Colin has kindly stuck me an account on his website, so I can try and work out where the 'contribute' function has disappeared to on my website!

Around the middle of December 2009, we had some serious snow.  On 22nd December, I had our car booked in for a check on the driver's window which wasn't closing properly.  Since they had no courtesy cars or spare drivers so close to Christmas, I had three hours to spend waiting for the job to be finished.  I decided to walk in the snow to Preston Park, ten minutes up the road from Preston Hall BMW garage.  My intention was to look for places to fly my radio controlled helicopter quite close to work in Stockton.  Here are some of the pictures:

A Snowy Preston Park

 On 30th and 31st October (Halloween) Christine and I went back to Blackpool to see the illuminations.  We haven't seen them for many years and emails from the Britannia Hotels group lured us to stop at the Norbreck Castle, up the coast from Blackpool towards Fleetwood (which we call Fleetham!).  At the Metropole, we'd had just Bed and Breakfast, but our offer at the Norbreck Castle was Dinner, Bed and Breakfast.  On Friday when we arrived, it was raining, but, after our Dinner, we went out anyway and I hid from the rain wherever I could to take the photos, in case Saturday was worse.

As it turned out, Saturday was much better and we spent the day in the Tower, visiting Mookey's Circus, the Tower Ballroom and the Tower Top Ride.  We'd organised a late dinner, so when it started to get dark, we took a tram to the start of the large static displays and walked most of the way back to Norbreck Castle.

The Illuminations

Mookey's Circus and Tower Top Ride

 While Rodney and I were walking with Sam on Saltburn Beach, we came across this formation of dressed stone, clearly a man-made structure had been here.  Rodney recognised the shape as that of an Alum leaching vessel.  Alum leaching was well known around Skinningrove area, but not well known in Saltburn.  We later discovered there had been an excavation of the site in 2004 by local archeologists and Rodney was quite correct.

Alum Leaching at Saltburn Cliffs

During a later visit, we found what we believe to be an area where the Alum shale was removed for leaching.  Rodney's contact in the archeology group said it was around here.

 Just a note to let you know that since an update to the site's software, the media gallery upload function (new photos) has stopped working so there have not been any new stories, as I've not got any new photos up.  If I upload them one by one (well up to 5 at a time by manual file browsing) I can upload a few, so that's what I'll be doing.

Sorry if its been getting a bit boring, its not that nothing's been happening, I've had lots of photos but couldn't get them uploaded (without spending all night doing it).

All the best

Colin - Admin

While on holiday in Blackpool, our roving reporter Christine met and spoke to Michael Jackson.  For the full story, log in and follow this link,

Christine is well respected by both the staff and parents at the school where she works and it is not uncommon for both staff and parents (via the kids) to thank her with gifts.  Today she came home on the last day of term with a rather special gift - a chocolate shoe!

We haven't been camping for over a year, due to a family illness and bereavement.  When Melissa and Geoff took Josh camping to Runswick Bay (see Mel, Geoff and Josh go Camping) we almost joined them that weekend.  But with Rodney away too and the mobile phone signal being very weak at Runswick, we would be unable to keep in touch with Gran, if she needed us, so we put it off then.  But on Monday 15th June, I booked a pitch at the same campsite and on Friday 19th (iPhone MMS day) after a half-day at work, I loaded up the car (for its first camping trip) and when Christine arrived home from school, we packed up the few remaining bits and off we went.  Christine had a bit of a sore throat and a poorly tummy but she didn't want it to spoil the weekend too much.

It took a little longer than last time to put the tent up as we'd forgotten how some of it went, then when we sat down after finishing,Christine noticed a screw had embedded itself in one of the rear tyres of the car!  This would mean a trip to a tyre place was necessary on Saturday and talking to a customer at the Co-op in Staithes where we picked up essential supplies (Cherry Genoa cake, Triple Choc cookies and Marmalade for toast!) we decided to get up early on Saturday and try a place on the Scarborough road out of Whitby, which was where we had intended to go anyway.  So after blowing our new double air bed up with Geoff's electric pump, we had dinner (Gammon, new potatoes and peas - yum), sampled the Choc Chip cookies and went to bed.

For what happened on Saturday, click the 'Read More' link below:

On Saturday 30th May and Sunday 31st May, Teesside Model Flying Club held their annual model air show.  Based on the format of full-size air shows, this event has been going for five years.  It was my first visit and I was eager to try out my new Sony Alpha DSLR on the flying models.  I took along a camping chair, but didn't take any sun-cream and the weather was SCORCHING.  Not all of the pilots flying were from the Teesside Club and some had brought tents, caravans and motor homes.

I arrived a little later than intended and the action had already started.  What a treat I was in for.  The most exciting models were flown by members of the Large Model Association (LMA) and, boy, were some of them large.  There were single and dual props, ducted fan and full jet engines in use (with appropriate safety precautions).  There were several highlights, including Red Arrow formation flying (well £11000 models of the Red Arrows planes), a witch (called Sabrina) and a plane distributing toffees!  There's an album with too many photos, if you follow any of the linked thumbnails shown here.