"In your hands, the birth of a new day... " (Limahl)

29 May 2007

Cardiff Bay Travelbug and Geocoin Exchange


The "Cardiff Bay Travelbug and Geocoin Exchange" opened for business on May 29th, 2007. It is only my 3rd cache hide. The general idea is that I have somewhere to place my trackables when returning from geocaching exploits away from Cardiff. I look forward to seeing some nice geocoin icons passing through...

UPDATED HIGHLIGHTS

May 29th: early flurry of activity as four logs occur within a few hours of the cache going live.

First to find was Celebr8 (who actually isn't keen on the idea of travelbug hotels).

Second was Welsh Angel.

Third was Skanker, who has been a bit of a nemesis of late in getting to nice geocoins before me.

Skanker left a fantastic "Blackpool Tower" geocoin (with stunning icon, pictured). Alas, the coin has been nabbed by the prolific local caching family, the Brat Pack, before I could lay my hands on it.

Travelbug update: Tortie the cat & the Appalachian Trail

Tortie the cat has flown across the Atlantic! After discussions with the guy who'd taken the travelbug, we arranged that Tortie should be placed in a geocache on the Appalachian Trail. This is a part of the world which has long fascinated me. It is a big area for geocaching and even has a geocoin designed in its honour!

Tortie the Cat has now travelled over 3,000 miles! He is now resident in "Lone Star Legacy", a cache in northern Virginia. For the time being, Tortie's mission is to stay on the Appalachian Trail, which runs from Maine in the north, to Georgia in the deep south.

22 May 2007

Best of British Geocoin

"The Blorenges' Bulldog" (Best of British Geocoin)


Those who know me will appreciate that a Union Jack coin with a British bulldog motif coin is unlikely to make it onto my sidebar list of favourite geocoin finds.

Nevertheless, an interesting piece of social history is inscribed on the geocoin. Namely, words by Winston Churchill in 1941:

"We are still masters of our fate. We are still captain of our souls".

On looking up these words, the first page I came across was the Churchill Society in London. I'm unlikely to take out an annual membership to the society. But I do admire their style: their word for "home page" is "frontispiece".

I retrieved the coin from the Tiger Bay Toddle cache. I originally found the cache in January but have failed to find it on more recent reconaissance missions for trackables. I have posted a note to the cache owner requesting that the cache be modified or archived.

Travelbug Launch #3: "Microskate"

Travelbug Launch #2: "Under African skies"

Travelbug Launch #1: "London Calling"

17 May 2007

Abercachers race travelbug update

My Abercachers race travelbug has doubled its mileage in one leap! Moved around 125 miles from Devon to the Reading area. Had arranged for it to go to Heathrow but it didn't quite materialise.

Anyhow, it's in a "Motorway mayhem" cache on the M4 so it stands a good chance of being moved again shortly...

coinsandpins.com

Someone by the name of "acweed7" from coinsandpins.com has dropped by with a helpful piece of info about geo-acheivement coins, which I had previously blogged about.

coinsandpins make the geo-acheivement coins which commemmorate important geocaching milestone finds (100, 250, 500...)

I had raised the issue about why there is no "50 finds" geo-acheivement coin. Seems that coinsandpins.com did a survey of geocachers.

Their survey revealed that 50 finds is not really regarded by geocachers as a "geo-acheivement". Thanks for the info!

14 May 2007

Geocaching Blogs

Well, after all the recent political and religious guff, it's time to get the blog back on message - geocache and blog talk.

Fig.1: The geocaching webring logo.

Recently, I've been browsing around the geocaching blogosphere looking out for any other geocaching bloggers.One place I looked first of all was the geocaching webring. However, apart from the attractive logo, many of the listed sites turned out to be unmaintained. A similar story was had in the official groundspeak forums, where a thread on blogging reveals several well-intentioned blogs but much unfulfilled potential.

Nevertheless, I did find enough on these two sites, and google search, to get me going. First up is Musings about geocaching, written by Miragee. It is the most up-to-date blog where geocaching is the main theme. Miragee is an experienced cacher from California, with over 2511 finds to his name. Great pictures on the blog, too.

Symptomatic of the geocaching blogosphere is Geocacheville. This is an amazing site which sets the standard for geocache blogging. All sorts of stuff on every aspect of the sport including my own penchant - geocoins and travelbugs. Lots of cool links, too.

Fig.2: logo from the Geocacheville blog

The blog's most recent post is a spectacular photo of the "Masters of the cache geocoin". But that was way back in September 2006. I would rank this above the "Musings about geocaching" blog if only it were current.

GPSOkie has only just found 100 caches. He keeps an excellent blog, which, like this one, is interspersed with musings about the life beyond geocaching. It also serves as a forum for his photography.

The Cachebug
probably desrves a mention at this point as the most devoted blog I've seen on the whole geocoin thing. And it's current, too! Podcacher seems to be the main hub of multi-platform blogging on caching, with podcasts, videos etc.

Best of the rest

Here's a list of other decent geocaching blogs I've found. I'm sure there must be hundreds of others. I'd like to keep this post updated regularly, so please contact me (in the comments or by email) if you spot any other interesting geocaching websites & blogs.

Absocachinlutely
keeps a detailed log of a geocacher from Ohio.

A Simple Life of Luxury is written by Alan and Anna of Abercachers, a geocaching group in Aberystwyth to which I'm vaguely affiliated.

Blazerfan's Geocaching Adventures is a neat and tidy blog, regularly updated.

Bomber John is a detailed and amusing blog based in Massachusetts.

Boulter.com is quite an idiosyncratic personal website (as if mine were a paragon of sanity!). Geocaching is but one of the components underneath the heading of "life". However, the geocaching side of things is maintained regularly (if only briefly) so it makes it into my review.

Caching Central - teccie blog that I don't really understand.

Cheesy Pigs have some tall tales from Tasmania. One of them is trying to cut down on geocoins!

Chimbisimo - another teccie site with is aimed at Mac-using geocachers. I haven't a clue what they are on about but they were kind enough to respond to me on the geocaching forums!

Chris n Maria's geocaching homepage is not a blog per se, but it is a very handy resource for geocachers in London. They are the creators of the brilliant Geocaching tube map.

Feeding Squirrels on my Way to Work is quite a light read with anecdotes about geocaching trips in North Carolina.

Rayzir Cache is a more orthodox geocaching blog on blogspot. Very neat and tidy, though could possibly do with some more stats, links and stuff on the sidebar to jazz it up? But the most important thing is that it's regularly updated and nicely written.

Tales from the surface doesn't have that much content. But I did learn here about the game of "Geodashing", which is completely new to me. It is also a current blog, so it sneaks into this review. Crisp site with nice photos.

Team Trail Walker is an impressive site hosted by an outward-bound family in Colorado. Lots of personalised stats and details about their trackables etc... just the sort of thing I was hoping to find more of.

Uniquely Normal, by "Jaggy", has geocaching as part of a wider blog. There's an impressive photo of the "Original Stash" placed by the "Father of geocaching", Dave Ulmer way back in in 2000.

Y'all come geocaching does what it says on the tin: a no-nonsense account of geocaching in the southern states of the USA. Nice photos and brief stats round-up at the end of each day.

Shrewsbury Town's last match at Gay Meadow.

A brief blog to note that Shrewsbury Town will be playing their last match at Gay Meadow tonight. I've been there a few times, it's a pretty little ground in the heart of the town, next to the river Severn. They employed a bloke in a coracle to fish out errant footballs from the river.

I've passed their new ground a few times on the train. It's on the south side of the town. It's very smart but will, of course, lose the charm of Gay Meadow.

As it happens, Shrewsbury's game tonight is against the despised MK Dons (Franchise FC). Would be fitting if the Shrews can condemn Franchize to another year in the bottom tier of the league...

Mid-Herts maestro Update

Mid-Herts Maestro


My Mid-Herts Maestro travelbug moved from Oxforshire to Buckinghamshire over the weekend, on its way to Hertforshire. The TB is in an interesting cache called "Black magic", not far from Thame / Aylesbury area.

Two very cute travelbugs

"Silver Bear" (Travelbug)


"Gerald the globe-trotting gator" (Travelbug)


Went out for a run whilst it was tipping it down on Sunday. Checked in at a couple of caches on the M4 on the north of the city. Missed out on a geocoin but picked up two TBs...

Haven't paid much attention to travelbugs of late byut I see that a "100 travelbugs geocoin" is available at thecachingplace.com. These two cuties take me on to 59 travelbugs for my career...


El Paso


Friday night: had take-away from El Paso's (recently discussed on blog comments). It's a great Mexican restaurant, loads of food, very cheap. I'll miss it when we're gone...

I had:

Buffalo Wings
Chicken Chimichanga

I borrowed:

Nachos
Sour cream

W.C. Handy

I recently finished a paperback called "In search of Elvis" by one of my favourite travel authors, Charlie Connelly.

I enjoyed the book a lot. However, I was disconcerted to find out that W.C. Handy is the name of a person. For years, I had heard the phrase "W.C. handy" in the following lyrics of the song, "Walking in Memphis"...

"Put on my blue suede shoes
And I boarded the plane
Touched down in the land of the Delta Blues
In the middle of the pouring rain
W.C. Handy -- won't you look down over me
Yeah I got a first class ticket
But I'm as blue as a boy can be..."

Only now do I realise that "W.C. Handy" does not mean the "there is a convenient toilet in Memphis airport". W.C. Handy was a famous blues musician. D'oh.

10 May 2007

Late night trip to Wentloog


"Up and Under" (Traditional Geocache)



Have lived in Cardiff for 10 years but never visited the Wentlooge area. This a flat, green area which separates Cardiff from Newport. along the coast of the Bristol Channel. It is somewhat similar to the gloomy coast of Norfolk where I spent some miserable camping trips as a child.

I was awake late at night so thought I'd pop down to see the lights on the Bristol Channel.

The fact that there was a balloon geocoin logged in the cache was of course incidental...I had just missed out on "Where's Mary's balloon geocoin" at Tiger Bay Toddle. The balloon geocoin has a smashing icon :

Fig. 1: the elusive balloon geocoin icon


Found the parking spot OK but how to get onto the sea wall? Didn't find the public footpath till my return back to the car.

Walked through a bizarre prefab housing estate at St Brides - spotted a Hedgehog - then lept over someone's fence and scrambled up to the sea wall.

Beautiful sight of twinkling lights up and down the Bristol channel at 1.30am. Lighthouses, shipping lane indicators, etc. Red lights of the Severn Bridge in the distance.

The lights of both Cardiff and Newport could be seen, as the walk to the cache along this no-mans land between two cities became increasingly eerie. This got worse when I heard a couple of dogs barking somewhere in the darkness.

Got to the general area but started looking under the boulders on the shore side of the wall. After 10 mins dropped down and found the red gate.

ARRRRGH! No geocoin to be found! This is the second time I've missed out on the same "balloon geocoin!" Valiantknight had got there during the day but obviously hadn't had the time to log the coin out of the cache.

Cache was damp and muddy, logbook a bit damp - may be worth the cache owner having a look for maintenance.

9 May 2007

Luxembourg geocoin!

Popped up on the train to Radyr before work to pick up a Luxembourg geocoin from Magpie's nest cache.

8 May 2007

25th find geocoin update


My 25th find "Not another micro" geocoin continues its foray into Cornwall. Now located in "Falmouth Gardens 3: Gyllyngdune Gardens" micro cache.

6 May 2007

Tredegar Park

Recently we went to Tredegar Park near Newport. It includes Tredegar House, which comes with its own blog.

2 May 2007

Etholiad Cynulliad Cymru 2007 / National Assembly for Wales Elections

07:36 2 LAB GAINS on the Mid & West Regional list. Heard this on my tranny as I was mowing the lawn just now. Carwyn Jones safely home in Bridgend despite rumours to the contrary. Incredible 4th recount in the Vale of Glamorgan - just like it used to be in the late 1980s and early 1990s

Otherwise, I think this is positively the first and last time I shall blog an election. Excellent buzz to start with - TV plug from Blamerbell was a great laugh (biggest whoop of the night in my household). Threatened to be the most entertaining election ever at one point, especially when the rumours were flying around about Newport East etc early on.

I lost steam in the end, particularly as the flood of results emerged around 3am. Lost out big style to the better resourced and better informed Wales Elects and Blamerbell - not that I saw it as a competition.

Pleased with the amount of traffic during the night. Not overwhelming in terms of numbers of unique viewers, but it remained very consistent throughout the early hours. Also more than matched more established political bloggers in terms of sheer staying power, even if I didn't have much in terms of original insight.

05:55 PLAID GAIN: Mohammad Asghar, South Wales East. Carwyn Jones still in danger in Bridgend, likewise Jane Hutt in Vale of Glamorgan on a 3rd recount... likely to take a break for an hour or two before rounding up.

05:40 CON GAIN: Clwyd West. Swathes of the Welsh political map turn blue - but how will this affect the regional lists? Both ITV and BBC have Plaid a few seats ahead of Conservatives overall.

05:36 CON GAIN: Carmarthen West & South Pembs

05:27 PLAID GAIN: Aberconwy, with an impressive majority. Seems that Plaid have piled up votes in the heartland but spread thinly in other areas. Time to have a look at Scotland.

04:54 LAB GAIN: Wrecsam. Recounts in Carmarthen West and South Pembs (probable Lab hold, also Vale of Glamorgan - possible Con gain).

Guto Thomas intersting stats about BNP on the regional list - threatening a seat in the north.

Vaughan Roderick hinting that the Lib Dems may be DOWN in seats overall.

04:23: CON GAIN: Preseli Penfro. And at this juncture, its worth going round the blog scene. Whilst I faded a bit during the results rush, the Blamerbell Juggernaut has moved into another gear, as has Wales Elects.

Valleys Mam seems to have packed it in sometime after Plaid won Llanelli. Sanddef is hanging on grimly with a skeletal results service. Simo seems to have packed it in, as has Arsembly. Hogyn o Rachub, although an attractive and entertaining blog couldn't stomach the broader all-Wales scenario once the "sexy" Plaid seats of Llanelli and Ceredigion came in.

04:09 Rhodri Morgan sums it up by in saying "it looks better now than it did a few hours ago" for Labour.

04:08 I wasn't far off about the cut in Rhodri Morgan's majority - though I had expected Plaid to be the main challengers.

04:04 Eluned Morgan MEP (LAB) seems genuinely surprised about the extent of Plaid's majority in Llanelli.

03:57 Last hour has been a flurry of results. Most of them have gone against the Labour meltdown that I had anticipated yesterday.

Vaughan Roderick: split opposition in south Wales offers protection to Labour, even though they could fall to under a third of the national vote.

Richard Wyn Jones suggests things aren't looking amazing for the Lib Dems in terms of making gains on the regional lists.

0357: SNP GAINS: Dunfermline West, Gordon, Glasgow Govan


0351: Cut myself another slice of Battenburg cake as the Newport Declaring officer gets through the Welsh bit of the announcement

0348: IWJ talks of need for "Stable government"..."we are mature democrats"

03:16 Caerffili held by Labour - I'm slowly running out of adrenaline...

03:05 SNP GAIN: Fife Central

03:04: Three of my predictions shot to flames: Swansea West, Montgomeryshire, Vale of Clwyd all held. Vale of Clwyd could cost Wigley his seat?

02:53: Interesting point made earlier by Richard Wyn Jones saying that parties are targeting much more efficiently than in 1999.

02:51 Huw Edwards refers to the silver independent bar on the graph as a "silver tube"; Betsan refers to it as a "silver streak"

02:46 Dafydd Elis-Thomas on Radio Cymru states that Plaid's good performance "vindicates all of us who supported Ieuan Wyn Jones as group leader...his skills as a cymedrolwr (Moderator / negotiator) will be important in the next phase..."

02:38 TORTOISESHELL GAIN: TV PLUG BY BLAMERBELL!!! Might as well go to bed...

02:34 Remarkable story on Radio Cymru - that the MP for Vale of Clwyd, Chris Ruane has asked for a recount on behalf of Ann Jones.

02:24 SNP GAIN: Dundee West

02:19 TORTOISESHELL GAIN: correct prediction - Trish Law with increased maj.

02:08 Eluned Morgan MEP (LAB) "will celebrate anything tonight"

02:05 Irene James fails to conceal hatred of Plaid in victory speech.

Recount Vale of Clwyd.

Still waiting on Neath...

01:59: As Labour hangs on to Islwyn - just - S4C suggests Neath "is the big story" tonight before being cut off...

01:55 Starting to flag a bit, after being distracted by making comments to Blamerbell. My mistake. Sorry mate - this is the best election in ages and much of it is down to the blogging - I wouldn't be at it if it wasn't for you!

Interesting discourse on S4C between Vaughan Roderick and RWJ in Welsh. Vale of Clwyd regional list is excellent for Con, slightly dissappointing for Plaid.

However, RWJ says that if Tories make a sweep through Clwyd, this opens things up for Dafydd Wigley.

01:47 Con have beaten Lab on *regional list* vote in Vale of Clwyd

01:43 Simo says Neath turnout is up. Surely not the best news for Plaid?

01:34 Valleys Mam is reporting Plaid have hit Labour "hard" in Rhondda

01:20 Bugger. Just missed the main story - Rhodri Morgan's comments on BBC. Kevin Brennan MP (Cardiff West) trying to patch up whatever Rhodri said a few mins ago.

01:20 IWJ saying "completely disastrous night for Lab"

01:05 Remarkable comment by Blamerbell on telly. He seems to suggest that "getting the hang of blogging" equates to sending him e-mails. Tortoiseshell says: Miaaaaow!

01:00 Former Jock Brown bookmaker says "talk of Labour hold carmarthen West" (BBC)

00:54 BBC report Carwyn Jones in trouble in Bridgend.

Nia Griffiths MP (Llanelli) suggests LD voters in Llanelli have turned to Plaid Cymru and seems to have conceeded the seat

00:50 David Davies MP (Monmouth) very fluent comments in Welsh language on Radio Cymru. Feels "a bit sad" to leave Assembly. "I can't accept that the principle of devolution is a good thing for our country".

00:46 Dafydd Wigley hints Tories ahead in Clwyd West. Also suggests his rationale for standing was to raise Plaid's campaign across the north rather than get a seat himself. Says it would be "disgrace" if Plaid's rules had been relaxed to let him in as no.1 on the list.

00:45 John Stevenson (S4C) suggests Plaid vote in mid-Ynys Mon has held up well. BNP doing well on the list.

00:42 Wales Elects calling Ceredigion for Plaid

00:34 Paul Flynn MP hasn't given up the ghost on Newport East. Says "no evidence" that Newport West is under threat.

00:30 Plaid Cymru suggesting Tory gain in Delyn (S4C)

00:24 TORTOISESHELL GAIN - FIRST PLUG

00:22 Blamerbell interviewed about blogosphere on S4C. Tortoiseshell awaits first radio / telly / blog plug of the evening!

00:18 Delyth Evans (former Labour candidate) more or less admits that banning constituency candidates from standing on list has weakened National Assembly

00:14 (Radio Cymru) Adam Price says "We MUST beat the Tories tonight. It would be a tragedy for Welsh politics if we fail to beat the Tories". Somewhat different to what IWJ has said before?

00:06 Lab rumoured to win Swansea West, Tories to win Preseli with "substantial majority", suggest S4C

00:03 Conservatives talking up Clwyd West, say S4C

00:01 Trish Law rumoured as being safe

23:57 HMJ looks a bit less chipper in Llanelli, despite saying PC advance in town wards

23:47 I'm hungry, need a cup of T and there's a pile of dishes need doing. Going for a break

23:44: BBC say Lib Dems say Plaid Cymru doing particularly well in Carmarthen West & South Pembs

23:40 BBC Reports 24% turnout at one Wrexham polling booth

23:37 "Labour holding up strongly in Islwyn", say BBC

23:29 Vaughan Roderick on S4C reports that the Tories have called Newport East for the Lib Dems. Incredible - and would be sad end for one of Labour's young ministers. And what of Mike German on the list?

23:26 HMJ looks chipper on telly in Llanelli...???

23:25 Catrin Gerallt in Islwyn. Flagging up possible surprise, acknowledges possible impact of Etheridge (independent).

23:22 BBC Radio Cymru gives an honourable mensh to Welsh politics bloggers. Hwre!

Guto Thomas: "Blogging has exploded in Wales, this is not the case in Scotland, possibly because the fight up there has been conducted by more traditional media".


22:30: General frenzy running round the listening to Radio Cymru, Radio wales, BBC1, S4C and tuning into blogs. Also phoned my mate Hywel. Early whispers:

Dramatic rumours of 15% turnout in one of the Newport seats. Both Newport seats under threat for Labour.

Postal votes in Llanelli apparently neck and neck

Alun Pugh still in the hunt for Clwyd West, just told we could be up till 5am for that result.


21:30: Head off to co-op for election scooby snacks:

1 Bottle co-op ginger ale
1 Bottle Black Sheep Ale
1 Battenburg Cake
8 rashers smoked bacon (for the regional list counts 4am+)
1 packet fairtrade salted peanuts

18:15: Tortoiseshell Casts vote. Then off to Creative writing class.

May 2nd

Over the last few months, Welsh politics has been consumed by the blogosphere.

Blogs of drastically differing quality have emerged from the viewpoint of politicians, journalists, would-be politicians and would-be journalists. Some have withered on the vine already.

One blog that looks set to stay the course is Blamerbell Briefs, written by a well-informed journalism student in Cardiff. Today, he has assembled a semi-organised "blogathon" for Welsh bloggers for May 3rd, complete with a special icon (above).

In the spirit of Blamerbell's call to blog, I'll start with some wild guesses for May 3rd. It's basically the outer limit of what I think could conceivebly happen. I think we're certain for some wacky results, that's for sure.

I'll be tweaking this prediction from time to time, as I get twitchy before close of polls. Islwyn has already changed hands 3 times since I wrote the original post!

Some of the recounts may be a bit far-fetched but my general point is that there could be lots of recounts.

FINAL RESULT:

LABOUR: (18 constituency + 2 regional list )= 20 (-9)

CONSERVATIVE: (7 constituency + 8 regional list) = 15 (+4)

PLAID CYMRU: (10 constituency + 5 regional list) = 15 (+3)

LIBERAL DEMOCRAT: (3 constituency + 4 regional list) = 7 (+1)

INDEPENDENT: (2 constituency + 1 regional list) = 3 (+1)

Delyn, Vale of Clwyd, Preseli Pembrokeshire, Vale of Glamorgan, Cardiff North: CON GAINS. Dennis Balsom's "British Wales" will have a new lease of life for the first time since 1997, as traditionally "British identifying" areas of Wales reflect a UK trend.

Clwyd West: CON GAIN. Reported comments about creationism etc. by Darren Millar could, if anything, strengthen the Conservative core vote.

Ceredigion: PLAID HOLD. Differential turnout will see Elin Jones home with a slightly reduced majority - 2,500 votes or therabouts. Rhys Llwyd provides an erudite account of the constituency's history. I agree with his conclusions for 2007.

Carmarthen West & South Pembs: PLAID GAIN - though by less than a 1,000 votes.

Cardiff West: LAB HOLD - but expect to see Rhodri Morgan's majority slashed to 3,000 or thereabouts by Plaid Cymru.

Blaenau Gwent: PEOPLE'S VOICE HOLD. Trish Law to slightly increase her majority.

Wrecsam: IND HOLD. With a relatively unchanged majority of 900 for Marek

RECOUNTS

Montgomeryshire - LIB DEM HOLD by 200

Islwyn: LAB HOLD, by 250

Clwyd South: LAB HOLD, by 200

Neath - LAB HOLD by 250

Bridgend - LAB HOLD by 250

Llanelli - PLAID GAIN by 50

Aberconwy - PLAID GAIN by 250

Caerffili - PLAID GAIN by 150.

Swansea West - PLAID GAIN by 50