Month: November 2024

National space centre

What is your favorite place to go in your city?

Here in Leicestershire we have a number of places that I particularly like to visit. I’ll put two of them here…cos I can 👌

When you think of the city of Leicester you don’t really associate it with space travel. But don’t be fooled! We have the country’s national space centre, and for adults and children it is a fantastic day out if you have an interest in space exploration. They have many activities there, a fantastic collection of rockets, moon rock, and exhibits that you can get involved with. Heck I’ve even met a couple of astronauts there the last being Don Thomas who was a scientist on board a number of space shuttle missions.

Astronaut Don Thomas – Taken at the National space centre in Leicester.

You can find out about our National space centre here: National space centre

Secondly you can’t go wrong with a visit to Leicester cathedral. You may have read that a few years ago archaeologists unearthed the remains of King Richard III in a carpark in Leicester. Well he is now interred in the cathedral alongside a visitors centre that gives the whole story regarding the last Plantagenet King of England. And it’s a beautiful quiet place of reflection.

King Richard III
Leicester cathedral

The city is pretty much like every city in the UK and has its good and bad points, urban decay is kind of getting more prominent as the investment declines. Here’s hoping the tide turns before it gets too bad.

Have a great day you people.

You’ve got 7 seconds….apparently

What’s the first impression you want to give people?

Well, if you are trying to impress, apparently you only have 7 seconds to do it according to those wise old owls at LinkedIn:

Within seven seconds of meeting someone, a person will conclude if you are confident or weak, interested or aloof, friend or foe – based solely off your body language. Obviously, that’s going to directly affect your ability to get leadership buy-in, close a sale or just make a friend.

LinkedIn

I’d like to first off have someone think I’m friendly, confident and approachable however I’m the first to admit I’m not always successful. The thing is the other person you meet is probably using those 7 seconds to do the same to you, and it’s stalemate from then on. I meet an awful lot of over confident people, sometimes it can be a cover to hide shortfalls in their abilities, sometimes they are just damned frightened of the situation and feel out of their depth.

I think I’m good at sensing these issues and I hope I’m good at getting them to have confidence in me to help them on their way. It’s a big old world out there and I’ve tripped up and embarrassed my self on more occasions than I care to remember. if I can save someone who is starting off on their life journey from making the same mistakes I have, then everyone is on a winner.

I think the first impressions I’d like to therefore give are that I am approachable and helpful.

Napoleon – a life, by Andrew Roberts

What book are you reading right now?

Nice and simple. I am currently reading this 900+ page book by the author Andrew Roberts. I have an absolute thirst for history, and as a child at school history lessons touched on people such as Napoleon but that was it, they never really delved deep into the characters of these individuals and you only ever heard about particular successes or failures. In this case Napoleon was only ever mentioned as someone that the Duke of Wellington defeated. However the real story is very different.

Napoleon was very much an old style Micro manager if you like, a very complex and fascinating individual who was an extremely talented military and social tactician. Winston Churchill looked upon him as one of the most influential tacticians and military leaders of modern history, he was an extremely talented individual. The book covers his entire life and not just the battles, and that is what is different. You get to read what encouraged and influenced him and how his humble upbringing shaped his life. A great book, for lovers of history.

Unconditional love and affection

What is good about having a pet?

Now I couldn’t not answer this prompt after the year we have had. See this post from August this year: Is there a cure for a broken heart 💔 We have had three dogs over the 33 yrs of our marriage and each of them was a lovely individual character. All were of the same breed – Bichon Frise.

Muffin

Our first was Muffin in the early 90s, I have never known such a laid back and calm little dog, he was a super little fellow, not scared by noises and loved by everyone, next was Digger who became Muffins “Carer” as it wasn’t until later in life when Muffin was very old that we’d realised he was losing his sight and it was Digger guiding him around with strange little nudges to his neck and head. Digger didn’t like children and would growl at them but it was all noise, just pat him or give him a treat and he was your friend for life, he was the polar opposite of Muffin.

Muffin and Digger

Then came along little Alfie. We were grieving after Diggers demise and Alfie pretty much came to us. My wife saw a little pup being walked and went over to say hello, it transpired that the owner didn’t want little “Joey” and he eventually came to us. His name was changed to “Alfie” as we already had a budgie called “Joey” and the whole thing would have been confusing to continue that way. Alfie was a mix of his earlier brothers, he was as soft as shite, loved everyone (even children) and was a very big part of our whole family, I never heard him growl at anyone throughout his whole life, he went everywhere with us.

Alf – our little fellah

Alfie passed away on the 16th August this year. We are still very upset and slowly coming to terms with it all, as more time passes and allegedly heals.

Animals are the most beautiful of companions. They will give you unconditional love and affection in return for very little. It really is a blessing that an animal from another species can gain your trust and give you so much in return.

Then they pass away and break your heart into a million pieces. This has occurred with us three times in the past and I very much doubt we will let that happen again. We just couldn’t take it. Even though I am pining like mad to have the routine we had, I have to resist it.

If you are willing to give your all to love and support one of these fantastic animals, through good and bad and back again,then please go ahead and do it, you will not be disappointed. If you can’t commit to all that then please stand back and let someone else do it.

Three beautiful boys

Joy and love are the best words I can use. They are wonderful creatures that make your world a better place. Who else would you tell your most confidential thoughts and dreams to and know that no one else would ever find out?

Trust. Nobody does it better. Get a dog.

Melton Mowbray

Had a nice day out in one of the local towns, we were there looking at houses and decided to venture into town where there was a vintage car meet as well as a Sunday Market.

The old Porkpie shop – Melton Mowbray

Melton Mowbray is world renowned its Porkpies and Stilton cheese both of which have Protected designation of origin status. I do indulge in the occasional Pork pie, but the cheese is not for me, i like very bland cheeses, my favourite is probably Red Leicester.

Anyway, I digress, my main reason to visit was to purchase a print from a local artist for our football themed garden pub. The artist is based here in Melton Mowbray and his name is Ian Hallows. I’d seen this signed and numbered print of a Fox in a Leicester City scarf, and wanted it, today I brought it issue 89 of 895. It is mounted on canvas and already on stretchers. It will be a welcome addition to the already full pub. It’s signed on the frame by the artist as well.

Fox in a scarf

This is my third piece of original signed work in the pub and it fits in lovely.

Ian does a selection of sport related paintings and covers most of the football clubs in the football league.

Now I really fancy a pork pie….

Sega Game gear – game cartridges

What the listing stated:

Untested

EBay

Yep that’s it. The good old EBay untested. Anyone who buys from here knows that this can mean anything from working to totally wrecked, or even should have been binned because a good portion of it is missing.

But I try to remain positive… some people call it stupid.

Cheap, probably broken

Here I have purchased two of the same games for the grand total of £1.49 GBP. About 75 of your finest British pennies each. My suspicions are such as the guy who posted is selling a couple of “tested” game cartridges (the same game) for a considerably higher price. I just don’t understand how he couldn’t test these two. I suspect they are knackered to coin a phrase.

Anyway, let’s await the mailman.

I’ll apologise in advance for how easy this fix was. They arrived and both game cartridges looked ok. I then loaded them into the unit and one worked and one didn’t.

Both Cartridges tested

I decided to just clean the contacts on both cartridges with a bit of IPA and hey presto. Two working game cartridges for next to no cost.

2nd cartridge up and working

So again, I apologies for the simplistic fix, I was hoping I would at least be opening the cartridge and doing a bit of trace repair, but sometimes that is all it takes. I’ll keep one, and the other i will move on with another unit that I’m currently repairing.

But most importantly they are not off to landfill. Result.

Shopping

What are your favorite websites?

The one I spend the most time on is EBay. It’s where I get most of my stuff to repair. Secondly it’s probably Amazon and from then on there are a Number of smaller sites I take in.

I follow a number of blog sites of people who are kind enough to follow what I do. I check in to all of them regularly to see if anything has changed. I probably check in more when I haven’t seen anything for a while as I’m concerned that I’ve heard nothing, but I’m probably just overthinking it as they’re probably just living busy lives like most people do.

I only post regularly as I use it as a coping mechanism / Journal as stated in the past.

There is a good site where you can see all the cameras on the island of Iceland, all set up to show views of the volcano’s when they kick off, great for planning a trip to see something different.

Beyond that I look at the Leicester football club site occasionally, but to be honest they are not doing it for me this year so I tend to avoid it if possible.

Have a good day all, may it be a peaceful one for you.

1976

Is there an age or year of your life you would re-live?

For some reason 1976 always features in my memories. It was the year of the heatwave, summer was just how you’d expect it and the six week school holiday was utter bliss.

Things were different back then when you went out and played in parks, woodland and farmers fields, making your own entertainment and just having such fun. Now they are all sprawling estates.

No distractions such as mobile phones etc, you went through seasons of football, marbles, cricket, conkers, making catapults, you name it and we did it.

We had national strikes and power cuts but as a youngster that was still a couple of years away from being a teenager, none of that really mattered.

I sure miss those days of innocence, fun and enjoyment with your mates. Truly superb times.

Then we grow up.

I do believe the younger generation of today have missed out on those hazy days gone by. But then again I guess it’s our generation that changed that.

I have always found it easier to be a child rather than an adult. My wife would whole heartedly agree.

Stay happy. Don’t grow up.