It was an early morning – even by my standards (3.45am!) – and the plan was to take some more shots of the car and make the most of the summer, specifically to catch the Sun rising. God  and the BBC weather-team, however, had other ideas – and it was a misty start, and no sign of the Sun!

So John and I drove around looking for inspiration, and found a couple of spots, but we both felt a bit disappointed with the way the weather screwed the event.

We’ve decided that for the future, rather than plan ahead, we’ll take the decision on-the-day.

A few more photos on Facebook

Steve Palmer

I got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until 2004 – well into my 40s! My lifelong love of technology and communication (in all its forms), together with a fondness for the art of writing seemed to be the perfect combination to contribute a few words to the online community. But I’m no Samuel Pepys! If you’re looking for deep and meaningful comments on a variety of subjects, then you’ve arrived at the wrong site! I only pen for pleasure! On average, my posts appear about twice per month, covering family & friends, cinema visits, eating out, holiday experiences and techy stuff. Oh, and as this is my hobby, there are no sponsored links nor adverts here – it’s all done with love!

I hope you find it enjoyable, interesting and occasionally, even helpful!

StevePalmerTheBlogger.com

The post Photo shoot II – Insignia appeared first on Steve's Blog.

I was up with the lark this morning (what a surprise!). I picked up John W and we headed to Burton Latimer for a photo shoot featuring my new car. We wanted to make best use of the natural early-morning light. More piccys to follow, but here’s one that makes it look really eco friendly (although a bit unstable!!!)

Later, I drove down to St Neots to meet up with Ian H. He’s up this way on business and I wanted to see his new speed camera detector gadget that he’s just installed. We ate at The Highwayman, the pub/restaurant next door, feasting on chicken-burgers under their ‘two-for-a-tenner deal and put the world to rights along the way!

I got home around 4ish.

Steve Palmer

I got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until 2004 – well into my 40s! My lifelong love of technology and communication (in all its forms), together with a fondness for the art of writing seemed to be the perfect combination to contribute a few words to the online community. But I’m no Samuel Pepys! If you’re looking for deep and meaningful comments on a variety of subjects, then you’ve arrived at the wrong site! I only pen for pleasure! On average, my posts appear about twice per month, covering family & friends, cinema visits, eating out, holiday experiences and techy stuff. Oh, and as this is my hobby, there are no sponsored links nor adverts here – it’s all done with love!

I hope you find it enjoyable, interesting and occasionally, even helpful!

StevePalmerTheBlogger.com

The post Photo Shoot appeared first on Steve's Blog.

For those, who blog, or maybe are thinking of starting, I’d recommend a plugin for Windows Live Writer (and many other blogging platforms) called ZEMANTA. In short, this plugin will scour the text content of your blog and suggest (via a side panel) links to various related content from around the web-o-sphere. It even provided related photographs too. And, if that’s not enough, it’ll link to your Facebook and Flickr account for relevant content too!

Here we are then. I’ve installed the beta version of the Zemanta plug-in. The first thing I noticed was that I didn’t get the ‘this version of Zemanta is not compatible…’ when loading WLW 2010 beta –  so that’s a good start.  Note however, the plug-in now doesn’t load at all when I launch the previous version of Live-Writer – WLW 2009 on the same PC.

So now I’m typing text and deliberately dropping in some keywords hoping that Zemanta will pick them up and offer some links in its side-panel.

It’s certainly picking up related articles automatically – see below

Now, an opportunity for Zemanta to try and provide related links based on stuff specific to me. Here we go then: I’m adding in the names of our two cats, Biscuit and Bon-Bon to see if Zemanta finds the photographs stored in my Flickr account. Nope! That’s weird because it HAS selected a photograph from my Flickr account of Ann and me (not sure WHY though!) – no wait, the cat pics have just appeared, so maybe it’s because of my painfully sloooooooow internet connection. (about 0.5 Mb/s).

Next, I’m going to add the name of my new camera here in the body text – Panasonic Lumix G2 – Well, that sort of worked, Zemanta has picked up on the Lumix part…but not found anything relating to G2.  I wonder if there is a way of linking the two words in the search – I’m going to try the refine button in Zemanta by typing in Lumix G2. Success! – Zemanta has found loads of photos specifically for the Lumix G2 – one is shown on the left

Finally, I’m going to try out the in-text link option of Zemanta. This is where the plug-in searches through all the text in your blog and offers related links to that word from across the Web. Interestingly, whilst it found links to Flickr, Zemanta, Lumix, photographs, WLW, beta version and body text,  it didn’t find any links for Panasonic – strange!  Ohh, wait a mo’ – I came back to the blog 10 minutes later and there’s a link to Panasonic. Once again, it must be my connection speed.

So, with the above results, all in all, I’d give the plugin beta the ‘thumbs-up’ –  it does do a superb job of making the most of your posts!

Steve Palmer

I got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until 2004 – well into my 40s! My lifelong love of technology and communication (in all its forms), together with a fondness for the art of writing seemed to be the perfect combination to contribute a few words to the online community. But I’m no Samuel Pepys! If you’re looking for deep and meaningful comments on a variety of subjects, then you’ve arrived at the wrong site! I only pen for pleasure! On average, my posts appear about twice per month, covering family & friends, cinema visits, eating out, holiday experiences and techy stuff. Oh, and as this is my hobby, there are no sponsored links nor adverts here – it’s all done with love!

I hope you find it enjoyable, interesting and occasionally, even helpful!

StevePalmerTheBlogger.com

The post Test Blog using Zemanta plug-in beta for WLW 2010 Beta appeared first on Steve's Blog.

Well almost!

We drove down to Roger, Jane and Oliver’s for the gathering of the clan. When I say clan – it was more of a clan-lite!, No, scrub that – clan-super-lite!

The original plan had been to get everyone together, simply because we don’t do it that often. We’d not expected my Mum to be there, so it was more likely to be Ann’s side of the family.

Unfortunately, Bev couldn’t make it, and at the last minute, nor could Mae as there had been a recent death of a relation. The net result was we had Denis, Ann Lee and me!

We picked-up Lee around 10.15 and headed south. It was a good journey down there and arrived around 12ish – a little later than planned because the local road was closed due to long-term roadworks.

After a quick gossip, lunch was served – a wide range of cold meats and quiche plus loads of salad bits. It was the perfect meal for the scorching hot weather they had down there.

Oliver was as energetic as ever – I managed to resist the temptation to joining him on the trampoline, but we did end up playing swing-ball, and later, battling it out with a broom versus a plastic sword (I won! Just!!!). Oliver then ran around photographing anything that moved. Luckily, that didn’t include me as I fell asleep – only to be awoken a few minutes later by Oliver, who was now bored. We settled for a game of junior Scrabble (that’s about my limit!)

After losing at JUNIOR Scrabble (!!), Denis decided to head home – and we decided to do the the same.

A great day – but knackering day!!!

We had a hassle-free journey home and dropped off Lee along the way

Whoosh! – what’s that noise? Oh, that’s your weekend disappearing Steve!!!

Steve Palmer

I got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until 2004 – well into my 40s! My lifelong love of technology and communication (in all its forms), together with a fondness for the art of writing seemed to be the perfect combination to contribute a few words to the online community. But I’m no Samuel Pepys! If you’re looking for deep and meaningful comments on a variety of subjects, then you’ve arrived at the wrong site! I only pen for pleasure! On average, my posts appear about twice per month, covering family & friends, cinema visits, eating out, holiday experiences and techy stuff. Oh, and as this is my hobby, there are no sponsored links nor adverts here – it’s all done with love!

I hope you find it enjoyable, interesting and occasionally, even helpful!

StevePalmerTheBlogger.com

The post Family Lunch appeared first on Steve's Blog.

Well, maybe not quite!

I set off for London around 2ish and got into town around 3.30.

After a quick walk to the Circle Line, I was soon at the Embankment, heading across Jubilee Bridge, heading for the South Bank. It was hot muggy day and perhaps as expected, the place was very busy with people – the Tube, the streets were just packed.

On arriving at the South Bank, it was even busier – people, people and more people everywhere but there were plenty of street entertainers (mostly the same – the ‘live statue’ variety) to keep the crowds happy.

After a bit of searching (and with Angela’s help by text), I found the restaurant I’d pre-booked – the Chez Gerard – on Belvedere Road (my sat nav didn’t have this particular Chez Gerard in its database – bah!). Angela arrived slightly ahead of the rest, around 5.40 and we settled down in the restaurant for a natter accompanied by some bread,olives and a cool(ish) bottle of house-white.

Carey, Philip and Antoinette arrived within minutes of each other and after a quick initial natter, (June couldn’t make it), we started looking through the menu. It’s a French restaurant and the choice was pretty good. It didn’t take me long to make up my mind – the Gnocci for starters followed by the Burger (how very french!!!!). My starter was a little strange – more mushrooms and sauce than the title suggested, but this was more than made-up for by the burger. There’s are meaty burgers and then there was this beast – even I couldn’t have eaten two! It came with the smallest french-fries I’ve ever seen and some strange green-stuff, that I was told was lettuce Boy, was I stuffed by the end? – I couldn’t even manage dessert (and that’s unusual for me) and I just settled for a double-espresso.

It was good to the gang, and we could have stayed and chatted for longer, but we all had homes to go to. We got the bill, paid our dues and then headed our separate ways, literally. As it 10 years of us ‘getting together’ next year, we’ve decided to do something special, around this time in 2011. We’re not quite sure what yet, but it’ll probably be a meal somewhere, possibly at lunch-time, somewhere in London. It was good to the gang, and we could have stayed and chatted for longer

I headed back across the bridge around 8.30 (still busy with people) and made for St Pancras, narrowly missing the 9pm train by a whisker. Normally, I snooze on the train, but this wasn’t to be, as the carriage had acquired a screaming sprog for the whole of the journey. Headache!!!!

I stumbled through the front-door around 10.45, still stuffed and with the sound of the sprog reverberating around my head.

Steve Palmer

I got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until 2004 – well into my 40s! My lifelong love of technology and communication (in all its forms), together with a fondness for the art of writing seemed to be the perfect combination to contribute a few words to the online community. But I’m no Samuel Pepys! If you’re looking for deep and meaningful comments on a variety of subjects, then you’ve arrived at the wrong site! I only pen for pleasure! On average, my posts appear about twice per month, covering family & friends, cinema visits, eating out, holiday experiences and techy stuff. Oh, and as this is my hobby, there are no sponsored links nor adverts here – it’s all done with love!

I hope you find it enjoyable, interesting and occasionally, even helpful!

StevePalmerTheBlogger.com

The post 5ive go mad in London appeared first on Steve's Blog.

For our final day in Chester, we took a drive to Cheshire Oaks, a massive out-of-town designer shopping outlet about 15 minutes from the hotel.

It’s massive – certainly the biggest we’ve ever visited. Ann thinks it’s the largest in Europe. Literally hundreds of shops and even some more outlets at the Coliseum just down the road. We spent most of the morning at Cheshire Oaks mostly picking-up Christmas presents and then stopped for lunch at the Red House brasserie. Another great meal!

Afterwards we were all shopped-out. We said good-bye to Karen and Ralph and headed to the nearby Argos to see if we could get some under-bed storage boxes. No luck, as they only had ONE in stock – just like all of the other Argos stores we’ve tried!

We called it a day and joined the motorway about 2.45 and after a sluggish start, we made-up the time and had a straightforward run all the way home. We got in about 5.15. Lee had been house-sitting, doing the ironing and looking after the cats – perfect!!!

Now we just need to get unpacked – hopefully, we’ll be finished by…Tuesday!!!

Steve Palmer

I got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until 2004 – well into my 40s! My lifelong love of technology and communication (in all its forms), together with a fondness for the art of writing seemed to be the perfect combination to contribute a few words to the online community. But I’m no Samuel Pepys! If you’re looking for deep and meaningful comments on a variety of subjects, then you’ve arrived at the wrong site! I only pen for pleasure! On average, my posts appear about twice per month, covering family & friends, cinema visits, eating out, holiday experiences and techy stuff. Oh, and as this is my hobby, there are no sponsored links nor adverts here – it’s all done with love!

I hope you find it enjoyable, interesting and occasionally, even helpful!

StevePalmerTheBlogger.com

The post Long Weekend Away – Day 3: Final day, shopping appeared first on Steve's Blog.

We left home around 10am and had a pretty good journey to Chester. By 12.35 we were parking in the Green Bough hotel and Ralph and Karen arrived not long after. We’re here until Sunday and aim to take in the sights, sounds and of course, the shops!

First impressions were superb. We were given a very warm welcome and after checking-in, we settled in the lounge. We were immediately treated to free tea/coffee and fresh scones with jam and clotted cream. Yum-Yum!

As we were going into town later, we asked the hotel to hold the free champagne (part of the package) until we got back.
We were upgraded to a junior suite – The Adlington. It’s very nice, well appointed and has everything we need.

We quickly unpacked and then took the bus into town – just a short ten-minute journey, after a short walk to the bus-stop.

The weather was a bit dull when we got there, and it looked like it was going to chuck it down with rain at any moment. Considering it was a week-day, the place was packed! We decided to walk round the town via the Wall – this gave us a great view of the surrounding area.

Chester isn’t the most obvious place to find rhinoceroses (or is that rhinoceri?), but the place was full of them! Albeit highly decorated ones!

We walked and walked – and then walked some more. We even got a great view of the race-course that was gearing itself up for tonight’s races. Ralph and I felt the need for a beer, and the girls were up for a break too! So, we headed back to town and settled for enjoying our drinks outside, where there were a couple singing live – nice!

Three Heinekens and a J20 later, it got very windy and looked like it was about to rain, so we headed back to the bus-station. Luckily, there was a bus waiting, and by 5pm, we were back in our room. We had a communal cuppa and then got ready for the gut-busting menu – not forgetting our complimentary glass of champagne. The plan was to meet at 7.30 for ‘champers’, then eat at eight. 

The evening meal certainly didn’t disappoint. The whole experience began as we were shown to the roof terrace where, as promised, the champagne flowed! Ralph’s not a big fan of the fizz these days, so he had a Speckled Hen – a nice touch by the waiting staff, who asked him whether he wanted it ‘room temperature’ of ‘chilled’. And this attention-to-detail continued throughout the evening meal where the various courses were served at a leisurely pace.

We decided to go for the a-la-carte option. The food looked beautiful – a work of art – and it tasted even better – in fact, the food was beyond excellent especially for a small hotel, and would easily have rivalled a top London restaurant. I had the veal.

Ralph stuck with his ale, whilst we three, sunk a bottle of red between us. By the time we struggled through dessert, we were all totally stuffed and couldn’t even manage coffee nor the cheese.

We collapsed in the lounge for all of five-minutes and then decided to call it a day. We staggered into bed around 10.45.

This has been an excellent day – the hotel certainly know their stuff and the food and the rooms are simply superb.

Roll-on Saturday!

Steve Palmer

I got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until 2004 – well into my 40s! My lifelong love of technology and communication (in all its forms), together with a fondness for the art of writing seemed to be the perfect combination to contribute a few words to the online community. But I’m no Samuel Pepys! If you’re looking for deep and meaningful comments on a variety of subjects, then you’ve arrived at the wrong site! I only pen for pleasure! On average, my posts appear about twice per month, covering family & friends, cinema visits, eating out, holiday experiences and techy stuff. Oh, and as this is my hobby, there are no sponsored links nor adverts here – it’s all done with love!

I hope you find it enjoyable, interesting and occasionally, even helpful!

StevePalmerTheBlogger.com

The post Long Weekend Away – Day 1: Green Bough Hotel, Chester appeared first on Steve's Blog.

I didn’t get up until 8am!!

Looking out the window, the weather looks good at the moment although the forecast is cloudy. We plan to primarily use today to take photographs and try out our new camcorder.

9.00am. We got down to breakfast and found it a lot quieter than yesterday. The service was still sluggish, although the food was excellent.

10.00am. We took a short drive to the War Memorial. It looks like the original memorial was for WW1 and a a large extension had been added to accommodate WW2. The weather seemed to be getting better!

Whilst we were looking round, we saw what might be Ann’s next car! (only joking).

10.30am. We then drove to the Historic Dockyard. We haven’t been there for (we think) 15 years! It’s been developed quite a bit and it was great looking around the improving good weather helped. HMS Victory looked stunning and so did the various modern warships.

11.00am. We then took a boat trip round the harbour. The Guide was really informative and pointed out lots of Frigates, Destroyers and a couple of aircraft carriers. We even saw some brand new warships awaiting commission. Ironically, some of the other warships were there awaiting a decision about their future. Part of the trip included stopping off at the now familiar Gunwharf Quays.

12.00. We had a final look round and then decided to take the Ferry to Gosport.

1.00pm. The ferry was busy – obviously a popular way to get to Gosport. The journey only took about 5 minutes and only cost £2.30 return.

The weather was now really hot. We took a short walk along the marina and stopped off at a small Bar/Bistro: Coburns on the Water and tucked into a burger with a cider each. We sat in the sun for about an hour before catching the ferry back.

2.45pm. We drove back to Gunwharf Quays and popped into the M and S Outlet and bought a few bits and pieces.

3.10pm. We went to see the film: Coco avant Chanel at the Vue cinema starring Audrey Tatou. The film was typically French and told the story of Coco Chanel’s rise from obscure beginnings to the heights of the fashion world. It’s not the sort of film that normally I go for, but it was well-filmed and quite a moving story.

5.30pm After the film, we headed back to the M and S Outlet to look round the men’s department again. This time, I managed to get a new suit at around half-price – excellent!

6.15pm. We headed off to Café Rouge, just opposite The Spinnaker Tower. It was pretty quiet and after moving tables because the table-top was falling off! we were served pretty quickly. Ann chose the Beef Bourguignon and I had the Breton Chicken. The food tasted good, but Ann had to send hers back to heat it up! We finished the meal sharing Belgian Waffles with bananas smothered in chocolate.

7.30 We headed back to the hotel only to find that parking was a nightmare – absolutely no spaces anywhere. We eventually parked it in a parking area at the top of the road, but I’ll need to fill the meter tomorrow before 8am – bang goes a lie-in!!

7.45 We’re knackered!

Steve Palmer

I got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until 2004 – well into my 40s! My lifelong love of technology and communication (in all its forms), together with a fondness for the art of writing seemed to be the perfect combination to contribute a few words to the online community. But I’m no Samuel Pepys! If you’re looking for deep and meaningful comments on a variety of subjects, then you’ve arrived at the wrong site! I only pen for pleasure! On average, my posts appear about twice per month, covering family & friends, cinema visits, eating out, holiday experiences and techy stuff. Oh, and as this is my hobby, there are no sponsored links nor adverts here – it’s all done with love!

I hope you find it enjoyable, interesting and occasionally, even helpful!

StevePalmerTheBlogger.com

The post Short break: Portsmouth (Day 3) appeared first on Steve's Blog.

6.30am. I was up with the sound of birds and the faint sound of a hovercraft! A bright blue sky outside suggests today might be a fine day weather-wise.

8.30am. Breakfast calls, so it’s a short walk across the road (!) and in through the back-door to the breakfast-room. It wasn’t a very big room, and it was very busy when we first got there – but we were soon seated. Michael took our order – scrambled egg and salmon on granary bread for Ann; scrambled egg, sausage and beans for me.

9.30am. After breakfast, we took the short 5 minute walk into Southsea.

Once in the town, we headed for a unique John Lewis still called ‘Knight and Lee’. Unique because it was very small and it had possibly the loudest escalators we’d ever seen heard. The staff seemed to have tune-out the noise, but we found it quite irritating. Back to the mission: I bought Ann some casual shoes and a belt. We then headed for Debenhams (sorely in need of some money being spent on it) where I stocked up on socks and added to my t-shirt collection. We then walked back to the hotel.

11.10am. We headed back into Southsea, to the Post Office to drop off a package. Whilst waiting for Ann, a Hummer turned up to pick up a load of girls on some sort of celebration. The Hummer was the centre of attention, with locals taking photographs and other motorists taking note of it blocking-up the high street! 

11.30am. We set off for Devizes to meet up with Johnny H and his wife Mel. On the way there, we stopped off in Wickham, a rather quaint town. We popped into Lilly’s a small tea-shoppe. It was already busy but we spotted a table for two in the corner. Ann chose a baked jacket potato with ham and cheese whilst I went for the cranberry, brie and bacon sandwich – both delicious…and the service was excellent.

12,30pm. After picking-up some flowers for Mel in the shop next door, we resumed our journey, narrowly avoiding a short down-pour of rain.

2.15pm. We had a fairly good journey to J and M’s, but because I’d set the sat-nav for shortest rather than quickest, we were directed away from the motorway which added to the journey time – it took about two-hours.

It was good to see them both again especially Mel, who’s recovering from a very serious operation. The time flew and we were there until 6.30.

Ann drove back, and this time we stuck to the motorway, reducing the overall journey time by about thirty minutes.

8.00pm. We stopped off at Gunwharf Quays and decided to try out Chiquitos a Mexican Bar and Grill chain. We were quite hungry by now. The service was sluggish and the food OK rather than anything better – it could have been hotter too! We weren’t offered a dessert and it took an age to get the bill….but it filled a hole!!!

8.45pm We took a short walk along the top floor of the Quays towards the harbour. The view was spectacular, especially with the sun setting against The Spinnaker Tower (the phone on my mobile doesn’t really do it justice).

9.45. We arrived back at the hotel. It’s been a busy but enjoyable and rewarding day. Just time for a night-cap, a bit of TV and then … zzzzzzzz…

Steve Palmer

I got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until 2004 – well into my 40s! My lifelong love of technology and communication (in all its forms), together with a fondness for the art of writing seemed to be the perfect combination to contribute a few words to the online community. But I’m no Samuel Pepys! If you’re looking for deep and meaningful comments on a variety of subjects, then you’ve arrived at the wrong site! I only pen for pleasure! On average, my posts appear about twice per month, covering family & friends, cinema visits, eating out, holiday experiences and techy stuff. Oh, and as this is my hobby, there are no sponsored links nor adverts here – it’s all done with love!

I hope you find it enjoyable, interesting and occasionally, even helpful!

StevePalmerTheBlogger.com

The post Short break: Portsmouth (Day 2) appeared first on Steve's Blog.