Fiesta at Olite

Everyone dressed in white with either a red neckerchief or sash.  Lots of music and noise.

- and later some rather underwhelming running of very small bulls.

Bay at San Sebastian

A stunning sweep of sandy beach - pictured from top the rock on the western side.

Transporter bridge at Bilbao

One of only 3 or 4 in the world - crossed in the car.

 

Espana por favor (and France)

 Off on holiday - taking the ferry from Portsmouth to Santander, a few days in Spain, then motoring back through France and back on the Caen-Portsmouth ferry.

Lots of stuff lined up to do and see and a rather special overnight stay on the last night - posts to follow.

A long trousers evening

 As previously reported BST (British Shorts Time*) remains in force with just five exception days so far.

Friday 4 September 2026 saw another exception for dinner to celebrate a relative's eightieth birthday - drinks and then dinner at a Warwickshire gastro-pub.

A splendid evening was had by all!

. . .  but, of course, not a tie 😀

* subject to any unforeseen circumstances I should get to 25 October when BST ends without resorting to long trousers.

Electricity gadget

 From time to time our mains electricity RCD trips out for no obvious reason - with the result, obviously, that we have no power anywhere in the house.  Other than the main fridge and the additional freezer it's not a great issue - IF we are here.

The problem, should we not be here, is that we have - until now - no means of knowing the power is out.

A simple USB gadget, PowerNotify, has been installed - it works with its own wifi so remains active even if the power is out.  As described in the blurb, it transmits a regular "heartbeat" every few seconds to a computer somewhere in the cloud - if beats are missed for a pre-determined time (we have it set to 2 minutes) it generates alert texts and emails that are sent to our phones.

In our case, if we are here or nearby that's fine - if we're away then the fall-back would be to ask one of our neighbours, who has a key, to switch the power back on.   

We just have the one to notify a total failure - several devices can be connected to monitor single circuits (e.g. a fridge or aquarium) that may trip but not trip the whole supply.  The messages sent advise of failure and reinstatement (for example, after a power cut where the board doesn't trip and power comes back on)

About £35 from Amazon.  Ongoing e-mail notifications are free, texts are about £0.15p (paid from an online PowerNotify wallet - ours has £5 in it)    No other costs.

UPDATE 25 July 2026- our FTTP Broadband connection dropped out today - only for about 40 seconds but we had notifications for it stopping and then re-starting.

Another dog ramp

Having made a ramp* for our neighbour's elderly dog, Barney, last year I've now completed a ramp for another neighbour's dog, Remy.  She's about 8 weeks older than Barney, although I don't think they are related.

This ramp was somewhat longer as it had to deal with a greater rise from the lawn to the terrace, positioned at the side of the steps.

Simple construction with two side rails, plywood platform and doormats to help the dog's traction.

Under construction in the "outdoor workshop"

Finished and ready for delivery.

Installed and ready for use [live action picture awaited!]

.oOo.

Another local woodwork job completed - having now made two dog ramps, two garden gates, three wooden display stands for shops, part of a bed for a boat and repaired about five dining chairs . . . not forgetting the "Mary's Bottom" Tiki Bar.

* Barney's ramp

Extreme puncture repair job!

One of my bike-servicing customers brought his bike in today - I've seen perished tyres before but this one takes the biscuit, remarkably the tube is up to pressure.

Two new tyres have been ordered - along with brake blocks that were close to the metal.

Loire Cycle Tour 2026

 Back from the tour - usual fun, food, beer and wine with a group of, this year, 7 friends -  a few random photographs:

A typical route, in the forest near Chambord.

The "mural" is a trompe l'oeil staircase in Blois.

Chenonceau - one of the "top five chateaux" - we also saw Chambord and Azay-le-Rideau  - and stayed in hotels at Cheverny & Villandry.

The Apothecary at Azay.

The obligatory stop at the Pegasus Bridge cafe on the way to the ferry home - coffee rather than beer this time as I was driving.

. . . and five of the group l-r : Linda, Mike, Richard, Jenni & Keith (Clive and Joan had departed for their extended holiday) - I took the picture from my hotel room balcony at Villandry.

Bear obsession

 My "follower" will be aware that we have a bit of a thing about bears . . . . 

Well, many years ago at a branch of Decathlon in France we saw some tiny tents that were used to show off how the different full-size tents looked when they were erected.  The examples, with a footprint about 30cm square, were really cute and just perfect for a bear's recreation but sadly they weren't for sale.

I stumbled across some miniature tents, complete with zipped door and a flysheet on Amazon - two of the bears are now very happy chaps.

Some fun with artificial intelligence

 In an idle moment I asked ChatGPT to change the brickwork on the front of our house to off-white render and the window frames to black . .  the resulting picture was stunning!

We have no plans to make the changes but it's interesting to see what could be - I may have a play with the rear elevation . . . 

Three days in London

The primary purpose for a birthday treat was to see Paddington the Musical at the Savoy Theatre but it morphed into three days and some interesting visits.

Having taken the train we checked into a Z Hotel (excellent) and then traced Burlington Bertie's footsteps along The Strand to visit the King's Chapel of the Savoy with the stunning ceiling, stained glass and plaques representing hundreds of Knights of the Realm.

Paddington was just enchanting, following his arrival into the Brown family and then paralleled the original Paddington film (the one with Nicole Kidman as the evil taxidermist). 
The effects, with a person of small stature in the bear costume and with a singer and puppeteer operating the facial expressions, were amazingly realistic.

Next morning it was a Thames Clipper to Battersea Power Station and to ascend The Chimney.  The lift pops out of the top of one of the chimneys for 360 degree views - you can see it in the photograph.
Spectacular, but the building interior is just a very up-market shopping mall.   
The lower photograph shows the large white tentage at the Chelsea Flower Show

From there a Clipper ride all the way down-river to Greenwich and a couple of rides back to the hotel on the DLR and Underground.

Dinner was at the newly re-opened Simpsons in the Strand - very traditional setting and food (Daily Telegraph readers and men in red trousers!)  An excellent dinner.

. . . and then on Friday morning the National Portrait Gallery before the train home.

- yet another cycle tour

 Off to LA for 2026  . . . . .  .  Loire Again* - eight of us from the usual gang leaving at the end of May for 12 days of cycling, food, wine and good fun.

Ferry from Portsmouth and then 3 different hotel locations in the Loire Valley with ~50 mile day cycle rides taking in the odd chateau and few other sights.

The "Route Book" has been compiled with the detailed maps and itinerary.

*Previous tours in the area in 2013 and 2019, we've stayed before at two of the hotels for 2026.

It's BST again!

 British Shorts Time starts again as the clocks go forward an hour.   Continuing the challenge to wear shorts every day of British Summer Time 2026.

I achieved an almost 100% record in 2025 - as I type I do know that there will be a long-trouser day on Easter Sunday and a couple more in May for a trip to London (shorts are frowned upon at The Savoy Theatre) . . .  watch this space.

An early bank ATM card

 Looking for something else I found a "bank cash-card" from the late 1960s!

The card, same size as today's bank cards, has holes punched in coded to the owner and could be used to withdraw £10 from a machine outside a bank.  The cash (IIRC 1 x £5 and 5 x £1 notes) was contained in a plastic sleeve.  The card was retained by the machine and returned in the mail to the user a few days later. More than £10 - you asked the bank for an extra card(s)

I had a Coutts & Co account as the company I worked for from 1966 - 1971 banked with Coutts and was located above the (then) branch in Fleet Street so opened accounts for all of the sales people to pay our expenses.  I retained the account until about 1995.

.oOo.

I looked up some detail on a banking history website:

Early cash withdrawal cards, introduced in the late 1960s and 1970s, often used punched-card technology to store customer data and authenticate transactions. These early "cash cards" allowed customers to withdraw a set amount of cash, £10, from early ATMs, with machines retaining the card for processing. 

Key Features of Early Punched Bank Cards:

Technology: These cards used a series of punched holes (often called "chads" or "chips" when removed) to store identifying information.

Use Cases: In 1970s Britain, a user inserted the card, entered a personal identification number (which was not yet widely called a PIN), and received cash, with the machine keeping the card to be returned by post later.

Rarity: These cards are considered collectors' items