The life and times of Chris Jones

New Domain

Welcome to chrisjones.uk.net! Check it out.

I spent the other night fixing the TT-Terminal. I changed all files to use tt-terminal.co.uk as a base URL, so nothing should be broke. The news posting software was also a bit broke, but I’ve fixed that too.

Using a script from orudge, the logo in the top left now rotate between several, randomly. I’ll add more.

Also, check out Zernebok Hosting Ltd for all your hosting needs! If I’m going to be a part owner, I’m going to advertise it everywhere, dammit!

How Lord of the Rings should have ended

In other news, my parents have gone for two weeks, but have taken my camera. No photos! Nooooo!

A test of Webelements and local history.

As an excuse to see if Google Webelements works here, a map of the village in which I live.

It does seem to work, but switching between Visual and HTML modes seems to remove the iframe code! Madness.

Anyway, recently I have been doing some research into RAF Wrexham (I appear to have modified this article from this state a while back).

Click to Enlarge!

The below map shows what it looks like today. Compare it to the map I have created and it can be seen there is much difference!

It’s another bank holiday weekends. The goverment of this nation rolls these things like a pair of loaded dice. Now you won’t catch a limey like me flappin his gums, but sittin around yappin don’t put no steak on the table if you catch my drift.

I was ponderin whether or not a young palooka like me should hop into the jalopy with my camera. Strictly on the level, mind you, I ain’t none for taking no photos of no shawl-less dames, y’know.

A gumshoe like me needs to know when to do it and how it needs to be done, y’see. The emptyness of the streets don’t come a’knocking with work and wages, and a fella needs dough to get the bootleg, don’t he.

I wonder

Due to a lack of money this month to go out driving for photos, I think I shall delve into the archives and see if I can find any of interest. I’ve already started off with three I thought were quite interesting.

No photos

I don’t think I’ve gone this many sunny weekends without going off on a mad drive with my trusty camera.

Oh well, looks like the recession has me nailed.

Entanet internet

My ISP has been rather poor this year. Four major interruptions in as many months. Last year had none. Previous issues were due to cable theft, but other networks are more resilient when the same thing happens.

At least I get good EDGE coverage up here. It means I can write this!

Bank Holiday Weekend

Hurray, It’s the weekend. The weather is looking good. I wonder what I can do.

I discovered I blogged at least once a week last month. Which is excellent.

If you’re hidden behind a curtain of noobness, check out http://failblog.org if you’re bored. We’ve had good times on Fridays for the past years following this site.

Bloggeration

I’ve been out on the photograph again, and went on a 150mile drive yesterday. I also found two more old photographs, one of the Bedford QLD my granddad drove, and another of some desert camp with a convoy driving through.

I notice I’ve been blogging a lot recently. If this is good or bad, I don’t know, as last year I rarely blogged.

Lastly, I went out and bought another T-Shirt, to show my profound enthusiasm for multiplayer zombie survival game Left 4 Dead by Valve, to which I award top score:

Family History

I’m not going down my dads path, who ensured our childhood weekends out consisted of visiting graveyards, but I’ve recently found out a bit about my grandad. Not only was he a railwayman, but he was in the national service, in Railway Squadron, serving in Egypt, in 1949. There he is, pictured to the left, at what I believe is Adabiya Docks, in Egypt.

He was admitted for National Service in 1947, only two years after the war. Had he been born two years earlier, I might not be here today.

He was sent to the Royal Engineers, 10 Railway Squadron, which according to the internet, was based in Suez. I presume building and maintenance of the railways surrounding the then join UK/French Suez canal would have been the primary reason for them to be there. 10 Railway Squadron was later re-organised into 10 Transportation Squadron, and was sent to Singapore in 1956, long after his national service time was up.

As previously written, me and my brother were installing lights in the attic. To facilitate this, the attic had to be emptied. So, down came old boxes, some unopened since they were closed, in some cases many years. This box was falling apart, so we were moving the contents to an empty shoebox when we spotted an old Army Service book. Inside was the above photo. I’ve taken photos of some of the pages.

In civilian life, he was a Steam locomotive fireman, and then a guard, and trainee Diesel driver during the 70′s. I know from more of these document that he was a part of the representatives from Croes Newydd depot in Wrexham during the meeting to discuss it’s closure. The main problem seemed to be that Croes Newydd was a fully staffed, full time depot, and Chester, where the work would be shifted to, was not, and the staff wanted to know why the reverse was not taking place.

I found two further photos in the same box – One of an army camp in the desert, and another of a group, I have identified my Granddad as the leftmost person one in the front row in the below photo. The group of documents and photos I have been digitising can be found here, on my flickr account.

Skype on an iPhone

It looks pretty damn handy for chatting with any contact, over 3G, EDGE, or WiFi. No calls outside of WiFi though. It’s not a Skype handset.

Payments

I hope I get paid before the weekend. It means I can gas up and go get some photographs.

I went to start taking historical photos of Wrexham for CC-SA licensing, as most current images of the town are copyrighted.

This one is of military historical importance. Wrexham was the headquarters of the Royal Welch Fusiliers, now the Royal Welsh, now based over the border in Chester.

This was their drill hall.

Walking it off

It was nice today. So nice in fact that I had to go outside and enjoy the nice weather. No cycling yet, but I took my camera for some local shots.

So, that was the days events. We walked up a massive hill, and then across the bracken-filled, pathless waste peat-bog along the top, and then back down to a level lower than the village, so we had to walk up again. Madness. My legs still hurt, and both dogs are down for the count, which is rare as they usually both never tire.

I am contemplating going out again tomorrow with the camera, to add yet more photos to the ever growing collection, if the weather holds, that is. The plus side to all this nice weather is that the aerial is still fine.

Tomorrow evening, I hit the town for drinking. I shall get completely wasted, feel ill, and, of course, cause my father to become devoid of alcohol as he’ll need to pick me up. Curse living three miles away from town. Curses!

An Extended Weekend

Finally, Good Friday and a Bank Holiday Monday. A four day weekend. This weekend, if the weather is as it has been for the last few weeks, will be perfect for Cycling. I have procured a strong belt which my camera bag can be attached to. Using this setup, I should be able to take my camera without it swinging wildly, possibly damaging itself.

I have a new T-Shirt, to show my love of Lost!

I bought it a month ago, and it took friggin ages to arrive, but finally, it surprisingly turned up out of the blue.

Also, I am now the proud holder of shares in an enterprise! Woo.

Cycling

I think I might do some more cycling. The only issue is that I live a ways away from sea level, and while going anywhere is bound to be fun, coming back might be hard.