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

For me , it was finding that these still exist.

I absolutely loved these as a kid so when I saw them on sale today I had to buy three. One for my Girlfriend's son to play with and two for me to keep.

They are almost as I remember them except a bit more colourful than the RAF and Luftwaffe would have liked.

Only 50p each as well which seems cheap as I remember them being about 20p 25 years ago.

So , what's made you smile today?

We stopped here on the way home.

On a clear day the view from the top all the way to Wales is stunning and well worth the 4 quid entry.

Oh , and there's an ROC post in the field nearby , though it's not a good example.

Final day out of the week was a trip to Bourton on the Water in the Cotswolds on my bike.



I'm sure it was the hottest day of the year so far which wasn't a problem on the move but a nightmare in leathers when you come to a halt or try and walk anywhere.

It's well worth a visit with plenty of pubs , cafes and other food shops to tempt you and it's *very* pretty.

There's also a good motor museum in the town with some very nice classic cars.


It's deceptively large inside and pretty good value for money if you like that sort of thing.

Best bit?

Rum and Raisin ice cream by the river.

Next day out was to the London Motorshow at Excelin the Docklands area.
A decent enough day out but there were a few no-shows from the big manufacturers which was a shame , and the days of getting decent freebies have long gone. There was a big emphasis on fuel economy and emissions as you might expect , and some very desperate manufacturers unveiling new 4x4s. The projects had obviously been started a couple of years back and now they find themselves with cars they can barely shift so any time you went near them they were so eager to talk to you that it was a bit sad really.





Show highlight?

The Top Gear police cars.

I've had a week off work so got in a few day trips , the first of which was to Lake Bala in Wales.

It's a lovely spot for sailing , canoeing or just lounging around in the sun followed by fish and chips sat by the lake.

Just to the north of Wolverhampton is the site of the former Featherstone Royal Ordnance factory that produced munitions for the UK's armed forces from 1940 until the late 80s.

It has been thoroughly stripped when it was sold off , but there were still plenty of interesting features left. It is in the process of being cleared to make way for redevelopment so my visit was a last chance to see what's left.

Sadly , the shower and decontamination blocks had been demolished before I got there , and as this was a couple of weeks ago there will be even less left.

This link has the full set of photos

And this link has details of what's to be built on the site.

Yesterday I went to the air show at RAF Cosford - something I've never done before.
Last time I went to the (excellent and free) Cold War museum at Cosford I picked up a leaflet for the air show and decided to give it a go , and I'm glad I did.

It was £20 a ticket which at first glance might sound pricey , but for what you get it's good value for money. The show proper started at 12 noon with displays pretty much continuously until 5.30. The highlights were the Red Arrows doing a full display , a very nice selection of WWII aircraft including a Mark 1 Spitfire and Mark 1 Hurricane in the air at the same time , the Battle of Britain memorial flight , and a demonstration by the RAF - essentially a half hour action show demonstrating a combined operation with ground and air forces.


Unfortunately the weather wasn't great so photography was difficult and many of the displays stayed flat to keep below the cloud cover , but it didn't rain and was warm enough.

While I'm writing this , here's a couple of bits of advice for anyone considering going in future.

Traffic! Access for cars on and off the site was excellently marshalled and managed but due to the sheer volume of cars there were some horrific queues. The tailback on the M54 heading in at 11am was 6 miles long which was going to be well over an hour to get through. Fortunately I'd gone on my bike so I just nipped down the middle and probably annoyed thousands of people. I'd strongly recommend going by train or setting off early.
Secondly, if you do go by car , take the opportunity to stock up and bring everything you need. Food and drink were very expensive - nearly a fiver for a jacket potato , and almost six quid for a roast beef sandwich!

It does you know.....

On the way home from the BTCC I stopped Here

Just as the sun was setting.....

And very nice it was too :0)

This was my second BTCC event of the year having done Donington Park a fortnight ago and given Rockingham a miss because of rain.



I like Thruxton as a circuit as it produces good racing , but I have to say that the view is a little limited because of the slope of the land and because you can only spectate from about half the outfield. That gives you a choice of the grandstand seats by the chicane with a view of the back half of the circuit but at an extra cost , or on the banking by the complex which is where I was. Between there you can get very close to the circuit but see nothing other than cars driving straight past. Still , it's a decent venue for photography so it's possible to get some good pictures. There were guys there with very expensive looking gear that looked to be worth thousands that put my small Panasonic camera to shame.



The weather was very good with plenty of sunshine , and the action on track was excellent. Punctures for cars at the front seemed to be the order of the day with Tom Onslow-Cole getting the first two wins and Jason Plato taking the third. For most of the race he was being pushed very close by Andrew Jordan who was getting a huge amount of support from the crowd. Sadly his car suffered some sort of mechanical failure and he dropped out but it was a superb drive from an 18 year old, and I'm sure it won't be long before he gets his first race win.


The rest of the photos are HERE

I went out for my first long ride of the year yesterday - a trip from my home in the Midlands out to the Elan Valley in wales.



It's a very nice route to ride with all sorts of roads from tight and twisty bits to fast flowing corners.

Through Kidderminster and Bewdley onto the A4117 towards Cleobury Mortimer , then over Clee Hill stopping for a drink at the cafe to admire the scenery. Carry on towards Ludlow and turn onto the A49 before you reach the town , then after a short while follow the A4113 signposted towards Knighton. Watch out for suicidal sheep as you approach Penybont , then follow the signs for Rhayader on the A44 where it's time to buy some food for a picnic once you reach the Elan Valley and the lakes.

There's any number of spots to park up and admire the scenery in the valley , so take your pick and relax before riding to the far end. You can then stick to an unnumbered road and loop back to Rhyader or simply U-turn and do the waterside section in reverse.

By the time I'd got back to Bewdley I was decidedly uncomfortable so I stopped by the river for a stretch and drink , and to admire the considerably cleaner bikes than mine.



The only downside to the day was that it was very hazy with quite poor light for photography so the pictures didn't come out anywhere near as nice as I'd have liked.

Still , it's an excuse for another ride out.

The photo across the top of the page is taken on the banks of Lake Tekapo in New Zealand , which is where I was this time last year. I had a three week holiday stopping in New York for a few nights before heading on to New Zealand for a fortnight , and then a few nights in San Francisco on the way back. NZ is a stunningly beautiful place with very friendly and welcoming locals , and my long term plan is to emigrate there when funds and job allow. Unlike the UK , they still have common sense and a way of life that encourages respect and decency and it was such a refreshing change to go there , and a shock to the system to return.

Highlights of the trip included a day out in Akaroa - a small town about an hour's drive from Christchurch on the South island. It reminds me a lot of the south of France, having been founded by French colonists, but also has boat trips out to the sea with seals and dolphins for company.



...and another trip from Queenstown with a helicopter flight to the fjords at Milford Sound , stopping for photos on top of a glacier , then a boat trip and a small plane back to Queenstown. Helicopters I can get on with , but a tiny plane being chucked round in turbulence isn't much fun.



The full set of my pictures is HERE if anyone is interested

Excluding the scooters (Two Peugeot Speedfight 50s and a Gilera Runner 125) which I don't seem to have any decent pictures of , I've had three motorbikes so far.

I'm currently riding a very yellow Honda Hornet 600. A very nice bike for weekend rides in the country but it's poor tank range lets it down on longer journeys. I had planned to replace it with a bigger bike with a decent tank capacity and luggage so I could do a trip to Normandy this year but the unexpected demise of my central heating boiler meant the money was spent elsewhere.



Before that I had a Q-Plated Yamaha Thundercat. A nice bike , but too much of a pain to strip the fairing off to service it. Each time it went back on I seemed to end up with at least one left over fastener. I ended up selling it though as the insurance companies decided they would no longer cover it TPFT as they had done for a couple of years and only offered Third Party cover , so it headed off to eBay for virtually the same as I had paid for it.



This is a bike I really miss. It was a Japanese import Yamaha Thundercat which was (in theory) bang on the 33bhp limit for newly qualified non-DAS riders. Mine was one of the better looking mono-shock bikes and was in excellent condition considering it was on a K-plate. The one I had was fitted with a decidedly non-standard Yoshimura exhaust which had the most glorious sound and added a few BHP so it would happily redline in 5th gear at about 105mph. I've never seen one with the same exhaust which is just as well really as I'd be tempted to spend money I can't really afford.

Did I ever tell you I went down a mine once?

Lets fill this empty space with a bit of text and perhaps a picture.
Ok , that works. Now what else to try...?

Just on the off-chance that someone is actually looking at my site , I thought it could do with an introduction.
I've had the Dr Zoidberg domain name for many years now and had it pointed at a very basic web site that I knocked up one afternoon and then pretty much ignored.
I always meant to get round to updating it but never did so I'm hoping that changing over to a blog will help with this.
If this is the only post , then it failed.
If by some chance I've been motivated to update this then it will probably have all sorts of odds and ends here. Some sections on the things I like - my bike , games , photograpy , urban exploration , motorsport..... and pretty much anything else I can think of to add here.

If you are reading this you probably know a bit about me from one of the forums I frequent , or usenet where I've been hanging round for nearly a decade , but if you don't I'm currently in my thirties , work in IT and live in the Midlands.