Monday 16th February

With some help from Peter Dodd I came back on to 2 m and 70 cm with my amateur radio gear. I use a simple home made aerial that I can quickly transform from one band to another. I heard the Worthing net tonight and came in just at the end to get a signal report from Roy.
So getting back to my old tricks?

G0LOF.....alias Frank

Saturday 7th February

I have just started a new website...http://www.fhj16.talktalk.net
You might lke to look at it. The reason was to see how talktalk could be persaded to give me one.
I have tried for so long to get help from them and at last sorted it out. They give you 15 Mb of space.

I only used linux programs to write a page and to upload it. I have messed about a lot and almost screwed up the whole thing today. I constructed an alternative site but found that I couldn't get rid of the old data, so had to go back to it.

Anyway we will see how it goes on. Well I had to change the address from fhj17 to fhj16, but that seems to have been done now, so try it out!

5th January 2009

We have not been well and are just starting to recover! Thanks to everyone for their cards wishes and presents! We had seen most of the family before the bug hit us, and after that we just tried to keep going in spite of everything.

Ther are now two extra family members, Gavin Long in Houston, and Ellis James Michaels in New York, congratulations to Kate and Jack in Houston and Emma and Chance in New York.

On 19th Decembmer Stephen's ashes were interred in St Mary's churchyard and a new monument laid to include his name with those of his parents.

The Gribble Inn, Oving, West Sussex

Saturday's Daily Telegraph told us about this gem. A pub with a home brewery on site. We were shown round the brewery and tasted the products. I shall return to brewing!

Reg's Tipple is good and so is Plucking Pheasant. We had a good lunch and returned home to snooze all the rest of the afternoon.

All Souls Requiem at Merton

We were invited to Merton to hear a Requiem Mass for those of Merton who had died last year. Stephen's name was read out. The choir were wonderful. We met the Chaplain Simon Jones. Philip and Jan, Pippa and Bobby were also able to attend.

We stayed in the much overheated Randolph and as we had a cheaper room (!!) The wifi would have been £5 for an hour, so we were not even tempted.

Philip and Jan wisely stayed at a hotel close to Merot where wifi was free, but I didn't take my computer there so had a rest from blogs, e-mails, skypes and etc.


It took us 2 and a half hours to get there and I was quite exhausted by the driving. We had a nice lunch and then snoozed until time for the taxi to Merton.

At 3am the Randolph slipped a bill under the bedroom door indicating that there was another £30.60 to pay!

We came home stopping for lunch at Trotton. Nice to be home to free (?) wifi and normal room temperatures.

Ursula's Birthday today!

Here she is! The birthday lady. She received lots of lovely cards, presents,
a bouquet of flowers, and then a nice lunch at the Spotted Cow. Patsy joined us for lunch and then we went to her house for coffee. Sadly I dozed off! The level crossing did its worst and shut every time we looked at it!

Mandriva 2009

I downloaded this distro last night. It seems very good. Lots of new features. One is getting pics from a web cam easily anywhere that you want them.

Here are we on the couch with new covers. Alas Ursula's coffee cup handle broke and she and the new cover were drenched. It was very painful for her. She had to change everything and was scalded as well. The cover we took off and washed, hopefully it won't have a stain mark.

Prim came this morning to help me with my wine attempt. I don't hold out much hope that it will work but we will see.

Helena is with Christina in Peterborough, all the rest are at home. Jen goes to China tomorrow with her school party.