Malta Holiday

It took a while plugging away at the Internet, but we finally booked ourselves a holiday in Malta. The hotel we stayed at turned out to be quite good. It was rather spoilt at our arrival though. The desk staff told us that the hotel was working on winter times and the pool and bar were closed - we would have to wait for the room to be free elsewhere. This later turned out to be false. The housekeeping staff were excellent, but rather let down by the front desk.

We spent a fair bit of time relaxing by the pool or in a bar near the sea.
On the 11th of November we visited the air museum. Diane's farther is chairman of 249 Squadron Association, and I am an associate member.
http://www.maltaviationmuseum.com/
http://merlinsovermalta.gdenney.co.uk/

We also spent some tome in Valletta. Returning to the Anglo Maltese League that we visited on a previous trip.
http://rfaaplymouth.org/talhandaq/thgallery/displayimage.php?pid=3043
http://www.rfaaplymouth.org/talhandaq/thgallery/displayimage.php?album=1&pid=3949

Wedding Bells

Much nervousness at having to compose a Best Man's speech for my great friend Mike King.
In the end the day went off very well.
I managed to not tell any of those important stories that the blokes know about anyway, and somehow got away with the rest.
Hard work following two other good speakers, one of whom had already given a guitar recital during the signing of the registers.

We hired our gear from Anthony Blay in Wokingham, and looked good but were still outshone by a beautiful Bride.

The wedding was at Warfield church, and the reception at Stirrups.

Tag Rugby

Bracknell Rugby Club hosted a fine day of Tag Rugby.
Schools from around Bracknell competed in a game where  each player wears either a belt or shorts with Velcro tags and the aim of the game is to remove the tag from the player in possession of the ball.

The Borough Mayor had the task of decorating everyone afterwards.

Bracknell Rugby Club says:
Tag rugby is a non-contact sport with the emphasis on running and passing whilst staying on the feet. Training takes place at BRFC in Lily Hill Park between 10.00 and 12.00 on a Sunday.
We welcome any new players whether; new to the game, graduating from Rugby Tots or just starting to play at school. The RFU doesn't allow children to play competitive rugby before the age of 6 but they can start training with us from reception year at school. They will then stay with the U7s until the end of year 2.
http://www.pitchero.com/clubs/bracknell/m/team-info-3488.html

It was very pleasing to see Meadow way Primary school do so well!
http://www.meadowvaleprimary.co.uk/news/?pid=3&nid=1&storyid=71

Book Party

It is always interesting to meet a colleague from the past and catch up.
This was a special catching up as he has written a book about nothing.

I missed taking more videos or pictures, because the home made demonstrations of the power of nothing were very good.

Thinking About Nothing: Otto Von Guericke And The Magdeburg Experiments On The Vacuum. 

So far the book has proved very interesting!

Conservative Party Conference

The various staged debates and other stuff in the main area were a little bit interesting. The fringe events and the bar gossip ware more exciting..
Whilst I found the conference interesting, Diane wore herself out with retail therapy.

Amongst others, I attended an interesting thing about google and the UK, and a CPRE event about keeping food local.
The Comedy Store at Deansgate Locks provided an interesting venue for FOREST.and campaigns to keep pubs open.

Both myself and Diane went to the church service and enjoyed the local children singing.

It was a bit of a dash getting back for the NAG meeting on the Wednesday, and in the event we did arrive a bit late.

Bracknell / Thames Valley Policing

The whole Thames Valley Police area was reported very quiet last night. This was perhaps due in some part to the intermittent showers of rain. The Police are prepared for any potential events.

BFC Cllr Iain McCracken has been in touch with DCC Hapgood who reported that there were no arrests for disorder and the minor incidents that did occur were very quickly resolved. The incidents earlier in the week in Reading have been swiftly followed up with the Crown Prosecution Service and strong sentences are expected. 


The Police  have reported very little adverse activity in Bracknell Forest. Currently the local Police have three times the usual number of officers in the town centre and are engaging with people in the community to check the concerns of local residents. From this they picked up concerns from local children who are frightened by what they have seen on TV. There has been evidence of malicious rumours which have mainly been circulating through social media. Monitoring of social media channels is being regularly performed for further information.


The Police are working to a clear patrol plan across the Borough covering specific difficult areas and have stepped up the number of available officers. They would welcome any information or concerns people have so they then can issue a reassurance to residents.

Can You Keep Control of Your Mobile Phone?

The New Scientist reports that Researchers are working on a system that hitchhikes on the mobile phone network to provide an extra layer of vigilance/surveillance.
Cheap sensors mounted in your Smart Phone could monitor the environment for chemicals such a nerve gas, and automatically alert the authorities to anything suspicious.

Mobile phones are getting ever more things built into them. Manufacturers are looking to not only build in biometric data, but readers as well. I mused on this use in a short story a while back, and in a bit of blogging about RFID capabilities.

We could one day end up with the Star Trek Tricorder capability in our phones as I speculated some time back.
The trouble is that that without safeguards, the data gathered might one day be used to undermine rather than to protect your freedom.

Smart phones already have sensors such as GPS receivers, accelerometers and gyroscopes.
An example that New Scientist quotes is that drivers in Boston will soon be able to download an app called Street Bump that uses their phone's accelerometer and GPS to record the location of a pothole whenever their car bounces over one.

With a few extra tweaks your cell phone, car satnav, along with other everyday devices could work together to find stolen electronics, gather images for the police in real time, and sniff out banned drugs or gas leaks.
Not forgetting of course that your mobile phone has already got audio and video built into it.

I already blogged about some rebellious drivers use a small device which beams out a jamming signal to prevent their movements being monitored – Phones could work out the deviation to normal in the GPS system by triangulating on the network  base stations.

A growing number of new cars have satnav and wireless connectivity, as well as video cameras incorporated into parking systems. Add a licence plate recognition system, like those already used by police and you have a spy in your car. All connected together with the Blue Tooth system in the car. How easy would that be to control or hack?

While data collected by your mobile phone or Satnav unit could help to trap a criminal, it could also reveal where you live and work, how you get to work, what places you visit and where your friends live.
 A lot of which I speculated about in Cold Suspenders.