Britains Steepest Road?

I saw this on the BBC about a road which was at a 40% angle in Harlec, Wales... https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-45420155

You know what?  I think Nottingham has a contender to beat it, if it counts... Newfield Road.

Specifically the curve at the western end of that road, it's immensely steep, very short and I believe carries you up around 24 meters in around 60 meters of distance which is 40% in my book.

There's also a road I don't know the actual name of in Gedling (which my driving instructer used to torture me doing uphill starts) he called it "Big Bertha".

Big Catch Up - Gaming, Programming, Model Railways

Well, I've not been around here for a while... So, where have I been for over a month?...

Just busy... But that doesn't mean I don't have a bunch of stuff to share with you all, I think this break from posting started with the wife and I going on Holiday.  We went to Wales just as the Rugby World Cup started, have you ever been English in Wales as the Welsh beat England at Twickenham?... Not a good vibe towards the English, that's all I'll say.

But Wales was great, so great, we're going back next year.

One thing that struck me however, was that I heard people speaking Welsh, and not just on touristy things, down the coop, people speaking Welsh.  I've not been to Wales since the late 80's, back then as a kid I don't remember hearing anyone speak Welsh, it sort of wasn't done, at least not done in front of us English, lest the Welsh themselves feel self conscious or they avoided trying to make it look like they were talking about us.

Luckily now, speaking Welsh seems to be in vogue, and so I heard that strange, lyrical, twitter a lot.  Down the pub, down the shop, at the chippy... We only had one place where I was conscious that we were being talked about and they took the piss, and that was the chippy, where they over charged the wife for cod & chips, and were commenting on it in Welsh.

For you see there are some words, which just translate, and whatever the woman actually said, what I heard was "how much shall I add onto this English fish?"  And the reply was "double it"...  Hey ho.  She paid, she enjoyed the meal, whatever.

In programming circles, I've continued to be using Python in anger, moving from an Android based app to creating a new website for the company using Apache and mod_python.  This has been a learning experience for me, and I have lots of tutorials in mind to add to the blog.

Gaming I've been playing two major titles, Payday 2 and WarThunder, the later of which I finally bought a premium set the German 109 G2 and some little tank, so there, finally a premium owner, more about that later.

And I've been playing a game called "Human Resource Machine", again more about that later.

Finally, I've been helping the father-in-law debug his model railway track... I have a series of videos and a few pictures here for you all now:

Origami shunting sheds, with Christmas lights inside, then the diesel shunters and to the right one of the diesel (maybe a Deltic) loco's and just pulling out of the station on the right, one of the steam loco's.

Here we see the Pinkston and Bestwood colliery trains on the inner, tight, circles.  Then the Queen of Scots (Mallard class) coming on the outer radius, before we get a de-railment on the far side.

We also see the DCC sound loco struggling to move with the power needs.

A view of the seven station circumferences.

Some movement along the station side, pictured previously.

More footage of the outer radius.

Coronation Class (I think) on the back straight, with DCC Sound playing.

Matthew James : George Cross?

In the aftermath of the despicable attack on holiday makers in Tunisia last Friday, here in the UK we are of course looking at both the serious implications of the attack; asking when and where one might be safe to let ones guard down; but we're also looking, desperately for a good news story out of the tragic events.

It's all part of the British Stiff Upper Lip, I believe, we're told the British Death toll is to rise above 30, and all we can do is hold those families in our minds eye and wish them as well as we can.

However, the stiff Upper lip, and saving grace story, seems to be that of Mr Matthew James, a seemingly ordinary 30 year old father on holiday with his fiancée and in the midst of the attack he used his own body as a human shield.

One can only suppose his girlfriend's blond hair would have attracted attention of the gun man, and this man stepped in and took those shots for her before allowing her to escape.

Reportedly today, safe and stable in a Cardiff hospital one has to ask should he receive an honour?

The George Cross perhaps "For acts of Heroism and courage in extreme danger"?...