Digital Voicing

Today as part of my work for Neighbourhood watch, I spent the morning volunteering at Wilmslow Library. I was helping to explain the BT digital voice switchover. It was quite a change from my usual, chatting with everyday non technical folks who were a bit jittery about the change.

Fortunately for the majority of users the switch means a very small change and for those with great needs there will be support to help them with this.

Hopefully people left feeling happier about it than when they arrived.

TaskRabbiting

I needed a small piece of cabling done which required drilling through a quite thick outside wall. I didn't have the right drill bit and rather than buy one I decided to give taskrabbit a go. This is an internet service which you can post a job and choose a "tasker" to come and do it for you.

I choose somebody call Laurence who charged about the average rate per hour. He came did the job and I got a bill for 2 hours work (it took 1.5). The total was  £68.76 including the £10.86 TaskRabbit fee and £8.11 trust and support fee. The job was done well and was slightly less than if I had used a traditional electrician. 

Overall happy with the service. 

Millenium walking

It hard to believe how much hype there was about the millennium, from people selling champagne futures to the many people who seemed to want to build civic things to mark the occasion. From the millennium dome to the Millennium walkway in New Mills which we decided to visit on our way home from center parks.

The millennium walkway in New Mills is a partly cantilevered bridge over the river Goyt adding a joining section in the E2 router which runs from Scotland to Nice in France!

It is quite a wonderful piece of engineering and still looks great all these years later. You get to have a lovely country side walk with some industrial heritage to boot, well worth a visit if you are in the area.

Centre parcs

Until this weekend I had never visited Centre Parks. To me, it was the sort of place more affluent or aspiring people visited. However Kath managed to get a deal for a long weekend there. This also included some day passes so our friends Tom, Fiona and their daughter Daisy could spend the day with us.

We choose the Sherwood Forest site, its about 2 hours drive from Wilmslow. On arrival there is a security check in and we were told we could bring the car to unload our stuff but then we had to park in the main car park.

It was pretty crazy coming in lots of people leaving and arriving.

Our cabin was a short walk from the "Village centre" where the shops, swimming area and restaurants are located. To me the town felt more like a theme park than a real place with chains like Bella Italia and Las Iguanas.  Top tip: we couldn't get anywhere for lunch on Sunday so book early to avoid disappointment.  There is a lake in the centre where you can hire a boat. There was also a go ape style forest walkway with a zip wire across the water. I would have liked to have a go on that but Thom is far too young.

There was a nice sandy "beach" next to the lake which the kids enjoyed running around and digging in. There were also parks and outdoor play areas.

We spent the most of our time in the subtropical swimming world. With a variety of water slides for all ages, a wave machine and a pirate themed area for younger children to enjoy it was a great way to spend a day. It is mostly covered by a large dome but there was a heated outdoor section with jacuzzi spa and a river rapid. Thom had a great time with the water play. The only annoying thing was trying to find somewhere to leave your towel. People are quite territorial with the chairs marking their territory. 

The lodges are all set in the woodland ours had a nice view of the trees with plenty of nature outside. Thom enjoyed watching squirrels, ducks, moorhens and geese. 

The bed was comfortable though the couches were a bit too soft for my liking.

There is a food delivery service so you can order takeaway to the lodge. The kitchen was actually better than I expected so I think I would take more food to make next time.

Overall had a great time, yes its expensive but there was plenty to do and I enjoyed the setting. It would be great to have a BBQ outside when the weather was a bit warmer. Id probably use the restaurants less, they were really expansive I even got charged 75p for a small sauce to go with my chips!

Down in a hole

Today we went to visit Pool Cavern in Buxton. The Cavern was created by the water movement dissolving away the limestone over thousands of years. There are Stalagmites and Stalactite the largest of which named ‘Flitch of Bacon’. It is approximately 100,000 years old & 6ft 1.8m long. 

Currently the Cavern has been illuminated with Christmas lights the entire length, its a simple but very effective show.

Starting from the museum displaying items and fossiles found during the excavation of the site. We took around 45 minutes to view the museum then walk the length of the cavern. 

We had lunch afterward in the cafe which was tasty and child and dog friendly.

After lunch we took a stroll into the Buxton county park walking the Yellow trail up to Solomons temple. Solomons temple is a Victorian Era folly sited at the highest point in Derbyshire and the Peak District at 636m (2,088ft). The walk begins at the car park then up 50 or so steps then a gently inclining slope through the Woods. There are several statues on the way celebrating the history of the area. As the wood gives way to grassland close to the summit the views of Buxton and the surrounding areas are fantastic. The walk there and back was around 3KM mostly gravel tracks. Though steep in places our son Thom (4yo) managed without issues.

iRobot (the vacuuming one)

Roomba docked in the kitchen 

Today my new home helper arrive in the form of a Roomba J5+. I have been toying with the idea of buying a robot vacuum for a while. We have three cats and a small boy so there is always a lot of fluff and muck to clean up.

The package was simple enough take out the roomba and stand, site the stand then insert the roomba. There is an app for the iPhone I downloaded. The first run roomba wanders around the house mapping the floor plan. After which a map appears which you can subdivide into different rooms. 

The mapping took quite a while around one hour and forty five minutes. It did produce a pretty good representation of the ground floor. 

Once finished with the mapping (and a recharge) we set roomba going vacuuming round. It was did a good job clearing up dust and pet fluff and was small enough go go underneath our sofa and armchair. Even cleaned up the pine needles from the Christmas tree.

It is able to empty its dust collection into the dock which is nice, and should mean it only needs infrequent emptying.

I was able to pair roomba with my existing google home assistant and after naming the areas on the smart map I am able to say "Hey google ask roomba to clean the hall" and google will trigger roomba to go to that area and start a clean.

The unit also came with a mop function attachment. This requires more manual effort, first have to attach a cloth the unit then swap out the normal collection bin with the split mop and vacuum one. The downside to this is that it cannot empty the contents into the dock you need to fill the water prior to use then empty manually once roomba is finished. I would say the it did an adequate but not impressive job mopping, it wasn't able to get out mucky hallway clean from mudstains. It was able to clean the more lightly soiled kitchen floor.

Overall its a great bit of kit, especially as a vacuum. It cleaned up my house nicely and I can schedule it to run. It takes longer than vacuuming yourself however you are not putting in the work.

Happy birthday Thom

Today was Thom’s birthday party. His birthday is next week to celebrate. We held a party at Brookside Garden Centre where he and all his friends got to paint baubles then ride on the miniature train.

Everybody seemed to have fun, it was lovely so many of Thom's (and our) friends came. 

The group ride on the train was really cute we went on all togerther. Santa was at the halfway point o the train ride so they all got to say Merry Christmas too.

Kath bough cakes and brownies for everybody to enjoy. Afterwards we headed to the Aviator in Woofdord for Dinner with Dan Kate and Rafe. Overall a lovely day with friends and lots of fun.