Geocaching in Conwy

During my drive to Conwy on Saturday morning I stopped off to do some geocaches. None of them were too extreme, being quick cache-and dashes by the side of the road, but it broke the journey up a little.

The first was just a little way south of Conwy called ‘This Daughter became a Conwy Valley Tour Guide‘. It was right beside a road so I managed to park pretty much on top of it and make a quick grab.

The next was just on the outskirts of Conwy in a little garden beside a stream. Unfortunately there were quite a few people about so I didn’t feel comfortable nosing around too much. I found the garden but not the cache itself. So, Gyffin Garden was a DNF for me.

I then spent a day do ‘naturalist’ type things and found a geocache called Watch the Birdie just outside the RSPB Conwy reserve. This one was an easy find and despite the fact that there was quite a few people around who had gathered to watch the starling roost I was able to sit down on top of the cache and retrieve it with raising any suspicions.

I spent the night in Conwy Youth Hostel over the weekend. A very nice hostel with a modernised building just on the edge of Conwy. The food was good and the staff were friendly, but I’m still not completely convinced about Youth Hostels.

For a start the shared dorms mean you just don’t know who you might be sharing with which is always a bit of a worry.

Will they snore?…. Yep!
Will they smell?… Yep!
Will they lie on their bed completely naked reading the newspaper? Yep!
Will they read 15th Century poetry out loud?… Yep!

Needless to say I didn’t really get much sleep, and what makes that even worse is that when I get up after being kept awake by them all night long, they don’t even stir despite the fact that I am now making a bit of noise. I know that I’m no good at sleeping, but how can people sleep through anything.

They aren’t that cheap either. They are of course cheaper than a B&B but at £25.90 with breakfast it isn’t that much of a bargain. It was better than sleeping in the car, as it meant I could have a shower, use the toilet and have breakfast in the morning, but I may have actually got more sleep in the car.

I’ve just had a clear out in order to fit some new toys in the shed…. There was more in there than I was expecting, some of it will be going on eBay – Two kitesurf board and at least one sailboard, there are a few old sails and booms that will be going to the tip – Quite why I had 18 sails in there I don’t know! Despite the clear out, there still isn’t much more room in there than there was before.

I need a bigger shed!

Shed clear out

As part of my job as a freelance website designer I’m always being called upon to help people out with their computers. Anna is the same and we both seem to be the first people friends and family turn to when they need some advice or help.

We kind of enjoy helping out too and everyone always seemed pleased when we do so. It has also shown us that there is a market for some simple, friendly, down to earth computer help and advice, so we’ve decided to start up ‘Computer Tutor Wales‘, offering just that service.

We’re not offering to fix computers and we aren’t necessarily offering to help when things go wrong, it is more a case of helping people get the most from their computers. Whenever we go to someone house to help them out we always try to educate them about where they went wrong, how they can prevent such things happening again and how to help themselves and this is the best part of lending a hand. The education side of things is really satisfying and passing on our knowledge always feels good.

We don’t know how this new venture will go yet, we may be able to help people over the phone, via remote access to their computer or more likely in person at their house where we can help them on their own machine. Rather than teaching them things we think they should know we’ll hopefully teach them how to do the things they want to do on their computer.

So, if you need some help or computer tuition in the Aberystwyth and Machynlleth area give us a call, let us pass on some of our knowledge and before you know it you’ll be astounding your friends and family with your own computer wizardry!

Computer Help and Tuition in Aberystwyth & Machynlleth

I’m not really sure why everyone seems to be having a go at Toyota Cars . They’ve identified a few issues with several of their car models – OK, that amounts to a considerable number of individual cars – but they have admitted that there is an issue and are fixing it. What more could people ask for?

If they were denying that there was a problem or refusing to fix it then people would have a right to moan, but from what I’ve heard they are putting on extra staff, opening service centres for longer hours and doing all they can to fix the problem.

The media seem to be suggesting that these faults will damage Toyota’s reputation and people will lose faith in them but for me its the other way around. The true test of a company, especially a huge company like Toyota, is how they deal with things when something goes wrong. In this instance it sounds to me as though they are treating their customers fairly and sorting things out for them. It certainly hasn’t damaged my opinion of them, if anything it has strengthened their reputation and makes me think that buying a Toyota would be a good thing as I can rely of them when things go wrong.

Modern cars are complicated beasts, faults will creep in now and then and mistakes in the design can be made, the fact that Toyota have owned up to their mistakes and are doing all they can to resolve them seems fair to me, you can’t really ask for much more.

Sometimes I wonder if humans go a bit over the top with spoiling their pets and I have to ask myself if our efforts are appreciated.

For those that don’t know, we have a very neurotic cat. We didn’t plan to get a cat and rescued her when she was a young kitten. That is a whole other story though.
A temporary home turned into a permanent home when we had no joy from the RSPCA or Cats Protection League at the time and she has always been very nervous around people.
That was nearly 10 years ago so

Robbie

Robbie (named after Robbie Naish the famous windsurfer!) is getting on a bit now.

Recently she has looked like she has a sore paw. I took her to the vet the first time this happened. This is very stressful for her and they couldn’t see anything wrong. They did give her some anti-inflammatory tablets which may or may not have worked but won’t keep giving them without seeing her. A trip to the vet is very stressful for Robbie so we try to avoid it if we can.

Therefore, we got her a nice weather proof box for her to use when she is out in the garden. This has been a big success. I often see her sat in there during the day and it looks warm and cosy. I have lined it with sheets of polystyrene so it is nice and warm. As it is made from moulded plastic there is no where for the wind to sneak in so she is free from drafts as well.

Since her paw has been bothering her again (mainly during the cold weather) I have bought some joint care for pets liquid to put on her food. Again, this seems to have been quite successful and she doesn’t seem to mind the taste and always gobbles it up. I think we need to give it a few months and see how this helps, although as the weather gets warmer I don’t think she’ll have any problems.

I also bought a microwavable heat pad which stays warm for 10-12 hours. I am quite impressed with the pad. 6 minutes in the microwave and it is nicely warm without being too hot and it does stay warm for hours. However….Robbie doesn’t seem very impressed. I put it on the chair she usually sits on and she sat on a different chair. I put it on the end of the bed where she sleeps at night and she refused to set foot on it at all! I put it outside in her box to keep her warm during the day and she has refused to go in the box at all since I’ve put it in there!

I’m hoping that by next winter she’ll be happier about the heat pad as I think it will make things much more comfortable for her. We are also planning a ladder type thing to help her jump up to the window sill to ask to be let in and even maybe a heated pad into a shed outside.

Of course she is allowed in the house whenever she wants but she rarely comes in before dark and goes out as soon as she has had breakfast in the mornings. She is much better than she used to be and will now come in even if Morgan isn’t in bed and will even sometime let him hand feed her a bit of ham! We have looked at a cat flap into the house but I don’t think she’d use it and it is quite tricky to fit one into a new, double glazed property so we’ll try the shed and see how we go.

Whatever we do she won’t be grateful but we’ll do it anyway!

Amazon is an internet success story. They weathered the .com bust and have gone from strength to strength and their fairly agressive but highly focused marketing often impresses me.

I get quite a few e-mails from them with suggested products and most of the time their suggestions are very relevant. Over Xmas, after buying a Wii as a present for the family I received lots of e-mails with suggestions of games and accessories. I often get e-mails with cyling equipment, GPS devices, Apple products and software. I can understand this, if I look at certain products then Amazon have that info, can see what I’ve bought or looked at in the past and can offer suggestions of products I may be interested in. Much better than sending me a list of random products I have no interest in.

Sometimes though I get suggestions of things that makes me think they could be stalking me! I’ve been having a few issues with a new hard drive. I think the firewire port or cable is a little dodgy and it therefore disconnects itself. I’ve done nothing about it yet (other than fiddle with cables), I certainly haven’t looked online for a new one, but today I received an email from Amazon with a list of Hard Drives for under £100. I’m sure it was just a coincidence, but maybe they are stalking me!

Snowy Road

I like the snow, and I even, to a certain extent, like the disruption it causes here in the UK. It may be a little convenient for a while, but things soon get back to normal and it’s good to know that the Forces-of-Nature can best us now and then.

Lots of people complain about the disruption and the fact that local councils aren’t prepared. They always go on about the fact that it isn’t like this in Finland or Slovenia or Canada and that they cope with much heavier snowfalls without any problems. But there’s a good reason for that. Yes, plenty of other countries get much more snow than us and cope without any issues, but they are used to it, they expect it and therefore they spend time and money preparing for it.

The snow we’ve had this year in the UK is unusual. It isn’t unprecedented and we do get heavy snowfalls every now and then, but being ready for unusual conditions would be a complete waste of money most years. Buying and storing grit costs money, buying, maintaining and storing machinery such as gritters and snow ploughs costs lots of money too and I’m sure such things need replacing fairly regularly. The money to pay for such things comes from the taxes we pay and I for one wouldn’t want to think that my taxes were being spent on machinery that only gets used in earnest for a few days once every ten years or so.

In my opinion it would be much better to spend that money on something that is used all the time such as schools and hospitals and occasionally put up with a little disruption due to the snow. Even the snow we’ve just had didn’t last that long and within a week or so it will all be forgotten and things will be back to normal.

Stop moaning and trying to find someone to blame. It’s not anyone’s fault, its just the weather. It looks nice out there, so enjoy the scenery while you can and endure the inconvenience it causes.

I bought Anna a 1000 piece ‘Where’s Wally’ jigsaw puzzle for Christmas. I think she enjoyed the relaxation of sitting there doing it over the Christmas break and before long it was nearly completed.

Then came the day of final success, it was nearly done, until she got down to one piece to go. The final piece of the jigsaw wouldn’t fit. That’s odd! A little bit of looking around and she noticed that although there were 1000 pieces, one of the pieces was a duplicate. She had two pieces the same and therefore one missing.

How does that happen?

I’ve had an ear infection for a few days and eventually gave in to the nagging I was getting from Anna and her Mum and phoned the doctors. I was told to go to A&E where I saw the on call doctor. As suspected he told me that I had a pretty bad ear infection in both ears, but also guessed that I was a surfer as apparently I have pretty severe ’surfer’s ear’ as well.

Looks as though my hearing could get worse pretty soon!

Surfer’s ear is the common name for an  abnormal bone growth within the ear canal, more accurately known as an exostosis. It is caused by irritation from cold wind and water exposure that causes the bone surrounding the ear canal to develop lumps of new bony growth which constrict the ear canal. Not surprising that I would suffer from it then.

There isn’t much that I can do about it other than avoiding going out on the water in cold, windy conditions – Not really an option! Wearing earplugs or neoprene headbands when I’m out there may help, but otherwise I guess I should just resign myself to going deaf with dignity! If it gets really bad they can perform a surgical procedure to remove the growths, but that would mean at least a couple of months off the water while it healed.

At the moment it’s OK, but it could be the cause if the infection as the constriction of the ear canal from these growths can trap debris, leading to painful and difficult to treat infections. For now I’m on a double dose of antibiotics to try to clear it up.