Miscellany
Home cider fermentation
We recently moved into a house with apple trees in the garden so decided to have a go at making cider. The process is relatively simple and is described excellently by Andrew Lea at The Wittenham Hill Cider Pages. As such, these pages just give details on our particular product and includes some of our tips.
The Apples
The first step was the apples. I'm not sure of the variety but they look similar to a Worcester. The trees were planted around 50 years ago so are more likely to be a traditional English variety. We used a mixture of salvageable wind-falls and picked fruit and used a total of around 47kg of apples.
Some of our collected apples in a barrow
Read more...Published on 27th December 2013.
Fluorescent tubes under power lines
If you take a normal long fluorescent tube and hold it vertically under a high voltage power line after dark you will be able to see that it lights up of its own accord. Three of us had a go at this a few nights ago near an Oxford substation.
Tubes being held under pylons at dusk. There is no external power source involved.
Read more...Published on 30th June 2012.
Conterfeit one pound coins
Official figures from the Royal Mint say that around 2.5% of British pound coins are counterfeit whilst unofficial estimates from coin testing companies suggest that the actual rate may be double this. There have been many mainstream media articles have coverering this surge in fake pound coins, for example those at The BBC, The Independent and The Guardian.
I recently had £500 in one pound coins and having read so much about the rate of bogus coins, I couldn't refuse a look!
Read more...First published on 31st December 2009 and last modified on 21st March 2011.
John O'Groats to Lands End
The idea
Back in the summer of 2000, Gareth and I decided to cycle from John O'Groats to Lands end. It was one of those pub conversations that seem such a good idea at the time and then turn out to be a bit stupid when sober the next day.
Despite this we did actually do it and Gareth decided to keep a diary for the whole time. More to keep him sane I think than anything else. So here it is, in all it's unmodified glory! :-)
Read more...First published on 21st April 2008 and last modified on 16th March 2011.
Lone Wolf Fan Fiction Gamebooks
A friend of mine, Peter Witney, wrote a trilogy of fan fiction gamebooks entitled "The New Order Adventures of Lone Wolf - The Rebirth Trilogy". These are hosted for him below.
The three books in the trilogy are:
- Destination Sommerlund
- The Fires of Helgedad
- The Vengeance of Vonotar
Read more...First published on 17th January 2007 and last modified on 16th March 2011.
Bloodnet game guide
In 2001 a friend of mine, Chris Haynes, wrote a complete walkthrough and guide for the game Bloodnet. This game still has a cult following and this guide remains as popular as ever. In fact, in January 2011 the game guide was viewed 120 times and the city guide 63 times.
There are two files available here. The first is complete guide and walkthrough to the game and world of Bloodnet, as written by Chris Haynes. The second is the city guide which is technically a subset of the main game guide but is so large that it has its own file.
Read more...First published on 5th February 2006 and last modified on 16th March 2011.
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