Tony Sutton’s Blog!

The Sun is saying that there will be a Deaf Girl in this show… I really hope it’s true because I want for her to do well.

We’ll see tonight…

We all know we had terrible weather yesterday. But it did not stop someone from doing it…
After arriving from the rubbish tip as I was doing a tidy up of the garage and as I got out of my car, I smelt something burning. And it was the smell of BBQ! Yes, they were BBQ’ing in the rain. I peeked over a few fences down and they had a large roof over them and they were enjoying it.
Good for them! Our weekend was okay, usually spent most of the time doing the garden and cleaning up my office and the garage.
How was yours?

Further to my post this morning, I left a comment on the Cutty Sark news article to express my sadness about this.

Somehow they traced back to me at work - they contacted me!

They wanted to interview me on the BBC Radio Norfolk about this. Obviously I couldn’t do it because I am deaf, so I wrote a short story about it which they then spoke it out on the radio at 5:10pm today. Perhaps you Norfolk people heard this?

I asked them for a copy of the transcript of what they spoke on the radio and here’s what they said… I think this was a good radio article.

An investigation has begun into the cause of a fire that badly damaged the Cutty Sark, one of Britain’s best-preserved maritime treasures and most popular tourist attractions. The nineteenth century sailing ship caught fire around dawn in Greenwich. A spokesman for the London Fire Brigade, Steve James, told a news conference that they arrived at the site five minutes after the alarm was raised.

The Operations Superintendent of the Metropolitan Police in Greenwich, Martin Mitchell, believes the fire could have been arson.

But Chris Levitt — from the Cutty Sark Trust — says there have been no previous indications that anyone had malicious intent towards the Cutty Sark. For maritime experts she was unique among the world’s preserved ships. Dr John Graves is from the National Maritime Museum.

The original budget for the conservation project was twenty-five million pounds. The Cutty Sark trust say they already had a funding gap for that work. Now they’re appealing to the nation for money. They say the ”old girl” - as they put it - needs more help than ever before.

Well, in the county we have many sea faring links and Tony Sutton from Norwich is no exception. George Moodie the Captain of the Cutty Sark was Tony’s great great great great grandad. The ship was most famous as a tea clipper it also carried wine, beer & spirits on board.
They would export these to Shanghai, China and then on the return journey, would carried about 1,500 tons of tea. They would set off in June and not get back to England until October.

Captain George was well know for the “races”, where the clippers would race each other home. The Cutty Sark was no different from any of the other boats and running repairs had to be carried out at sea, but never lost a cargo and always made it on time!

In the end, George Moodie retired due to stress from captaining the ship.

I’m sure some of you have heard about the news that the Cutty Sark has caught fire and is being treated as suspicious.

This is really a sad news because that ship is part of my mum’s family history, the Captian of the ship - Captain George Moodie - driven that boat.

I saw the amateur footage on BBC News and it doesn’t look too good… but I really hope it can be saved somehow.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6675381.stm

I still can’t decide which one to go for…

* Stand alone TomTom One (expensive)

* Software and GPS device for my phone (cheap)

If I get the stand alone, it’s another thing to carry. And costly.

If I buy the software for my phone, it’s one thing less to carry. And cheap.

Hmm, looks like I’ll go with the software one.

Unless you don’t agree?

Taa daa, guess what we pulled out from our garden??

All of sudden, the weather has turned and is very very hot. Sunny, blue sky, etc. It was raining yesterday and all week last week!
You gotta love our British weather.

Just had the new tryes fitted this afternoon - what a BIG difference - better grip.

However, even that I am deaf myself, I noticed it has more “road noise” compared to the old tyres. I’m not sure if I should wait until the tyres “soften up” or is normal for this sort of tyres. Need to find out more about it.

And big thanks to the local Ford garage who only charged me £5.80 per tyres (£23.50 in total inc VAT) compared to the tyre chain who wanted up to £12 per tyre!

Overall, I’m happy.

The FITP event today was pretty good… even that it rained all day! :/

Met up with some people and it was nice putting together their nicknames with their faces and from what I can see it was a good turn out!

My photos can be found at my Gallery - Fiesta in the Park 2007 - but not much due to rain.

Nevermind, hopefully next year will be better!

As this was my first event visit and I enjoyed it, I’ve booked for the next event which is based at Silverstone - Ford Fair - where it will be much bigger… Europe is joining! And it’s happening this Summer (August). They will have a Track Day too, and I’m considering it… need to fnd out more about track day insurance and other bits.

The drive back home was terrible, lots of rain spray from road. But managed to get home okay.

Tomorrow = work. Means I need my shut eyes.

G’nite.

… it’s still sunny and warm this morning.

However knowing the UK, it’s going to turn nasty and start pissing rain from the clouds.

Still, that won’t stop us from going.

Car has been checked over for water, tyre pressure, etc yesterday.

Deaf Club’s AGM all done last night, going to contuine as Committee member, got two new Committee joinings so far - that should make another year more interesting.

In 2 weeks time, we meet up again and talk about what sort of events planned. Need to think of some ideas!

Right, I need to get ready for today.

Car has been picked up at 11:30am and paid for the bill. Car is happy now.

The guy who was supposed to pick up the TV this morning now say they’re collecting it this afternoon, so looks like we’re staying in to wait for him to turn up.

Ah well.. we enjoyed our lunch and maybe watch DVD soon…

.. and we’re enjoying the new TV very much. Have watched more movies, and it feels like we’re watching something new! I pick up more things that I did not notice before.

So it’s worth it then.

Over the past week, we have been busy with work, had my parents coming over last Wed to have a look at the new TV, the sofa, dinner table and the repainted porch and had a good chat.

Last night, I ordered new set of tyres for my car as it’s due. Should arive by early next week.

This morning, I dropped off my car for cambelt change - I’m not taking the risk to wait to long. Ford said 100,000 miles for the cambelt change! I’m doing it early to be on the safe side. And enquired about the cost of changing the tyres and they were cheapest at £5 plus VAT (around £6 per tyre), where other tyre center wanted £12 inc VAT per tyre! So looks like they will get my business once the new tyres arrives.

Now the driveway news… they have put up a new lamp post further away from the driveway, so things are happening. They haven’t removed the old one yet until the new lamp post is set up and working.

Then they will remove the old one from our driveway and the driveway work can start soon. The driveway work is booked for 21st June. It was estimated that the new lamp post would be up and running within 4 weeks. So hopefully it won’t be too long…

TV rental company is due to pick up the old TV this morning - can’t wait to get rid of it! Then the missus parents coming round for a chat. Then pick up my car this afternoon.

Going to Cambridge tomorrow for FITP - loads of Ford cars on display. I’m not sure why they called it ‘Fiesta’ when it’ll be all sort of Ford cars. *shrugs*

But I’m a bit worried about the weather… it doesn’t look good for tomorrow. :/

Clothes washing now…

Arrived this morning.

Wow. It’s almost as big as the fire place!

Our first viewing of the new TV was to watch the rented DVD of Casino Royale.

VERY impressed with the TV!

I think it’s time for me to buy an HD DVD player or some sort to gain HD viewing!

Well worth the purchase…

So, the wait has begin once again for the TV delivery.

I really do hope they will deliver this time!

Last night, the Bank Holiday weekend was already happening… lots of caravans everywhere!

Anyone planning going anywhere nice?

So, did anyone vote?

We did not.

Their campaign for this year was pretty lame and we was undecided which one to vote for. So we didn’t.

We’ll see who wins for our area…