Is everything we do governed by or down to chance?
After this week, I think so…

You know what it’s like, your working day is dictated by events which may have been arranged or planned by others, and they seem to assume that because those things are written down or added to their diaries, that they will happen whatever.

Well this week, I know better! Things don’t happen in the way we assume and that’s mainly because we think things will always happen in the way they were planned. In fact these “things” are much more likely to happen in the same way experienced by a gambler. Let me give an example:

Assume I order something from the internet, I see the item is in stock and happily accept the suppliers delivery date… Mistake! – How on earth can the supplier know that their delivery company will have all their staff on hand to deliver my goods? How do they know the ferries to the Island will be running? etc etc….

The situation is far more like a gambler throwing a die/dice – sometimes it’ll be a 6 but much more likely is a number 1-5. OK, so my delivery is predicted on Monday, but that assumes we threw a 6, mostly we don’t; perhaps we threw a 4 as it snowed near the courier’s depot, that means we won’t see our purchase until, at best Tuesday and probably Wednesday or perhaps even Friday!

At every stage in the supply chain everyone “throws the die”, the end result is difficult to predict but as a rule of thumb, it’s safe enough to assume that not everyone will throw that elusive 6 and that your delivery will be late…

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Filed under: Funny, Isle of Wight, Techie, Trivia

Watching the BBC programme “The Genius of Invention” at the moment and, slightly distracted by Fox Talbot and his connection with the Wiltshire village of Lacock, I  decided to Google “Lacock“.

I have to declare something of an interest as I know my mother worked at nearby Stonar School some years before I was born, and that her father, my grandfather, was involved in a project there to collate FTs letters.

Having satisfied the FT connection to Lacock, I was amazed to see nothing on the  ”Lacock” Wikipedia page about the Folk Festival back in the 1970s. As those years were an important part of my youth and attendance of the festival was almost obligatory, to say I was disappointed was something of an understatement.

I am fully aware that the Festival was rather stolen by Chippenham but I am amazed that the “public facing” history of the village is so poorly reported on Wikipedia.

Oh well, I suppose I’ll have to dig out my old photos and edit the entry myself…. if you can help with pics or anecdotes I’d be very happy to hear from you…

Those were happy days indeed……..

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Filed under: Home, Mates

The following article is from Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter and is copyright by Richard W. Eastman. It is re-published here with the permission of the author. Information about the newsletter is available at http://www.eogn.com.

This newsletter often points to interesting articles available elsewhere on the web. I usually give a 2- or 3-sentence introduction, followed by a link to the article of interest. According to a coalition of Irish newspapers, if I provide a link to an Irish newspaper, I am a pirate.

The National Newspapers of Ireland has adopted a new policy. Any website which links to one of the 15 NNI member newspapers will have to pay a minimum of 300 Euros ($395 US dollars), with the license fee going up if you post more links. See http://goo.gl/K3Oj3 for the details.

Note that this is not a fee to post an excerpt or some punitive measure for the copying of an entire article. No, the NNI wants to charge for links alone. It doesn’t apply just to newsletters or web sites, the NNI wants to charge the same fee to ANYONE who even posts a single link in a Twitter message or any other message in any public place on the Internet. That includes Facebook, all blogs, all web pages, and perhaps anyplace else online!

This is one of the most stupid ideas I have read in recent times. The National Newspapers of Ireland obviously has no idea how the web works and also has no concept of the amount of valuable publicity that links to their members’ newspapers can provide.

Online news site Slashdot suggests this is an elaborate way to commit suicide.

Whatever the reasons, I will abide by this rule. I will no longer refer to any Irish newspaper web site until the National Newspapers of Ireland wakes up and rescinds this foolishness.

Investigating this madness a little further, I discovered an Irish Solicitor who agrees with Dick.

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Filed under: Funny, Genealogy, Hobbies, Politics, Scams, Search Engines

Had a round at Newport Golf Club this week.

Along with the other PIGS (Pointer Inn Golf Society) and guys from the Traveller’s Joy and Salvatore’s, we took a chance with the weather and had a knock about competition between the three pubs.

As it turned out we didn’t get too wet and thoroughly enjoyed the day. After a warm welcome in the clubhouse we ventured out on to a damp but well tended course. As Newport was one of the two Island courses I hadn’t played, I didn’t really know what to expect. I needn’t have been worried though as, despite being on winter greens for just about all of the holes, the course was in great condition and a credit to all involved.

To make things even better I shot a round of 39 points!

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Filed under: Golf, Hobbies, Home, Isle of Wight, Mates, Seasonal

Just had a couple of days at Meon Valley Marriott Hotel for a golf weekend. Everything with the hotel was pretty good, a bit slow at getting the food out after we’d ordered – perhaps to be expected after a round of golf took the best part of 6 hours! but, apart from a few complaints like “that was nice but could I please have some more” and ” why don’t they just do pasta, curry, chilli or fish and chips”, I think most of us enjoyed the food.

Sunday golf though took the edge off the weekend as the we didn’t see a course marshal all day and  there was nobody at the course half-way-point to complain to about slow play. Most of our group lost the will to live after the first 9 holes and nobody scored really well.

The course wasn’t in great condition compared to last year but I’d like to think that was down to the extra-ordinarily wet weather we’ve seen in the last few months. Even raised greens were saturated despite the greenside bunkers being bone dry (?) The rest of the course looked a bit “tired” and  unloved which is a shame because we all know what it can be like from out visit last year.

Anyhow, as is the way with golf weekends, plenty of beer was drunk and a pretty good time was had by all.

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Filed under: Golf, Mates