Bonus

When we arrived in SA in '76 it was R2 to the £....... :-)

I used to work for a company that built Ion Implanters - which turned wafers of pure silicone into semi-conductor material for computer chips, using an Ion beam. A wheel spinning at 1250 RPM, which had 20 seven inch silicon discs on its spokes, scanning backwards and forwards through an Ion beam that was firing different weights of Ions at the silicone - the heavier the Ions the deeper they penetrated, allowing multiple levels of tracks in the silicone. All done in a vacuum achieved by Edwards roughing pumps, followed by turbo pumps followed by cryogenic pumps . . . the weights of the Ions were determined by an analysing magnet that bent the Ion beam by 90 degrees. The strength of the electro magnet determined what weight of Ion would bend exactly 90 degrees and therefore hit the wafers - heavier Ions not quite making it, lighter ones bending too much. . . . really clever stuff and very difficult to look at the massive hardware and relate it to the result being something you can only see under a microscope!

I was working at RAF Fairford for RIAT '24 (Royal International Air Tattoo) the other weekend, as I have before. It's great being there in the week leading up to the airshow - we get to see everything arrive and see the jets practising their routines. Also the US side of the airbase is active, so we see the U2 spy plane going out and coming back everyday - no pics of that allowed though. I like to drive up and down the display line taking pics of the planes before they let anyone in or after everyone has left. It's something you either "get" or you don't 🙂

wait til your wife finds the burner phone and the questions begin . . . . 🙂

Of course we Brits are always talking about the weather and crying about something or other. Brits here are no different 😂

I remember the Day Zero thing a couple of years ago. No problem for us here up in the mountains, but other parts of Spain have been pretty dry for a while now. I think the recent rains will have helped - our local dam is full, we kayaked on it last week 😁

My brother in law, who visited us last week with his wife and who’s currently in Ireland visiting his daughter ….. has just heard that his fav pub in Jo’burg is on fire!

Holy ****!

Just tried Minesweeper on my Windows 11 Laptop. Had to download it, it wasn't pre-installed - 128MB, and it's riddled with adverts and "in-app" purchases ('course it is). I think I preferred the old way 😉

I loved Minesweeper. Occasionally you'd get a block you just couldn't seem to solve with logic, but generally after the first couple of "guess" moves, you could do it 🙂

We lived just down the road from the hospital in '76/'77. It was open back then and almost new I think. Now 45 years later our friends daughter goes the the high school next door to it -Jeugland - which is where we used to catch the school bus to Sir Pierre 🙂

On Dec 31st we walked up to the Church and castle ruin above the village of Samitier with 2 of our old South African friends who were staying with us over Christmas. They now live in Scotland so where the weather can be "less nice" at this time of year 🙂 It's a walk we often do and well worth it!

Set the bar low and then maintain it hey? 🙂

It looks like the attack happened 100m from SAPS Hout Bay Police Station????

****! Rider didn't stand a chance

I can believe the "100 days" bit! 😞

I generally come back to this thread either when I'm pleasantly surprised that I haven't been ill for a long while, or when I do fall ill! Sadly this is the latter . . . . I've done a lot of travelling since mid September, Back home to Spain from working in the UK over summer, a trip to the States and back (With "Wendy") and then a trip to the UK for more work before coming back home for Christmas. It seems every time I travel I get a damn cold. There are people sniffing, sneezing and coughing their way on every bus/ train/ plane I use and throughout the airports! I'm currently getting over a fairly tame head-cold which is turning into a cough that will last for weeks I'm sure. When we came back from the States we both had sore throats/coughs which ended up flooring us for weeks - literally couldn't get out of bed to do more than cook food, then fell asleep again. Tested negative for Covid but I'm convinced we had a variation of it! This seems to be widespread in Europe and the UK..... perhaps our defences are all low after 2 years of "extreme cleaning" during Covid.

I’m finally back in Spain after several months working away – and I’m just in time for tomorrows “Copa de España de Pumptrack” competition! 🙂 As soon as I get time I’ll post some updates – this year has been crazy busy

September 1-3: Loudenvielle, France (DH) Just over the boarder. Be good if I'm here when it's on. I'll go watch 🙂

It's been a while since I posted anything on here! So, here are some pics I took in February on a ride a couple of km's from where we live. It was still winter but it was a beautiful day to rise alone up in the mountains. I think I saw I car all afternoon and one farmer - up in the village of Silves!

We're ok S@B - but thanks for asking! The last few months have been a bit of a roller-coaster. When you have family scattered literally all over the world things can get complicated and difficult. It's a tough decision to leave your loved ones behind and deliberately move away. Both our parents did it to their families when they moved to SA many years ago and then we did it to them when we moved away from SA back in 2016. You make the decision to leave knowing that, in time, things are going to happen that you'll have to deal with one way or another. After a good summer of me working on and off in the UK, we went and had a great time in Charlotte with family. We got lots done to their house & garden and spent some good quality time with them all, but a week or so before we were due to leave, my dad back in SA took ill and then passed away. There wasn't any realistic way of getting over there from the US for the funeral, I'm not sure we would have been able to even if we'd been at home in Spain when it happened, so we had to deal with it "from a distance". Everyone was very supportive and with my dads age and health it wasn't a massive surprise - but you still don't expect it to happen. In early November we got back Spain and started winding down a bit for winter. We were feeling quite content that, dads thing aside, we'd had probably had the best year we've had in a while, particularly in terms of spending quality time with each other and with our various families. Out of the blue we received news that "Wendys" dad back in SA was ill and that it was serious. She went over for three weeks in December to spend time with him and her mum and when she finally left, she had a good idea that she wouldn't see him again. Usually when you leave you hope to see someone again "one day", but when you leave someone who is terminally ill...... He passed away a fortnight ago and she went back to SA again to attend the funeral and spend time with her family. She flew to SA the day I flew over here to the UK to do another batch of work. In this day and age of such easy communications - high speed internet, WhatsApp video calls and messaging, FB & Insta for photos etc, it's very much easier to be apart and stay in touch than it was 20 years ago and that helps a lot. Still tough times though 😞 I'll post again in a little while and update with our latest plans/thinking re our project . . . meanwhile, hope everybody has a great "Semana Santa" (Easter!)

8 muggings in a month, so two a week . . . . why would anyone chance even going there with those odds?

Impressive

TP is strong! Can’t see him losing this now.

Before we left SA, we used to drive down fro Jo'burg to ride the "Argus". I can't remember what entry cost 7 years ago, but it was a good 18 hr drive with a couple of quick rest-stops on the way. Several tanks of petrol there and back and a Wimpy at Laingsburg. We were lucky enough to have friends to stay with / ride with in Cape Town and we'd make a week of it, so the trip wasn't just for the bike race. Happy days, though windy at times! Hope everyone had a safe race this year🙂