After my last post (which, to be fair could have been … but obviously isn’t anymore), I have had a few months away from the blog and have achieved different things in my spare time.

I have not put myself under any pressure to publish, and have instead enjoyed writing for work rather than for my site. The time away has been useful in that I have refreshed the batteries, polished the bugle and, most importantly, returned with some renewed motivation.
 
There have been lots of things that were worthy of trumpeting about.

My eight year bloggerversary passed without comment (well that perhaps wasn’t worth writing about), Christmas came and went, 2020 rocked up and then I got another year older myself (you’ll be pleased to know I moaned about that elsewhere). Brexit happened, Boris is completely in charge, Harry hung up his royal boots, the AACI has closed down, there has been widespread flooding in the UK and terrible fires in Australia, Ozzy Osbourne has Parkinson’s, Tyson Fury pummelled Deontay Wilder, the world has one less python in it, and the spread of Coronavirus is decidedly worrying.

That is quite a lot of missed blogging opportunity!

On the subject of Covid-19, I have spent the last few weeks managing the snot factory and fighting off the annual cold; so have many of my work colleagues in fact. But let's be honest, it's not great being stuffed up with cold knowing that people around the world are dying from flu.

This time of year though is always the same, but whereas normally everyone just gets on with getting better, now there is a sense of nervousness. The office has sanitiser gel dotted around all over the place, HR has sent out “guidance” on hygiene, and every cough, sneeze and nose blow seems to make folk jittery. Contingency plans are being made.

In my lifetime, I can’t think of anything that has come close to this in terms of global government reactions. The lock downs, travel bans, hazmat suits, enforced isolations, the Geneva Motorshow cancellation …

It’s all been more dramatic than Aids or Ebola when, in theory at least, the personal risk to folk that pick it up is relatively low in comparison. 

In my days of working at Masterlease in Birmingham, I used to sit on the disaster recovery team. It used to be chaired by a chap called Iain, who was a real doom and gloom merchant. His end of the world predictions used to annoy me and, in my defence, the outbreaks at the time, like Swine and Bird flu, all amounted to nothing in the UK.

But in the case of Coronavirus, the WHO declaring a global pandemic feels inevitable to me. The run into spring and summer is going to be weird. One thing is certain, 2020 is going to be an interesting year. 

Blog Home
Blog Library
Home

Over the last week or two, I have been engaging with Weebly, the providers of the web infrastructure that I utilise to host my website. Web site visit statistics were once again the reason for my dialogue. Earlier articles about the vagaries of visitor monitoring are available.

https://www.adrianbaldwin.net/blog/my-net-popularity-takes-a-dive-well-sort-of

https://www.adrianbaldwin.net/blog/dreaming-of-a-million

Once again, I had noticed a plummet in visitor numbers and in this instance, Weebly had also updated a whole month’s worth of trendline so that the drops were even more painful to view. See the image and you’ll understand my disappointment.

The first response from customer services on 2nd October was this:

“The problem you’re describing has been identified as a bug and is being investigated by our engineering team. I don’t have an ETA for when they’ll have the issue fixed, but someone will follow up with you as soon as we have an update. I’m very sorry you’ve run into this problem, and thanks for your patience while our team works to get this resolved.” 02/10/19

When I chased for further feedback, I then got back this:

“We have recently changed the way that we track analytics on our sites. Your previous traffic stats were not inaccurate, it just used a different counting methodology focusing on the number of times your site has been served / rendered, rather than the number of actual users that viewed your site. The newer metrics are more reflective of actual usage and a better point of comparison. The new Insights utilizes front-end tracking where a website visitor’s browser pings Weebly servers to report usage. This is the same methodology used by Google Analytics, and is designed to handle granular calculations. While this methodology has certain limitations as tracking can be disabled by an ad blocker, it is much closer to numbers rendered by Google Analytics, and is much less susceptible to over-counting.” 11/10/19

So, the first response from Ron was nonsense, and the second, from Jayme, depressing.

Why depressing, well if success is a structure, it has just come crashing down. The results hardly justify the investment, and it is probably time to give up and do something more productive with my time.

To make matters worse, this message arrived on 7th October -
​    
Hi Adrian,
Your domain adrianbaldwin.net will automatically renew in 2 weeks! There's nothing more you need to do.
Thanks,
The Weebly Team

The timing positively comedic bearing in mind the exchanges going on at the time.
 
I am not best-pleased. The renewal might as well go ahead though because otherwise my site just vanishes. However, after almost eight years of internet presence, the longer-term outlook for my site is now rather bleak.

You can help if you like what you read on my site, you can share posts/links with your friends, add comments to articles, follow me on Twitter, retweet the stuff you like, go mad with your emoticon library etc.

Recovering something from the rubble of one’s dreams, brings me on to an article that I read recently. I thought it was heart-warming enough to be worth sharing with you too.

Jonjo Heuerman and his mum, Donna, have been reuniting commemorative bricks (circa 1,000) from the old, demolished, West Ham United, Boleyn Ground stadium with their original owners/sponsors.
   
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/stories-49884207

Please have a read if you missed the BBC news piece.

So, I find myself reflecting that good can come from investment even years down the line. Something positive may still come from the demolition of my visitor stats. Like West Ham, maybe a new stadium is needed. Or perhaps I’ll spend more time working on better promoting what is on the site already, rather than writing new content (that won’t get read if I don’t promote adrianbaldwin.net properly).

Blog Home
Blog Library
Home

Related posts
https://www.adrianbaldwin.net/blog/my-net-popularity-takes-a-dive-well-sort-of
https://www.adrianbaldwin.net/blog/dreaming-of-a-million

This summer saw me tick something else off my bucket list. To the best of my knowledge, and for any of you that are worried, I am not ill (I’ll admit I just stopped typing to touch wood), but I still have this mental check list of the stuff I want to do before age and infirmity get the better of me.

Getting the full ‘A’ licence (and a proper bike) was achieved in 2019 and then …

… the reason for this post …

I got to see a rocket launch.

And it was all rather exciting.

Some scene setting - this year’s Baldwin family holiday saw us go to Florida. I hadn’t been to the States since 1995 and had never been to Florida at all. When we were planning the trip, we all voted for the thing that we’d most like to do. My vote was cast for visiting the Kennedy Space Center (KSC).

I have written about astronauts and rockets recently, and this year marked the 50th anniversary of the Apollo moon landings, so going to the temple of space travel was a chance not to be missed.

Better still, our holiday dates happened to coincide with a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas 5 Heavy rocket launch. The payload, a US military satellite.

Having travelled so far and ending up so close, my view was that to not see the launch would have been a source of regret.

If the launch got cancelled for any reason however, the journey would have been wasted and potentially the money too bearing in mind that any subsequent launch could have been put back beyond the term of our holiday.

Risks aside, on the 8th August, I made my way to KSC to take my place/chances at the Banana Creak viewing complex.

The other slight downside was that I had to be at KSC no later than 3am and I was staying in Kissimmee, about an hour’s drive away. Given that I didn’t want to be late, I set off at 1am and that, perhaps unsurprisingly, meant that I went on my own.

The Atlas 5 was to launch from complex 41 and that is more than 5 miles away from Banana Creak. The implication was that the rocket was barely visible at all without magnification. It was literally a speck on the horizon.

From the distance, and in the darkness, my camera was hopeless. Other spectators had lenses about the length of my arm and tripods too, they were going to get some decent pictures … but not me.

The benefit of being on NASA territory for the event was that there was a spokesperson provided that talked us through what was going to happen, and there were big video screens broadcasting live feeds from the ULA launch control centre. Our compere was keen to ensure that we ignored the ULA countdown because it was a little out of sync and that we prioritised watching over recording, so as not to miss the take off.

After a few technical delays that put the launch back by half an hour, the rocket was ready. At circa 6:15am, the launch took place and this fireball shot into the air and rapidly disappeared. The rocket still wasn’t visible at all, just the flames from the engines.

There was a sequence of events, I initially saw the rocket lift off and then a few seconds later heard the launch and then a few seconds after that, felt the shock wave from it. All very cool.

And then a few minutes later it was all over. This photo shows the trail of the Atlas 5 and whilst it looks like it has gone up and come down again, what is actually showing is the rocket following the curvature of the earth.

When you buy a launch ticket, you must buy an entrance ticket to the complex as well.  So, the enjoyment didn’t end for me with the launch, because I got to spend the rest of my day at KSC. It’s a cliché I know, but I was as happy as a kid in a toy shop – well maybe a gift shop given the NASA tee shirts, fridge magnets, keyrings and baseball caps purchased.

In fact, KSC was so exciting that I went again a week later. On that occasion with my son (and not so early in the morning).  

After the launch, I visited YouTube and found a link to the official launch video. Here it is for your enjoyment - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSr1x4uQYXo

Obviously, it’s better for the detail, but not as much fun as actually being there. And besides, I could hardly claim a bucket-list-success by watching a video.

Blog Home
Blog Library
Home

Over the Moon

A week or so I read this article https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-49823305 ...

... and wondered why anyone would be even slightly surprised by it. If EDF had been able to report that the construction of Hinkley Point C was on time and on budget, then I’d have been shocked.

Instead, EDF is now predicting that “C” will cost between £21.5-22.5 billion. And, I bet that by next September, the energy company will tell almost the same “increasing costs” story all over again (and that the numbers are higher still).

A few weeks earlier (23rd July), I wrote about the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (DBEIS) proposing to allow energy companies to charge UK electricity customers in order to fund future nuclear power station projects. At the time I shared a link to the consultation currently being undertaken and which closes on 14th October – here it is again https://beisgovuk.citizenspace.com/energy-strategy-networks-markets/regulated-asset-base-rab-model/.

If you haven’t contributed, the current Hinkley £2.9 billion and 15-month overrun is why you might want to make your views known before the consultation ends. If you don’t, then by the time construction starts on the Sizewell station for example, you’ll be part funding it. 

Blog Home
Blog Library
Home

Previous post
Incensed by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Regular readers will know that I write about politics from time to time. Brexit has been the subject of a number of posts over the last three years and this one reflects my astonishment at how things have evolved.

If you think in terms of a soap opera, you’d have to be a bloody creative script writer (even Danny Boyle or JK Rowling might not be imaginative enough) to come up with all the twists and turns that we have seen so far.

Prime Ministers being deposed by their own MPs, parliament uniting against the replacement, general elections being refused, long standing parliamentarians being fired by their own party, majorities surrendered, legislation being passed to restrain the PM, unlawful proroguing, the Queen being compromised, dodgy advisors, “parliament against the people” claims, inflammatory language and even groping for God sake.
     
It's like “Yes Minister” on amphetamine.

The situation we collectively find ourselves in is farcical and there needs to be some order restored.

In positioning himself as the champion of the people, I think that Boris is cunning and self-serving. Saying that he is armoured in what he does by the “will of the people” is a gross exaggeration because even though 52% of voters wanted to leave the EU, they had no idea what they were actually voting for. There was no plan in 2016, and there is only the vaguest notion of one now. Did the leave voters expect or endorse no deal? I think not.

Boris’ plan to plough on regardless is worrying and I think that the parliamentary opposition he faces is to be encouraged. Some say that the Commons is the problem, that “democracy is dead”, but my view is that the parliamentary debate is fundamental to our democracy and should be applauded.

On a continuing personal note, I have had enough of the whole Brexit shenanigans, I don’t really care if we leave or stay in the EU (though I’d prefer to stay). I am however firmly of the opinion that the British public should be advised by the government on what the implications will be for the country whatever deal is negotiated (or not) … and then asked to vote on twisting or sticking.

If another referendum or “people’s vote” endorses “leave”, but from a properly informed perspective, then we can crack on and Boris will have a chance to prove if he is really a champion of the people.

I suspect though that if things turn to shit after Brexit, Boris will absent himself, claim he did the job required of him and leave someone else with all the hard work. He’s done it before.

Blog Home
Blog Library
​Home

Other related posts

https://www.adrianbaldwin.net/blog/boris-trump-and-smelling-of-roses
https://www.adrianbaldwin.net/blog/could-there-be-light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel
https://www.adrianbaldwin.net/blog/resigned-to-mediocrity
https://www.adrianbaldwin.net/blog/election-irony
https://www.adrianbaldwin.net/blog/eu-hokey-cokey
http://www.adrianbaldwin.net/blog/election-reflection-defecation

On my lunchtime walk today I saw something I have never seen before. In fact, I got all rather excited about it. And though I was strolling down Tickford Street in Newport Pagnell, it wasn’t an Aston Martin. It wasn’t even a flashy motorbike.

Nope, the vehicle I saw was …

…well I didn’t know what it was to be frank. I had to look it up on the internet when I got back to the office.
​
But before the reveal, let me first set the scene.

When traversing the walkway to the left of the bridge spanning the River Ouzel, I could hear this noisy vessel in the water. Bearing in mind that that the Ouzel is rather shallow and, other than traffic cones, I have never seen anything in it before, I was intrigued and waited for it to come into view.

I even got down on my haunches so that I could see it sooner - the thing turned out to be a cross between a paddle boat and a sit on lawn mower. 

It was a mini dredger of some sort and it was being employed to chew up the foliage in the river. The front had cutters and spinning blades, the back featured a horizontal paddle/spinner that spanned the width of the vessel.

Sat on top was a driver controlling the action with joysticks in each hand. He saw me taking an obvious interest and smiled at me as he sailed by.

The smile conveyed to me that he knew his machine was cool, and that he knew that I really wanted to have a go on it too.

And I did, I would have loved to have climbed aboard and got to grips with the controls. I bet any bloke with an appreciation of mechanical things would have felt the same.

Once back in the office, I determined that the river mower was a Catfish. I attach a photo.

Bearing in mind that later on in the day it rained hard enough to flood the roads, the dredging could have been a rather timely intervention.  

Blog Home
Blog Library
Home

On 24th July, I went to a Rosalie Cunningham gig at the Craufurd Arms. For my regular readers, the name may ring a bell because I have written about her a few times before (links below), but in connection with her previous role as the leading lady for the band “Purson”.

In the time since my last Purson related post, Rosalie branched off on her own (and away from the old record label) and started writing her own solo material. The output from her investment is now available in the form of her eponymously entitled album. It’s a cracker, and the concert was part of the tour to promote it.

When she took to the stage, Rosalie announced it was only the band’s second gig, she sounded a little nervous, which was endearing and, bearing in mind the band’s collective skill, surprising.

Here’s the set list - 11 songs including some Purson tracks:

• Ride on my Bike
• Fuck Love
• Dethroning of the Party Queen
• House of the Glass Red
• Desire’s Magic Theatre (Purson)
• Chocolate Money (Purson)
• The Sky Parade (Purson)
• Nobody Hears
• Riddles and Games
• A Yarn From The Wheel
• Tragic Catastrophe (Purson)

Rosalie’s solo material is in a very similar vein to Purson, so the progressive/psychedelic rock style continues. The Purson tracks from the set list fitted in perfectly and were like old friends to the fans in the audience.

Chocolate Money, a song from the tail end of the Purson era, had apparently never been played live before this tour.

Drummer, Ralph, was a familiar face and is still working with Rosalie despite her solo adventures.
 
“A Yarn From The Wheel” is a 14 minute, multi-movement epic with exquisite, theatrical flourishes, stylistic and tempo changes that make it almost like an album in one track.  Think Jimi Hendrix meeting up with Pink Floyd and Sharon den Adel and performing a Disneyesque track on stage at a pantomime. Bonkers … but brilliant.

After the gig Rosalie explained to me that it’s her favourite song too, and I understand why. You can listen to it right now on Spotify and see what you think. 

With regards to the band, I loved the sound, the appearances of the band members, the vintage/retro outfits (flared trousers, flared arms, hats) and even the desirable range of guitars being used.
 
If you enjoy Rush, or Emerson, Lake & Palmer, or The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, then there’s something here for you.

In my opinion Ms Cunningham does for prog rock what Caro Emerald does for Jazz - she breathes new and exciting life into an old genre. Her material is original, creative, inventive, genre crossing, multi-faceted and it evidences her meticulous attention to detail.

The gig proved to be an excellent night out and at the end of it, I purchased Rosalie’s new album, got the whole band to sign it, and then listened to it all the way home. The only track from it not played live was “Butterflies”.

​Since the event, the album hasn’t stopped spinning in my car’s CD player.

I really rate Rosalie Cunningham, if you think about others like Caro Emerald, Sharon den Adel, Annette Olzon, Amy Lee, Vanessa Carlton or even Kate Bush, she’s as good as any of them and will hopefully go as far. Get to a gig if you can, experience the theatre for yourself before it gets too expensive and the venues get too large.

Blog Home
Blog Library
Home

https://www.rosaliecunningham.com/

Related Posts
The Pursonal Touch
Purson at the Craufurd on the 24th - a gig review
Another Purson gig review - Craufurd Arms March 2016

I read this news on the BBC today that annoyed me immediately, and so I am taking to my blog to protest.
​
Please read this - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-49083179

The government is proposing that the electricity customers in the UK (that’s you and I) should provide funds to the electricity generating companies to be used to assist the building of new nuclear power stations.

As electricity customers, we should be charged more, and in advance of the plants being built, in order to help companies like EDF overcome their investment barriers.

Why is this? Because proper “investors” (not end customers like you and I) don’t want to handover their funds to finance long term projects that are plagued with over runs and rising costs. And no bloody surprise if you ask me.

So, as members of the public, we don’t get to be consulted on whether we even want more nuclear power stations, and yet it is proposed that we pay up front for the benefits we may never even receive. And if the project planners get it wrong (which is inevitable), we then part fund the overruns and the extra costs too.

And what about the power plants at the end of their lives? Will all electricity end user customers pay towards the decommissioning too? The costs associated with decommissioning Sellafield have been astronomical and out of control.
​
But, cynically, it’s okay because other “investors” would then be able to receive dividends during the construction phase of a new plant. Oh and one day, us electricity users may save some money.

The Regulated Asset Base (RAB) funding method for nuclear projects is being consulted on by government over the next 12 weeks. Here’s the paper, read it for yourself and then think about contributing to the consultation. Or go and hassle your MP.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/819214/rab-model-for-nuclear-consultation.pdf

Here’s where you take part - https://beisgovuk.citizenspace.com/energy-strategy-networks-markets/regulated-asset-base-rab-model/

​Or you can email your comments to RABconsultation@beis.gov.uk

I can’t be alone in wondering if the government has got a proper grip. To illustrate, if UK plc can’t generate enough electricity with the infrastructure we have, then why the hell is the government then championing electric vehicles - which will inevitably increase the demand for electricity generation. Some thinking isn’t joined up. Diesel has been demonised, the car industry battered and our economy damaged for environmental advantages that we can’t actually realise with the investment/power generation structures that we have.

The consultation paper details the desire for pension companies (proper investors) to invest. Well if the RAB initiative goes through, I’ll be very prescriptive with my pension managers about my fund not having anything to do with electricity generation ever again.

And if we all stand for this RAB initiative, what next I wonder? A RAB for every single rail passenger to pay a premium to realise the undoubted benefits HS2 (another disastrous project). Or every single person that ever gets on a plane to pay a premium to fund exploration to Mars.

And in the race to Mars is key to this, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and all their sponsors have no issue sinking significant funds into space travel – you don’t see them keen in investing in UK nuclear power stations. If the numbers don’t stack up, then why are we doing it at all.

My feedback to the DBEIS is this – “you have got to be kidding” and “NO”. I was inclined to lace the comments with expletives, but will restrain myself.

Please share this post if you agree with me.

I am going to contribute to the consultation right now and I urge you to do the same. You’ve only got until the 14th October though.
​
Blog Home
Blog Library
Home

It’s all going to be alright, we don’t have to worry. Donald Trump thinks Boris would make a good PM, he even likes him apparently.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-49052373

There was me feeling decidedly nervous (see earlier post) about Johnson getting the top job … and there was no need. Silly me.

We haven’t heard from Putin yet, but he’s probably okay with the imminent appointment too. He and Trump are buddies, or so we are told.

On Tuesday we will know for sure, but it looks pretty clear that Boris is going to get the gig.

Maybe having a privileged, self-obsessed, womaniser with wild blond hair and historic connections to the German aristocracy and our Royal Family, is just what the UK needs in order to achieve a decent Brexit outcome.

But then again…

Sir Alan Duncan (currently of the Foreign Office) previously stated Mr Johnson was "the last person on Earth who would make any progress in negotiating with the EU at the moment." And that he described himself as Johnson’s "pooper scooper" at the FO, clearing up mess Boris had created.

I am no fan of the Guardian, but this old piece, from a chap with a decent insight into Boris’ character, is a thoroughly entertaining read.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/oct/10/boris-johnson-unfit-to-be-prime-minister

Max Hastings, who used to be the editor of the Telegraph (and Boris’ employer), had the following to say in October 2012:

“He is not a man to believe in, to trust or respect, save as a superlative exhibitionist. He is bereft of judgment, loyalty and discretion. Only in the star-crazed, frivolous Britain of the 21st century could such a man have risen so high, and he is utterly unfit to go higher still.” 

But even discounting the significant value of Trump’s personal endorsement, Johnson’s farts must smell of roses because it seems that Higher Still is where Boris is heading.

Blog Home
Blog Library
Home

There aren’t many instances when I’d be quite happy to be five or ten years older, but the 50-year celebrations of the first moon landing have fascinated me so much that I wish I could have experienced the excitement first hand back in July 1969.

Maybe it’s a “bloke thing”, or maybe it’s a “blokes of a certain age thing”, but watching the media’s excellent efforts (BBC “8 days to the moon and back” “Neil Armstrong” and “Stargazing”: ITV “The day we went to the moon”) to bring the moon landings back into the public consciousness has genuinely excited me. And though I watched all the programmes on my own (Mrs B. and the kids don’t seem to have quite my level of enthusiasm), I can’t be alone in feeling awestruck.

I have spoken to my parents and my older work colleagues to find out if their excitement at the time matches mine now. My mum’s feedback is that the coverage now is so much better than it was then and she has actually found the moon landings more interesting now than she did at the time.  I’ll be honest, I really wasn’t expecting that.

I have found myself overwhelmed by the bravery and calmness of Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins. They really didn’t know if they’d get to the moon … or back. There were so many things that did, and could have gone wrong, that there was every chance that they had signed their own death warrants. And the technology that they were relying on was solid state and less powerful than a modern-day scientific calculator. Yet the astronauts strapped themselves to the most powerful rocket ever constructed and hoped for the best. Wow.

Listening to the wives/children of the astronauts talking about their husbands/fathers blasting off into the unknown had me reflecting on the bravery and resilience of the families that were left behind. I can’t imagine my mum being able to cope with the stress of my dad taking such risks when my sister and I were still in short trousers.

For Michael Collins, he took all the risks and never even got to set foot on the moon. There was a strong possibility he’d have to have made his back to earth on his own if Armstrong and Aldrin got stranded. Hearing him interviewed in 2019 about his thoughts and state of mind was/is inspiring.
 
When it came to the actual landing, Armstrong had to land the lunar module, something he had never even flown before, on the moon’s surface himself because the computer had targeted a boulder field as a landing zone. On top of that, the computer was overwhelmed and triggering alarm codes and the lunar module only had 17 seconds of fuel left. Again … wow.
   
The media all over the world was all over the launch and mission failure would have been very public indeed. Hearing about the pre-planned back-up media stuff if it all want wrong was a poignant reminder of the very real dangers the Apollo 11 crew faced. Thank everything that’s holy that the crew all made it back intact and the alternative press releases and announcements weren’t necessary.

When the astronauts returned to earth, thanks to all the media coverage, they had become global celebrities and subsequently toured the world promoting the mission and uniting people in wonder. I can’t think of anything in my lifetime that has been so enthusiastically embraced by so many countries and cultures.

As well as celebrating past achievements, the media programmes have also addressed the future of space travel. In addition to NASA’s endeavours, the work of companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin will get more folk into space, and the moon is being earmarked as a suitable location for a base with permanent habitation. All that is very cool indeed.
    
And on the subject of cool, I have been to The Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics (Moscow) and the National Space Centre in Leicester. When I can finally get to The Kennedy Space Centre at Cape Canaveral and see the Saturn five, I swear I’ll be as excited as a child in a toy shop. In fact, I’ll be over the moon.

Blog Home
Blog Library
Home