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Category: Personal

My personal blog talking about my adventures in my personal life

  • Finding an old site.

    I thought with WordPress, this would be my only site, turns out I forgotten one! Oops. I had a wordpress.com account with a blog that I was planning to turn into a full site and mess with WordPress, then transfer things over, its not the first time I’ve done that, I created a few internal WordPress sites (they didn’t work – surprise surprise) and get used to new features and create the site I’d like to see. I’m closer now than I have ever been.

    So, to complete everything including posts from 2016 (when I was actually Train Presentation), I’ve exported them and included them into this blog. You can see how slowly or quickly things have developed. However, as I write this, I am in the process of shutting down the site – this one provides the purpose. Also there is a long gap between posts. I gave up for a while but then my mum suggested as my mental health keeps collapsing (and inspired by someone who I now blocked who is a social media influencer with her ADHD problems) to actually create my own blog and you will find a few reoccurring theme with my life problems, women and not talked about but still an issue – jobs.

    From memory, I started that one as my site (not the first time, I’ll get on to that) got blocked. It got blocked because my account got compromised when it ran Joomla and someone kept sending spam emails from my account. This was in 2013. So I tried to get it unblocked unsuccessfully until around 2018, I managed it by submitting a ticket. It all stayed relatively stable, it was mainly used as a file dump, but I had a WIP site built with Netobjects Fusion from about 2019 while I try to mess with Content Management Systems with no success. I also uploaded a few tools and things people will be interested in… until…

    It got blocked again in 2024, you’ll never believe the reason – and I was off to a Wetherspoons in Petersfield, so it was the last thing on my mind when that flashed up.

    Yep, a file that has been on the site for 6 – 7 years, apparently having Malware. Don’t panic, I got the original source somewhere, it was written in Visual BASIC 6 – but what I have also done, is scanned it with online scanners and it came out clear. When I move the WIP stuff to here, you will find a program file missing, I’m sorry, see above. I’m not risking my site again! I am not blaming my hosting provider either, they explained it was a third party that contacted them to tell them about it.


    So “webmasters” on your personal sites, just watch out! Seriously, some people will try anything to knock your site off.

  • WordPress sometimes

    So an entry of (another?) gripe about how WordPress works. Its a bit alien to me, its a bit troublesome to me, but I wanted to replace my WIP site with a site that’s got a CMS system, since its easier to update and everywhere else is going CMS. Plus for mobile use, its rather flexible.

    So I came up with a few ideas and the original one was to use a single WordPress site, then I messed with template, then I struggled to deal with templates. I used Joomla! before and that was OK – until I had no access to my site and thought I’ll start from scratch. It was all over blue, so the new idea is to have blue bands top and left.

    Kind of like my first example:

    Still online, but may not be for much longer, although I don’t know for how much longer as it comes to the big problem of time. Splitting my time up dealing with IT issues at home, developing, gaming (I don’t do much of that these days), work, travelling and being a carer. This is is why I started rebuilding the site it as the original site which ironically is on its own folder I guess you could call it, looks like this:


    Also, it was made with NetObjects Fusion and I can’t open the original file in the latest version, so I can no longer update it. Great! Its one of these WYSIWYG and if I am totally honest, like back in the day, I could of done the whole site from scratch with just HTML coding and a little Javascript here and there – its not hard if I am brutally honest.

    So, I tried many plugins (I love WP plugins!), many ways and if I am honest, I am not sold on the “Blocks” idea as I am looking at freeform – as in the page is a drawing board. But many items of software to develop the site and the templates and I got to a point where I was going to use my static webpage as a site. However, I also wanted to split off my WIP entries and my personal entries for a good reason, firstly I keep getting HTTP 500 error on this site, the second is to make it easier to find. So I opened another WordPress blog for that purpose.

    I was going to amalgamate both into one site with folders that are addressed from a static webpage. It looked like a good idea until you realise that it doesn’t look right (the tool is my dads suggestion by the way):

    (Through a remote connection)
    The trouble with the blogs is that the separate page, you would have to scroll down horizontal pages – from a user perspective, this is not good. Its awful in fact! It would certainty not look very professional, but does my site do anyway? Then there is the issue of accessibility, this is going to be a bigger concern going forward. Unless I create static pages for every single condition, its not going to work, so hopefully, WordPress has a plugin for that. Normally, I use really small text size which a lot of people can’t read, its just what my eyes are used to, then someone goes “I can’t see it, its too small”.

    The argument shouldn’t be “Well change your monitor settings”, it should be “how do I make the site work for them?” A temporary increase in text in the site, would work, along with being able to accommodate those who are colour blind.

    Then came the next idea after messing around on my WIP site, still a lot to do and I’m working an hour at a time figuring things out.

    Ok, its a little more advanced than that, but this version has different plug-ins installed which this blog doesn’t have. Why couldn’t I have access to them earlier?
    Anyway, theres a LOT of work to do, considering I’m spending less than an hour a day on it, mostly as I write this, the train to London and back (hence why one is over an RDP connection). There also will be a HTML site and that will be my CV, I’m working out how to produce a HTML version and link it to my LinkedIn profile for future employers – which I don’t think it will be that popular. Also on that site, the email form (surprise surprise) doesn’t work yet and I am looking into why

    I’d love to hear what everyone thinks and if you can add a comment, please do. Is it too blue? I might also try and add a button for dark mode as I don’t like black on white, but white on black instead.

  • Life as a redhead

    Yes, really, that is my hair during college. I was something like 20 at the time.

    So I’ve mentioned about life with ASD, but I’ve not really talked about life as a redhead, a natural one as I’m naturally ginger and a bloke. One thing to get used to, you are the only ginger for miles. It’s estimated that there are about 1.5% of people on this earth with natural red hair, the UK has the highest proportion of redheads however, but there are unique problems associated with red hair.

    Not the obvious, so keep that off the comments please! What better time to talk about it during a heatwave in the UK and there is a reason for that.

    Here is my new best friend, SPF 50+ sun cream. At the moment, I feel like I am married to the bloody stuff. But anyway:

    • Summers = death!

    No, really! The problem is that a lot of redheads have really fair skin and anything more than 20 minutes in the sun is a death sentence. Over a UV of 3, you better run and hide in the shade as nothing will stop you burning, nothing!  Oh, stock up on that SPF 50+ and after sun, you WILL need it a lot! Either that or the first sign of sun, you’ll be heading for shade before you burn to a crisp in about 5 minutes flat.

    – Compliments

    Get used to them, you’ll get that a lot “Oh, I love your hair colour”, “I wish I could have your hair colour”, “It’s soo beautiful”. Etc etc, but….

    – Insults

    Expect to have a barrage of them, I mean A LOT OF THEM. Ginger P word (I wish that was considered a racist slur, but who’s going to listen to me? I find it offensive as it’s embarrassing. I can’t use the same phrase to anyone with a different hair colour). Ginger nuts – maybe I should throw a pack of them at someone, get back in your biscuit tin. I’ve heard it all. The annoying bit? I’ve challenged the BTP on this, but the insults are not defined as racist and I think they should be defined as race hate, but the abuse? So, if someone has a different skin colour to me, they can go to the police and get someone done for race hate with little evidence. The moment you are a ginger with the same problem? “Sorry, not interested”.

    • Support

    As above, don’t expect any, society doesn’t want to know, the police don’t want to know, the politicians don’t want to know, no one wants to know, until redheads are gone for good, but by then, its too late anyway, we are already going extinct, it won’t be long until we literally are.

    – Pain 

    What pain? I wondered why I can get away with twisting my ankle, cutting my skin and so far, not breaking a bone. Oh, that might be because of my milk input? Anyway, a friend of mine screamed out in pain after he hit the wooden bit to his bed more recently. Me? Ahh, that’s nothing, I keep going. Scientifically, redheads do have a higher pain tolerance, it seems to be true, I’ve somehow tripped into a road in Bognor Regis (kerb was high), twisted my ankle, got up, hobbled for a bit and continued like nothing happened – until the next day that is.

    – Dating and sex (for blokes?)

    In my unique case? Forget it! Seriously, it’s a joke. To add to the insult list “Sorry, don’t date gingers”, time and time again. That is the highest rejection reason, if not the only I got through my entire life. I did try to date a ginger and the result? “Gingers don’t date other gingers” which is sort of true, because everyone assumes we are bother and sister. Seriously!? Mine 2 sisters have dark hair, I was the only one cursed with the ginger gene, even that wasn’t suppose to happen according to my DNA. I tried to keep this off my blog but go on, you must know, sex life is non existent, I mean, non existent compared to other blokes. In fact, with the whole scheme of things,  spend more time on my own than I do with a parter and it has taken a toll on my mental health. Considering I’m nearly 40, without kids, no marriage and only just getting a stable job. I also have ASD so here () and here () explains my ASD problems. 

    Did I mention also I am even more rare than you think? You see most redheads have green eyes, it’s a recessive trait. I have blue eyes which is also more dominant but rare as hens teeth in redheads.

    – Highly visible

    From a mile away. Honestly, I don’t need to see the person in my eye line before I get the abuse. However, in a large crowd? Oh spotting me is easy as hell. I’ll never get lost as that orange flashing beacon on my head is always lit saying “I’m here, I’m here! FIND ME”

    – Other cultures.

    UK? One thing, foreigners? Completely different experience. Why? They are more likely to be struck by lightning than to see a redhead. Not that I can tolerate hot climates. I can’t at all. I’m happier in the northern hemisphere and well away from the equator or even tropics of cancer. The further north I go, the better it is. Cooler weather? Love it! Hot weather? Hide. Anyway, other cultures for these reasons don’t tend to get redheads, so there is a lot of superstition that goes with it. Like seeing a yellow car. Oh and you get a LOT of attention.

    In fact, it’s considered unlucky to have redhair (look above), but if you rub a redhead, it’s meant to symbolise good luck in a number of cultures, for someone that doesn’t like being touched. Interesting.

    • It’s hard to replicate and it’s hard to dye.

    Yeah, don’t think about it. Really, don’t. Best keep the hair.k

    Honestly, I wouldn’t wish having red hair on anyone else, until society changes its outlook. It wouldn’t be hard, but that requires legislation to change and to be frank, it will never happen. Until enough of us make a noise.

  • Railway Byelaws (and one you may not be aware of)

    The interesting thing about the UK rail system is that there are many byelaws. I visited Ireland recently and one byelaw that you should know that can’t be enforced and as you may of read, I’m on the Autistic Spectrum Disorder which I believe I am rather sensitive to:

    • Noise
    • Sight
    • Smell

    In fact, hyper sensitive at times. This is where the byelaws on National Rail are a godsend, because Railway Byelaw 7 in particular which states, coming from the National Rail website: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/railway-byelaws/railway-byelaws#conduct-and-behaviour-1 (Retrieved 18/06/2025)

    “7. Music, sound, advertising and carrying on a trade.

    1. Except with written permission from an operator, no person on the railway, shall to the annoyance of another persons:

    a.  Sing, or

      B. Use any instrument, article or equipment for the production or reproduction of sound”

    So when travelling around the UK*, I do ask a lot to turn down their music, sound or whatever that is bothering me, often with a hostile response and just make them aware of the state of play. I often have my staff ID around my neck and an ASD lanyard to denote my disability and for those not in the position, I just recommend asking them to turn down the volume. However, if you don’t feel comfortable, a chat with the guard/OBS doesn’t go amiss.

    For me, sound is rather irritating and it’s something I have been unable to fix – background noise. So if someone is talking to me up close, sometimes, I will home in what’s going on in the background and unable to focus on the foreground, hence why I sometimes inadvertently ignore someone. Sometimes, it’s just motor sounds such as a moving train that is frustrating as it drowns out the person close to me. Sometimes, some sounds at certain frequencies are ear piercing and just generally irritating, yes, I have my headphones to block out the noise but more and more devices are being built without headphones sockets. There’s 2 options, adapters or Bluetooth. Sounds like a simple solution right?

    Ok, in ear earphones are annoying as crap, I can’t listen to them for more than 10 minutes without me wanting to rip them out of my lugs and at worse case, my skin takes offence and guess what happens? A spot in my ear.

    Ok, let’s try over the ear headphones, some are nice and comfy, some are bad. I can wear them much longer but guess what? My skin takes offence and sometimes, I have to take them off for a breather – well longer periods, because my skin builds up oil around the cups and it irritates my skin which guess what? Causes a spot.

    Then there is Bluetooth. Oh yeah, I got told off as well for creating too much noise recently, while using my computer at home as my server and my device as a thin client (See this post to why.).  It didn’t work by wired, so I tried Bluetooth. Fine paired, worked, all for about a minute and disconnected, blasting the carriage out with V2 radio music. Great.

    Then there is foreign railways and the worst bit is, I don’t know the rules or even how they enforce them. Northern Ireland Railway has a different set of rules to the UK. Interestingly, Northern Ireland Railways is in the UK, but for devolution purposes, is considered an Overseas’s operator. So you need the FIP Card if you are staff. They are also NOT a member of the Rail Delivery Group which I think would bring many benefits. Unified byelaws under the Railways Act 2003 (I think it is), access to discounts, access to funding, common ticketing to the rest of the UK with the Rail Settlement Plan. Better through ticketing with Ferries, there is a lot to gain. But what do I know? I’m just someone in the UK with a small suggestion.

    Anyway, Northern Ireland Railways and Iranrod Eireann have different rules, I looked and I couldn’t see any mention of Northern Ireland Railways conditions of carriage about noise, meaning it’s unenforceable and “Translink” or “NIR” does not appear in any entity in the Railway Byelaws, despite being administered by the ORR (Office for Rail and Road) – in London.

    Iranrod Eireann on the other hand, isn’t subjected to UK laws or byelaws for obvious reasons. I could not find anything specific, but this news article indicates “No person at any time, shall while on the railway or in any vehicle Willfully interfere with the comfort and connivence of other passenger or person while on the railway or in any vehicle” (From: https://www.corkbeo.ie/news/local-news/seven-things-you-might-not-17465087  retrieved: 19/06/2025 at 10:51)

    Interesting. But still doesn’t answer the issue of excessive noise. However, what is also interesting is a lot of papers in the UK are now also starting war on excessive noise and even giving it a name of “Bare beating”. Now if only there was a byelaw for that – look above.

    (For the record, I don’t mind people talking, in fact, I’m on a train as I wrote this, in Northern Ireland, heading to Derry~Londonderry, on a table with 3 guys chatting to each other and they aren’t obnoxious in any way. It’s a reasonable conversation about cars).

    (* except Northern Ireland Railways as the rules are different)

  • Trains again (and women).

    So now for another blog about women – on trains, but this time, I don’t think I’ll see them again.

    I’m over in Northern Ireland as I write this, staying around the Bangor area and a friend and myself decided to get a train from Carnalea to Belfast Grand Central. Bangor has some great views on the line, had a nice CAF Class 4000 unit which the first coach at least, suddenly wanted to divorce its gearbox.

    Carnelea has some nice views and some interesting plants, it’s next to t a golf course too. Only downside is that my friend sat in the first carriage and I did too, I asked to join a lovely lady on a table, the offer wasn’t refused as I use my tablet and battled with the VPN and the tablet, while my home PC sticks the fingers up.

    While taking in the sites that the Bangor line has. Truly amazing. However, confidence is an all time low. So, I get the glance, I look at her occasionally and admire the beauty of the lady and too scared to say anything. If you read previously or if I have mentioned, my rejection rate is very high and I turned into this “I don’t want to take the risk anymore” sort of thing, so talking and taking details is a no no for me now, unless they start talking to me, but then I’m careful. The thing that scared me? The phone and the camera pointed at my direction, that makes me nervous! And it happened a few times during the journey. I should have taken a photo of her, but laws are against me and it’s even more wrong to put a photo on this site. Especially with GDPR.

    Then near to the end of the journey, she started tapping the table after I did, still saying nothing and ignoring the cues, then getting off the train, she was right behind me, the whole way until I stopped and waited for my friend in an open area. She leaves and comes back to use Starbucks and takes a very long time. Then disappeared on another train.

    Why write about it? Well, to give an insight. Too scared to get myself into trouble and a more recent point I’ve put across is that being on the ASD means you misinterpret a lot, I don’t like taking risks, I don’t like getting into trouble, I don’t like making people feel uncomfortable and even if nothing happened. (Can’t anyway for other reasons – I’ll talk about it in due course). I would love to get to know more women, its just my past, my confidence has been shattered and even my colleagues, who are women, its taken me a long time to even talk to them.

    What I find weird is many women get uncomfortable by me, but at the same time, do they realise that some actions make me feel uncomfortable too? It’s like being baited, Being neutral to me is best, or just ask a question like “hows your day?”. I’ll start a conversation that way. If you are wondering, yes, I did go to Belfast, yes, I did have a good day out and ended up taking too many photos of trains again.

  • Something random – Why I love thin clients.

    I thought I’ll write something different for once and it maybe something to give you a thought on what to do with ex corporate equipment, in my case, mobile thin clients. These don’t have to be used in an organisation to be useful, they can be used at home as well.

    (From a MS Word document)

    Have I just created a new word or phrase? I think I need to explain this. So I’m trying to reduce the weight on my back and my current setup is a mobile thin client for personal use, a normal laptop (Dell Latitude) for work and if I need it, a Toughbook for personal use, if I need to use my Toughbook locally.

    In the past, I used to expose a custom RDP port to the outside world, along with the Wake-On-Lan connection to my desktop that sits on my desk at home, hidden behind a monitor. You maybe wondering “why am I using a mobile thin client for the task of working on something remotely as in this case rather than locally?” and “What are you going on about?”

    Using thin clients isn’t a new concept, its actually pretty old, as old as the computer itself. The previous use of thin clients was terminals and terminals were introduced as a way of interfacing with a mainframe computer, just the connection standard is different these days, compared to when terminals existed. In addition, to interface with a mainframe system, you often had a multi user environment, as sharing resources lowers the cost of computing and resources that otherwise would be sitting idle, gets put to use. Using thin clients is the modern equivalent, just that home users can benefit from using thin clients too. In fact, in a way, Microsoft is going soft is going down that way for everyone.

    Home users can also benefit, and for a big reason. You can have a pretty cheap second hand computer, you don’t have to run your normal software on it and on Windows, the tools to do it is already included in Windows – mstsc.exe (the client name. By the way, we are talking about “server and client”.) All you have to do to get the “server” side to work is make sure you are running something other than a home edition of Windows, configure a user account to have access to remote desktop services and find a device that has the appropriate software. It doesn’t have to be a computer, it can be a tablet. Android and iOS have a very useful “Windows app”. Find the name or IP address of your computer and in the location you are (house or otherwise), you should be able to access said computer over the local network with little or no difficulty.
    (I strongly suggest you read a tutorial on this, I’m only giving a general overview).

    What about outside the house? Well, a little more difficult and I can’t type it out on here. You also need to consider power requirements as the computer, you’d have 3 options – turn it on yourself as eventually it will as if you use windows, turn itself off or go to sleep, bear that in mind. Set the power settings to always on or use “Wake on lan” which requires additional setup.

    So you have a computer fit for using everywhere consider security risks, so you may want a VPN for this, username and passwords are a must at the very minimum and strong passwords that need to be changed every 72 days. Don’t store them on the remote device, think of other ways of securing the computer you are connected to, there’s loads of resources online and if you fancy getting to know windows better, gpedit.msc can be your friend. You can set the computer to lock anyone out for an amount of time after an amount of incorrect attempts.

    So with all this in mind, why did I consider it?

    The benefits outweigh the security concerns. You can buy a cheap second hand laptop and get it to perform just as well as a high end computer with the right configuration and connection. Yes, you can game remotely, Steam play is another way to do this. Plus, it was getting annoying transferring from one computer to another and constantly downloading the file via OneDrive the online storage I use. Its easier to connect to a computer and do it that way. Plus, I can transfer from device to device. Everything moves with me. Plus, there is a massive advantage, that despite the static PC, thin clients are less risky.

    On my Dell Wyse, it has a UWF (Universal Write Filter), for those that don’t know, a UWF creates an overlay, it’s a good thing and a downfall and to understand how it works, means understanding how embedded devices work. Back when SSDs were new, a write filter was considered necessary since it reduced the amount of writes to the flash drive, which eventually kills them. So, sending the writes somewhere else, i.e. RAM, helps. What is even more interesting is that the writes to RAM, has one other side effect, security, the fact that ram is volatile, I.e. doesn’t save its state, means that if you are clever, you don’t save any passwords.
    In fact, the state is reverted to exactly the same point when you applied the write filter.

    Plus theft and loss is not so much of an issue and a thin client – an old laptop repurposed is its own insurance in a way. Lose it? Steal it? No problem, set up a new OS, add your shortcut to your resources and away you go. Not the long laborious task of finding software and trying to activate it. The downside is that I have one single point of failure, my desktop or in an ente

    ‘rprise environment, a group of servers. This can be mitigated, in fact, I was looking at that problem myself and I could go down the VDI route (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) and back up the files to the virtual machine, off site. This would be easier than when the computer does break, reinstalling everything from scratch. Yes, there are ways to back up PCs these days and restore them, but this is quicker. Just take regular snapshots. Beisdes, not only do you have a computer and mobile thin client connected, what about as I mentioned, iPads?

    Here is an example


    (Yes, I did go long distance with RDP, I connected to my desktop from the Republic of Ireland when my computer was on the Sussex coast in the UK!)

    One final thing, the battery life is a LOT better. The device I’m using which I have restricted the CPU to 2 cores from 4 is showing no ill effects, it has been on charge from a measly charger which it didn’t accept a charge anyway and the battery lasts. Its idling most of the time in comparison to other computers, so really lightly loaded.

    The other interesting thing. You may think this is a new concept, did you know that if you have a work laptop, you may already be using remote access? Did you know that there are other versions too? Google Remote Desktop? (I’ll be honest, its not the most secure, but it works).

    If you touched a Citrix resource, a VMware resource, Anydesk, Teamviewer, it’s the same technology with similar capabilities. Just the security reasons? Not only can you see what you are doing, someone who is looking at your computer can too.

  • Small update

    I know I’ve not said anything for around 2 months, things have been rather busy, but been working on posts in the background.

    I wanted to keep my work off this blog but I’m going to have to do it to explain some of the issues as some of the content coming up I have planned will talk about my recent trips. Work for me is basically, I’ve gone from one company to another basically overnight. Those in the UK will know about the big change that came out with transport, ironically 02:00 the day I wrote this blog – so by now, I’ve probably blown my cover to who I worked/work for which isn’t a secret, however, as part of this, I had 4 weekends where I was using up – I would say entitlements, but this isn’t the correct word, the word would be “benefits” which is basically my box cards (was 10x free travel over 48 hours on First group Train Operating Companies and Open Access Operators) and my Friends and Family Discounts, I spent 3 out of 4 weekends travelling with my family – some of, wheras the weekend I had to myself went to Hull.

    I’m also writing up about thin clients as I had to “hack” – again, not the correct word – one, to upgrade it due to Dell’s support or lack thereof in this case, which is unusual for Dell as they are pretty good. I guess retaining old, ex corporate equipment isn’t in their remit, especially if it is a “Wyse” investment. Pun intended.
    Having said that, my Dell Latitude 7300 which my work place has provided has gone well past its 5 year birthday and is still supported, good! I don’t want to give it back to IT and keep using it for work! VoyagerPlan On Citirx just doesn’t like modern laptops and a lot of software doesn’t like chiplet based designs which is ultra frustrating, maybe if they gave me an Intel N100 laptop, I’d take it as it isn’t a chiplet design.

    The one big change I’ve made and its to this site, is I started another blog

    “What? Another one?”

    If those haven’t noticed, the first time you log into my blog, it seems to crash with an “Error 500 – internal server error” or something like that. On the virtual machine I’ve copied this WordPress blog to, it doesn’t happen, but I have a suspect in mind. A 3D plugin as it sort of appeared after that.

    The idea is to split off my development into a separate blog, where I will use this one for my personal experiences with life, hopefully concentrating what I am able and capable of doing. I’m also using a different blogging engine, so this will eventually when I can finish setting it up, will be located at https://www.wessexelectricnut.co.uk/flat. Nothing interesting yet, but hopefully in a few months time, I’ll have a few articles. I also planning on replacing the site with another static site. I was going to use WordPress for everything, but hasn’t worked too well.

  • Holidays

    So I write this as I am on leave again and I wanted to write this about 2 weeks after I did – I.e. now.

    In previous years, I don’t usually get 2 sets of annual leave requested quite close to each other, I.e. 2 weeks between which what happened this year.

    In early March 2025, I went away with my mum and my younger sister and the photos I came up with were… rather good. This was spent in “Crawford Lakes” near Holsworthy, Devon UK. The photos around the lakes were impressive as for March, we had very good weather, if a bit cold!

    As I write this, I’m away in a place in Wales, near Llandrindod Wells and the weather hasn’t been that great in comparison to Devon, plus I’m surrounded by sheep!

    And I’m only 3 days in as I write this. You may of noticed that the Severn Valley Railway features, this was on day 2.

  • I turned 39…

    Yes really, its my 39th today, I apparently don’t look it, just a lot younger. However, there is more to this story.

    So finally 39, well over half my life (I think!) its come with a lot of problems and still not the most stable person. I do have some tasks before I turn 40 though, one being my own place as I still live with my dad. Finanically, I’m better off than I ever have been as I’ve avoided kids and marriage somehow. I’ll discuss another aspect after this bit.
    How does it feel? I need to lose weight and I’ve been trying that since June 2024 with the gym, there are other aspects as well but job wise, everything has been massively better than it has been. I am now getting to the state where my body is making itself known however. Like my skin, developed Ezcema according to my doctors and think I could be potentially asthmatic with one of the illnesses I’m getting.

    Your next question is what did I get for my birthday? See below:
    To be honest, I don’t ask for much these days, most of which is what I got and to be honest, I am not interested much else as I am saving up for a house and the Blue Espace which needs about 2,000 pounds (US keyboard) of work done on it as the cambelt on a Renault Espace Mk3 V6 requires an engine out. You could always start a go fund me page if you want as I would like to enjoy it and restore it, even if I have the money. But that money is for other things (housing).

    I actually also got 4 items, a DNA kit to find out my ancestory, a book for dog walks (thats going with me everywhere where the dog and I go), hand cream (for previously mentioned issues) and one missing. In a pub, I got a prick, in my finger. I found a new fear of needles and the idea was to find out what blood group I’m in… I found out and its not good.

    O NEGATIVE!!

    What is so significant about that? For me, don’t have an accident as it’s like liquid gold to the NHS. So now I find out I’m pretty much an alien. Thats what my dad called me and I agree. I’m an alien, a legal alien. For those that don’t know me, what doesn’t help is that I’m 6ft 2in nearly, ginger hair and blue eyes. So with the ginger hair and blue eyes, I’m already 0.17% of people with that combination because of recessive genes. Now I find out I have a rare blood type, makes things worse. For me, I’m now in pretty small numbers. I was shocked and worried, but then I do have a blood donor across the table, my younger sister has the same blood group, so I’m sort of OK.

    Now that was my birthday, 2 days before is valentines day. Then something unexpected. I had a date, not with the lady on the train sadly, I bottled it talking to her (I get a lot of glances), however, on the dating front, I did get a date and I went out on an inpromptu date. Who is it? My ex, from Kazakhstan! We havent spoken to each other for 5 years, matched on the same dating site about 8 years ago and I do admit to missing her a lot as there were positives, so we have been talking for a while. The problem can forsee is that we both do different jobs, she does permanent nights and I do office hours. Previously, I worked shifts (earlys and lates, with one night shift) and she did 12 hour days which strained both of us massively. Plus my mental health fell apart completely.
    So, this time, I’m rushing but not at the same time. I’m seeing what happens and keeping an open mind, but I got thanked afterwards as I did buy 2 boquetes of flowers and a large chocolate bar, as well as taking her out. So things maybe going forwards or backwards, we will see.

    On the other hand, my week did go wrong, apart from doing loads of overtime and suffering from the lack of sleep due to it because I had deadlines to meet. It happens, its the work I do, in the process, I’m at the very end, so if someone is late down the line, it affects the crew I work with which affects the work we do. Its nothing I or the industry can sort as sometimes, Network Rail have to work to short deadlines when something breaks, like a cracked diamond crossing, 3 weeks before we have to publish a plan. It happens. Sometimes, certain tasks get complicated like for me, helping with a blockade in the Portsmouth area.

    Finally, the worst bit, I spent most of my birthday, fixing my Network Attached Storage device, looks like this:

    Ok, what happened here? Well, 2 problems, the first one is these 2, one works one doesn’t. They’ve been together for a year and a half and one wanted to divorce the other – not great.


    So, 2 drives, one dead one part 2. What happened? 2 words, THINK WISELY. When you set up your NAS, at least on these, they use software RAID, Redundant Array of Independent Disks. This NAS supports 2 modes, RAID 0 and RAID 1, aka, striped and mirrored. You can guess I went for the striped (maximun capacity) modes and you’ll be right. It was a huge undoing of mine. I knew beforehand and I wanted to go over to RAID 1, but that required moving 1.5TB of data as changing the RAID setup deletes your data and I didn’t have a spare disk I could use to move it all. Until… it all went wrong. So the hard drive, started refusing to recongise anything, 2 clicks and it was dead. Wouldn’t work in another PC and it just.. died suddently.

    Thats it, I lost 1.5TB of data or did I? You may of noticed underneath the NAS is a USB drive, its only 3TB but has a backup of the NAS and it stayed there for a VERY important reason, so I didn’t accidentally delete any data from when I was reducing the size of the folder on the NAS as there was a lot of duplicates.

    I also prioritised the data, so I see 4 categories, A, B, C and D
    A – High risk, irreplacable
    B – Medium risk, difficult to replace
    C – Low risk – easy to replace
    D – Replacable

    Of course, high risk data is projects you worked on that will take a lifetime to replace if not more, like my meshes. They were at the top of the list to save and I have them not in one location, but at least 2 or 3. We are talking about 20 years worth of work if not more. Current projects live on my onedrive, so are quite well protected. The downside is that I lost a lot of photos that were on the drive after my backup date, 08/05/2024! Ouch!
    So I would be upset right? I reckon I didnt lose a huge amount, about 1GB worth if that. What saved me is fragmentation, yes, I wiped an early hard drive and sold it, but I have 2 other backups of that from later. That was affected. My camera photos on one got wiped, but I was able to recover them using a program which recovered most of them and some of it was backed up to an online drive. So some survived that way, I’m annoyed that the computer didn’t complete the task. I used a free version of TeraBox for that, so thinking out of the box, shows what is possible.

    So apart from my estimation, is there anyting else? I’m still assessing the damage, but I’m positive. Plus I am positive that the drive could be recovered by a specialist.

  • The most difficult part of my life (so far)..

    WARNING! CONTAINS SUBJECTS OTHERS MAY FIND DISTRESSING.
    (Pets)

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