Marshall Amplification

Marshall Amplification is a British company that designs and manufactures music amplifiers, speaker cabinets, brands personal headphones and earphones, a record label and, having acquired Natal Drums, drums and bongos. It was founded by drum shop owner and drummer Jim Marshall, and is now based in Bletchley, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire.

Marshall's guitar amplifiers are among the most recognised in the world. Their signature sound, characterized by sizzling distortion and "crunch," was conceived by Marshall after guitarists, such as Pete Townshend, visited Marshall's drum shop complaining that the guitar amplifiers then on the market didn't have the right sound or enough volume. After gaining a lot of publicity, Marshall guitar amplifiers and loudspeaker cabinets were sought by guitarists for this new sound and increased volume. Many of the current and reissue Marshall guitar amplifiers continue to use valves, as is common in this market sector. Marshall also manufactures less expensive solid-state, hybrid (vacuum tube and solid state) and modelling amplifiers.

https://marshall.com/

Alex Fox

Fun Day at Camphill Milton Keynes

Everyone needs a little unstructured fun in their day, and a Fun Day is perfect for having time dedicated to exactly that. It gives everybody the chance to unwind, relax, and get a little silly, released from the confines of orderly work routines to remember what life is supposed to be all about. 

In today’s high-speed world, with its constant pressure to go farther, get more done, be more productive, and climb in our careers, having a little fun often goes by the wayside. The stress of this lifestyle has been shown to have a constant and growing negative effect on the overall health of people. A Fun Day is a reminder to break the stressful line of day to day living, and to go out and have some Fun! 

Alex Fox

Driver 308’s Commonwealth Games Adventure-Day 5

Day 5 July 8^th  2022

This was Alison’s R&R day so I was working with Sarah again. Sarah had recently left  West Midlands after being a police officer for 19 years. She had two grown up sons and a teenage daughter. We got on very well and made a good team. The first location we had to be at today was the Lee Valley Aquatic centre which is a man made white water rafting and canoeing facility at Waltham Cross in Essex. One of our BBs was Olympic Canoeist Mallory Franklin.

Here is Sarah briefing Mallory on the left and Lyn who was to carry the baton in a raft, Lyn is wearing a life jacket under her baton bearer shirt. Lyn, who had swam the English channel many times had to change into a wet suit and take a water survival test when she arrived at Lee Valley. She had no idea that she would have to hold the Baton while riding the white water in a raft! She hadn’t even got a swim suit to wear!

Here is Lyn ready for the raft going down the white water run, she is wearing a yellow helmet.

At Lee Valley they had a very cool thing for getting canoes up to the top of the white water run, a sort of conveyor belt.

When we left Lee Valley to travel to  Wardown Park, Luton we had a police motor cycle escort. The short video shows some of the many highlights of this 45 minute journey out of Waltham Abbey, along the A10, M25 and M1. Much of the journey on the M1 was on the hard shoulder as the motorway was almost at a standstill due to sheer volume of traffic. Mid afternoon on a Friday is never good time to be travelling north on the M1 towards Luton.

The video of  full 50 minute journey is also available but at over 2gb is too large to be embedded in a blog.

As we had no BBs requiring a ride back to their collection point, which was exactly where we were at the big celebration in Wardown Park we were free to make our way to tonights hotel, Dunston Hall near Norwich. This was quite a journey and we had to refuel at Barton Mills. This did not go quite to plan as there was a problem with the fuel card. It was eventually sorted out with a 30 minute phone call and the use of a manual auth, paper voucher and Zip-Zap machine.

Dunstan Hall when we arrived looked stunning.

Driver 308’s Commonwealth Games Adventure-Day 4

Dear reader, Driver 308’s story continues as below, happy reading.

Day 4 July 7^th  2022

Alison and I had to be ready to leave Guildford Holiday Inn at 07:30 with the convoy. Consequently Trevor and I had to get up at 05:30 in order to get to Guildford in time to have breakfast before the convoy left for Tonbridge.

We were the allocated pickup shuttle in Tonbridge and simply followed the convoy, which had a police motor cycle escort . Driving with a blur light police escort means obeying ALL instructions from the police officers and may mean ignoring red traffic lights, going the wrong way down streets or round roundabouts, driving on the wrong side of the road. The police bikers are amazing, as a driver one has to be on the look out for them whenever they are behind, because they can and do come psat on either side through gaps which simply don’t exist, weaving through traffic.

After Tonbridge we left the convoy to make our way to Canterbury.  A couple of photos near the Guildhall in Canterbury, where we stopped for our lunch.

We were to be drop-off shuttle traveling through the pedestrianised shopping centre, with a police escort in front of the Pilot vehicle.

After completing our drop off we were finished for the day and made our way to the Holiday Inn Maidstone, although I was in the overspill hotel at Chatham. Although it involved a 15 minute journey each way the benefit was having one’s own room.

Trip to Bletchley Park

What is Bletchley Park and why is it so important?

Bletchley Park, British government cryptological establishment in operation during World War II. Bletchley Park was where Alan Turing and other agents of the Ultra intelligence project decoded the enemy's secret messages, most notably those that had been encrypted with the German Enigma and Tunny cipher machines.

https://bletchleypark.org.uk/

Alex Fox

Day out whith Thomas

They're 2, they're 4, they're 6,they're 8, eight residents had a day out hauling freight, Anthony, me, Callum and Joe, Leigh, Alan, Thomas and Clare too.

All with different roles to play, round our garden sheds or Pennyland. Down the cafe and round the houses, Thomas and his friends.

https://www.dayoutwiththomas.co.uk/

https://www.bucksrailcentre.org/

Alex Fox

Driver 308’s Commonwealth Games Adventure-Day 3

Day 3 July 6^th  2022 

Today I was with Alison as the shuttle host. Although we had been teamed up together during the training, due our R&R days this was the first day we actually worked together. On R&R days there are relief drivers and shuttle hosts to cover our duties. We were scheduled to be in Portsmouth at the D Day museum at 16:00. We decided to arrive early and have time to look round the museum and Southsea Castle. We found the D Day museum easily and then went to find our IP (Insertion Point) . This is the place where our first BB will be dropped to start their segment and where we wait for the Pilot vehicle to find us and lead us to all the locations, indicated with a pink circular sticker, to drop off our BBs. It was a good thing we went to look for the postcode was not very accurate. We soon found the location, which was the Charles Dickens house museum.

The team manager had set us a challenge today which was to find the most unusual hat. As we had some spare time we went to B&Q to get a coir hanging basket liner to make a hat, which was decorated with a windmill and lighthouse purchased at Southsea Castle.  

Here is the hat and it was the winner!

We didn’t finish dropping off our BBs until 19:45 and it was nearly 22:00 when we arrived at the hotel in Guildford for the night, I though was in a different hotel to Alison. Trevor, my roommate, and I had to drive to the Holiday Inn in Woking where we found that the room only had one bed, they had to get another bed – it was 00:30 before we were able to go to bed. I knew Trevor from 2014 when both of us did the Baton Relay around Scotland.

<End of Day 3, Day 4 to follow shortly>