Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[tikay]

Initially I was yearning to be at DTD yesterday, but I had decided to have a poker free weekend, & I went exploring my new locale, & spent most of the day in Richmond Park & Bushy Park.

Both are "Royal Parks", & are simply magnificent. There must have been - literally - thousands of joggers & cyclists doing their thing, & taking the air.

Both parks are rich in wildlife, with herds of deer, & more jackdaws than I have ever seen. The only birdlife I saw were jackdaws & pigeons, but I imagine there were plenty others besides.

Richmond Park is huge, 8 miles from end to end I believe, criss-crossed by roads, all with a 20mph limit which everyone seemed to respect. It must sit on a hill, because the City is clearly visible, including the London Eye, the Shard, Canary Wharf, & St Pauls Cathedral, &, to the north west, Wembley Stadium.

Not much in it, but I marginally preferred the smaller Bushy Park.

Old Deer Park is nearby, too. That is owned by the Crown Estate, but I don't think it is a "Royal Park". It's bounded vby the Thames, & Kew Gardens. What a grand part of London!

Such wonderful resources, & totally free. We don't live so bad really, do we?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richmond_Park

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushy_Park

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Deer_Park

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[Geo the Sarge]

Did you take those?

Geo

[tikay]

Today, a lovely clear blue sky, the air is crisp & sharp, so a walk along the side of the Thames is next up, probbly go along the Thames Path to Hampton Court, & get some practice in with the new camera. No "exotic" birds expected, judging on my previous walks up there, but plenty of gulls, geese, moorhen, mallards & swans, & they are all lovely creatures. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to spot, & take photos of, dippers, goldfinches & the like, but it won't spoil my fun.

From there, am going across to Heathrow, where Concorde is parked in front of the BA maintenance hanger this weekend, smack by the perimeter road, so a great photo opportunity.

Not sure I'll be brave enough to upload the photos though.

Geo said I did not need to run the Camera CD thing, that was just for cropping, & editing. Seems like cheating to me, to mess around with the natural photos, as Tom does.......

Will respond to the outstanding questions & comments later, gotta get started on my little Sunday adventure, in the fresh air.

Do I wish I was at DTD today? Nah, not really, it's good to break the habit now & then. But the vbol to all my friends playing there today. 

Have a great Sunday, whatever you do.

[tikay]

Did you take those?

Geo

Umm, no. I wish! But I'll take a bunch there soon.

Today will be the new cameras debut.

[Tractor]

Did you take those?

Geo

Umm, no. I wish! But I'll take a bunch there soon.

Today will be the new cameras debut.

Good luck! You will be hooked.

[Geo the Sarge]

Today, a lovely clear blue sky, the air is crisp & sharp, so a walk along the side of the Thames is next up, probbly go along the Thames Path to Hampton Court, & get some practice in with the new camera. No "exotic" birds expected, judging on my previous walks up there, but plenty of gulls, geese, moorhen, mallards & swans, & they are all lovely creatures. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to spot, & take photos of, dippers, goldfinches & the like, but it won't spoil my fun.

From there, am going across to Heathrow, where Concorde is parked in front of the BA maintenance hanger this weekend, smack by the perimeter road, so a great photo opportunity.

Not sure I'll be brave enough to upload the photos though.

Geo said I did not need to run the Camera CD thing, that was just for cropping, & editing. Seems like cheating to me, to mess around with the natural photos, as Tom does.......

Will respond to the outstanding questions & comments later, gotta get started on my little Sunday adventure, in the fresh air.

Do I wish I was at DTD today? Nah, not really, it's good to break the habit now & then. But the vbol to all my friends playing there today. 

Have a great Sunday, whatever you do.

For the record I don't crop and edit, merely have it installed as a good area to view and organise from

Geo

[Chompy]

I know we don't do films but would recommend The Big Year. About 'birding' and trying to spot as many as poss in a year. The magic figure in the US seems to be about 750. Steve Martin is actually good in this and Jack Black is bearable for once.

Is there anything similar in the UK? What would be a good annual figure? Would you start the campaign in Drainy's back garden?

[jakally]

fishing & angling (I get confused at which is which) for so long, which is/are the UK's biggest participation sport by a long way,

I have heard this 'fact' repeated on occasions previously, but is it actually true?
I know / have known, of very few people who Angle (?) regularly, or at all, as compared to lots of people who play football, snooker, golf etc....

[Jon MW]

fishing & angling (I get confused at which is which) for so long, which is/are the UK's biggest participation sport by a long way,

I have heard this 'fact' repeated on occasions previously, but is it actually true?
I know / have known, of very few people who Angle (?) regularly, or at all, as compared to lots of people who play football, snooker, golf etc....

1m rod licenses a year apparantly, and a completely unverified source of 3m a year total are what I found.

However it isn't that close to swimming which I've seen statistics to say that about 5.5m people go swimming every month.

So fishing is not the UK's biggest participation sport - and it isn't by a long way.

Technically neither is swimming though.

[gatso]

Initially I was yearning to be at DTD yesterday, but I had decided to have a poker free weekend, & I went exploring my new locale, & spent most of the day in Richmond Park & Bushy Park.

Both are "Royal Parks", & are simply magnificent. There must have been - literally - thousands of joggers & cyclists doing their thing, & taking the air.

every single saturday at 9am for the last 7ish years there's been a 5 km race run in bushy park. it's completely free and run by volunteers, it now gets more than 750 entrants each week

[SuuPRlim]

Wildlife that we ALL like. How very odd that we all seem to love certain species?

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I always found dolphins a but annoying, big fan of squirrels tho, cept those pesky greys keep scaring all the red's off.

[bobby1]

Wildlife that we ALL like. How very odd that we all seem to love certain species?

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Nice beaver.

[Machka]

The "Tight Lines" TV Show is a tremendous watch, & Keith Arthur gets the mood spot on, & the production of the show gets it just right. I know Keith vaguely, his Studio used to be next to ours, we are not friends, but we are on speaking terms, & I've been trying to get him on 865 as a Guest, but he is always too busy.

I was quite surprised, however, to hear him dissing otters on Friday's Show, he described them as "rats" & "vermin", because they do a lot damage to fisheries & fish. I thought we all liked otters - they are in the same bracket as dolphins, whales, squirrels, & moles, we all love them.

He seemed to be suggesting a cull, or "controlling" their spread, but I'm not sure I like the notion of man interfering with the balance of nature.   

Anyway, otters are nice.

Even so, I think Keith is a cut above, a great guy. He's been presenting "Tight Lines" since it began in 1995, & he has been writing for the Angling Times since 1980. Tight Lines, in case you are not aware, is in Barry Hearn's "Matchroom TV" stable. Barry's portfolio of Poker shows are dead in the water these days, but he has plenty of other strings to his bow.

Anyway, back to Keith. Given he has been so prominent in fishing & angling (I get confused at which is which) for so long, which is/are the UK's biggest participation sport by a long way, he seems to have a very low profile, I cannot even find a Wikipidea page for him. Anyone know why?

PS - Fishing is on my bucket list, for when I retire.

I fished as a lad up to the age of about 15, must have gone at least once a week from the age of about 10 - 15.  Freshwater float fishing or sea fishing I would happily spend a weekend or evening doing either.  Then I just stopped for some reason.

Last spring I went online and bought myself a 2 complete freshwater fishing kits and 2 complete beach fishing kits.  Since then I've been sea fishing exactly twice.  I really should get back into it properly.  Maybe this spring / summer who knows?

One great thing is that on one of those sea fishing trips, at Mayflower Park in Southampton, Leo caught his first ever fish, a rainbow wrasse.

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I caught nothing.

You can't go mentioning fishing shows without bringing John Wilson into the discussion.  I guess he's not to everyone's taste but he sure likes his fishing

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[bobby1]

Bob Nudd ftw

Best memories are from childhood fishing holidays in caravans. We used to have a static on a fishing site in Skeggy and would go every other weekend in the summer. My best fish was about a 6-7 lbs carp that I caught when about 14 and  needed some help to land it. I also managed about a 2 1/2 to 3 lb Perch which is a real beauty.

My fav spot was behind a little church at Wainfleet, I could sit there for hours, even now.

[JaffaCake]

The film Pearl Harbour is on Channel Five today, is it any good or a load of rubbish. Really enjoyed the pics and stuff u put on the diary about Pearl Harbour, stuff I didn't previously know about, will watching the film enhance my interest or put me off? Have u seen it teeks? Anyone else?