A wedding, a hill, and croaks a plenty
I was up reasonably early on Saturday morning, and managed to get packed and out of the door without leaving too much (apart from coffee and my VHF radio) behind. The roads weren't too bad. There were one or two sluggish stretches, but nothing seriously tedious. I stopped at Northampton for a quick snack and a cup of coffee, and got to Shenton at about 1:30pm. My friend's wedding was at 2pm, and it went well. The reception was at Mythe Barn, a little further down the road. The food and the party were excellent, as was the weather. I retired to my hotel at around 11pm, having set my watch and car clocks forward for the following morning.
On Sunday I made it to breakfast not too late (in spite of the clock change), and managed to check out of the hotel just before 11am. I then headed back to Shenton for some more relaxed post-wedding catching-up over lunch. I headed off towards nearby Bardon Hill at about 2:15pm, and spent an hour or so on the top of it playing with the radio. My voice was a bit croaky, so I started the activation using Morse, and switched to voice only after I'd made enough contacts to qualify the summit. The weather remained sunny, but the wind was a bit chilly up on top. I headed down via a likely geocache hiding place I'd spotted on my way up, and, sure enough, there was a cache there, so I signed its log. I was back on the road and heading home by about 6pm. At a sluggish point in the journey I took advantage of a motorway services stop to have a coffee, and I was home by about 9:30pm.
I woke up on Monday with rather more of a croaky voice than I'd had on Sunday, and by the evening there was a bit of a cough to go with it. I did very little all day. I drove to the shops in the evening in order to get myself some food, and after supper I caught the Monday evening Morse practice broadcast from Tollesbury. It was, for a change, not impossible to copy, and I got more than three quarters of it, which is rather more than normal for that broadcast.
I spent a bit of time playing with the Arduino kit in the evening. The LED matrix was a bit of a pig to wire up. The stepper motor and the ultra-sonic distance measurement device were much simpler. All worked well enough with the example code.
I also managed to keep my Duolingo streak going without needing a freeze, though making use of hotel WiFi and my mobile made the difference on Sunday. The change to DST seems to have somewhat confused the system about how many exercises I'd done in a day, though. I thought I'd managed a steady five per day, but since the DST change the graph has been showing some ups and downs that weren't there before. I can only assume that the system has applied DST retroactively to last week, and thus moved some attempts into the next day.
This morning I still have a croaky voice and a bit of a cough. I expect that may mean I stay home this evening.
On Sunday I made it to breakfast not too late (in spite of the clock change), and managed to check out of the hotel just before 11am. I then headed back to Shenton for some more relaxed post-wedding catching-up over lunch. I headed off towards nearby Bardon Hill at about 2:15pm, and spent an hour or so on the top of it playing with the radio. My voice was a bit croaky, so I started the activation using Morse, and switched to voice only after I'd made enough contacts to qualify the summit. The weather remained sunny, but the wind was a bit chilly up on top. I headed down via a likely geocache hiding place I'd spotted on my way up, and, sure enough, there was a cache there, so I signed its log. I was back on the road and heading home by about 6pm. At a sluggish point in the journey I took advantage of a motorway services stop to have a coffee, and I was home by about 9:30pm.
I woke up on Monday with rather more of a croaky voice than I'd had on Sunday, and by the evening there was a bit of a cough to go with it. I did very little all day. I drove to the shops in the evening in order to get myself some food, and after supper I caught the Monday evening Morse practice broadcast from Tollesbury. It was, for a change, not impossible to copy, and I got more than three quarters of it, which is rather more than normal for that broadcast.
I spent a bit of time playing with the Arduino kit in the evening. The LED matrix was a bit of a pig to wire up. The stepper motor and the ultra-sonic distance measurement device were much simpler. All worked well enough with the example code.
I also managed to keep my Duolingo streak going without needing a freeze, though making use of hotel WiFi and my mobile made the difference on Sunday. The change to DST seems to have somewhat confused the system about how many exercises I'd done in a day, though. I thought I'd managed a steady five per day, but since the DST change the graph has been showing some ups and downs that weren't there before. I can only assume that the system has applied DST retroactively to last week, and thus moved some attempts into the next day.
This morning I still have a croaky voice and a bit of a cough. I expect that may mean I stay home this evening.