I’ve finally got the photos posted on Flickr now. The easiest way to see them all is by going to the Camping 2009 Collection.  You can see we had a great time

While we were away I was blogging using my Nokia N97 phone with the use of Wordmobi (Wordpress Blogging Tool) and QuickOffice 6.  Entering text into Wordmobi is fine but there’s no spell check available in the tool.  So, the process I used was to write up the posting content in QuickOffice and saved as a Word Document.  Once it was complete and spell checked I’d copy the text and paste it into Wordmobi.  This then allowed me to post direct to the blog and add the tags and whatever I wanted.  All in all this process was very good and worked well for me.  I had my laptop with me including my datacard and power source but never once turned it on during the week we were away.  I was able to do everything I needed to using my phone.  Other apps I used were the Facebook App that came installed on the phone and my favorite Twitter App – Gravity.  I would have been online using Nimbuzz, but for some reason I just couldn’t get authenticated, but it worked fine from home, not sure what happened there.

I’ve received a lot of positive comments from people via various paths about my blog postings while away.  Thanks for the comments and thanks for reading them too!

I really must try to blog more often… perhaps with the new found process using my phone I will feel more like it.  Since moving from Windows to Linux full time on my laptop it’s not as convienent to use my one beloved Windows too, Windows Live Writer … truely a great application for blogging on Wordpress sites.

Thank again for following our holiday and reading the site.

It was a bit of an early day again today, Lisa woke us by filling her sleeping bag again, rather then getting up to use the bucket we’d put out for just such cases. Oh well, hung everything out to dry on a line for the day.

Today we spent the day in Southwold. parked up at on end of the town and only paid £3.80 for all day parking, brilliant for a tourist trap really. First stop in town was the Pier. This was not like most piers in the UK… It had an arcade but was small and clean, but the pier lacked the usual tat and flashing lights and head pounding noises. It was very clean and tidy with shops selling decent looking products.

After that we headed into town and walked about 2 miles around the streets and looking in shops. We needed to get the girls some swimsuits or shorts so they could play in the surf. Once the new shorts were acquired it was time for food. This proved to be the most difficult task of the day… First it was 1425hrs when we started the quest for food. The first pub stopped serving at 1400, the next place stopped at 1430 (missed it by that much (insert any number of corresponding scene from “Get Smart”)), finally found a place. The timing was perfect, I was preparing to beat several sea gulls to death for a meal.

Fed and watered it was time to get wet. We headed down to the beach. Its a very long and fairly well maintained and clean. It was very windy down on the beach and as a result we all ended up getting several layers of skin sand blasted off haha and people pay big money for that sort of treatment, fools. We spent just over an hour at the water I suppose. The girls had a great time and got well soaked and cold… Warm water my ass but they had fun blue lips and sand in places it shouldn’t be haha

Time to head back to camp, but first a stop at a Tesco first for a few more supplies. Dinner was bbq pork chops, boiled carrots and potatoes and a tossed salad.

Right now as I type this Yuki is in giving the girls a showered to get the sea, sand and stink off them

Next will be a short sit around the neighbours camp fire with them and roast some marshmallows and make some chocolate banana’s in the fire… Then bed time again. We were going to see about staying Friday night too but decided to pack it in tomorrow… The weather is suppose to turn tomorrow night and no point temping fate We’ve had a good run this week, no point pushing our luck.

Its been a great week away. We’ve had some great times and some not so great but all in all it was positive. Being home in my own bed tomorrow night will be very nice indeed. Cleaning all the camping gear wont be much fun but it needs to be done I guess. The gear will be packed away for another year (or in the recent case, two years as we didn’t get out at all last year).

The girls are all in bed now and I’m just finishing off this posting and having a cup of hazelnut hot chocolate, yummy. Then check some emails and off to bed myself. Time sure does fly these past few days… 10pm comes ever so quickly. Normally I’m struggling to stay awake at home this time of night, but not out here… All the fresh air is going to be sadly misses when we get back home…

Right, enough of this babbling, time to close the post, finish my hot chocolate, count some stars and then to bed.

Night all!!!

Oh yeah, once we are back I will be uploading heaps of photos… Got about 400 or 500 to sift though and see what’s useful and get them uploaded.

Posted by Wordmobi

Then it was up about 8am or so to get cleaned up, fed and packed up. Breakfast was some left over sausages and a hamburger and some scrambled eggs that were collected by the owners the day before, YUMMY!! By 1115 we’d cleared the camp site and were on the way back to Diss for the laundrette, thankfully it was open.

We arrived at the new site, the Orchard (IP13 0SJ). I assume at one time it was, there are still a couple apple trees around, not eating apples though. While Yuki and I got busy setting up camp the kids went off to play, they quickly acquired their new victims … Err found a couple of kids to befriend that are both sisters and only 6 months difference from our girls. Turns out they just down from north of Peterborough and arrived an hour or so ahead of us, very nice couple they are.

We didn’t feel much like cooking tonight so headed into a town called Woodbridge. We found a very nice pub called The Seal. The bar keep turns out to have schooled at Queen’s Uni in Kingston so had a bit of a chat about that.

Back to the camp site… We finished setting up the tent and all. Then it was over to visit with the folks we’d met earlier. The girls had gone go to theirs and were “helping” with the fire and roasting of marshmallows. stood around for about 90 mins chatting then it was time for the “glow stick shower”. Every Wed and Sat nights after dark they assemble all the kids/teens near the shop and after a very loud count down from 10 they hurled about 100 of the thin flexible glow sticks into the air from a couple different directions. All that can be said about what happened next is… WOW… The kids had a blast collecting what they could. After that was done they handed out the joiners for the glow sticks.

That brings me to the present… 2230hrs and I’m wiped… Again. Blogging this not from my chair under the stars but from bed. Our neighbours have also just returned, not overly concerned the others could be sleeping but never mind.

Time to post this and sign off for the night… No ideas yet for tomorrow… Likely head to Southwold to the beach or something.

Sorry for taking so long to post this tonight tata from Suffolk!

Posted by Wordmobi

We decided to spend the day back in Diss. Its and old town with narrow streets and loads of little shops. A lot of charity shops too. Yuki had loads of fun looking through the shops and got some great deals on some nice clothes.

Part of the reason for spending the day there was to get to a laundrette. Lucky the town had one… Unluckily it was shut today only for “essential maintenance”, just our luck. The day was another scorcher, reaching 27 according to the car. After some shopping, walking and the best part of an hour at the new park just off The Mere (pronounced “mirror” from what I can work out), that is a lake stocked with fish and ducks, and according the signage, an over abundance of Blue-Green Algae and contact with the water should be avoided. Nice.

We then turned our attention to food… Struck out at the first two places (excessive delay and filth). Finally found food at the Morrison’s, it wasn’t bad at all to fair. Then was to shopping for some supplies including more ice for the cooler. The next time we go camping I will get dry ice, will last a week easily in the cooler. We also needed to find a place to get some gas for the camp stove, found that and headed back to camp.

On return to the camp site we found two new families had arrived with their kids, mostly about Lisa’s and Emma’s ages so that was good. Brings the kid count to about 10 or so I suppose. The girls had a blast with their new friends. 9pm came ever so fast tonight. The girls are all in bed now sound asleep, the quickest so far.

Tomorrow its time to pack up and move on to a new site. We’d like to stay here another couple days rather then move but we’ve already paid a deposit at the new place. Besides, its always nice to other things too.

I’m just sitting outside writing this, enjoying the stars and trying to enjoy the quiet but the voices of other campers are on the wind. Its alright though, its still relaxing.

For the interest of those that care… I have been writing these blog posts in Quickoffice on my Nokia N97, this .lets me edit easily plus has a spell checker in it too, good init? Hehe Then I copy and paste my ramblings into Mobiword and publish to the blog. There is a bit of fiddle with the process but all in all it works well. Quickoffice, I think, is an essential app for the phone. It comes pre-installed on the device but the trial is short and its an old version.

Right enough babbling for the night, there are stars and bats to be watched tonight.

Good night world!

Posted by Wordmobi

Morning started early at 7 when Lisa woke up first. She needed the loo… It was chilly but by 8am it was getting hot and drove us out of the tent. We had a bacon and egg breaky, then it was to into the town of Diss for a few bits from Morrison’s. After that it was to the zoo.

It’s quite a large zoo for such an out of the way place. Will have loads of pics when we get back or get wifi connection somewhere. the kids had a ball at the zoo, we stayed about 5 hours…we’re all fully knackered. Could do with a nap but doubt that will happen.

Back at the camp site… Yuki and Lisa slept. I caught up on twitter, email and some facebooking plus watching Emma… She had no interest in sleeping. I hope that will work for us later at bed time…

Dinner is done, bbq hamburgers, boiled carrots and salad. The kids had a heck of an appetite tonight. Between all the walking at the zoo and the running around at the camp site with the other kids. All three of my girls are now in bed and trying to get to sleep. I’ve decided to sit out under the stars and read a magazine and finish off this blog posting.

It’s been another very full day. Sleeping tonight I hope will be easier then it was last night. Not sure what the plan is for tomorrow. I think we are going to head back to Diss and check out the town and the shops. What little we saw today when going to the store it looked like it would be worth another look around.

Well, I think that’s about it for me tonight. Gonna finish my hot chocolate and get inside the tent and snuggle down. The clear skies tonight means it will be colder then it was last night.

Good night from Brickyard Farms.

Posted by Wordmobi

Lisa and Emma immediately found the horses in the fields to go and see plus a swing set to play on as well. I was a bit worried for a while, there were no other kids around. Then, a family came trooping back into camp. They’d been out to the Banham Zoo. It’s about 1/2 mile down the road. Anyhow, Lisa and Emma quickly became acquainted with Hanna, 7yrs old. They spent the next 3 or so hours playing all sorts of games and running around the farm.

The camp site itself is a small family run business. It’s run the brother of our neighbour, very nice folks. They popped around to check on us and see how we were settling in. Quite layed back, they haven’t asked for money as yet. The site is, as I mentioned, small. Only about 6 or so pitches, most with electric. We didn’t bother with that, I’d brought the 120amp battery with us. More then enough power for the week to run a laptop if needed and charge the phones. I brought a 12v florescent lamp as well but likely won’t need it.

The kids are knackered. They’ve had a busy afternoon that’s for sure. Tomorrow we’ll be walking to the zoo and checking out the animals and whatever else they have there.

Well that’s about it from here tonight I think. the big people are knackered too and ready for bed now as well.

Watch this space for the day 2 report. I won’t be posting pics on the blog, but check on facebook, flickr and mobypictures and of course Twitter.com/m1xzg for updates.

Btw, this is all from my phone, there are likely spelling errors, I will fix them later. Don’t think I have a spell check on here.

Posted by Wordmobi

I’ve been looking at some camp sites and one that has stuck out as looking like a fun place to go (for the kids too) …

River Dart Country Park – http://www.riverdart.co.uk/ Check out the pics of the place on the site.

Also found this place http://www.woodovis.com/cmx/content/view/2/4/ seems all right. Will have to check them out more.

I’d really like a MSR Whisperlite but they aren’t cheap, however, they are very versatile.. best you read about them on the manufactures website (click the link back there).  At some point I’ll likely get one of these, but not right now. 

For now I’ll have a go with this Hexamine stove.    This the very same one I have picked up for £4.00

To night I decided to do some timing experiments to see how long it takes to boil water in both my crusader cup and a small aluminium kettle.  The Crusader cup took 6m20sec to bring 1L of water to a boil and the Hexamine cube held the boil for 3 minutes.  Might want it to boil longer if you were sterilizing water, but just pop another cube of Hexamine and it would be good for another 9 mins of burn time.  The kettle, which has a lid, only took 4m30sec and the same 9 min burn time on the cube so that means 4m30sec of the water being held at a boil.

A couple of pics and a couple of videos can be seen below.. click to enlarge or see the videos.

Well, now just have to try it out in anger one day in the field

You can see all the pics and the videos from the night by CLICKING HERE.

I decided to take the kids to the Linton Zoo, south of Cambridge.  We’ve been there a few times before.  It’s a nice little local zoo.  We heard a talk about the tigers they have, the youngest one which is just over 2 years old will be sent to Sweden for breeding.  Apparently it’s quite common for zoos to pimp out their animals for breeding purposes

Here are some of the pics from today, see the all the pics at Linton Zoo Pics

1)Rob at the BBQ

2) Left – Right: Debbie, James (Deb’s BF), Karen (Deb’s ex-roommate), Nick (Liz’s husband – we didn’t get a pic of Liz, sorry Liz)

3) Hamburgers and Sausages

4) Chicken Wings (Yuki), Chinese Salad (Yuki), Leaf Salad (Deb and James), Pasta with Tuna Salad (Liz & Nick) and Couscous Salad with Butternut Squash and other veg (Karen)

5) Salads again

6) What’s left of Yuki’s Tiramisu.

A good time was had by all!

So, I decided to take her with me.  The question was where too.  I decided to take her to Wicken Fen again.  We’d gone there before (Wicken Fen…) with Lisa’s school.  That visit was good for the kids but we didn’t really get to see too much of the place.  Today when we went back we’d ended up walking about 1.25 to 1.5 miles around part of the area.  Lisa had a good time but sure was tired.  Surprisingly she didn’t fall asleep on the way back home.

There are some pics and a video from the day HERE – here are some samples.

Well, that’s all well and good, but how do I connect things to it?  I wanted some easy way to connect multiple things to the battery without having to have a number of wires getting attached to the battery.

So, not wanting to spend ARM+LEG and either our first or second born to buy something already made, and it wouldn’t include the cig plugs either.

So, I made this:

Read on if you’d like to see the other pics .. or, you can just go and look at them in my Flickr Gallery

Well you made it here then

Ok, well looking at the picture above what you have is:

- 4 way cigarette plugs

- 4 sets of Anderson Powerpoles

- 4 Fuse holders (15A for cig plug and 20A for Powerpoles)

- 2 Inline fuse holders (40A fuses)

- 2 Quick release battery terminal clamps

These are the fuses holders up close and the Anderson Powerpole block.  This block is arranged in 2 groups of 4’s.  The reason for this is so that the 2 groups back wards from each other.  This means that there can be no mistakes in plugging into them the wrong way.  Each group of 4 makes a single circuit and fused by a 20A fuse.  There is the top group and the bottom group, also marked on the fuses.  The Powerpoles used are all rated at 45AMPs each.  It’s over kill but by risk it.

The 4 way cigarette plugs are connected through a 15 amp fuse, also marked on the front.

Looking inside the box.  On the left side top and bottom are the 30AMP bus blocks I’ve used to distribute the incoming power feed (both the negative and positive are fused with 40AMP fuses).

This is a close up of the Powerpole blocks.  You can see how each pair are ganged together.  It wasn’t too hard, but where the double wires were attached to I had to shave off some of the insulation on both wires to allow them to get closer together and prevent too much strain.  Each and every connector was first crimped then soldered to ensure both a good connection and also security of the connections.

Close up of the fuse connections isn’t very exciting.  Each connection here is also soldered and then taped to ensure the “hot” connections aren’t open to something falling in or on them.

Each and every wire going into or connecting the bus blocks has been soldered to ensure the wires won’t break or wear with movement.  it also means the screws holding them in will have a more secure fit

Just another shot of the front again

Anyhow, I took a load of pics which you can see if you CLICK HERE.  Some samples of the pics.