word of god – tref is on holiday # 13
Not expecting this one to rank on SEO btw 🙂
Category: Weekend
something for the weekend – interesting non work related posts
No Smoking – tref is on holiday
No Smoking – sign on motor boat on boating lake in Onchan Park
Boat repairs in Peel
tref is on holiday # 11
Rowing boat next to Peel breakwater. Nice I thought.
Rhossili beach clean
Keep that beach clean – this is a pic from last week’s campervan surfin’ holiday in the Gower. Absolutely no mobile connectivity so a bit of a delay in posting.
Gonna buy a T2 bay btw – just need to find one.
Pirate camp
Avast there me hearties
Last known use of the Gelert Zenith 6 – view is of interior atrium where cats could be swung.
Clothes on rhossili beach
Reminiscent of Reggie Perrin but more likely left by a family who had walked the very long walk to the edge of the water on Rhossili beach
Hammock innit!
Rhossili National Trust
rhossili beach clean
Faded sign at the sand dunes behind Rhossili points to beach clean. The beach was magnificent and largely cleaned by the elements. It’s the sand dunes that probably needed the occasional litter pick.
Kings Head Llangennith
Brought to you by VW Campervan holidays. The Kings Head Llangennith, on the Gower peninsula.
selfie by firelight
Taken whilst sat around the fireplace the other night. Today the heavens opened and we set off for home a day early.
Camping 2012
Skegvegas 2013
August 2013
August 2013
Mallorca 2014
Beautiful sunshine
GoPro Pigs GoPro on broadbandrating.com
Needs no introduction really but if you were one of the global audience that saw the original broadbandrating pig racing video you will know that a GoPro camera was strapped to the back of one of the pigs as part of the filming. GoPro pigs!
Well this is that pure GoPro footage – you occasionally get a glimpse of one of our cameramen tracking the pigs as they raced around the course.
That original vid had around 11,000 views in its first week online – mostly on Facebook. The YouTube version had far fewer.
See the original video over on broadbandrating here.
Ashes Trent Bridge Day 2 Report
The 2015 Ashes tour has come to Trent Bridge, my nearest test ground. I go every year with the lads. Ground capacity being what it is not everyone can go and indeed some prefer to stay at home and watch it on the telly. However when you do that you don’t get the atmosphere. Here’s some of that atmosphere:
I’m not going to attempt to cover the cricket. You can tap into a match report from any of the mainstream sources – here’s the Beeb.
What the press doesn’t cover is the nature of the fans’ day out. This is, to a greater or lesser extent, pretty ubiquitous unless you are taking the kids along in which case it is an alcohol free day out travelling by car.
08.10 meet lads outside Lincoln Central Station. Hand out match tickets in exchange for £75 in used notes each. Very conscious about carrying so much cash but hey. Purchase day return to Nottinham, large tea from caff and mosey over to platform 4 to get on train which is waiting for us. Good job we got there earlyish (08.35 dep) as the train fills up very quickly. I recognise some faces from the Lindum Cricket Club.
09.30 arr Nottingham on a train which is by now crammed with cricket supporters – squeezed into the aisle. Taxi to ground for a fiver. It is very walkable but we have a table reserved at The Southbank Bar, owned by a mate of Ashley’s.
09.35 we order 4 “Big Ones” and 4 pints of Peroni.
I’ve already described the general pace of the rest of the day here. There are a few auxiliary notes relevant to this particular day out.
10.30 pay up and nip over the road to the ground. Huge queue if you have a bag but 3 out of 4 of us are bag free. Ajax has a bag that contains cheese, pork pies, coronation chicken sandwiches, 4 plastic glasses and a 3 litre box of Banrock Station Australian (appropriately) red wine. We worry about Ajax because they don’t allow you to bring drink in to the ground. Ajax succeeds in smuggling it in. The box was hidden at the bottom of the bag.
10.45 we establish a kitty and purchase 4 pints of lager at the bar before settling into our seats.
The one thing I particularly noticed about yesterday at Trent Bridge was the hugely partisan nature of the crowd. We have to remember this is Australia we are playing. They give no quarter themselves and are famous for their sledging (look it up). So when we get the opportunity to give some back they get it back by the tankerful.
The Australian captain Michael Clarke is under huge pressure because his team hasn’t been performing and his own person performance has been very much under par. As he came out to bat the merciless crowd sang “You’ll be sacked in the morning” to the tune of Guantanamera. We also sang it as he trudged a lonely path back to the pavilion after scoring 13 runs.
Immense psychological pressure. That guy had almost the whole ground sticking the knife in and twisting it, foot on the throat (etc).
We had a great day which was only very slightly tempered by the fact that bad light stopped us from finishing it off last night.
I’ll leave you with Stuart Broad (I think) bowling at someone.
The end.
That’s a random blog title. I am not drinking tea and the vicar doesn’t come round to our house since the day a few years back I dropped a hot leg of lamb onto his lap. Not deliberately of course but drop it I did. I also spent the rest of that Sunday afternoon plying him with booze but there came a time when the hand was raised indicating that he had had sufficient. He had to go and set up the ping pong table for youth group later.
I’m at home listening to the cricket. Anne is in the kitchen preparing a delicious paneer curry and the one offspring that currently remains in the house is out somewhere. Or hidden away in the West wing. Anyway he is silent.
The cricket is going very well but I shall refrain from any forecast. That would be unlucky. I’ll be at Trent Bridge for the 4th test next Friday. Look out for me in the crowd. Not the corporate boxes. Nobody invited me to their corporate box. I don’t mind. I go with my mates and we have a great time.
A day out at the cricket goes something like this:
- Early train to Nottingham from Lincoln
- Breakfast in the Southbank Bar over the road to the ground at 9 – 9.30ish. Full English with a pint of lager. Ash knows the owner and we reserve a table.
- Into the ground around 10.30ish. Find our seats. Settle in.
- Just before the start of play someone gets a round in. There are 4 of us. Means you don’t have to go too often. The queues are not bad for beer at Trent Bridge. They have separate teams for serving and pulling pints. The queue goes down quickly.
- Someone buys the next round. This carries on in a pseudo infinite loop punctuated by a burger at lunchtime and the occasional visit to the loo in between overs.
- The pace of the day is self regulating. We settle into a sustainable rate of consumption that may be supplemented by a jug of pimms sometime in the afternoon, especially if it is hot.
- At the close of play we tread a weary trail back towards Nottingham train station. En route we call in for a rest and a cold drink. Hooters is one of the stops, conveniently situated half way between the ground and the station.
- There is a Sainsburys Local next to Nottingham station. We buy some supplies for consumption on the train.
- Back in Lincoln the options are go home, go to the Electric Bar or go for a curry.
I’ll let you know how we get on. Maybe.
Meanwhile the paneer curry has been eaten. Delicious. It is stumps at Edgebaston. Australia lead with 3 wickets remaining. Life ain’t bad… More tea vicar?
fastest broadband pig race
Fastest broadband pig race brought to you by broadbandrating.com
The video says it all really. This is the latest in a fun filled series of videos by broadbandrating.com which brings a different slant to how to go about choosing a broadband provider.
In this case the fastest broadband provider is represented by the winning pig. The ISP names are all made up in case the losers make a complaint.
The funny thing is that one day you could be eating a bacon sandwich made from our winning pig – Uswine Bolt.
Filmed on location at Piglets Adventure Farm Park in York to whom we are extremely grateful for their enthusiastic cooperation.
Thanks also to Tom Davies of tomandthat.com. If you visit his website you may notice something in the way of a family resemblance. Video production is part of the portfolio of service s offered by trefor.net Marketing Services. If you are looking for your own corporate video or videos please do get in touch.
iBeani pirate product
Sick and tired of having a cushion on your lap to prop up the iPad or laptop but don’t want to risk radiating your gonads? Look no further. Introducing the iBeani™ – a stylish bean bag, specifically designed to hold tablets or e-readers on any surface at the perfect angle.
Tired of holding your iPad or tablet whilst lying in bed or sitting on the sofa? The iBeani is the perfect solution. Whilst other tablet stands will only work on flat surfaces, the iBeani is able to shift its shape to support and keep your device in the position you want, wherever you are. On the train, on the sofa or on a kitchen worktop, the iBeani works everywhere!
What more can I say. Oh ok then.
The iBeani is manufactured entirely hand made in the UK from carefully selected quality fabrics to ensure customers get the highest quality and durable product possible. There are 16 different variations of the iBeani with different materials and designs such as Harris Tweed tartan, faded blue cord, butterfly, techno black, denim, and many more coming soon to appeal to men, women and children of all ages.
This blurb is lifted from the press release. I’ve started getting millions of them occasionally. The gonads bit is mine. Not the gonads themselves you understand. Just the sentence, though I am a bloke obvs.
I only noticed the release because a) it’s manufactured in Nottinghamshire, just over the county border from my parish, and actually it isn’t a bad idea. I do have a cushion on my lap when using the laptop whilst sat on the settee. There ya go. A market need being fulfilled by a British company. A simple idea that just works.
I liked the iBeani pirate version that you see in the featured image. Goes with the pirate flag we have when we go camping (also see it inset in this post). I’m going to have a week of writing posts in pirate speak in September in the run up to International Talk Like A Pirate day on the 19th of the month. Maybe we will see if we can do a promo and sell the iBeani pirate version that week. Sounds like a plan to me.
PS lets hope they don’t get pirated – we don’t want the market flooded with cheap imitations from China do we? The modern day pirates!
PPS there are over 20 designs to choose from if Piracy isn’t your game, or it’s a bit frightening.
Llandudno pier – all life is there dead on a wet Sunday night in July
It wasn’t a particularly good ice cream but it was an appropriate use of my time and money. When on holiday it is important to indulge in relaxing holiday pastimes such as strolling on piers and licking ice creams.
This one had “raspberry blood” on it. Clearly marketing lingo pitched at customers of four foot height or less. I went for the raspberry blood. I opted out of the flake.
We enjoyed the sunshine whilst we could. The next day the weather returned to type and it chucked it down. That’s Wales for you.
Llandudno pier has all the usual seaside attractions for what it’s worth. Hook a duck, darts, slides, slot machines. The prizes were of course all total crap. We returned to the pier in the rain on the Sunday evening and even caught a glimpse of an entertainer twanging his electric guitar, banging out some old favourites (I imagine – wasn’t allowed to step inside for a beer).
See Facebook album here taken on the fine Saturday afternoon. Photo of Llandudno pier on a wet Sunday evening in July below.
Back to the subject of ice creams I am quite fussy about this foodstuff. It all stems from growing up in the Isle of Man where they had the fantastic Manx Ices. Used to buy wafers from an ice cream van. They don’t do them any more. Nowadays I think the company has morphed into Davisons but the product is equally good despite the lack of a wafer.
This post btw is another in the summer series along the lines of “where did I go on holiday”. Expect many more and if you would like to post your own then just get in touch. Delay not. I’m in and out of the office until the end of the first week in September.
hot wax treatment – has to be experienced
Sat in the period luxury of the lounge of the Dunoon Hotel in Llandudno. That’s Chllan-did-noh, not landudnoe. The Dunoon Hotel it all its finery is however not the subject of this post. This afternoon I had my first experience of the hot wax treatment.
This was at a Turkish barbers in Chllan-did-noh. I am here for some quality time with my wife, 81 year old mother in law and my wife’s sister Sarah. Such a Chllan-did-noh excursion to is not something to be taken lightly. It involves the amassing of a giant container full of brownie points but they have to be paid for.
On this occasion payment was of the following kind:
Stroll to cafe for coffee. In this case it was somewhere called Cafe Ba. I wondered about the name and was intending to ask, when I realised it was actually Cafe Bar but the r had fallen off. Chllan-did-noh has probably seen better days although it was heaving yesterday in the sun.
From the Coffee Ba we saw a couple of casualties from the 
Scooter gathering we had seen yesterday. I missed the first photo opportunity but ran out to catch the second.
- Stroll from coffee shop to shopping arcade. En route I bought a Ddraig Goch. I’ve already said there will be more mentions of flags in due course. Rushing to catch up with the ladies I used the last of my mobile phone battery to pinpoint their location. Auntie Sarah wanted the loo so they disappeared from the precinct for a short diversion.
I spent the time chatting to the bloke at the Sky stand. Busman’s holiday. He told me what the best pub was in Chllan-did-noh. I’ll be heading there later for a pre prandial pint, or whatever they call it in Chllan-did-noh.
- Lunch at non-descript cafe in shopping precinct. I had a ploughman’s lunch, fwiw. Something to keep me going between the full blown breakfast this morning and the 5 course meal dished up at the hotel in the evening.
- Stroll round M&S ladies wear department.
At this point I sat down next to some bloke in the same predicament as me and had a bit of a chat about the game of golf he was planning for later this pm. His wife eventually came to fetch him and i contented myself with making a start on the new translation of The Mabinogion (Google it) newly purchased from Waterstones en route from the non-descript cafe.
I didn’t get very far. The ladies returned and we began a gentle meander back in the general direction of the hotel, stopping to gaze in at every shop window and 70% off reduced sale bargain we came across, which was in pretty much every shop.
It came to a point where a further sit down was called for and I managed to slip the leash and head for the Red One Turkish Barber Shop for a trim and a shave. Seemed reasonable.
Skipping gaily, if somewhat damply into the shop I conveyed my requirements to Adnan the barber. He pointed out that for just a little bit more I could get the full works. The works included hot wax treatment on my nostrils, burning off any hair around the ears, a wax trim of my eyebrows, head and neck massage, a cut throat shave with all the towels and steam treatment and of course a number 3 back and sides with a bit off the top.
The whole process must have taken a good hour. I’ve reached the tender age of 53 and never before had a Turkish barber. It will not be the last time. The guy was not only professional hair artiste but had pro conversation skills. He found out that I was a director of an internet exchange. I always have to think with hat to put on when asked what I do for a living because I have a few.
Back at the hotel I was given 5 mins to turn around before heading back out again to the amusements on the pier. As we approached they looked closed for the day – a wet Sunday afternoon in Chllan-did-noh does not see the crowds rushing onto the pier. Rushing back to Liverpool and Brum more like.
So there we have it. Chllan-did-noh and the hot wax treatment. Not too painful and it certainly clears out the nostril hair.
I’d recommend Adnan at Red One Turkish Barber in Chllan-did-noh any day of the week and they are open every one of them. Something for the weekend sir? Hot wax treatment:) End result below:
Retiring University of Lincoln PR lecturer Jane Crofts writes the first of this season’s guest posts that talk mainly about their holidays. If you knew Jane she is far from retiring btw:)
Retirement is now imminent, today being the last actual day of work and the last day on the books is looming large at the end of the summer.
Many of the wise people I know have said to me ‘you are far too young to retire’ but that is delightfully not true, you are never too young to retire! It is a lifestyle choice made by my husband and I (spoken suitably regally if you please). We have never been rich, but we have never had to worry about paying our bills and putting food in the table. We have always been, and plan to continue to be, modestly comfortable. Most importantly, to us, we are planning to be stress free; as far as my natural inclination will allow.
So, for our summer hols; the last one before each day is a holiday, we decided to try a ‘trip’ much favoured by the retired. We both love trains, himself the mechanics of the beasts, myself travelling without driving or flying. We both wanted to visit the West Coast of Scotland and see the fabulous views for ourselves so we booked ourselves onto a West Highland Tour.
We left Lincoln by train heading up to Glasgow, first class of course, to meet up with our party. The joy of the East Coast mainline allows easy internet access and charging points for the electronic paraphernalia that follows us around these days – allowing us to check our journey’s progress, weather predictions and other such obsessions of the Brits on holiday!
We got to Glasgow early to give time to hop on a city tour bus, a great way to look round an unfamiliar place. Fascinating stuff; great buildings, wonderful regeneration projects but for us ‘Lincolnites’ frighteningly busy!
The next morning the party assembled to head to the station for the journey up the West Highland Line to Morar (our base for the next few days). We expected the party to be an interesting mix of people beyond their first flush of youth but it is fair to say we brought the average age down quite considerably! But it was not a problem at all; every group, whatever their age has bores, moaners, entertainers and educators; by far the best informed, most mischievous member of the party was the eldest at 91 years, definitely, young.
The difference in connectivity on this journey from the day before was immediately apparent as the signal dropped down to weak or nothing regularly and as our poor, exhausted smartphones struggled the batteries drained but there were no charging points to be had. The hotel in Morar offered the opportunity to charge up the umbilical cords but the signal there was not any better so we were forced to go cold turkey!
The next three days we travelled by rail and coach enjoying some of the most spectacular scenery the UK can offer. Lochs, Viaducts, Steam Trains, Monuments, Sea, Silver Sands, Mountains and Hills. – stunning, absolutely stunning. The stamina required on the hottest July day in years to sit on a Victorian Steam Train and chug along is considerable, we all made it several pounds lighter I suspect! The line followed much of the route seen in the Harry Potter films, across the Glenfinnan Viaduct and past the island where ‘Dumbledore is buried’. The coach tour took us to visit Spean Bridge where we were able to contemplate the sacrifices made by our commandos at the monument to their honour and enjoy spectacular views of the snow-capped Ben Nevis, it might have been hot at our level but up there was a different story.
Skye was a bit of disappointment as it was one of the days that played to its reputation as the misty isle; but it did afford and amazing view of a hill doing an impersonation of Mount Fuji. But not a Cuillin in sight.
What fascinated me about our group was the different attitudes to ‘smartphone world’. It was no different from any other random group of people, regardless of age folks loved being connected or hated it. Most had their paper maps out to follow the various routes but many had their smartphones at the ready when a signal was available. The 91 year old spent a fair bit of time talking apps with my hubby.
Travel tech was a challenge on the holiday as I have already observed. In these remote parts internet connections were slow and phone signals generally non-existent; 4G – more like minus 4G! We had taken the decision not to post our travels to Facebook and the like because our house was sitting empty. So I tried a break from the incessant communication that normally fills my day; OK, I confess I did use Messenger to chat to the odd student when I could get a connection, especially as final results were announced on that very hot day!
We travelled with Rail Discoveries, not sure if we will do so again for another few years but it has certainly given me a taste for investigating Inter Rail and the like so I can head further afield without getting on a plane. And of course, we will have the time to take a leisurely pace from now on without any pressure to be always connected.
Avon SSS sung to the tune of Summertime
The Avon SSS has arrived. Avon Skin So Soft, the ultimate in midge repellant. No boy scout serious beach surfin’ camper should be without. As used by the Royal Marines in jungle warfare training, apparently. And perfect for going to Hillend campsite in the Gower.
We aren’t going for another month but it doesn’t stop me from getting excited and starting the preparations.
You can’t buy Avon SSS in the shops but don’t worry. I have for your convenience provided a link direct to the right page on the Avon website. Voila http://avonshop.co.uk/product/skin-so-soft-original-dry-oil-body-spray.html
Note the two bottles – better safe than sorry.
This is one of a series of summer holiday posts. The next one, if I remember will be all about flags and flagpoles with a specific mention of Uganda.
Stay tuned to trefor.net to find out more. You heard it first etc etc etc…
school’s out for summer
Feel as if I should be throwing off my school blazer, flinging my tie over the settee leaving it all for mum to sort out and running out into the back garden to mess about in the paddling pool. It’s the last day of term for the last Davies of school age.
We have ahead of us the long summer vacation, six weeks or so and many of you out there will be getting ready to hook up the caravan, load the tent in the trailer or packing your suitcase for a slightly posher and more exotic holiday in the sun. Hopefully the queues at the airport will be kind to you and the traffic en route to the beaches surprisingly absent.
I’m not on holiday, yet, though the dress code in the trefor.net office has relaxed further to a pair of rugby shorts, deck shoes and a Cape Cod Beer tshirt. If you’re young enough or old enough not to be taking kids on holiday you will already have had your summer break and have to suffer the excitement of the rest of us as we look forward to ours.
I like to take my summer holiday towards the end of the period as it really does give me something to look forward to. This year we are off surfing at Hillend campsite, Rhossili beach in the Gower followed by the Flashback festival in Clumber Park and then the Isle of Man. I’ve pushed the boat out and bought valet parking at Liverpool John Lennon Airport.
One of the great things about Rhossili beach in Llangennith is its total absence of mobile phone coverage. It’s a proper holiday characterised by variants of bacon and eggs for breakfast every morning, robust sandwiches with crusty baguettes for lunch and a bbq every evening washed down with copious quantities of red wine.
The Clumber Park Flashback Festival involves a camper van, or in our case the Jeep with all the back seats down and a double blow up mattress, a posh picnic and a bop to some of the sounds of the 70’s including Sister Sledge, Boney M, Oddyssey and Hot Chocolate, the latter sadly without their recently deceased lead singer.
We are on the lookout for a camper van as well btw. I feel it is a slow learning process until we decide on what’s right for us but with 3 out of 4 children now out of school the time has come for us to prepare for the day where we will have the freedom to just drop everything and travel.
In the meantime, before our holidays proper begin we have a joyful short break 😉 with the mother in law in Llandudno followed by a night out on the town in da smoke with a crowd of like minded folk hell bent on letting their hair down and having a good time. We also have Jesus Christ Superstar on at Lincoln Cathedral this Thursday evening. Supposed to be a great show with around 200 members of cast!
So there ya go. I may well also fit in a day out at Skegvegas but that in one shortish blog is what I have to look forward to this summer. Although I’ll probably slip in the odd techie post I’m going to major on vacation stuff. If you want to chip in with your own guest post jest lemme know. Have a few already in the pipeline.
School’s out for summer, yay!
It’s gonna be a fun fun place to be this summer 🙂
Holiday season (if you have kids) is rapidly approaching and it gets pretty dead from a business perspective. So I’m offering slots to people who might fancy writing guest posts on trefor.net about where they have been/are going/are on their holidays.
Feels like the right thing to do. Photos from a beach somewhere (keep em clean – this is a family show), views from atop peaks climbed at great personal risk, blurry photos of drunken nights in tavernas (Greek holidays are being discounted) etc etc etc
If you want to include tech used whilst on holiday that is good. Description of airline upgrades. Anything you like really. It can also be something written during the boring periods in the office whilst the rest of the world is on holiday – someone has to man the phones in case that one customer not on holiday wants to call.
If anyone is interested btw I’m off surfing to the Gower, then the Flashback Festival and thence on to the Isle of Man for a seafood diet.
PS not going for another month mind you.
It’s another glorious summer day in the shire but I am up early and off South to the oven that is London. I have a good day ahead with the first trefor.net Tech Marketing lunch and the Political Intelligence birthday party. 7.30 am train down and 9.30pm t5ain home. Urgh. A long day.
Should be enjoyable though. There will be a gentle stroll from Kings Cross station to Kettners in SoHo, the lunch venue. It is an enforced gentle stroll as the tube workers are once more on strike. It’s a democratic right.
I’ll walk off the lunch with another gentle stroll of around an hour or so to the City for the party. All this exercise…
I employ an element of poetic license in the title of this post as the nearer I get to London the cloudier it gets. This is probably good. A gentle stroll can be onerous in the glare of the midsummer sun, high up above the lowering skyscrapers of the capital. I have not brought a hat.
En route to town it is noticeable that as we race through the countryside the fields, last week totally verdant, are now turning gold. The harvest will soon begin. The larders soon to be stocked up again for another winter ahead. We should feel good about this:)
I am wearing shorts and a Lonap tshirt and have a pair of stout walking shoes to assist my passage through the streets of town. There is a change of clothes in my knapsack (thought I’d use that word instead of “my Osprey day bag” – more in keeping with the flowery nature of this post).
I quite like the odd day out in London and the 7.30 am from Lincoln central gets you off to a good start with a full English breakfast as soon as you leave Lincoln. I’ve usually finished it by the time the train gets to Newark half an hour later – it’s a slow branch line.
The featured image of this post is today’s breakfast. Have a good day and if you are coming to the lunch I look forward to seeing you.