We're back from our short stay at Buttermere YHA.
As you can see, the weather wasn't as good as it was two years ago, but we all had a good time anyway.
The Met Office and MWIS both predicted harsh weather on the tops but it didn't happen where we went.
I suppose I'll have to post a report soon.
Harrier landing on HMS Ark Royal (source)
Where the hell is the sense in scrapping the Ark Royal AND scrapping all of the Harriers? This leaves Britain without a viable platform for dealing with remote conflict where we don't have access to a land-base, and it'll take ten years to get out of that hole (ten years during which anything could happen, not least the possibility that the two replacement carriers will be cancelled by future Governments). True, we have other carriers, but how effective would they be without the Harriers? The choppers that they carry are good but they just aren't suited to the same work.
In major conflicts, air-superiority has long been a necessary precursor to the success of land-based forces. Does nobody appreciate the fact that we'd probably never have set foot back on the Falklands without the Harriers that routed the invader's Air Force? Even Hitler knew that without knocking out the RAF, Operation Sea Lion was a non-starter. Times were hard during WWII, but can you imagine life here now if Churchill had scrapped the Spitfires and the Hurricanes?
OK, times are hard now and cuts have to be made, but let's be sensible. If the Ark Royal really has to go (and it's a moot-point), I'd have thought that it would be more sensible for it be sold rather than scrapped, and the Harriers redeployed or at the worst mothballed but capable of being recommissioned in times of need. Who knows what new conflict will arise in the near future? This Government doesn't, and clearly it doesn't give a 5h1t about the consequences if/when it happens.
On the subject of hard times and the National Debt, the question has to be asked - just how bad is it? As I understand it, most of the ND is because of gilts issued by successive Governments to raise money for whatever. This isn't a new thing though - the country has been running in a similar manner for many a year - the Bank of England has been exchanging banknotes for hard currency since it was set up in July 1694 in order to supply the King and Government with £1.2m to turn Britain, reeling from a defeat inflicted by the French, into a major global power. It's a system that works - folk invest in Britain because it's a sound investment and promises a decent financial return.
Bearing this in mind, surely we'll only really be in the crap when large numbers of those gilts have to be bought back or when it's time for the holders to cash them in and/or claim their coupons. I mean, if I was to lend you a tenner in the pub it's true to say that you'd be in debt to me, but we wouldn't be in financial crisis unless I needed it back and you couldn't stump up. So the next question has to be... is there really a long queue of gilt-holders taking their turns rapping on the door of Number 11 demanding financial reconciliation? If so, maybe the Government should consider keeping those Harriers for its own defence!
Just got back from a raid on the Nottingham branch of Decathlon. As usual they have a range of bargains and we took advantage in order to kit-out the kids for the winter. I'd been keeping my hands in my pockets pretty well - up until the final minutes all I'd put in the basket was a pair of fleece gloves for a quid, a couple of dehydrated packet-meals at £4.99 a shot and a pair of socks for about the same.
But then I found these:
TSL 225 Rando snooshows
Yep, that's £69.00 reduced to £44.99
Bargain!
Sold!
FWIW, they had one pair left when we departed.
------ ooooo OOOOO ooooo -----
Additional pics:
We're off to Buttermere sometime next week for a couple of days of walking.
The Met Office is predicting snow.
The MWIS prediction is similar.
😎
On Sunday I rediscovered something in the kitchen - a couple of tins of Carnation condensed milk that I'd stashed after turning them into caramel two months ago (using the regular boil-in-the-can for two hours method). As expected, the taste is as glorious as ever, but the inadvertent ageing has allowed the formation of large sugar crystals throughout the gloop which lends a curious crunchy texture to the stuff.
I had intended to use the caramel as a cake-filling, but there's no way that this can will last that long - I'm off to find a bigger spoon!
I wouldn't have bought this if it hadn't been on offer and if I hadn't managed to get a further significant discount.
It takes up less room on the mount than the big black 8-incher does and it doesn't catch the breeze so much, so it's a lot more stable.
Add to that the facts that it's lighter, more portable and gives a much bigger flat-field for imaging, and it was a no-brainer.
For those with an interest in such things, it's a GSO GSRC6M 6" f/9 Ritchey-Chrétien Astrograph as supplied by Teleskop Service (as opposed to the Astro-Tech version marketed by Astronomics). The Ritchey-Chrétien design is favoured by many professional observatories (including the Hubble Space Telescope) and by some high-end amateurs for many reasons (the absence of any refractive elements, the fixed primary mirror, the coma-free image capability etc.) but until recently they had been expensive beasts compared to other Cassegrain designs. I've wanted one for many years and when the chance to get one came along I grabbed it with both hands.
FWIW, here are some of the specs:
Just in case you were wondering, it is currently on offer discounted from 898 Eur to 499 Eur including tax... suffice to say that a polite request to TS resulted in a favourable deal at a much-reduced total cost and including a GSRCV50 50mm spacer placed between the focuser and the telescope. At this point I must thank Wolfi Ransburg of TS for the great deal - thanks, Wolfi!
Typically, we've had cloudy nights here ever since the thing arrived 🙁
