Need an App? Then I know who to call…

Jamie has decided to hand in his notice and go into business full time with his friend Simon in a company called Locassa. They have set themselves up as independent App Developer and iPhone App Developers and have been establishing themselves for a while now with successful implementation of applications for a number of high profile customers.

So if you are looking for a company to help you with the development of an App or you know someone who might be interested in the services that they can offer, then you can point them in the direction of their website

More of wot I have read…

Ravenor: The Omnibus by Dan Abnett

I like this sort of stuff – modern Boys Own styled war stories. The stories are full of graphic and violent action but it does add depth and colour (though much of that colour is dark – storm grey, olive drab, blood red and midnight black) to the Gothic universe of the Games Workshop – Warhamer 40k table top game system. It is interesting to read how much attention and detail has been created to support a war game, the back story development is fascinating and very visual. If it wasn’t for the obscene amount of violence I think it would make a good movie.

‘In the war-torn future of the 41st millennium, the Inquisition fights a secret war against the darkest enemies of mankind – the alien, the heretic and the daemon. The three stories in this omnibus tell the tale of Inquisitor Gideon Ravenor and his lethal band of operatives, whose investigations take them from the heart of the Scarus Sector to the wildest regions of space beyond, and even through time itself. Wherever they go and whatever dangers they face, they will never give up until their mission succeeds.

The Omnibus contains the novels Ravenor, Ravenor Returned and Ravenor Rogue, plus two short stories and an introduction by the author.’

France avec la famille…

We have just returned from our summer holiday to the South of France with the family. My Mum & Dad are over from NZ and we went with them and my Uncle and his girlfriend for a week to the Minerve and Aude regions halfway between Narbonne and Carcassonne.

We stayed in the quaint village of La Redorte set amongst wine groves at a lovely gite called Villa Camellia that is owned by the family of friends of ours. The village has all the usual facilities and also had the added attraction of being adjacent to the Canal du Midi (an impressive 17^th C construction that joined with other canals to provide a link between the Mediterranean and the Bay of Biscay.)

Overlooking the ‘Port of La Redorte’ was a restaurant that benefited by the view and the passing trade from the various barges and river cruisers on the canal. The eatery Le Rivassel capitalised on the tourists by putting on an energetic and entertaining final evening for us with Brazilian night complete with exotic dancers.

We hired a couple of cars for the six of us and experienced our first driving trauma soon after picking them up as we got separated on the motorway system as I failed to follow the sat-nav properly. Luckily both parties managed to navigate their way to the village separately. We only had minor navigational issues after that due to sat-nav errors or miss-read maps.

Sunday – We drove out to the historic Cather town of Minerve that sits attractively on a spit of land between two gorges (one called Brian). It has some lovely craft shops and the route there goes through some spectacular countryside.

Monday – This day we decided to brave the tourist hot-spot of Carcassonne, a large walled town that had been restored to its former glory complete with impressive Basilica and Chateaux. This is a bustling place full of noise, sights and scents to entertain for hours, and we wandered around missing the occasional shower until we finished up in a square full of restaurants where some of us partook of the local speciality Cassoulet (a stew of haricot beans, sausage, and duck or goose).

Tuesday – Close by is the small and perfectly formed little historic village of Caunes-Minervois in a town known for its marble, statues of which could be seen in the park in the distinctive pink and white colouring. There is a cute Abbey in the village that has layers of historical construction on view along with a rather unusual art exhibition. The old town was well worth a wander around and we ended up in a small square where we had a picnic lunch next to a marble fountain and under the shade of two enormous plane trees. We made a small detour to the now closed Marble Quarry before we continued on to our next destination.

Lastours is a small place in the mountains that is known for the ruins of four castles, Les Quatre Chateaux, which sit above it in the middle of rugged terrain and provide a dramatic view of their crumbling walls and turrets.

 

On Wednesday Mum & Dad stayed at the gite expecting a visit from friends that did not materialise as the rest of us took one car and went out for the day. Our first stop was Lagrasse, another old town full of character and crumbling walls. In the small town centre was a traditional covered market square and across the pretty river was an impressive abbey. 

After lunch we took a very winding and vertiginous road out to one of the most impressive of the Cather castles - Peyrepertuse Chateaux – sitting as it does at the top of a mountain ridge where it can dominate two valleys and, along with its partner castle on the other side of one of the valleys, protect the approaches from the Spanish boarder. There is a torturous road part way up the mountain to a car park where you can then continue on foot up the steep path to the castle itself and there get the most amazing views.

Thursday we ventured further abroad to visit the very grand and popular Abbaye Fontfroide where we had a guided tour around the wonderful old monastery, church and rose gardens. 

We then went on until we reached the coast and the little fishing village of Bages, where we had a delightful authentic French lunch at the tiny Les Jardins de Bages cafe.

On Friday we dropped Mum & Dad off at Narbonne to catch the train to Barcelona where they joined a bus tour around Spain for the next week. After we returned to the gite the four of us remaining went out first to Conques-sur-Orbiel – a case of mistaken identity, and then on to the town of books Montolieu renowned for its second-hand book stores. Lastly we went up probably the most frightening road yet to Cubservies there to see the cascades, supposedly some of the tallest falls in the country.

And as mentioned earlier, our evening, and holiday, ended with the exotic Brazilian rhythms of the Latin band and swaying hips of the scantily dancers down beside the canal.

It was a great break I think for all of us and we would thoroughly recommend the area, the gite in particular, for a family holiday.

Movie Star Treatment…

We visited the house, Stowe Maries, in the village that was previously owned by the actor Leslie Howard and we watched an old black and white movie, Pygmalion, that he was in. We watched the film, glass of bubbly in hand, in the actor’s own cinema that is in the garden of his grand house next to the swimming pool. The event was organised by the local history group with the kind permission of the current owners and was a sell out. The film is a classic and it was even more fun to be in the same room as the star, next to his art-deco bar and a couple of feet away from the old projector that he must have used to entertain his glamorous film star guests.

More of wot I have read…

Nothing but Blue Skies by Tom Holt

Ok, who pissed of the dragons then? Now I know why this summer has been so pants.

This is an entertaining and supremely silly book full of jokes and madcap adventures and is worth a look if you want some cheering up on a wet summer’s day.

‘There are very many reasons why British summers are either non-existant or, alternatively, held on a Thursday. Many of these reasons are either scientific, mad, or both – but all of them are wrong, especially the scientific ones. The real reason why it rains perpetually from January 1^st to December 31^st (incl.) is, of course, irritable Chinese water dragons.

Karen is one such legendary creature. Ancient, noble, near-indestructible and, for a number of wildly improbable reasons, working as an estate-agent, Karen is irritable quite a lot of the time. Hence Wimbledon. She becomes positively incensed, however, when she discovers that her father, the Adjutant General to the Dragon King of the North-west, has been kidnapped by a mob of livid weathermen.’