As a child, if I had a favourite toy it would have had to be Scalextric, the slot car racing set. I started off with one of the smaller sets, a figure of 8 with some banking and a couple of rally Minis to race around. This was gradually enhanced as I managed to beg, borrow or (more usually) buy extra bits of track. Eventually, I managed to get up to a fully operational 4 track circuit which would, on occasion, be changed to a very long two track set with a fiendishly long strait that would run the full length of the hallway before returning to the living room. All of this prevented my mother from Hoovering which drove her batty.
For his 11th birthday, my middle son decided to spend his birthday money on a similar (but presumably much cheaper) set. This features the familiar figure of eight circuit but with the addition of a loop-the-loop. I’m actually surprised that he went for this as electronic games consoles seem to be the standard these days but I’m rather pleased that he has gone for something more old-school.
However, the first thing that I had forgotten about these is just quite how long it takes to set the whole thing up. It didn’t look that complicated but it took nearly 2 hours to assemble everything up to the point that the cars, modelled on the Mario Bros characters, could be raced around. I think it was at this point that I discovered an interesting difference with the old Scalextric set. With Scalextric, if you go too fast, the cars fly off the track. With the loop-the-loop, if you don’t go fast enough on the Mario set, the cars drop off.
Anyway, much fun was had although I also recalled another feature of the old Scalextric sets. For every 10 minutes of racing there seems to be another 5 minutes of straightening out the contact brushes. You don’t get that with console games…
Monday, 26 September 2016
Sunday, 18 September 2016
New Car Smell
I spent a couple of hours cleaning up our car yesterday. Being a people carrier it seems to accumulate a huge array of litter, grime, detritus and generally vile smells. I have come to the conclusion that the people that are carried in this vehicle, particularly those in the rear seats are somewhat grotty. Anyway, after clearing away the debris, hoovering, cleaning and generally freshening up the whole thing it is actually a reasonably hospitable place to be in again.
There is another way of overcoming the stench of overly lived in automobile and that is the trusty air freshener. There are a variety of these devices that often come in the shape of a tree or flower. The one in my car actually clips on to the air vent although is no substitute for a “no rotten apple cores” rule. The scents that these come in are sometimes floral or occasionally pine or other fresh outdoorsy fragrances (assuming that the outdoors fragrance isn’t next to the chemical plants in Grangemouth). There is also one called, intriguingly, “new car smell”.
Now I’ve been in a few new cars. I even owned one once. The smell can actually be rather overpowering but it does carry the connotations of a newly acquired and unblemished luxury item. However, when I have tried the “new car smell” air fresheners I can only assume that what they were aiming for was Toilet Duck. In fact in terms of an actual pleasing car interior the best one I’ve found is actually “vanilla.” I’m not sure whether this is what new cars should smell like but vanilla does seem to create a general sense olfactory wellbeing.
I think the value of a clean and fragrant car interior shouldn’t be over-estimated. If you have a look through the ads in Autotrader for cars of a slightly older vintage from the more back-street vendors, one of the first things they will mention about a car is it being a “very clean example”. That is, not reliable, well-maintained, or even having the slightest whiff of a chance of passing its MOT but simply the fact that someone has been let loose with a vacuum cleaner and a squeegee.
And I think it works, after cleaning our old MPV I am now far less bothered that its mileage would have taken it over five times around the world, or that the door could do with welding, or that the tailgate is starting to rust or even that the synchro-rings in the gearbox are starting to wear. At the moment, it smells nice.
There is another way of overcoming the stench of overly lived in automobile and that is the trusty air freshener. There are a variety of these devices that often come in the shape of a tree or flower. The one in my car actually clips on to the air vent although is no substitute for a “no rotten apple cores” rule. The scents that these come in are sometimes floral or occasionally pine or other fresh outdoorsy fragrances (assuming that the outdoors fragrance isn’t next to the chemical plants in Grangemouth). There is also one called, intriguingly, “new car smell”.
Now I’ve been in a few new cars. I even owned one once. The smell can actually be rather overpowering but it does carry the connotations of a newly acquired and unblemished luxury item. However, when I have tried the “new car smell” air fresheners I can only assume that what they were aiming for was Toilet Duck. In fact in terms of an actual pleasing car interior the best one I’ve found is actually “vanilla.” I’m not sure whether this is what new cars should smell like but vanilla does seem to create a general sense olfactory wellbeing.
I think the value of a clean and fragrant car interior shouldn’t be over-estimated. If you have a look through the ads in Autotrader for cars of a slightly older vintage from the more back-street vendors, one of the first things they will mention about a car is it being a “very clean example”. That is, not reliable, well-maintained, or even having the slightest whiff of a chance of passing its MOT but simply the fact that someone has been let loose with a vacuum cleaner and a squeegee.
And I think it works, after cleaning our old MPV I am now far less bothered that its mileage would have taken it over five times around the world, or that the door could do with welding, or that the tailgate is starting to rust or even that the synchro-rings in the gearbox are starting to wear. At the moment, it smells nice.
Sunday, 11 September 2016
Obsessive Compulsive Collecting
As a child I used to collect coins. Mainly this was a case of collecting old pre-decimal currency that would occasionally turn up down the back of sofas or occasionally in loose change (an old halfpenny was remarkably similar to a new 2p coin). I also used to pick up odd coins from around the world – usually from a family member who had served with the forces or worked on the ships overseas. I seem to recall that my elder brother collected stamps at one point. I think he eventually lost interest in philately about the same time that I worked out that more entertainment could be experienced by spending coins rather than collecting them.
I think it’s a general human trait to collect and categorise things and there is nothing wrong with that as a pastime. I now collect CDs. There seems to be a revival in vinyl record collecting, and I can see the attraction of that with the glorious 12” artwork that goes with them, but for me it is actually the music that goes with them that is the greater attraction and a CD is a nice compromise between useful portability (you can’t play vinyl in the car) whilst still retaining the delight of the booklet and sleeve notes.
However, it’s not just about the music. I do collect and part of the reason that I can tell that I collect is that I buy recordings that I don’t reasonably expect to play more than once or twice but they do fill an irritating hole in my collection. I’ve recently bought a few second hand CDs that have filled gaps in my collection, several of which I already had on vinyl. I recently bought the last three core CDs that were missing from my Beatles collection: With The Beatles, The Beatles for Sale and Yellow Submarine. The Beatles didn’t make a bad album but these three did contain substantial amounts of filler: either hastily written B-sides, lower quality covers or, in the case of Yellow Submarine, a whole side of film score orchestration that they neither wrote nor performed. Actually, having listened to these three for the first time in years they are perfectly listenable but my main reason in buying them is really to fill in the “missing teeth” on my CD shelf.
I’m sure many other people have done the same. How many Lou Reed fans bought Metal Machine Music simply because they had everything else. No self-respecting Queen fan would be without the Flash Gordon soundtrack even if it did only contain 2 new songs (like the mere 4 new songs on Yellow Submarine). However, I think I can just about justify that my hobby is on the right side of sane. There are a couple of gaps in my collection of David Bowie CDs. One of those is the album Tin Machine II which is currently only available 2nd hand. At the time of writing this sells for anything between £26 to £300. I think I can survive without it. It still annoys me that I don’t have it, though!
I think it’s a general human trait to collect and categorise things and there is nothing wrong with that as a pastime. I now collect CDs. There seems to be a revival in vinyl record collecting, and I can see the attraction of that with the glorious 12” artwork that goes with them, but for me it is actually the music that goes with them that is the greater attraction and a CD is a nice compromise between useful portability (you can’t play vinyl in the car) whilst still retaining the delight of the booklet and sleeve notes.
However, it’s not just about the music. I do collect and part of the reason that I can tell that I collect is that I buy recordings that I don’t reasonably expect to play more than once or twice but they do fill an irritating hole in my collection. I’ve recently bought a few second hand CDs that have filled gaps in my collection, several of which I already had on vinyl. I recently bought the last three core CDs that were missing from my Beatles collection: With The Beatles, The Beatles for Sale and Yellow Submarine. The Beatles didn’t make a bad album but these three did contain substantial amounts of filler: either hastily written B-sides, lower quality covers or, in the case of Yellow Submarine, a whole side of film score orchestration that they neither wrote nor performed. Actually, having listened to these three for the first time in years they are perfectly listenable but my main reason in buying them is really to fill in the “missing teeth” on my CD shelf.
I’m sure many other people have done the same. How many Lou Reed fans bought Metal Machine Music simply because they had everything else. No self-respecting Queen fan would be without the Flash Gordon soundtrack even if it did only contain 2 new songs (like the mere 4 new songs on Yellow Submarine). However, I think I can just about justify that my hobby is on the right side of sane. There are a couple of gaps in my collection of David Bowie CDs. One of those is the album Tin Machine II which is currently only available 2nd hand. At the time of writing this sells for anything between £26 to £300. I think I can survive without it. It still annoys me that I don’t have it, though!
Monday, 5 September 2016
Loch Leven Heritage Trail
After taking the kids to see Lochleven Castle a few week ago I decided to go back last week to walk the full Heritage Trail which is a loop around the perimeter of the Loch – just under 20km in total. This time I took one of the dogs (Sam, on the basis that I thought he would be up for it whereas Eddie would end up plodding around and looking like a badly animated fossil from a Ray Harryhausen Movie).
The Heritage Trail is, for the most point, level and consists of a well maintained path going through a variety of farmland, woodland and the RSPB nature reserve. Some of it is fenced off but it is worth keeping the dog close at hand, not least because of his habit of trying to get run over by cyclists, but also because there is some free roaming wildlife – generally he has a thing for squirrels but there were some deer floating around as well. Obviously, through the bird sanctuary he was on a very short lead.
The walk itself is very well signposted with stone milestones every so often (although marked in Kilometres so does that make them metrestones?)
The benches are also a bit of fun with stanzas of Scots poetry ranging from the romantic to the gruesome carved into them
The view from the North of the Loch includes St Surf’s Island which once housed a monastery. The remains of this can still be seen but the island now forms part of the nature reserve and access is limited.
I did rather like this stone sculpture at an RSPB viewing point.
The only disappointment is that I didn’t see too many birds apart from this field full of geese.
The walk itself is almost the same as the Wirral Way which I did a couple of years ago. It also has the same effect that the last half hour or so becomes a bit of a plod back to the car park. Oh well, have whippet will travel.
The Heritage Trail is, for the most point, level and consists of a well maintained path going through a variety of farmland, woodland and the RSPB nature reserve. Some of it is fenced off but it is worth keeping the dog close at hand, not least because of his habit of trying to get run over by cyclists, but also because there is some free roaming wildlife – generally he has a thing for squirrels but there were some deer floating around as well. Obviously, through the bird sanctuary he was on a very short lead.
The walk itself is very well signposted with stone milestones every so often (although marked in Kilometres so does that make them metrestones?)
The benches are also a bit of fun with stanzas of Scots poetry ranging from the romantic to the gruesome carved into them
The view from the North of the Loch includes St Surf’s Island which once housed a monastery. The remains of this can still be seen but the island now forms part of the nature reserve and access is limited.
I did rather like this stone sculpture at an RSPB viewing point.
The only disappointment is that I didn’t see too many birds apart from this field full of geese.
The walk itself is almost the same as the Wirral Way which I did a couple of years ago. It also has the same effect that the last half hour or so becomes a bit of a plod back to the car park. Oh well, have whippet will travel.
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