Steve Jobs

7 October 2011: Steve Jobs died after his long illness, on 6th October 2011, his birthday.
    Anybody who know us is probably aware of how important Apple computers have been in our lives. We had the first Macintosh 128 in December 1984, and had it upgraded to a 512k, then to a Mac Plus, then went through the later models, had the Mac 2, the 2fx, the SE30 and SE and LC. We didn't bother with a Quadra or the first models of the Powerbooks, but came back in when the G3s and iMacs were made. I still have the oldest Mac Portable in the UK, brought over to UK from New York in Concorde on the day of its US launch in 1989.
   I ran MacTel BBS for 14 years, having taken it on from Paul Beaumont (when he went to University) and then it sort of stayed with us till 1999. We had the two MacSeptembers in 1987 and 1989 (with David Thomas), and had a magazine called Clipboard, based on the musings of MacTel. The BBS itself ran through several models of computer, starting with the original Mac, then a Dell PC, then back to Macs (using a Performa with a high pile of CD drives and hard disks, and a stack of modems.)
  Then we started dealing in second hand macs, buying them from a company in East London who redistributed machines for Apple Commercial Credit, and this grew to an authorised dealership, Exmicro, selling new computers.
  Ironically, it was the arrival of Steve back to Apple in 1996 that was the beginning of the end for us, as he toughened up the retail outlets, and small dealers disappeared - but the product line improved so vastly, that much of what he now has been credited with - the iMac, iPod, iPhone and iPad all came after this date. Thinking back to when the Lisa and Mac came out, few remember what a tedious thing MSDOS and the IBM PC was, and going back further to 1976 (or was it 1977) few remember that when the Apple 2 came out, computers were commonly the size of wardrobes or freezers, and needed more space than that for the air conditioning.

Lambley House

View from the South, back garden
The sloping conservatory members have been replaced

1 Oct 2011: On the hottest October day in weather history! We had the Melton Rd Shoppers market in the morning, and DNC did his stint for Rushcliffe Solar on the WB Transition stand.
    Later Dnc went to the Lambley house, designed in 1981-2, for a visit to the owners Mike and Myrtle Felstead. They've spend quite a lot rebuilding the conservatory, and had borrowed the original drawings for reference. There was an element of thermal storage in the building, and it has whole house MVHR since 1981, which must be one of the first ever fitted! How I wish that I had stayed with that energy efficient design idea after that, it seems like 30 years gone round, and here I am back doing thermal storage and heat reclaim.

View from the lane, the north side. The Vee dormer was
a later addition

Cleopatra Ballet

1 Oct 2011:  In the evening we went to the Northern Ballet production of Cleopatra, at the Theatre Royal. This is such an infinitely sad story, especially when compressed into one evening - although in reality, the mixture of triumphant and tragic events took places over 39 years.
See some excerpts on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auk4Oy-cfzk

The evening was warm and the city centre full of cheerful people. Nottingham seems to have a very latin culture in warm evenings, and the night before, Chapel Bar was entirely full of outdoor tables and seating, and people enjoying the evening, at 11pm!

Hugh McClintock Birthday

30 Sept 2011: It is the 65th birthday of our long standing friend Hugh McClintock and we had a small tea party in their garden with their friends the Jones (who we regularly spend New Year with) and with the Edwards. We've all known each other since the days of the NCT and the toddler support group of the early eighties, through Pedals and many other connections.

   Di was short of lettered candlesticks, so we had to sing Hugh a 'Ha py Birthday' His regular cycling must be helping because he had enough breath to blow them all out first time!
  The weather was wonderful, part of the heatwave that is giving England an 'Indian Summer'.

Ballet about Caravaggio

Montage of Caravaggio paintings, demonstrating
chairoscuro - lively contrast of dark and light

28 Sept 2011: We went to the Playhouse for a modern Ballet performance, based on the life of Caravaggio. Apparently, it was the world premiere! and on the very night we attended. The music varied from pure electronic to very modern italian dance music, and for much of the time, the dancers were leading towards arrangements of subjects that appeared in the paintings - such as Doubting Thomas, or David and Goliath.
  We saw a Caravaggio last week in Genova in the Palazzo Bianco, and I wish I could remember which one it was.
  The ballet was put on by the Darshan Singh Bhuller company (and he was sitting with the audience viewing his creation).
  The ballet starts with Caravaggio (1571-1610) dying of fever and having flashbacks to his turbulent life - and it was an  extraordinary life, shared with Popes, prostitutes, beggars, rent boys, gamblers etc. The Ballet culminates with the game of royal Tennis in which he got into an argument over a bet, and finished killing the other man - for the rest of his life, he was on the run - still painting. I gather that he was due for a papal pardon at the age of 39, but he died of fever while travelling to Rome.

Italy summer 2011

Antoniella's dome at Novara

Sept 2011: We have been in Torino for three days, and before that, we spent a day in Novara - that is almost unknown to tourists, and it was pleasant to be in an Italian town that was just that.
    We seem unexpectedly to be in search of very tall things. Novara has an exceedingly tall dome over its principal church St Gaudenzio, but nobody seems to take an interest - we went inside and were the only people inside the vast building. (turns out later that the same architect, Antoniella, did the great Mole dome in Torino!)

Stresa from above (not my photo)

  We decided not to go to Torino direct, but to head north to Lago Maggiore, to see the magical coastline of that lake, and to see Stresa, the jewel like small town on the west coast - we stopped for a little lunch, I had a paddle in the lake water, and then we took the high road up to the hills, to go to Novara, cross country.
  On the way from Stresa to Torino is a hill town called Biella which has a large outskirts, including factories making cashmere-silk garments with many factory outlets. We drove about in a somewhat random fashion hoping to find one that was open... but didn't so continued on, hoping that the SatNav would be able to find the hotel in Novara.

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There's a lot more to add, but I will have to retrofit the later articles under these, in date order. There are the wonders and pleasures of Torino, Chieri, Superga, Lingotto, Genova, Piacenza and Cremona to add in.

Natasha's wedding

25 August 2011: We went to the wedding of Natasha Evans (Niece) and Philip Way in St Peters, Parkstone. This was a big family affair, with both families fully represented. We stayed in the Bournemouth seafront Travelodge the night before. It was a wonderfully happy event, with everyone dressed in their best outfits, and the couple truly in love.

There was a long reception at Sandbanks hotel after (where Tasha works), and dinner dance, late into the night. The hotel is in prime position, closest to where boats pass by, in and out of Poole Harbour. The following morning, those who were still around met again in the coffee lounge of Sandbanks before departing home. Phil and Tasha went to Mauritius shortly after for the honeymoon.

  It was great to see such a lot of family, especially Robert and Jane (Dobbie), and all the Coles. oh, and Rupert played the saxophone during much of the drinks reception.

[I'll try dig out a few more photos for the blog.]