There was snow , and I couldn't resist.

I'm sure an eskimo wouldn't be impressed but I thought it was cool.

I've recently bought another scooter - a Vespa ET4 125.



It's not exactly speedy with all that metalwork and me to drag round with about 11bhp , but it is good fun , especially when riding as part of a crowd. Today I tagged along with about 100 scooters , mostly classic Vespas and Lambrettas on a run from Birmingham to Bridgnorth.

The photos are HERE!

They had a charity event on for classic cars and there were some excellent vehicles doing non-timed runs up the hill.
Some were just there for a gentle drive and others, including a fine selection of Triumph Stags, were trying very hard.

I think this was my favourite car of the day though.



They will be doing another one next may, plus they have various competitive events throughout the year.

The rest of the photos can be found at this link.

I'm supporting the car industry by buying a new car.



OK , so I'm supporting the Italian car industry, but the thought was there!

I got this last week and so far I'm very pleased with it. It's not as quick or quite as large as my old Skoda Octavia PD140 Elegance but it looks far better , is very quiet and smooth to drive and should be a fair bit cheaper to run (and buy!).



Fiat claims that it will do 62.7MPG combined and though it's not run in yet I'm already getting mid 50s combined with over 63mpg on some journeys1 so I'm expecting to beat this figure after a few thousand miles.

Reputation would have you believe it will fall to bits but it all feels nice and solidly assembled and nothing has dropped off in the first five hundred miles.

The stereo has some very nice features with a system the call Blue & Me. It has a bluetooth handsfree kit built in , can play music direct from a USB memory stick so no need for dozens of CDs in the car and will also log all your driving so you can see how economical (or not) you have been. Oh , and the sunroof is just huge!



I'll try and remember to document how it goes over the next few years. Will it last, or will I be on first name terms with the AA man?

Having totally failed to update this in ages I'm back for now.

I've recently bought a Sony Alpha 350 D-SLR to replace my Panasonic FZ7 so hopefully the quality of photographs I'm producing should go up.

Last week I popped over to the excellent free Cold War museum at RAF Cosford for a bit of a play.


It's a big step up having to figure out what all the settings do, but even with the kit lens plus a tripod and remote shutter release it's possible to get some very nice images that I'm pleased with.

The rest of the photos are here

I'd not been here for several years but the gardens have now been greatly restored by English Heritage and more importantly the impressive fountain now works again.

We managed to get a few hours wandering round taking pictures before the rain came.

The rest of my photos can be found here.

Wroxeter in modern day Shropshire was at one point the fourth largest Roman city in the UK having started as a military garrison. Unusually for large Roman settlements it was later abandoned and never flourished as most of their sites did. The village of Wroxeter is just down the road and little more than a collection of cottages.

It was based on a grid layout and the ruins that have been excavated are just one square - probably about one thirtieth of the total site. The rest lays buried under the fields and nearby modern roads.

Click here for more pictures