Robin@30

Despite the T-shirt he is only 30 today.
What am I saying, "He's only 30"? Surely we can't be old enough to have a 30 year old son? Anyway we had a meal to celebrate in the local Harvester.
Can you see the picture of the Apple who has been given a new pPod as a present? We (Nana, Mum & Dad) helped Robin buy his new off-road bike - see Robin's own blog for picture and details of its first outing to Cropton.

Banquet at Ruthin

The conference dinner was a mediaeval banquet at Ruthin Castle.
After exploring the castle we were taken to the banqueting hall and sat down on benches. You start with a plate, a dagger and a goblet of mead
The serving wenches brought 4 courses: soup, then lamb on the bone, then half a capon, then syllabub. All were delicious, even if we did struggle to find a way of eating them.
It turned out that the serving wenches were also singers, bringing us songs in Welsh like "Men of Harlech", "We'll keep a welcome", etc. One of the delegates was also prevailed upon to play the spinnet and sing a song

During the speeches and presentations I was given a BCS mug and a certificate for chairing a session.

And so ends a happy conference

Wrecsam->Chester

"Croeso Cymru". I am really at Wrecsam, look you!
Today we were given the afternoon off and coaches were supplied to get us to Chester
I took an audio tour of the cathedral - you can see a picture of the 'Chapter' - the place where the monks had read to them a chapter of the rules of St Benedict each morning
The old city wall is complete at Chester - you can walk all the way round in about 45min. This is a view of a shopping street from the wall

And here is a typical parade of shops from street level.

The trip to Chester finished with a 2hr boat trip up the Dee with a hot meal provided. We saw eels, deer and a cormorant - as well as canoists and serious (Oxford & Cambridge boat race type) rowing boats

A student in Wales?

Well, here I am in sunny Wrexham - North East Wales Institute (NEWI) to be precise - for the Internet Technologies and Applications conference (ITA07)
I have been allocated a room on the top floor of 'D' block in the student village
And here it is in all its glory
Actually I couldn't get in at first because the suite key for the landing that I had been given didn't work. But now I have sunshine and internet access and spare time.

The conference has been so-so up to now but I have met a researcher from Uganda who expressed a desire to come and work with our web accessibility group for a while.

Scarecrows in English Switzerland

On bank holiday Monday, after delivering Doris to stay with Joyce, we took ourselves off to North Devon to what the travel brochures call "English Switzerland". We stayed at a B&B in Lynton which is a recognised centre for exploring Exmoor.



On Tuesday we drove to the Valley of the Rocks and walked a small section of the coastal path which stretches unbroken from Minehead in Somerset all the way round Land's End to Poole Harbour in Dorset.



In the bright sunshine the "tallest sea cliffs in Britain" looked spectacular

Lynton was having its month long Scarecrow Festival which involves many houses and businesses coming up with inventive scarecrows placed in their gardens or fixed to the front of buildings

Jacqui made it into the sea at one of the few beaches - we 'discovered' this one after a hair-raising drive down a private road on which there was an honesty box toll of £1

As new members of the National Trust we wanted to "get our money's worth" and so we visited NT properties in the area - this is Watersmeet which offers a tea room converted from an old hunting lodge which was built at a confluence of the West Lyn and Hoar Oak rivers.

We also visited Arlington Grange (NT) and went round the house and gardens - and ended up in competition to get the best picture of a butterfly


On our last day we visited Dunster Castle - a stiff climb - and had the obligatory Devon Cream tea in a converted chapel in "historic mediaeval Dunster village with working water mill". Afterwards we visited Dunster beach and looking back we saw the West Devon Steam Railway in action.