Chrimbo

Ahhhhh.... Destressed. Sort of. Nice few days.

I stayed in a hotel for a few days with my parents. Cheltenham Park Hotel, just outside of Cheltenham.

I agreed to take my nan up to there since she was coming as well, and my parents went up the day before. She was a little confusing talking about going round the moon and back, which turned out to mean that she thought we were just going Chichester, and felt it was taking a while. No idea of geography at all.

Christmas prezzies - I got a short holiday from my parents. Well, with them, but from them in the sense that's what they gave me. Plus a radio controlled mini car, and a couple of other odds and ends like clothes, a swizzle stick, and a strap for a bag. My brother got me a little digital camera. Basically a webcam. Kinda cute low-res budget jobby that I used to take the photo shown in the previous entry. Not brilliant, but good enough in good light.

So much nicer than the usual Christmasses. Usually it involves my dad being in the kitchen all the time, and everyone else hanging around waiting for him, not able to do anything because there isn't anything mutually acceptable to watch on TV, and he wants to be there for us to open the prezzies. This year we still waited a while before doing any opening, but that wasn't such a problem. I could spend the time eating a huge breakfast. And also I had a car to play with.

Hotel laid on lots of fine entertainments. At least, they had a bar, so that was good enough. There was also a pool, a sauna, a jacuzzi, and archery on Boxing day. Also lots of live music - Carol singers on Christmas eve, and they didn't try to sing "We wish you a merry Christmas", although one was out of tune. There was a band on Christmas day, and a Jazz brunch on Boxing day. And lots and lots of food. Always makes me happy.

Stopped in on Bristol on the way back. Just called in on one mad Cumbrian friend since I didn't really have a lot of time, and she was the only person I knew would be around.

Oxford street

Looking for a belated Christmas present for some friends. Decided on Transformers the Movie DVD. Outside HMV, there was someone representing a charity. He told me what the charity was, and asked for some change! He didn't want me to make a regular donation, just to give some loose change. I wish there were more people who wanted that.

Also tried to remember where Forbidden Planet is. I was sure it was on Tottenham Court Road, but apparently its on New Oxford Street. Took a lot of walking to discover this simple fact. Did get to explore the centre of London a little more though. I can usually find a place I've been to before.

Model engineering

Phew. Up to date at last. I can talk about today.

I went to the model engineering exhibition with Claire and Julian.
( Guess who I met )

So anyway, looked around. There were some rather good models, lots of stands selling things, and this fantastic garden railway with radio controlled steam trains. Also saw some hot air engines. Those are pretty clever. Based on air expanding, and pushing a cylinder, which pushes a wheel which pushes another cylinder which pushes the air into a different section of the heating chamber where it can cool. Also this rather funky trolley that went up and down a rail, and reversed automatically due to the cunning nature of how the oscillating motion is transferred to rotary motion.

Julian was after .. Not quite sure exactly, but he wants to build a flyweight robot for Robot Wars type things. Sounds like it could be fun.