The End of The Pier... For Now at Least

I know, it must be one of the best covered news stories this week and I'm a little late in reporting it too, but Monday 28th July was quite a day for Weston super Mare. The fire was over in around 90 mins but the devastation was complete (at least to the main part of the pier) The structure of the promenade appears sound and it will be a few days  before the extent of the damage is fully known.

On a lighter note the last week has seen both Carol and I on holiday. Nothing too spectacular you understand but rather time to catch up on a few jobs around the house (mainly outside) and chill out a little. Its been a while coming though as pressure of work have meant that we have cancelled a few times but the break is a welcome one.

As I write this the weather is not so good today  but the previous few days have been great. 

The Blog has been silent for the last few weeks and for the usual reasons. Despite regularly spending an hours or so each Saturday and Sunday as well as time during the week I spend an awful lot of time doing not a lot. This week has been a software rebuild for my PC with the replacement of my one of my WD Raptor drives for a 500 GByte SATA II drive. The Raptor was running short of space under Vista so time to change.

Its been my birthday in the meantime too and I had some great presents including some more new headphones this time a pair of Grado sports headphones. The best gift though is a Clay Pigeon experience at Cheddar which I intend to sort out this week - weather permitting.

Sailing is going well and we went out a couple of weeks ago in a force 5-6 (strong wind) The boat went really well but we broke the rudder and had to get a tow back to shore. The cast aluminium brackets snapped completely and this meant a trip to the Chandlers to get some stainless steel replacements. The boat was ready for the following weekend and we sailed again with the wind stronger this time. The repair held and we managed to get back in one piece. I do need to sort out the sails - especially in high winds and I am bringing the boat back this week to modify the rigging arrangements.

The Gym is still a part of my weekly routine - yes I'm quite surprised myself and this makes free time a little difficult in the Summer with all of the other activities that I want to take part in.

A few weekends ago we were in London for 2 days and managed to see another Shakespeare play - The Merry Wives of Windsor  which was very good. On Monday we did a walking tour of the city.

Looking ahead we have a another London trip planned for mid August although just for a day this time to see They're Playing our Song with words by Carol Bayer Sager - yes it surprised me how many songs she wrote - I only can recall "He's moving out today".

Egypt is getting closer but not soon enough and we are in the process of conducting some preliminary research for next year's holiday - something special as it's our 25th Wedding anniversary. New Zealand is trhe favourite at the moment.