I understand we can all see the link "Who is online" http://www.mguk.org/viewonline.htm which shows where our IP address appears to be located.

And a big hello to ZTSteve*, who tonight joins us from Oxford's famous Botanical Gardens! (I'm in the Cardboard City by Waterloo Station...)

*EDIT not ZRSteve of course...

patpending wrote:I understand we can all see the link "Who is online" http://www.mguk.org/viewonline.htm which shows where our IP address appears to be located.

And a big hello to ZTSteve*, who tonight joins us from Oxford's famous Botanical Gardens! (I'm in the Cardboard City by Waterloo Station...)

*EDIT not ZRSteve of course...

Oxford? How bizarre. I thought I was in West Sussex, but that must be an illusion caused by lack of alcohol.

Looks like I am still in Oxford, while Windy is in central London at the end of Westminster bridge!

I assume this is something to do with the ISP we each use, mine being Pipex (Tiscalli).

and hello to our guest in the middle of the road in Bern. Not you, is it, Windy?

I see we have an anonymous user browsing the site from the USA. Hello USA!

And patpending is now shown as being in Surrey, near Leatherhead. That sounds surprisingly plausible, considering I am still in Oxford!

ZTsteve wrote:...And patpending is now shown as being in Surrey, near Leatherhead. That sounds surprisingly plausible, considering I am still in Oxford!

yes, not far from the Services' rest home at Headley Court nor from the murderous curves of the Mickleham Bends... I bought my satellite receiver in Leatherhead...

(eat your heart out, "I left my heart in San Francisco!")

Meanwhile, Fantomass is in ulica Gubina in SW St Petersburg...

patpending wrote:

ZTsteve wrote:...And patpending is now shown as being in Surrey, near Leatherhead. That sounds surprisingly plausible, considering I am still in Oxford!

yes, not far from the Services' rest home at Headley Court nor from the murderous curves of the Mickleham Bends... I bought my satellite receiver in Leatherhead...

(eat your heart out, "I left my heart in San Francisco!")

Meanwhile, Fantomass is in ulica Gubina in SW St Petersburg...

Would they be the 'Deceptive Bends' of 10cc fame? I heard they had a studio near there once upon a time. May have been called Strawberry Studios South, or I might have imagined that...

ZTsteve wrote:Would they be the 'Deceptive Bends' of 10cc fame? I heard they had a studio near there once upon a time. May have been called Strawberry Studios South, or I might have imagined that...

well, I must wiki that.

EDIT yes wiki says Strawberry Studios South was in Dorking.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strawberry_Studios

No reason for "Deceptive Bends" though...



TBH I had thought 10cc were from Kingston-upon-Thames ("Dreadlock Holiday" was supposed to have happened in that Kingston) but heard they came from Stockport.

"Strawberry" stamped in the run-off groove was always a guarantee of a quality pressing TBH...

The Mickleham Bends are known as "The Mickies" by motorbike riders...I can just see it now "honest, officer, I just swerved to avoid this gigantic salmon-pink marker in the middle of the road"...

EDIT Clearly "Deceptive Bends" was a road sign!

These vehicles are passing through the village long before today's bypass was created. On

the fast A24 dual-carriageway road, signs once warned of ˜deceptive bends". The rock band

10cc, who owned a recording studio in nearby Dorking, may well have seen these signs

when they named their 1977 album "Deceptive Bends"

http://www.francisfrith.com/search/england/surrey/mickleham/mickleham.htm

Well I've fooled the system.....here I am almost in the grounds of the Tower of London and it thinks I'm in Newbury or somewhere west of Londinium.

EDIT Clearly "Deceptive Bends" was a road sign!

It was, and they were! I used that road a few times in those days (70s..80s?). At that time it was a real dual carriageway, with two lanes heading south as well as north. Now the southbound carriage is marked as single lane to stop people in a hurry trying to overtake... I imagine this has the effect of slowing all traffic. It certainly gives more scope for correction if you take a bend a bit too fast...

As far as I recall, the first 10cc studio (later ...North) was in Stockport.

Windy wrote:

ZTsteve wrote:I see we have an anonymous user browsing the site from the USA. Hello USA!

Was anonymous anywhere near Bennington Vermont?

If so then it was probably our latest member - proscriptus.

Good to see the motoring journalists keeping themseves properly informed of the facts

Although since proscriptus hasn't said hello, it could be anyone...

proscriptus is from Vermont, I PMd him yesterday to say hello and asked him to do the same.

Though that leaves the "anonymous guest from Southern California"!

we have someone from Breda (NL) here tonight.

Hello!

Windy wrote:Just spotted a "Bot", located at NASA busy browsing our site

just so long as our avatars feature no propellers whatsoever NASA won't be interested, though...

...ah.

Just to add to the confusion, I am currently on holiday in Madeira (where it is raining cats and dogs!) but my location shows up as Viseu in the centre of Portugal.

Madeira is in fact a part of Portugal, although it is off the west coast of Africa.

I wonder if I will return to Oxford when I land at Gatwick...

ZTsteve wrote:Just to add to the confusion, I am currently on holiday in Madeira (where it is raining cats and dogs!) but my location shows up as Viseu in the centre of Portugal.

Madeira is in fact a part of Portugal, although it is off the west coast of Africa.

I wonder if I will return to Oxford when I land at Gatwick...

and French Guiana in South America is actually a department of France IIRC.

Wonder if users from Cayenne show up in Paris?

So here's a new holiday game - "did you have a nice time in Madeira? what was it like?" "Don't know really, I spent my time online looking at satellite maps of Portugal"...

Let me know what it was like when you get back, Madeira is one place I would love to go!

patpending wrote:

ZTsteve wrote:Just to add to the confusion, I am currently on holiday in Madeira (where it is raining cats and dogs!) but my location shows up as Viseu in the centre of Portugal.

Madeira is in fact a part of Portugal, although it is off the west coast of Africa.

I wonder if I will return to Oxford when I land at Gatwick...

and French Guiana in South America is actually a department of France IIRC.

Wonder if users from Cayenne show up in Paris?

So here's a new holiday game - "did you have a nice time in Madeira? what was it like?" "Don't know really, I spent my time online looking at satellite maps of Portugal"...

Let me know what it was like when you get back, Madeira is one place I would love to go!

It is a lovely place, except when it rains. Which it has done all day today.

One downside is the Euro exchange rate, which is a lot worse than it was the last time we came here five years ago.

On the other hand, there was no Wi-Fi then.

jeg snakke ikke norsk

so will the guest who has logged in from Oslo please stand up in English?

e buona sera al nostro invitato(?) di Torino!

una città molta bene per le macchine inglesi!

This thread is turning into patpendings foreign language class

ZTsteve wrote:This thread is turning into patpendings foreign language class

it's not encouraging our visitors to say hello, though!

(in fact our visitor from Turin is here again!)

I saw a Google Bot earlier. I wonder what language he speaks...

Windy wrote:...Goes looking for a Bot smiley...

well, I'm not googling for that...!

in the meantime, ciao again to Torino...

and who's that on the Inverness Golf Course in SE Denver, Colorado? not too far from Ardmore, OK...

Hello to Anonymous from Moscow!

Apparently I'm either sitting in Reading while the rest of the hosue seems to be in Peterborough (looking out the window anyway), or I'm in Turin ! Ciao, ha bisogno del passaporto?

meanwhile, cin dobre (?) to our visitor from Warsaw!