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Recently the Severn Valley Railway held its annual Spring Steam Gala. There were four magnificent steam engines visiting the line, these were A4 Pacific no 60007 “Sir Nigel Gresley”, GWR No 5029 “Nunney Castle, BR“Britannia” class 7mt no70013 “Oliver Cromwell” and BR Standard class 8p 4-6-2 no 71000 “Duke of Gloucester” which was the only one of its kind ever built.

Sir Nigel Gresley LNER 4498

Luckily they let me out of hospital for a few hours, it was absolutely amazing to be able to watch these impressive machines in action for a little while which was really cool.

BR Brittania class no 70013 Oliver Cromwell

Being a keen photographer & having an interest in cars I couldn’t wait to read this book from the publishers of Evo Magazine which contains Evo Magazine’s favourite photographs of some of the world’s greatest cars photographed against some stunning scenery, such as The Welsh Mountains, Scottish Highlands, The Pyranees mountains, Lake Garda, Sardinia & Corsica. It’s inspired me to go out & take more photographs.

Recently I’ve been reading this fantastic book by Richard Meaden, which features thirty iconic routes, these include

The Great Road Races – Icons of the Racing Age
Road Circuits – Famouse Circuits from around the world
Rallies – Legendary & Treacherous rally stages from around the world
Grand Prix Circuits – Featuring all the circuits that shaped modern racing
Hillclimbs – Featuring all the winding & qarduous hill climb courses, such as Pikes Peak
Record Breaking – This chapter features various locations which have all played host to various land-speed records

A free CD featuring some of Queen’s best songs was recently given away by one of the weekend papers and being a big Queen fan & not having much else to listen to at the time, I thought I’d get it, It’s got some really awesome songs on it & I’m glad I got it – It’s been in constant use on my CD player ever since. Songs on the album are

We Will Rock You
Killer Queen
Don’t Stop Me Now
Bicycle Race
Now I’m Here
Let Me Entertain You
Get Down, Make Love
39 Keep Yourself Alive
A Kind of Magic
I Want to Break Free
Somebody to Love
No one but You

To coincide with the Walking With Dinosaurs arena spectacular which is touring Britain throughout the Summer months, the Sun Newpaper gave away some episodes of Walking With Dinosaurs & Walking with Beasts, I was unable to get them when they were released but have manged to get the complete set off Ebay since then, and being fascinated by dinosaurs ever since I was young I have really enjoyed watching them all again. Episodes in the collection are
Walking with Dinosaurs – The Arena Spectacular
Walking with Beasts – A New Dawn
Walking with Dinosaurs – New Blood
Walking with Beasts – Whale Killer
Walking with Dinosaurs – Time of the Titans
Walking with Dinosaurs – Cruel Sea
Walking With Beasts – Land of Giants
Walking with Beasts – Next of Kin
Walking with Dinosaurs – Giants of the Skies
Walking with Beasts – Sabre Tooth (Here Ktty kitty kitty…..Aaarrrggghhh!)
Walking with Dinosaurs – Spirits of the Forest
Walking with Dinosaurs – Death of a Dynasty (Sit Rex….aaarrrrggghhh!)
Walking with Beasts – Mammoth Journey

Recently the Sun newspaper gave away series one of Gavin & Stacey, with the paper, I enjoyed seeing it on the Television and would have liked to have got them, unfortunately I was really ill at the time but thanks to Ebay I’ve managed to track down all six episodes and I am now in the process of watching them.

It stars Matthew Horne as a chap named Gavin, who is an ordinary boy from Essex and Stacey is an ordinary Girl from Barry, South Wales. Who Although they’ve spoken on the phone everyday at work for months, have never actually met….until now, however when they finally meet, and their ordinary lives collide, we see through their friends & Family that there is no such thing as ordinary after all.

It also stars James Corden, Ruth Jones, Alison Steadman & Rob Bryden.

The Duke of Gloucester was recently due to officially open the Engine House at Highley, hoewever due to ill health other arrangements were made. I went and had a look last year & The engine house is home to many magnificent looking steam locomotives including
GWR 4930 4-6-0 Hagley Hall,
Midland Railways Compound Engine No 1000,
LMR 600 Austerity 2-10-0 Gordon
LMS1501 Pannier Tank Engine
LMS Stanier 8f No 48773

A specially commissioned painting of Richard Trevithick’s locomotive “Catch-Me-Who-Can” was also unvieled, which was painted to commemorate the bicentenery of its construction in 1808 at Hazeldine’s Foundry in Bridgnorth, The unveiling also coincided with a talk given by Julian Treuherz from the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool about why steam Locomotives have been and still are a continuing attraction to artists the world over and why Steam is such a fascinating subject

This is another hilarious book by Terry Pratchett, which I read whilst I was in Hospital. It starts when Commander Sam Vimes of the Ankh Morpork City Watch is chasing a vicious criminal named Carcer during a thunderstorm and he finds himself mysteriously thrown back in time where he meets his younger self, whilst there he also meets amysterious monk named Lu Tze who asks him to keep an eye on his younger self & make sure he is not led astray, which could alter future events. As if this wasn’t enough Vimes also has to deal with a rebellion in the city of Ankh Morpork & get back to his own time.

Having read both The Good Husband of Zebra Drive & A Time For the Traditionally Built by Alexander McCall Smith, I was interested to see the recent Televison series based on the cases of The Number One Ladies Detective Agency which were all based on stories written by him.

The Television series features Jill Scott as Precious Remotswe the head of the titular detective agency and Anika Noni Rose as her fastidious secretary Mma Makutsu, who spend all their time solving cases from their home in Botswana. I may get it on DVD too.