General
Contacts!
I tried wearing contacts for the first time on Sunday. Bit of a devil to put them in and it took me about a half-hour to do it for the first time. Took another half-hour for my eyes to stop feeling really weird. After going for a cycle with them in I can really see the added-value for me to have them if only for cycling, and then later last night I found that I could use binoculars and get nice sharp views through them – makes a change from trying to squish my glasses up against the eyepieces. I’m waiting for the next clear night to set up the scope again and see what it’s like to go galaxy hunting while wearing contacts, and whether it’s worthwhile sourcing contacts that have that extra -0.25 diopters for proper night-time correction.
car replacement ideas
If the A4 goes ‘kaput’..
Requirements:
- Diesel, comfortable, roomy
- leather seats,
- Decent storage – preferably estate.
- Powerful ;) At least 1.9 engine size, up to 3.0l (more hp the better)
- Desired engine type in order: V8, I6, V6, I4
- In order: 4-wheel, rear, front wheel drive.
Desires:
- multi-cd changer or iPod connectivity
- multifunction steering wheel
- sunroof
- roof rails
- Climate control
- Auto box, semi-auto preferred.
- Auto box, semi-auto preferred.
- Audi A6 diesel, ideally 3.0 quattro avant, sport/s-line. (3.0 estate still too expensive)
- Merc E-class diesel, preferably estate (problems with rust on pre-03)
- Merc S-class diesel – I quite like the lwb version.
- A4 quattro sport/s-line (Bit on the small side?)
- bmw 525/530/535 diesel (except the boot is smaller than the A4 in them)
- VW Phaeton
No ford/opel/toyota/hyundai..
Updated to 3.1
Updated to WordPress 3.1. Relatively painless. Kudos to the WordPress gang!
Wishlists – an opinion.
I have often found it useful to keep a wishlist of things that I’d like to have (usually to allow me to do things that I have not previously been able to do). Sometimes it’s amusing to see after a few years haev passed which items on an old list I am glad I did not get, along with those items that I would still ike to have. I suppose it’s a good way of making sure that I don’t spend money on something that I end up not using that much anymore after a short time. Especially with expensive capital purchases.
I should also go through what I own and move on the stuff that I no longer have much use for and clear out a few drawers…
Old Mercedes-Benz
I’ve been looking around (not that I’ve much chance if affording it) at 1980′s MB cars, E-class or S-class W124/W126 cars. They appear to be coming in at reasonable prices for reasonable cars. Maybe they’ll be on the radar in a few years…
Another option is the W116 450 SEL 6.9. That is looking like a real option, if any can be found in good nick.
Holiday and aftermath
The holiday was excellent. Great hotel, fantastic staff, and an absolutely fantastic location. One of the best weeks I’ve spent on holiday in recent years. It’s a real pity that the tour operator (can’t name them yet – I’ll explain later) were either uncaring or possibly downright malicious in aparrent efforts to scupper what was supposed to be a great gift.
The tour company pretty much lied about the terms that were applicable to the gift, saying originally that the gift applied to all of the destinations in the brochure, and would be applied against the brochure price as printed in the catalogue.
However, as we were doing our research on the locations and the timings, we were told that no, the gift didn’t apply to destinations that flew from Belfast as those were advertised in Sterling in the brochure and therefore the gift wouldn’t be allowed to be used there.
After raising the isuse with the people on the phone, we were told “Sure aren’t you getting a free holiday, what more do you want?” Well what one would expect from such a tour operator would be politeness on the phone, after all we would be spending a significant amount of money with them, and it could have been such a possible public relations coup. But, no, they chose to be bad-minded about it. After re-chosing our shortlist of destinations to only ones that flew from the Republic, we phoned back to get the relative costs of each destination possibility. Armed with this information we made our choice, and phoned back to book. Yes, would you believe it, the so-called “brochure price” had gone up by close to €1000 euro in less than an hour. “Oh, yes, it’s a booking on our live system, the prices can do that” we were told. Of our 8 destination/hotel combinations on the shortlist, 7 had raised in price by over €500. A quick comparison between our quoted final “brochure price” and the actual cost of booking online through their website that day, showed that the difference between the prices was not far from the value of the gift…. It’s a bit of a coincidence I think.
However, destination 8 had only risen by something like €300, and was still within the budget that we had set ourselves. So we booked, and paid the amount over that this holiday would cost over the gift value.
The further coincidences that we were the victim of, were interesting. We were not sitting together on the plane out, nor were we sitting together on the plane back, and the airline had no capability of changing the seating as the travel company did the allocation themselves (I saw the ticket screen and the block that had no change capability). Arriving at the hotel, we were told that our room was on the pool level and had no balcony as a result. The hotel staff knew that this was a less-than-ideal room for a couple on holiday but they had no capacity left to enable a change in room. However, there was a capability to upgrade us to the sister hotel nearby, for no charge. So we naturally took them up on the gracious upgrade offer and we had a brilliant holiday as a result.
Problems and solutions?
Personally, my attendance of the wedding triggered some unfortunate actions and statements from a few small-minded people that have such personal prejudices and terrible small-mindedness that they were willing to invent situations that didn’t exist, and self-persuade that their world-view was so right, even to the point that their stupidity and downright idiocy that could have caused so much hurt and division. However, the people that could have been hurt again, were all adults about the situation, and the hurtful behaviour was put down to it being the result of small-minded and emotionally stunted people, that could have known better yet chose to act the ways that they did.
It’s absolutely fantastic though to be no longer having someone attempt to control me in such a hurtful and damaging manner. It’s a pity that the resolution to that issue had to take the course that it did, as the others involved have neither the emotional maturity nor the capability to understand what is going on, and the means that they will have to sort out their own problems individually and hopefully gain the mental tools to be able to grow up and play nice with the rest of the adults, before the overall situation resolves itself. They will have to be ready to admit for once that maybe they were at fault, and that there may be a need for an apology to not only myself but to a lot of the other people involved. But that would be the mark of adult behaviour, of people that have matured emotionally, and that can interact with other people without displaying such anger and naked agression as they have in the recent past.
As with a lot of things, it takes an admission that there’s a problem before the problem can be resolved, and they are too misguidedly proud and too arrogant to admit that there is a problem that might lie with them. In an ideal world, they would self-analyse, and see that their behaviour was in fact both insulting and inappropriate, and that there is a need to apologise for that behaviour. That would be a good start. Then I’d like to see them seek help for the unresolved issues that they have, that are getting in the way of their lives. Then after that, they should have the nous to realise what is next needed to make restitution with those that they have deeply hurt and angered unnecessarily. Once that step is taken, then they can start to rebuild the relationships that their previous attitudes and behaviours had shattered.
Catherine’s wonderful wedding.
Catherine’s wedding was fantastic. Even allowing for the absolute stupidity and pure selfishness and complete lack of consideration that some people that were close to me unfairly showed in the days leading up to the wedding, it went off as an event to be memorable for all of the right reasons.
It was never going to be an old-fashioned wedding, but as is the right of those chosing to marry, it was done exactly to their desires. It was fun, light-hearted, and thoroughly enjoyable. Everyone that attended was so happy to have been there to share in the wonderful day/night/weekend that the event turned out to be. Everyone that could, helped out in ways that showed that the real definition of a good family is one that actually helps out without complaint, or judgement.
I’m so glad that I went to the wedding, and I am so happy for the newlyweds. Heartfelt congratulations and best wishes for the life that you have both chosen to embark on
Viewing Planets in Daytime.
Yesterday evening I went out with my ETX to take a look with the solar filter at the first set of sunspots in weeks.
After spending a bit of time there I thought I’d get a look at Venus as it would be easier to see anything of interest with the daytime sky behind it. I could see it clearly and I got to try some colour filters, and trying all of my eyepieces and barlows to get a view.
Next up was to locate Mars – the Autostar made short work of that, and I could easily see Mars against the daytime sky, with well over an hour to sunset. There was not much to see except hints of markings of course, given the 6.2″ diameter of Mars at the moment and the 2″ rayleigh resolution limit of this little scope, combined with the short 350mm focal length. Still, it was nice to actually see the planet at all.
Feeling confident, I went off and selected Saturn. Lo and behold, there was Saturn, just barely brighter than the background sky, but still visible. I could see the rings almost edge on, and the shadow of the rings on the planet cloudtops. Still impressive I think, and points me to the possibility of observing some items during the day at least