark cloths

of night and light and the half light

I would spread these cloths before your feet.

But I, being poor, have only dreams.

My dreams I spread before your feet.

Tread softly, then,

For you tread upon my dreams.

(W.B. Yeats: He wishes for the cloths of Heaven.)

So very lovely........