#BBBR13 Day 4 - Le Touquet to Calais

I was too unwell after no sleep due to coughing to ride today.  Ashamed I slunk into a corner and took a few photos when I could.

Etaples cemetery:

 

The cemetery at the lunch stop.

#BBBR13 Day 3 - Amiens to Le Touquet

Day 3 and the lung infection was a unnoticed gathering storm within.  Although unaware of the problem, I was becoming more aware of the symptoms - as I was finding the cycling was getting tougher.  I left Amiens early to get as much of a start as I could but was starting to struggle - coughing more frequently and more deeply.  However in comparison with what some were dealing with, it was a minor issue - so nothing much needed to be said or just - except just get on with (Velominati Rule 5 - MTFU!) it so I was off again and heading north.

Not that many miles into the journey I crashed when, at the precise moment I looked down at my bike computer, the cyclist in front of me stopped!  I missed his bike, but ran over his left foot and took off and crashed to the deck.  Some minor damage to the balls of my thumbs, and my neck. 

Losing time dealing with the wounds that would not stop leaking red stuff, I arrived completely exhausted at Agincourt the lunch stop.  I was uninterested in looking around, just relieved to arrive and get some food down me.  I was checked out for damage and ruled fit to ride (nowt was going to stop me - or so I thought).

Onwards and northwards.

Although we were running late we passed an official cafe stop, just by a lovely river and in broken French i explained where we were from and where we heading.  The cafe grand creme was delightful and helped me on. But...

A few miles from the end of the day, approaching the last water stop about a mile away I found myself doing the wrong thing at a major junction and just for a moment had no sense of left or right, no sense of where I should be on the road and found myself (literally - I could not and cannot remember the manoeuvre) heading down the wrong side of the road to a narrow gap between an oncoming car and a parked car.

I stopped, looked around and saw the support crew watching me.

It was time to stop for the day.

It's rather old hat but... upgrading XP to Vista

For reasons I won’t go into J I’ve an old machine that needs to be upgraded from XP* through Vista and then 7. 

 

So, on upgrading with an old Vista image, the compatibility checker informs you that Windows PowerShell must be removed first, however if you look at Add/Remove programs in Control panel (even with Updates ticked) you won’t find it.  That’s because it was rolled up into some upgrades.  If you do find it, then you are lucky – just uninstall.

 

However, if not, this is what you need to do:

1. Run Regedit (after appropriate backups) and find HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Powershell and delete it.
2. Locate the folder c:\windows\system32\windowspowershell and either delete it or move elsewhere

Now proceed with your vista upgrade

 

What a golden oldie this is turning out to be J

 

 

*if you don’t know why that is necessary then

a) you really should! and

b) take a look here http://support.microsoft.com/ph/1173/en-gb 8th April 2014 is an important date

 

Another example of a ruthlessly efficient and effective UK Govt IT project, not #fail

Today saw the launch of www.gov.uk/probate-search.  This is a service that allows people to access the wills of soldiers from England and Wales who died on active service between 1850 and 1986.  As a bonus, it is possible that the documentation will include the soldier’s final letter home that he will have written in case he was killed on service.

 

If, like me, you have such a relative, the will is likely to give you more information on your family tree, and give you further insight into that ancestor.

 

So, all keen, I searched online and found one of my two GG Uncles who were killed on the Somme in 1916.  Hurrah! And of course *click*

Create an account (another damn password!)

Checkout *click*

#FAIL - the payment system is still programmed to the test account, and in German too (no irony there at all, oh no)

 

So I then click on the link for feedback and send them the image (now pretty *&%^% off that my relative’s will is still tantalisingly just out of reach)

 

An email comes back, with a phone number.  The email is from the Office of the Public Guardian.  Which has nothing to do with this site!!!  I call the number, and sure enough the civil servant on the end of the line has no knowledge of this, cannot even get to the website, and has nothing to offer me in terms of alternative help.

 

Remind me, how much of our income is taken each year by the government? 

 

To be fair, this is shown as a beta site, but you think *someone* would have tested the payments and feedback sections at least once…