Clipper Race at Hull

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The Round the World Clipper Race does exactly what it says on the tin. Ten yachts from various countries are setting sail around the world. The different thing about this race though is that the crews are made up of ordinary folk who have signed up, got trained and will join their boats for various stages on the round the world trip.

It starts from Hull tomorrow, but today the boats were in Hull Marina so we went for a look. I took the little camera for some snaps. I had a go at making a panorama shot of the side of the marina.

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It seemed to come out OK.

The atmosphere was great and the weather amazing.

Warwick Castle

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Warwick Castle is ace.  Having great weather probably helped, but the place was pretty cool too.

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View from the top

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Castle and Mill

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Ballista power.

The two big round things on each side take a person each, who walk inside them to lift up a four ton weight that is used to propel the payload a heck of a distance. If someone rocks up outside your castle with one of these you should really let them in, because in the end they are coming in whether you like it or not…

Scarborough Sea Battles

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We went off today for a day trip to Scarborough. They say that “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” and I’m starting from a fairly dull base, and so we went off for some fun and games. Took the big camera.

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Scarborough Seaside

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Posh Hotel

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Artistic Nets

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Sea Battle

They have this thing where they re-enact naval battles in a boating lake. No, really. Number one daughter didn’t believe me either, until I took her along. Great fun.

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If you look carefully you can see that there is actually a man in the ship..

Happy Birthday Me

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Another year older and deeper in debt. As the saying goes. But at least I got to go to Alton Towers. (being the birthday boy and also the driver means that you do get some privileges it seems).

I’m not a big fan of big rides, I just like the attention to detail and the general atmosphere of these places. Of course Disney do it best, but Universal Studio and Alton run them a close second. Alton Towers doesn’t have a huge stable of TV and film back story to beef up its act, but it more than makes up for this with fantastic grounds around the park itself.

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A good place to be

We had a great time. I went on some of the less demanding rides and the weather was kind to us. What more can you ask?

Oh and many thanks to the people who flocked to my FaceBook page and wished me all the best. It almost makes me wish I posted stuff on there. Perhaps I will one day, just before it goes out of fashion…

Pyramids

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I’ve been told that however much you prepare for the experience, seeing the pyramids for the first time will blow you away. And it does.

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The first glimpse

They really are impressive. Close up they are beyond huge, and when you reflect who made them, and how, you just get even more impressed.

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Not small

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The key is 52 degrees apparently. Anything else falls down.

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Antiquities Police

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Obligatory tourist shot

Neil Young

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I’ve not been to a rock concert for ages. I’ve never been to one where the headline act is 64 years old. But today I found myself in Nottingham Arena, surrounded by lots of people of a certain age, waiting for Neil Young to come and play his guitar at us.

By gum he was good though. I’ve not been a huge fan of his in the past, but I can see I’ve been missing out.  I knew quite a few of the songs because they are standards, and they were all delivered with a gusto and energy that belied both the age of the performer and the fact that he must have played them many times before. It must be particularly strange for him to sing songs he wrote ages ago about being 24, but he did it all very well.

I took a camera and was a bit worried about taking pictures, but I knew I was OK when the security folk started ducking so that they would not be in my line of sight.

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The support act were very good too. I’m afraid I didn’t catch their name though.

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Great night out. I enjoyed it so much I even bought a T shirt…

Summer Bash

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Time for another bash. We had a good turnout, even though it was the last but one day of the session and lots of folks had headed home for free food and drink.

We had our first Unreal Tournament Bot programming event at a bash, which was fun although next time I’ll hopefully have a bot that does something more than stand in the corner.

I took the big camera, and got some happy snaps. There are more on Flkickr, tagged with 2009Hullsummerbash.

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Subtle product placement?

 

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A useful prize for a change?

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Rock Band gets some hammer (that mysterious black blob at the left side of the picture is my camera case…)

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Adam looks superior, as well he might…

XNA at DevDays 09

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My final session of the trip had me in front of another great audience. Thanks folks. I’ve put the code for all the demonstrations here.

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This is my setup for the presentation. If you want to find the other pictures you might be in, you can find them on my Flickr pages.

After the talk it was off to grab a taxi to the station and then on to a very nice train (they have very nice trains in Holland) back to the airport and a plane home.

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I like the seafood bar at Schipol airport. Not that raw fish before a flight strikes me as a massively good idea.