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Mar 26, 2017 - Blog, Just Now    No Comments

Mothers Day We will always remember you

On this special day we remember our mothers who perhaps had the most influence on our lives. This is the second mothers day without Margaret my wife and mother to our three boys. So I want to share with you the words from my card I brought.

Taking a special moment to think of you

Some people can’t help but bring warm thoughts to mind …

They are known for ways they are caring and kind.

For positive outlooks and laughter they share

For others feel better whenever they’re there ….

Special to know and spend time around, too,

they’re the ones who are nice to remember  – like you (Margaret)

I am so grateful for the wonderful gift of you  (Margaret) in my life.

 

All my love always

Michael

Mar 23, 2017 - Blog, Just Now    No Comments

Scumbags

Scumbags

This is the name I have given the culprits who violate our personal space in and around our homes.

Yesterday at the unearthly hour of 4am my house alarm goes off I proceeded to the kitchen to deactivate within 30 secs to be confronted with a very cold kitchen as the doors and windows were open. It is fair to say my brain was not at its best at that time trying to piece together the doors and windows. I did close them and drop snips the night before. Look in the conservatory and it is easily apparent someone had made entry to the property.

Police called and arrived within the half hour with an update as to their progress by telephone. They were doing a sweep of the area before coming to me.

Best I could tell at that time in the morning only my wallet and a mobile phone was missing.

The rest of the day was spent making statements calling various agencies and insurance company to secure the property.

I was asked by the police if I had lost a pair of binoculars, looked in conservatory and a small set was missing.

Update

Police called round last evening at 11-30 pm to ask me to identify if a set of binoculars were mine, they were and someone had been taken into custody following the sweep in the morning in a street just behind Carrick Drive.

Scumbags whoever you are violating our personal space and causing in the grand scheme of things minimal damage to property which can be repaired you cause us an enormous amount of stress and anxiety. Persons less able than me are in fear of living in their own homes as you appear to make repeated returns to add further stress to an already difficult situation.

Luckily I did not encounter the person/persons involved but at that time in morning nothing is happening in the correct order but I would have inflicted as much injury as possible to the person/persons but dressed in my best PJ’s was not exactly Kung FU attire.

Nov 30, 2014 - Just Now    No Comments

Ten years on – catch up since I retired

Well here I am on my blog after a little time away. It seemed right to launch into a rambling as on this St Andrews day 2004 I retired from the BBC.

Ten years where has it all gone? Many people ask do I miss it Yes of course I had a wonderful time in my role in BBC Sport Scotland forging many links with friends both in the sporting world, the many technicians who made it all look so simple whether it was camera shots, audio work or the mystery of video editing on both film and videotape.

The many commentators and pundits that I met were some of the most knowledgeable in the art of communicating the action to the viewers.

One of the reasons I decided to retire before my sixtieth birthday was to look after Margaret full time. She has supported me all the time I was dispatching myself to Olympic, Commonwealth Games, World Cups, European Football championships and various sporting events around Scotland for the past twenty five years’ – time was to take stock as her Multiple Sclerosis condition was not getting any better and more help was needed from yours truly.

So what did happen in the last ten years?

If you have followed some of the threads going back to the winter of 2010 when the snow came in a vengeance and seemed to last forever was the start of the Ramblings from Carrick Drive as a way of communicating to our three boys scattered around the UK at the time.

I started my Open University Degree in the 2005/06 which at the time I had no idea which direction it was going to take or the time taken to complete. Going to Glasgow concert Hall in April 2012 to receive my Honours degree was one of those days in front of my family was very special.

Margaret and I managed many cruises and great holidays in the last ten years. The highlight would be two to mention the Hurtigruten journey up the coast of Norway which spread over the midsummer when we had six days of 24 hour sunshine. The sun never setting was too much to take in.

The other trip was the canal journey on a barge (Reine Pedaugue) in southern France around Dijon. The barge was a converted coal carrying barge from the Rhine with a stannah stairlift to get down to the bedrooms. An open bar and food you would not believe cooked in the smallest galley kitchen in the world – 12 days of total relaxation. We managed as part of our trip to take in my grandfather’s grave in Bethune near Arras he was killed on December 23rd 1916.

So what have the family been doing?

Steven and Yvonne now have two children. Matthew is now married to Fiona and now have one child born in November 2013. Philip at long last took the plunge and married Jacquie in August 2013.

When Margaret and I look back as we will do in just a few weeks’ time at the start of January 2015 we will see our family flourishing and making their own way in the world.

So ten years have disappeared in a flash with great memories to reflect on.

So I start the next chapter 1 December 2014.

Some pictures

 

Dec 24, 2012 - Just Now    No Comments

Christmas Eve

I was inspired recently by the report from the Channel Islands about the repatriation of Christmas messages sent by the German troops finding their way home after (BBC link) 71 years.

I recalled one I had that my dad had sent my mother whilst he was in the Mediterranean during the war.  The card shows the foot of Italy which the Durham Light infantry 16 brigade were involved.  (Durham Light Infantry)  Some pictures of my dad during the war from a site administered by Tom Tunney shows the history of his father during the war with the Light Infantry.

This is the card sent by me dad xcard1card2

Merry Christmas

Dec 3, 2012 - Just Now    No Comments

December 2012 update

I started this Blog some two years ago when we had a substantial snow fall here in Scotland and a way of keeping the family informed how their Mum & Dad were coping with the weather. So it seemed a good time to update with the latest weather report from you know where – snow has fallen last evening 2 December only a 2 cm’s but a covering none the less. It has been quite cold of late with -4/6 overnight making the latest fall quite slippy underfoot.

We have been a little plagued of late with some telephone interference on the line which has at last been traced to a faulty incoming cable to the house – we are sailing along with nearly 8mb’s download speed for the first time ever.

BBC Scotland Golf Crew

BBC Scotland Golf Crew taken on ?

I went to a BBC reunion of all the young pups who have retired recently etc.  I have been on holiday for exactly eight years on November 30th last and what a lot I have packed in those eight years. The Blog is a good reflection of that.
The picture I am posting is one that I think was taken at a golf event of all the BBC Scotland crew – I will endeavour to locate the exact date when I can speak with the photographer.

 

Leuchie House

Leuchie House, North Berwick

One other piece of info is to alert all my readers to Leuchie House Christmas appeal. This holiday centre which Margaret goes to twice a year to get away from yours truly to R & R. Yours truly goes off to do some mad activity as my entry (I am not forty any more but think I am) so please support if you can this very worthwhile centre in only its second year of charitable status after the MS Society withdrew funding.

http://leuchiehouse.org.uk/

Apr 24, 2012 - Just Now    No Comments

Michael Abbott BSc Honours (Open)

How I got there

Fukll lenght of Michael Abbott

Michael Abbott

Why did I do it? Personal satisfaction  had no time whilst working at the BBC so when I retired in 2004 after a holiday as I called it – time to have a go as they say. What was I going to do I looked at a number of OU courses and eventually decided on an Open degree in Social Science.

February 2006 came upon so quickly after the books arrived for DD100 a foundation module in Social Sciences and before I knew it an exam had taken place and I was into choosing the next module.

DD205 globalisation which I found really interesting as it include climate change and how the world was interconnecting between continents and the ramifications of such connections.

DD200 Governing Europe was taken the year before the European elections which gave me an insight to the workings of Europe in Brussels and how the changes are affecting the European project – my studies coincided with the Lisbon treaty but those doing the course at the moment will have different aspects to consider with Greece and the financial situation cross the Euro Zone.

Half way now to the goal of 360 points for Honours. I needed to upgrade to level three courses for which I chose AD317 Religion – Modernity, Tradition and Change – this was not so much about the textural nature of religion as we know it – but how the differing religions co-exist in society around the world. The size of some of the pentecostal churches in South Korea and USA are staggering. Considered were the breakaways that have occurred throughout the millenia even in our own country was an interesting area discussed.

The other level 3 course was DD304 Understanding cities which was in effect a follow on to DD205 a very interesting module focusing on the mega cities throughout the world, Shanghai, Mumbai, New York, London, Sydney, Mexico and Paris. This course fully elaborated on on what we had studied on DD205 but took it to a new level – communications, influx into these large cities and how the authorities dealt with it and the citizens role in moving from what was from a rual environment. Still they come in their hundreds of thousands daily. Then there is the problem of how does the popualtion move from these cities to another country ie Mexico to USA for instance and people movement around the globe.

The final course was T215 Information Communication Technology – to be honest I did not find this particular module all that stimulating. We had some difficulty on the module with collaboration between students on a website as well as using some rather outdated software packages but in the end I reached my goal 360 points.

Michael Abbott BSc Hounours (Open) what next I do not know but will think of something in the fullness of time.

TTFN

Apr 24, 2012 - Just Now    No Comments

Graduation

I have been trying to think how to put this in words for a few days now, can I be humourous, struggle on that one, just be serious possible or just blog as it comes into the head – that is my usual way so here goes.

The date was 14 April and the graduation ceremony took place at Glasgow concert hall in the afternoon. Philip & Jacquie from Northampton, Matthew & Fiona from Glasgow along with my wife Margaret were able to join me. Steven, Yvonne and children were unable to attend as it was the end of the school Easter holidays but Steven posted a nice piece on my Facebook page and a congratulations card arrived shortly afterwards – I know that they were there in spirit.

Glasgow Concet Hall

Glasgow Concert Hall

Having received my gown, bit and pieces plus photos taken we had a bit of time to kill till the ceremony at 3pm. The picture shows the hall full of guests and those receiving their certificates an acknowledgement of their work.

After the usual preamble it was down to the business of the day and what an occasion the Vice-Chancellor of the Open University Martin Bean made of the afternoon he went to great lengths to encourage the guests to give their respective recipients a great Glasgow welcome.

I sat there for quite a while till it was my turn to go and I thought will they or won’t they – the Abbott rent a crowd hold back – Oh! no Oh! no they didn’t – of course the Vice-Chancellor as he had done on a number of  occasions wanted to know where the

Glasgow Concet Hall

Recieving Certificate

mob was shouting from – arrests were on going as they were loud but it was great fun – thanks to them.  So we had rapturous applause and a great Glasgow welcome for all 200 + graduates all afternoon – great fun.

The Vice Chancellor’s closing remarks hit home to quite a number of people as a way to encourage us to go forward now that we have gained our qualification in what ever discipline.

So to the gallery pictures just a few

He is not going with more  – OH! yes he is. for that you will need to go to the next post.

Apr 9, 2012 - Just Now    No Comments

Potato Competition

In strictly fashion here are the results which have not been verified by an independent adjudicator

Variety Bag Kg Garden Kg
Swift (Competition 2.0 1.78
Rocket 1.28 0.672
Kestrel 1.409 1.29
Lady Chrystal 0.720 0.277
Pentland Javelin 1.9 2.9
Cara 1.68 2.158

Not sure what Jaks will publish. For me the bags seem an expensive way to grow potatoes unless you use straight garden soil. I do not think I added enough compost to the bags during the growing period. Certainly the potatoes were cleaner out of the bags. I cannot really say which were the best eaters or cookers we just ate them.

This year no competition or any test bed growing just Foremost which will be split between the garden and some large bags. I think the smaller bags are little small not allowing sufficient compost to be added.

Finally from what Jaks and Philip said when they were up last year I did not have a very good crop compared with theirs.

So a honourable draw then.

Thanks for reading.

Update from Graduation on 14 April will be next post

Oct 4, 2011 - Computer, Just Now    No Comments

Computer Woes – and then success?

The saga continues – decided to go for a rebuild of win7 32 and win7 64 on a dual boot system.

Win7 32

This has the following 32 bit OS and Office 2007. This will be left alone in this low configuration as a failsafe.

The reason for the build was the problems I had a couple of weeks ago when the following errors seem to occur all at once.

Flat screen monitor suddenly had all sorts of lines across it. Replaced GFX card with spare and all came good – great but no – then I had all sorts of BSOD’s. I tested initially in pairs until I found it should have been done in singles.

Out of the four sticks only one showed no problems, two would not boot machine and one failed very quickly on test 5. So I am left with a working machine with 2 G out of 8 and jiggered GFX card.Memory86+ test package used.

Back to installing Win7 64bit.

Added Office 10 and a couple of other bits such as ESET AV and Malwares software and decided a good time to do the image thing.

Image made but left it a couple of days before taking the plunge to actually test it. Bingo time now reinstall complete both Win 32 and Win64 in about 15 mins.

However still getting some BSOD’s at random times but traced it down to actually crashing when the system came out of hibernation mode.

Reset CMOS to default – no change still had BSOD’s, so now defaulted BIOS and made some adjustments here as the defaults do not work with SATA needed ACHI mode. Turned off IDE and a couple of other settings – installed 2 sticks of new memory still on old GFX card.

Another eureka moment as the system now started to behave itself this after adjusting hibernation and sleep mode in preferences to NEVER. System now working as it should.

There is a but – Outlook today decided not to work for some reason – eventually went onto BT yahoo and my email was working fine as was Margaret’s address, so something wrong with my settings, played a bit but no clear conclusion other than set ESET firewall to allow in each direction and it came good. Spoke with ESET no thoughts there – no updates issued, a windows defender did a download something. Working now – computer glitch to make sure there is a but.

Continued to install software as well as remaining memory sticks, new GFX card so now I go for a new image and test.

Image made and rebuild including format completed in 18 minutes.

The boy is back in town well almost as I was putting this together the PC froze just like the weather here in Scotland.

Where did all my problems originate from. Nothing concrete but suspected a patch back in April that jiggered my Bullguard account which I never got working again, HD changed etc as well as alot of download’s of this and that from Bullguard. I will never know.

TTFN

Sep 27, 2011 - Computer, Just Now    No Comments

PC Woes

For some time now I have been having the random BOSD without any consistent reason. I installed blue viewer which did give me some indication of the file that seemed to be giving me the most trouble. More often than not it was (ntosknl) which seemed to be located in the depths of the system with the web offering a lot of suggestions none of them concrete solutions.

Last week the whole system threw a wobbly with the TFT screen showing all sorts of fussy images so I thought graphic card was grubbed (Nvlddmkm driver sent me on a hunt) in the end I put in an old card and I managed to get my system to work to allow me to send off my final paper to OU.

Task now was to decide on a full rebuild which I have managed with a re format of the drive for both win 32 and win 64 systems. Loaded various programmes and did an image of the system which I find includes the win32 & win64. OK so a test was needed which I did and all worked fine taking less than 15mins. to complete rather than the day and half with updates etc.

And then it crashed during the afternoon a couple of days ago – blue screen viewer showed a couple of things like file.sys and the ntosknl again but with 1066 next to it sent me thinking memory.

Downloaded memorytest86+ and ran two of the mem-sticks and showed no errors, good I thought until I did as instructed to do stick at a time – out of the four sticks two will not boot the machine and one has errors and thankfully one is good no errors. Four new sticks ordered.

I was hoping for a series of passes on the good stick but we had a power cut in the early morning so all was down.

Questions remaining after new sticks installed is old GFX card dead, is there anything else on the way out soak test will provide the answer.

I think I did well never beat myself up (age I think) when it all went down last week as I had all the documents on another drive so could access them.

What have I learnt, not a lot other than follow some instincts and at least get some tangible errors.

I ran just about everything last week from malware detection on boot etc. on both 32 and 64 OS showed nothing.

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