Find-a-trig

June 14th, 2009 3 Comments »

What a busy weekend. My friend Pete (probably reading this on an RSS feed no doubt) came over to visit and so Friday evening ended with a mixture of Indian and Chinese grub. Pete then suggested that a suitable activity for Saturday morning might be a nice walk around the hills behind the village – a suggestion he may be living to regret. That was all the incentive I needed, and I kitted myself out with full mountain gear – overkill for sure but I haven’t used it in over 12 months so it needed an airing. Now you’ll need to check out the map for this bit to make sense:

ton-mawr-attempt1

We walked out of the village (failing to find the quicker exit straight in to the fields) and back towards the park. My intention was to find the trig point on top of Ton-mawr, marked at 319 metres in the map. Once we got just past the fort and along-side the forest we started to look for a way in – there must be a path to the trig point somewhere cuz it can’t possibly be inaccessible can it? Anyway, there was a path on the map running North of the trig point and I hoped that would have a footpath bearing south once we were on it. But, it looks like this search will have to wait until winter. The path was so overgrown, like over waist height for me (ankle height for Pete) so we carried on and went around the hill instead. It was a nice walk, 7.6 miles so a good walk-up for a planned trip up Snowdon again in couple of weeks. And I got to test out the compass on my fancy “Pro Trek” watch for the first time, very useful for a quick bearing… But back to the trig point. Once back home I did a bit of research… Should have done that before really but never mind. You can see from the Google Maps photo that there are three paths carved in to the forest, so I located the 1:25k scale map of the same area and you can see three white lines in the same shape. Not paths as such, but non-wooded areas that can only be seen on the larger scale map.

tom-mawr2

Hmm, the trig point lies right along one of these “paths” apparantly. I may go back later this week to investigate as I have the week off work, but even zooming in as close as possible reveals very little. There are a couple of white dots I suspect may be the trig point but my biggest task will be fighting my way through the clearings! I must find it… I need to visit my nearest trig point! Yes. I am sad, now you don’t need to point that out in my comments section!

Right… other news. Poppy is sick, and has tested the water resistant qualities of the laminate in the hall, Joseph is doing okay and feeding and growing and crying and feeding lots more. And I have a Java exam tomorrow so will get back to my revision.


Hit by the credit crunch

June 12th, 2009 2 Comments »

It had to happen sooner or later I suppose, but I’ve finally been directly affected by the Global Financial Crisis™. I recently took out a 13 issue subscription to Personal Computer World Magazine and after being sent just one issue, I read a news article advising me that the magazine is being ditched by the publisher: Read Article. Okay so the magazine was not as good as my last subscription choice, PC Pro and whilst reading the July issue started to wish that I had renewed the same magazine as last year… so all is not lost! The final issue, August, should be with me shortly I think, but after that I’m hoping the publisher will switch my subscription to something else. I took a look through their publication list and guess the nearest replacement they have is “PC Magazine“. They also publish What PC, ComputerActive, and Active Home. To be honest, either the former or the latter would be fine by me. But, I have a strange feeling that they will send me something completely random instead – I remember seeing an article written by someone a few weeks back in a similar situation but can’t find a link to it, the guy had his subscription changed from a technology magazine to a gardening one.

Free Money Update 2009

June 10th, 2009 No Comments »

Cashback
It’s official.. anyone who doesn’t use a cashback site is losing a lot of money. I’ve had a Topcashback account for just over a year now and have so far withdrawn to my actual bank account £319.38.. and I’m waiting on £42.67 to become payable, with £95.40 yet to be confirmed by various retailers. This is money for nothing, all I do is double-check the cash back web site when I am about to buy something and click through from there instead. Costs me nothing! The proof is below:

topcashback-2009-061

So go and sign up now and start getting the money you are missing out on, and I’ll earn £2.50 once you get your first payment: www.topcashback.co.uk/oshingler

Google Ads
If you cast your mind back a few months, I decided to monetise this blog by placing a couple of Google Ad panels on the page. The plan was to earn enough money from this to cover the costs of running my domains. I don’t earn a payout until my balance reaches $100. It’s currently at about $46 so thanks to everyone who has clicked on the adverts regularly – but please keep clicking on them when you visit as I’d really like to get the $100 in the next 12 months!

Tesco Clubcard
Even more brilliant than before. I’ve been using clubcard vouchers towards the cost of my Open University courses, but in the last couple of months I’ve discovered a method of boosting the number of points I’m earning several fold. For the last two months we’ve been doing our weekly grocery shopping online and using various voucher codes (found on the Moneysavingexpert forums) to get ‘free’ points with our shop. Every week we’ve had a voucher ranging from £5 off a shop, right up to the mega 750 extra clubcard points (worth £7.50 in vouchers, or £30 towards an OU course). In one month I’ve collected over 4000 clubcard points. Previously I was collecting that many per quarter!

First day at school

June 9th, 2009 1 Comment »

I know she was only 3 yesterday, but here in Welshlandplace Poppy can start school the day after her 3rd birthday. Okay so technically it is only nursery and she will only be going in for the afternoon each day until next school year, but it’s still school and she has to wear uniform. I’m told she didn’t cry until her mummy came back to pick her up at the end of the day.

poppy_first_day_at_school

Poppy’s 3rd Birthday

June 8th, 2009 1 Comment »

Yup, my little girl is 3 today. We had a little birthday celebration yesterday thanks to Blum’s Buffets Ltd, and Poppy invited her friend Alice over to help eat the food. And I do make a mean chocolate cake if I dare say so myself. This birthday cake was a chocolate sponge covered in chocolate truffle icing, decorated with a complete surface of chocolate buttons, and the number 3 written out in marshmallows. Yum.

poppy_3rd_birthday

She’s very much enjoying her playhouse – both girls tested it heavily yesterday by jumping inside the house. Poppy would also like to say thank you to everyone who bought her a present, and a big thank you to Nanna, Grandad, Granny, Grancher, Great Nanna, Great Grandad, Auntie Emily, Uncle Nick, Auntie Helena, Uncle-ish Diarra, Great-Uncle Paddy, Great-Auntie Lorna, Great-Uncle Nick and Great-Auntie Hilary who all helped towards her playhouse.