2011-10-31: Hallowe’en trip ‘n’ treating

It was All Hallows Eve … and we decided to see some of the mysterious sites of ancient Britain.
Setting of from Nuneaton our first stop was Avebury, a small city surrounded by standing stones, close to Marlborough. Following the signs, however had us visit The West Kennet Long Burrow first. It is just off the A4, near Silbury Hill, near Avebury.
A shorty wall up-hill we found some merrily clad “Hallowe’en-ers” and then saw the big stones shielding the entrance to the cavernous burial chamber and side chambers.
The space inside the chambers is quite big and “retro-fitted” roof-lights so there is enough light to see the outline well enough.
The view from the burrow across to Silbury Hill was amazing and while we were looking we chattered to a nice chap about The Burrow’s history. Then it was time to head for Avebury.
We took the back-route, that saw us driving along some of the stones with cows grazing among them. After parking in the visitors  car park, we went for a wander along the stones.
Avebury is a pretty and old town and the standing stones add mystique.
Our next stop was Stonehenge… one of Stacy’s “must-see” stops. We were lucky enough to arrive st a more quiet time of the year and three few tourists that shared Stonehenge with us were respectful and did not detract from the majestic vista the henge presents. Walking around the site allowed us to see the stones from all sides and get a great overview.
From Stonehenge we made our way to Glastonbury, centre of much of the Avalon myth. In Glastonbury we stopped at the Chalice Gardens, ilhome to what they call the fountain of Avalon. Then we climbed the mound to visit the Tor, site of the last abbott being hanged during the time of the disolution of the monasteries.
While the weather wasn’t sunny, on the whole we were lucky and it didn’t rain while we were visiting any of the sights and along the route we enjoyed the beautiful autumn colours. We ended our journey in Minehead by the sea, but it was too dark to really appreciate the town.

2011-10-15: Transistors to Transvestites

Long Overdue Story: It was a Saturday in October 2011 when Timothy and Stacy met two of Timothy’s friends to walk around the Bletchley Park Computer Museum.

The museum is sited were during World War II the British coding experts were working on decrypting German secret messages. Led by Alan Turing and coming by a German Enigma machine, they successfully managed to glean important secrets using computational analysis for the first time in history. It was the genius of Alan Turing who realised you could use computation in this way.

The museum houses much of the original equipment as well as “gadgets” that plot the history of computation, including PDP11s, a variety of mobile telephones and an exhibition with BBC Micros where you can have a go at writing your own code – if you are so inclined!

It’s a great day out and we had a lovely time. Thank you Dan and Matt.

The Title? You’re wondering? Well at the end of our time at the museum we went for a meal in a lovely pub with nice food. To cap it off, as we were leaving we encountered a group of very tall transvestites – basketball players in drag?