Based in Aberdeen, Scotland.
Reached 200 within 72hrs
CLOSED at 2,017
APRES CLOSE: 2,021
Sun just shone as crescent and line through clouds. Ship about to obscure it. By jimminy, it's cold.
In dawn's early light, there was still life down at the sea front.
The sun suddenly cleared through the off-shore cloudbank.
Only to be partly obscured by a passing ship for a few minutes.
And then a clear run, with only the polarising filter on.
Turning round, the view up the surfline looked so different. (maplink)
I thought of subscribing to a YouTube news feed, so I went to the BBC. Those stalwarts of the British broadcasting ethos.
So I was surprised to find this message on the BBC World News channel:
Sorry, but these clips are not available to users in the UK. Please go direct to our BBC site by clicking on the "More BBC News video and audio" link above. Thanks.
The UK isn't part of the World, and I must use the BBC News website. Lets see...my taxes and licence fee went towards the making of these shows, and then the BBC paid some of that money to YouTube to host the shows that I've paid some money towards (or did they?), and now I can't see them because I'm in Britain?
Ah, here's the nub of the matter:
From BBC World, the BBC's international commercial television channel: Around 30 news clips per day will be offered, with up-to-the-minute news and analysis from around the world. The advertising-funded clips will be available to users outside the UK only. (source)
BBC News: The news channel, which will be launched later this year, will show about 30 news clips per day. ... Because of the advertising, these clips can be seen outside the UK only. Any UK users clicking on a link to one of the news clips on YouTube will get a message that they have no access to this clip. (source)
They have adverts - and the BBC in the UK doesn't have adverts.
Guess what? I already have the BBC News as my browser's homepage, and wanted the YouTube feed for readers to view. A handy source of news. Shame that the restrictions inherent in the system prevent that. Web:1899?
Oherwydd ei fod yn waith mewn llaw, erys llawer o wallau ynddo o hyd. Croesewir sylwadau adeiladol. Dylid e-bostio sylwadau o'r fath at AktoMan.
Source. Reason - comment left elsewhere.
Brecon Beacon Meet, August 07.
Apologies to Cymru upset by my cut-n-paste of the language, and I hope it worked out okay. I think my cousin is still working for the NHS down in Cardiff.
Wicipedia, y gwyddoniadur rhydd
From the National Library of Scotland, a collection of old Scottish Films. There are just under 300 which have clips that you can view online.
I did an empty search with the box ticked to say only include those with clips. Bish bash bosh, 289 records found.
A clip of the 1937 Aberdeen vs Celtic Scottish Cup Final? Or a coach tour round the Highlands and Islands in 1939? All free. Some silent and/or black&white.
Requires Quicktime.
If we all send out happy thoughts (difficult in these days of the capitalistic/faux-Christian Winter festival), but stay focused on one thought: please, Peewiglet, finish posting your final Coast-to-Coast diary. 190 miles from Irish sea to North sea. Across England. She walked it for the 3½th-time earlier this year.
Oh, and congratulations, Shirl. You are, as ever, an inspiration.
Just watched the penultimate program in Phil Cunningham's "Scotland's Music" TV series.
Episode 5 was about celebration with clips on their website.
Paolo Nutini discussed why he liked Burns' original tune for "Auld Lang Syne". The Peatbog Faeries talked about reading the crowd. There was a retrospective on Jimmy Shand (especially the Bluebell Polka). A battle of the bands between east (Colin Dewar) and west coast (Fergie MacDonald. Heuch. I'm a west-coaster. I prefer this. Toes are tapping, and fingers drumming out the tune). Niel Gow's NE fiddling style, painted by Raeburn, celebrated in festival. Scott Skinner, Queen Victoria's Strathspey King.
A trip back in history through earlier courts to the effect of the Reformation on music. The use of the canntaireachd to pass on pipe music when it seen as illegal after the '45 (though they were never prescribed, an earlier programme said). And ends with Sir Harry Lauder. "Why would we give Harry Lauder a hard time?" Fine, fun tunes like this. Can anyone take The White Heather Club seriously? What is wrong with fun? Fiona Kennedy speaks about Scottish music on television, with her Dad, Calum at the forefront.
This links neatly to the modern scene: Sandi Thom and the Internet; the rise of festivals in Scotland. "The future's going to be incredible", says the presenter, who plays the set at Belladrum with his pal Aly Bain.
Just one more episode in this great series to watch.
A "Blog Your Own Adventure" starts tonight across at LondonBackPacker's blog. We hope you enjoy it.
Duncan
Bob's got another 'zine out. Great interview with Chris Townsend about gear from 2007, and what's coming up on 2008. Primus heat exchanger, rrrrrrrrrrr. BG! won a prize. Andy Howell's back with book reviews. What more does a'body need?
I'm definitely going to have to get hold of Robert Macfarlane's books.
I've just booked flights too/from Birmingham for The Ordnance Survey Outdoors Show 2008. Others had too much fun there in 07 for me to miss it in 08. I must make sure not to upset Bear the Ded Git! until then.
Although seeing his latest post, commenting on comments from Scots, maybe I'll just take the bivvy bag and rough it under a hedge.
Exhibitors to date for my interests:
PDF link of current exhibitors. It'll be useful get some kit for my Easter08 long distance walk.
George's Lego advent calendar continues with Day 9.
Here's his YouTube channel for other movies.
In case I was getting too serious over the weekend, here's a graphic from the nice folk at "ReasonablyClever.com"
They don't have the option of a Lego ice-axe and Gerber mini-tanto. My current CAWS of FIPA choice.
Trail's parent site is now under "Live For The Outdoors". I don't know, or care about the corporate changes behind the scenes. If the magazine stops giving me the information that I expect, then I'll stop subscribing. Same with any of my other memberships.
Their forum has been given a makeover. I sometimes have a looksee, but I picked this up from OM, where I lurk regularly.
In the aim of balance, TGO magazine also has a forum. As do the Mountain Bothies Association, Wargames Illustrated and Digital Photo magazine.
Hey, look what I found on the Net...pdf link. That's right. A PDF version of one of my posts appears on the Arnywear site. I appear in their press center release. I wasn't aware of this.
I note that they don't list my field report. Maybe that was why I wasn't aware of my words appearing in their press release.
I have used it with Avon SkinSoSoft (which also doesn't work as midge repellant for me), as a soothing cloth for pained muscles.
"If ever I got the time", I wrote, "I'd compile a database of who's Hilleberg Akto's were made by whom".
In lieu of that, feel free to add a comment below. Don't leave private info or emails, as the yogurt-sucking-mutants who drag the Net down to their sad level will add your details to some 50c-an-ID-theft database. Yup, you life is only worth a few cents.
My Akto was made by Sirje Hansen in Estonia. Huzzah for Sirje.
Watched "Fight Club" for the first time. It is very good. I wasn't expecting it to be the film that I watched.
At Balmedie Beach. More details later.
It was frosty, duckboards frozen. I wore my lined Craghopper trousers, fleece mid-layer, and fleece-lined Montane Verso windproof jacket. And a hat. Same gear as I wore last weekend. Toasty.
Same shot below, but cropped in to a panorama.
Light, clouds, sea and sand, all from one viewpoint at Balmedie beach, just north of Aberdeen.
I turned back to see my footprints in the sand, but it was so cold, that there weren't any.
After the shots down the beach, I walked in to the dunes to see what was worth protecting from development further up the coast. Heck, what do I know about them? Fun to play in and walk about in, but worth getting into a fuss about? Maybe they are too easy to get to, and just get taken forgranted? They may look pretty, but so was the lass I'd walked down here with years before. Then things got interesting. Remains of WW2 anti-invasion defences.
A frozen pond and frost-crusted dunes woke me up, as they formed sleek, feminine lines.
And then I wondered how many hundreds of years ago would this tidemark have last touched the sea?
And from the long view, I realised that micro-scapes were being formed at my feet.
I turned away from the inshore dunes, and returned to the sea. Wondering at what I had seen, and how it was formed. There had been no information leaflets at the car park, and the barest of information on the information boards. I was used to more than this when I visited places like the Linn of Dee. So, I need to find out more myself.
Returning to the seashore, the light has changed again. And then I went into sports mode, clicking off shots of Sanderlings at ISO800, filling up the remains of the 2gig CF card.
Described in my copy of the BBC's "The Birdwatcher's Handbook": small loose groups twinkle along at great speed on sandy shores next to the sea like clockwork toys, heads darting from side to side, chasing after retreating waves to snap up morsels left by tide. No other wader moves so fast or with such energy.
This needs an "Our Tune" playing in the background. Romantic Balmedie Beach.
Finishing off the walk with a robin back at the carpark. If it was more festive I could have saved a fortune on Christmas cards. That would have been my trump card.
Another cracking programme this morning. Being asleep for the first 10 mins, I missed the start of the article on the SSSI's. I'm listening again via the website. Then I'm off to Balmedie before the weather changes.
Other items covered in the show: names and history of Bennachie , and the Sandpiper Trust bags and first aid training for rural medics.
Educational, entertaining and enlightening. No porn at all. Although the Anne Scott sounds like a babe. Rrrrrr.
