Sazandra

Fri, 06 Feb 2015 19:08:12 GMT

11 weeks until Chevron 8.2

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Wed, 08 Jan 2014 17:43:39 GMT

Oh boy did Oxford has horrendous traffic at the moment.. The current flooding has closed Abingdon Road (going south out of the city centre); Botley Road (coming west) was partially flooded in several places and where it turns into Westway it's completely flooded then overnight they closed the road completely; plus yesterday was day back after Christmas & New Year for many schools etc too. The rivers around here have been on flood alert since Christmas, it's only these last couple of days, with even more rainfall, that it's turned to flood warnings.

High Street and St Aldates were gridlocked yesterday evening and the bus driver of the number 10 I was on from Cowley to the city centre suggested we get off at Queen's Lane and walk the rest of the way. When I got into the city centre I could see hellishly long bus queues in St Aldates and again in Bonn Square for another route. George Street was strangely quiet, the queues weren't too bad and an S1 arrived at the stop shortly after I joined the queue. Of course the bus soon found traffic and it took rather a long time to do the two miles to Botley/Elms Parade thanks to no doubt some traffic that would usually use the Abingdon Road combined with partial flooding in several places on the Botley Road and all the way across where it becomes Westway. Got home at 6:40 pm (having left the office at 4:15 pm).

A bus using colleague who left the office after me last night ended up walking most of the way into the city centre as the gridlock in the city centre spread further and further out and thus up the Cowley Road.

http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/10917592.Cameras_snap_water_logged_land_as_floods_swamp_county/?ref=mr
http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/10917571.Homeowners_are_on_edge_as_more_rain_is_due_to_fall/?ref=mr
http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/10915254.Here_come_the_floods/?ref=mr

Today with Botley Road closed the journey into Oxford this morning was diverted along the A34 from Botley to Peartree then down the Woodstock Road to drop off at the usual (pickup) bus stop in George Street and amazingly I was still in St Aldates to get my usual 6:50 am number 1 bus. Tonight coming home I had a lift from a colleague who lives in village about three miles north of here and I got home 35 minutes after leaving the office without having to run the gauntlet of the city centre or the S1 on diversion.

At least both major bus companies have got their act together quite well considering the traffic. The 400 Park & Ride service that usually goes Thornhill P&R (east of Oxford) to Seacourt P&R off the Botley Road hasn't been going to Seacourt since Monday when that car park started flooding so they've now got the 400 running to and from the railway station (it usually goes past it like the S1 etc) to city centre (then off on it's usual route to Thornhill) so that all the other bus routes that usually terminate at the railway station are able to terminate in the city centre (or at Gloucester Green bus station) - and it's not like there's a lot of trains running since there's a whole load of flooding (as usual) on the lines to/from Didcot limiting speed etc.

Link to stuff today:
http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/10920703.Blog__Oxfordshire_flooding_latest__Wednesday__January_8/?ref=var_0

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Sat, 16 Nov 2013 17:00:57 GMT

Yes I know I haven't posted for 'a while'.

So today it's 20 weeks until Chevron 8.1, so I'm now nearer to Chevron 8.1 than it is past Chevron 8.0.

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Mon, 28 Oct 2013 19:04:18 GMT

Seems we got off quite lightly around here with the weather in the last 24 hours, okay reports of the occasional fallen tree in Oxford and the south of the county but not the problems the storm with such high winds caused in more southern counties.

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Fri, 16 Aug 2013 17:55:41 GMT

33 weeks until Chevron 8.1

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Thu, 18 Jul 2013 17:11:33 GMT

I have eventually finished working through my photos from Chevron 8.0: http://sazandra.tripod.com/convpages/chevron8p0.htm ;

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Sat, 08 Jun 2013 16:02:36 GMT

Draft versions on the pages of convention photos from last weekend:

http://sazandra.tripod.com/convpages/chevron8p0_cliff1.htm
http://sazandra.tripod.com/convpages/chevron8p0_cliff2.htm
http://sazandra.tripod.com/convpages/chevron8p0_cliff3.htm

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Tue, 04 Jun 2013 12:21:05 GMT

I took rather a lot of photos over the weekend, as in I've come home with 963. The file/photo numbering shows I'd got up to 1047 but I think the actual number taken was somewhat higher as I was deleting some of the complete failures straight after they were taken. Not all the photos are of the con guests, a few of the hotel plus some of the neighbouring lake and the wild life out there. It could take me a while to sort them out and put them on my website.

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Thu, 30 May 2013 16:43:35 GMT

1 day until Chevron 8.0 and I have almost finished packing, basically just my kindle to go in my new shoulder bag and a few odds and ends to go in my case, and the weather looks like it will be reasonable as in dry and reasonably warm for the weekend, which is something of an upturn considering this year so far has been the chilliest in 50 years.

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Fri, 19 Apr 2013 18:36:04 GMT

6 weeks until Chevron 8.0
It's going to be a long 6 weeks with work the way it is.

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Fri, 12 Apr 2013 17:33:14 GMT

7 weeks until Chevron 8.0

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Fri, 22 Mar 2013 19:12:07 GMT

10 weeks until Chevron 8.0

Have we got to soon yet?

As far as the weather is concerned we certainly haven't got to spring yet. Here today has been wet, windy and bitterly cold. Tomorrow snow is due to return.

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Mon, 18 Mar 2013 00:27:08 GMT

The forecast for today was for rain with snow showers on higher ground further north and west of here in the Cotswolds, what we actually had here was a bit of rain followed by an inch or two of snow.

Seems the county got caught out a bit: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-21821820 ;

When the snow first started coming down here about 8:30 am it wasn't normal sized snowflakes, it was two or three inch long feather sized pieces that laid quickly even though it was onto wet ground. Once the snow stopped falling it soon started to melt on the roads and pavements.

Am thinking it will be winter boots again in morning as it's forecast around freezing overnight, even if it's dry under foot it will be chilly at the bus stops.

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Fri, 15 Mar 2013 18:57:39 GMT

11 weeks until Chevron 8.0

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Thu, 07 Mar 2013 18:29:18 GMT

So yesterday on the BBC new website there was surreal:
Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi has written the song which will represent Armenia in the Eurovision Song Contest, you really don't think of Black Sabbath and Eurovision in the same sentence. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-21689249

Today's not quite so surreal:
Bonnie Tyler has been chosen as the UK's entry. Last year it was Engelbert Humperdinck so why not Bonnie this year? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-21697205

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Fri, 22 Feb 2013 19:47:43 GMT

14 weeks until Chevron 8.0

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Fri, 28 Dec 2012 12:18:43 GMT

22 weeks until Chevron 8.0

No the tags for this post aren't a figment of your/mine/anybody else's imagination, I'm revisiting AYAMII (again).

The other week I was re-reading part of AYAM (revisited) on my kindle then moved onto looking at AYAMII, what can I say but there are bits of AYAMII that need fixing in light of AYAM (revisited). I've taken a copy of the February 2007 edit of AYAMII and removed a few sentences that now make me wince, yes I was obviously happy with them at the time (either the October 2003 or 2007) but things move on. I have now sorted most of the where Daniel should be turning into Dan thing, the lack of which really jumped out at me when I re-read the fic, and am now working on some 'thin' bits that I feel really need some attention. Oh yeah and trying to untangle the POV in a couple of bits where even I'm not sure if it's supposed to be more Daniel or Jack's POV.

I have also had another look at what I've scribbled down of my (Daniel/Mitchell) season nine SG-1 plot bunny (tentatively known as 'Totally Off The Grid' aka AYAMVI), it needs typing up and taming! I've also gained a new (late season five SG-1) plot bunny (that isn't related to anything I've put online previously). What to do first? Commit new plot bunny to paper and possibly go with that or tame what I've got of AYAMVI so far? Whatever I go with it will give me something to mull over on my many bus journeys to and from work in the new year.

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nearly Christmas so ...

Sun, 23 Dec 2012 18:15:36 GMT

The Christmas tree at Nuffield College, Oxford taken on 17th December 2012

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Fri, 23 Nov 2012 18:50:21 GMT

27 weeks until Chevron 8.0

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Chevron 7.9 photos

Sat, 17 Nov 2012 11:18:18 GMT

http://sazandra.tripod.com/convpages/c7point9.htm ;

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Sat, 10 Nov 2012 23:00:11 GMT

Draft versions of some of the pages of last weekend's photos, so far only photos from Friday and Saturday.They include some very similar photos which will probably get weeded before the finished versions, also I haven't checked hyperlinks to larger versions yet and there are one or two photos that I'm going to have to revisit now I see them alongside others.

http://sazandra.tripod.com/convpages/c7point9_bill_1.htm
http://sazandra.tripod.com/convpages/c7point9_jennifer_1.htm
http://sazandra.tripod.com/convpages/c7point9_michael_1.htm
http://sazandra.tripod.com/convpages/c7point9_michael_2.htm
http://sazandra.tripod.com/convpages/c7point9_michael_3.htm
http://sazandra.tripod.com/convpages/c7point9_patrick_1.htm
http://sazandra.tripod.com/convpages/c7point9_various.htm

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Fri, 02 Nov 2012 09:18:09 GMT

And so the first day of Chevron 7.9 arrives, well it 'arrived' too early for me this morning - I'd fallen asleep around my usual weekday time yesterday evening so this morning I was wide awake at 4 am! I somehow doubt I'll manage to stay awake that late this evening, yes there is a party I could go to but if I'm tired I'm tired and sleep is required. It is one drawback of the end of summer term and the clocks changing, my body stays on summer time even if I try to sleep later and all for quite some time afterwards.

New camera arrived on Wednesday, had a little play with it that evening and some more yesterday. It doesn't 'feel' that different to the last one, okay a few of the controls are slightly different so it's just try things out and see what I get. Not sure how many photos I'm likely to take over the weekend so have packed as many sets of AA sized batteries as I've got (and ordered another box of 40 online last night) as I've no idea yet how greedy (or otherwise) new camera really is with them.

I may or may not post over the weekend, I did manage a test post on LJ a few days ago which worked fine, and if I do I suspect I'll just do it on LJ so if you're only reading my posts on DW I apologize.

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Fri, 19 Oct 2012 18:35:15 GMT

2 weeks until Chevron 7.9
14 days of which there are 8 working days - does that mean the con is soon?

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Fri, 12 Oct 2012 18:45:00 GMT

3 weeks until Chevron 7.9

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Fri, 14 Sep 2012 17:47:20 GMT

7 weeks until Chevron 7.9

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