Isomatic UK Weblog

On Wednesday 23 August, after finding the Old Hall Hotel closed, we searched the AA hotel guide for an alternative. We found the nearby Chimney House Hotel, which had a double room available. Although the AA is not particularly flattering in its notes, we found this hotel to be excellent value for money with fine food and wine, served attentively. Every other hotel on our tour was more expensive and some served poorer meals or had other drawbacks. Minor quibbles;
1) no kettle in the room, despite tea and cups
2) bar lounge and restaurant all open plan so we were lucky there was no large group of people making a lot of noise.
We recommend this hotel to anyone passing through Cheshire.

posted by Peter # 17:59

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

The Old Hall Hotel, Sandbach

On Wednesday 23 August we arrived at the supposedly haunted Old Hall Hotel, Sandbach, for the first night of our touring holiday. Imagine our surprise to find it locked and no answer to repeated bell ringing. In a nearby pub, the locals told us it had been closed for a year ! Even assuming this was an exaggeration and it was still open when we booked, we feel aggrieved that nobody telephoned from the hotel to warn us. Were they all so angry at losing their jobs that they cared nothing for future visitors ? Did the management decide not to warn us in the belief that new owners would have it open again by then ?
We still went for our planned walk around the walls of Chester, as pictured.

posted by Peter # 18:29

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Touring Northern England & Scottish borders

This is the last post for a week as we will be on holiday, touring Chester, Ullswater, Hadrian's Wall, Jedburgh, Leith, Berwick, Northumberland and Richmond, Yorkshire. News and photographs on return. These are just 'library shots'.

posted by Peter # 19:04

Monday, August 21, 2006

Goff Dubber, Pete Neighbour and John Crocker at the Sutton Jazz Club

On Sunday Evening at the Sutton Jazz Club we saw The Neville Dickie Trio with Goff Dubber (clarinet, soprano sax, tenor sax and vocals), John Crocker (clarinet and tenor sax) and Pete Neighbour (clarinet and alto sax). Neville Dickie (keyboard) was accompanied by Norman Emberson (drums and vocal) and Micky Ashman (string bass). The reed players were equally brilliant, it being difficult to choose one from the others. Perhaps Goff just wins on versatility. Our favourites were 'Petite Fleur' featuring Goff on Soprano and 'Our Love is Here to Stay' featuring Pete on Clarinet.

posted by Peter # 06:14

Sunday, August 20, 2006

Dave Stradwick's Sussex Jazz Kings at the Rutland Arms

On Saturday evening we saw Dave Stradwick's Sussex Jazz Kings at The Rutland Arms in Catford, South-east London. The band plays straightforward trad' jazz and we have seen many of its members with other bands. The most notable of these is Bernard Stutt, who has a very distinctive clarinet style, best described as 'hoppity-skippity' 2 beats to the bar as in ragtime. He is an expert on Johnny Dodds, leaving us wondering if this is the origin of that style. Graham Wiseman had moved from bass to trombone due to the absence of John Howlett (in hospital) and filled the part well. We did miss John's gravelly vocals.

posted by Peter # 11:59

Thursday, August 17, 2006

Magna Jazz Band with Tony Pyke

On Thursday evening we went to the Berrylands Hotel in Surbiton, where Brian White's Magna jazz band performs every week. Brian White was absent so Tony Pyke took his place on Alto Sax and Clarinet. My favourite numbers were 'Only the Blues' and the feature for Tony and Alan 'A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square'. Selina's cousin Marian, first time at this jazz club, won first prize in the raffle. She was sitting in the lucky seat !

posted by Peter # 22:44

Sunday, August 13, 2006

Back from field testing in Cornwall

We are back from our 3 day trip to Cornwall for field testing of the Ampair 600 wind turbine. I took this picture with the power plant off, not wanting to be sucked in !

posted by Peter # 17:00

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Wind tunnel testing

There will be silence from me for the next three days as we shall be down in Cornwall for testing at our wind tunnel facility. Our contingent will comprise Chris from MIT, Selina and me plus a car full of equipment. We will be staying at Tranack House in Bodmin. Selina will be seeing an old school friend for the first time in 39 years. She moved to Cornwall after leaving school.

posted by Peter # 20:01

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Chris Lowe's Swing Quartet at the Cricks

On Monday night we saw Chris Lowe's Swing Quartet at the Cricketers in Horsell Birch, Woking. The band comprised Chris Lowe (trombone), Enrico Tomasso (flugel horn and trumpet), Richard White (bass sax) and Malcolm Harrison (guitar). They are all fine musicians and they certainly packed in the crowds. Unfortunately after a hard day at Boost Energy systems we were just too tired to really enjoy it.

posted by Peter # 18:32

Monday, August 07, 2006

Urban Gin House Band with Ken Ames

On Sunday evening we went to The Europa in East Molesey to see the Urban Gin House jazz band. This time it was the quintet comprising leader Richard Wilcox (valve trombone), Alan Brock (trumpet), Ken Ames (guitar), Mike Bennett (string bass) and Mike Knipe (drums). The guests from the audience were Roy Stokes and Peter Talent (slide trombones) plus John Shepherd (trumpet). Allan Brock surprised us with a vocal on 'Tin Roof Blues'; nobody else knew it had words. Ken Ames (pictured) played in a rather different style from his work with the Phil Brown Swingtet; I really enjoyed it.

posted by Peter # 05:25

Sunday, August 06, 2006

Geoff Cole's Red Hot Five at the Rutland Arms; PB breathalysed

On Saturday evening we saw Geoff Cole's Red Hot Five at The Rutland Arms in Catford, South-east London. Geoff is one of the best (if not the best) trombonists on the local jazz scene and he was very ably supported by Tony Pyke (alto sax and clarinet), Alan Dandy (baby grand piano), Johnny Baker (drums and vocals) and Terry Pring (bass). My favourite number was Hoagy Carmichael's 'Stardust' featuring a fine vocal from Johnny Baker. The photographs show Selina in micro-skirt outside the pub and the full band inside it.

P.S. I was stopped by the police on the way home and lectured for exceeding the speed limit (slightly), failing to stop within milliseconds of them appearing behind me and admitting to having had a couple of drinks. They seemed very disappointed with the zero result on the breathalyser.

posted by Peter # 06:15

Saturday, August 05, 2006

Brickmakers at Windlesham

We usually hold our weekly director-shareholders' meeting at the Stag and Hounds in Binfield. Food and drink are good but the long queue for the bar is a major limitation. On Friday evening we tried the Brickmakers in Windlesham. Those who chose fish cakes or sausages received a reasonable size portion but the two of us who chose the paella received a small amount of mostly rice. It was not cheap either.

posted by Peter # 15:10

Friday, August 04, 2006

Denny Ilett with the Magna Jazz Band

On Thursday evening we went to the Berrylands Hotel in Surbiton, where Brian White's Magna jazz band performs every week. Deputising for Pete Towndrow on trumpet was Denny Ilett (pictured). He is a fine musician with a wide-ranging repertoire, However, my favourite number, once again, was Alan Dandy's solo. This time it was that beautiful Hoagy Carmichael composition, 'Skylark'.

posted by Peter # 05:37

Thursday, August 03, 2006

P Spice modelling and simulation

To support our design work our 'intern' from MIT has been using P Spice to model our development circuits and simulate their operation. Results have been mixed; straightforward tests match reality very well but the difficult problems seen on the bench do not appear in the simulations. Now we have to decide whether or not to buy P Spice !

posted by Peter # 05:49

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Boost Energy, consultant wanted

For the last 3 weeks I have been working most days at the Park Farm workshop of Boost Energy Systems (pictured), introducing two young engineers to the world of power electronics. Now one has resigned and the other was only on secondment from MIT so will depart soon. I cannot carry on alone for long so we need a consultant to help us through a busy development period. There are such people spread around the country but we have a strong preference for one who lives within reach of Warfield, Berkshire (just north of Bracknell).

posted by Peter # 05:53

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Clive Burton's Century Jazz at the Cricks

On Monday night we saw Clive Burton's Century Jazz at the Cricketers in Horsell Birch, Woking. The front line and the drummer played in a rather modern style, i.e. not to our taste, but Zane Cronje (keyboard) and Peter Hughes (bass) were excellent. We particularly liked Zane's passing musical references to serious music, e.g. Chopin. It is a pity that after a hard day's work we were too tired at the end of the evening to really appreciate anything. Clive obviously noticed this.

posted by Peter # 18:28