Notebook Screen

Unfortunately my Dell Studio 17’s screen got cracked while we were in Whitby. It’s still functioning but there’s nasty cracks though it.

Dell were charging €500 to have it replaced by a technician but I’ve finally managed to source the screen via a third party (after carefully dismantling it last night, wanted exact part number)

It’s actually an LG screen and is approximately €180 (less shipping) from LCDs 4 Less.

http://www.lcds4less.co.uk/LG_Philips-laptop-lcd-screens/LP171WU1_(TL)(A7).shtml

http://www.lcds4less.co.uk/DellLaptop__Dell_Studio_1737__laptop-screens.html

Shame on you Dell!

House and Whitby

Well it’s a month since myself and Tasha got married. Hasn’t time flown? The house is falling into place now as we have electricity in the shed so the freezer could get moved out of the house. We also finally have the bin collection sorted too.

One of the events in Whitby, which I neglected to mention was the Nights of Victorian Gothic. Organised by English Heritage over Halloween, it highlighted some of the grim professions of Victorian times such as hangman, surgeon and grave robber but also featured storytelling and alchemy. However, there were two key events which were the centrepiece of the night.

The first, about halfway through, was a live performance in the abbey cloisters to The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes featuring authentic costume, horse riding, rifle shooting and special effects. I felt this was the best part of the night and would love to have had a better view.

The second event, near the end of the night, was a full Victorian funeral procession featuring a four horse drawn carriage which looked beautiful, mourners at the front and rear and even an impromptu attendance by Gabi at the end if I'm not mistaken! The procession made full rounds of the main abbey lawn and was a sombre end to the evening.

It was also great to see the abbey lit up in purple and to see it at night which you normally can’t do.

Not long to another Whitby though as I’ll be going in April for Arthur’s stag.

Wild Birds

I’m lucky to be in an office on the ground floor as I have a “flower” bed outside the window which comes up to the window itself.

This is good because I like to feed the wild birds. As many know, we have two cockatiels but the wild birds are like my adopted pets.

Every morning I cast out some wild bird seed and some peanuts or bits of bread. In fact, before I can even do that, the big wood pigeon usually lands and gives a nod that he wants some seed.

After that the two magpies come over and gorge themselves on the peanuts, stuffing 6 or 7 in their beaks before flying off to hide them.

Sometimes I get a robin or even a big hooded crow. In the past, I’ve also gotten blackbirds, jackdaws and even a few different types of tit (no jokes)

I’m sure the lads in work think I’m mad but what the heck, it makes me happy.

Wedding Photos

I finally uploaded the wedding photos to Flickr, http://tinyurl.com/yf47km7.

Thanks again Seb.

Wedding Gallery

I created a Flickr account for any digital photos people took of the wedding.

The account is called johntashawedding and the password is whitby24102009

I suggest prefixing them with your name so we know who took what.

The more the merrier...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/johntashawedding/

Goathland

While we were away in the UK, we got a chance to visit Goathland aka “the Heartbeat village” or “Land of the Roaming Sheep”. Strangely, this was where we were going to have the wedding reception but that didn’t work out.

We headed out with Anna and Ian in the afternoon, Goathland is about 45 minutes from Whitby and luckily the rain held off that day.

As I mentioned, Goathland is where they do some of the filming for the Heartbeat TV show (they also film in Whitby too). I also think it’s a funny village because sheep wander about everywhere.

We made our way around the village, bumped into Tasha’s family, had a bit of lunch then went looking for Beck Hole. It was a long walk and we skipped Beck Hole but found a lovely river with a rocky bank to try to traverse. There were some slippery rocks and awkward hops but we all made it along safely.

Again, here are the photos from our little country adventure.

Portmeirion

I figured I should go into a bit more detail regarding our trip so I’ll work backwards.

We got to Portmeirion at about 11 on Friday and knew the rain wasn’t going to let up, as it was like a carwash on the roads leading there, waves of rain washing over the windscreen. To add insult to injury, the window wipers were acting up.

But out into the smushy, leaf blanketed mud we went. We got a nice little guide book at the gate with our tickets but then we were stuck as a workman’s barrier tape blocked what looked like the only public route. We wandered around for a bit, confused, but the chap at the gate said it was the way to go; must’ve just been to stop cars.

However, even in the rain, it was worth it once we got into the village itself. It’s a stunning mix of Italian and old English architecture, all presented in bold colours and often with intertwining structures.

Some of the focal pieces were the clock tower, the fountain and the Japanese garden, although we missed others because of the strong wind and rain.

We made our way through, past the village and up the hills to the Japanese garden and finally back around to the village for some lunch and shopping.

We’re both keen to go back again to see what we missed. You can rent some of the houses in the village so it would be great to do that with some friends.

Here are the photos on Flickr.

Back To Normal

We're both back from our wedding, Whitby Gothic Weekend and our UK road trip.

The wedding was fantastic and I am so happy to be married to Tasha now. Thanks so much to everyone who helped out and to those who were there. I'm glad I have a good memory of the day as many people say weddings can be a blur.

WGW was great fun as usual. Enjoyed Faith and the Muse a lot on Saturday and the other bands were good although I meandered about a bit on the Friday night. Bought a few CDs but that's about it for myself. We got a portrait painting of Whitby by a local artist as well as a Victorian Image portrait of us in our wedding clothes.

Once we were done with Whitby, we made our way back across the UK staying in Premier Inns overnight via:

York, we had afternoon tea in Betty's Tea Rooms and perused the shops.
Manchester, popped into the Trafford Centre twice, Affleck's Palace, Cyberdog (I got new bag) and Forbidden Planet
Chester, skipped Chester Zoo and went to the Blue Planet Aquarium again, also wandered around Chester’s shops in the rain.
Portmerrion, Tasha had always wanted to visit here as it’s the setting of The Prisoner TV series which she loves.

Glad to be back now so we can sort out the house as we're finally moved in.

Working on photos at the moment.