45 more minutes of Rapid Radio

Rapid Radio is described elsewhere. Earlier I posted a random 45 minutes that I dropped onto a C90 over 20 years ago.

Here's the other side of the tape: this one is from 30th March 1991 (Easter Day!). Around 22.10 you can year the DJ welcome in a local youth: I estimate DC Ranko to be about 12 years old, and he hosts the rest of the session.

Track listing

The DJ's speed and accent, coupled with my incompete knowledge of the genre, make this a little incomplete and unreliable.
Italic indicates uncertainty - corrections welcomed.

Time	Title	Artist
2.27	Thriller U	Back on my feet again
5.44	Freddy McGregor	Stop Loving You
9.14	???	Nothing like this
13.12	Freddy McGregor	Loving Pauper
16.09	Richie Davis	Jah Army
19.45	Leroy Mafia	Can't get enough of your love
23.48	Tenor Fly	Defend your words
27.07	Shabba Ranks, Admiral Tibbet, Ninjaman	Serious Time
30.17	Red Dragon	X amount
33.28	Johnny P	By law
36.44	Godspell	Golden Rule
39.5	Capelton	Magnet
43.14	Panhead	International Wok

Thanks to TechnoSauce for technical support.

I can't dance, either

A lot, and probably too much, has been written about Hawkwind. Quite a lot, and probably enough, has also been written about their quondam dancer [sic] Stacia.

I doubt that even the band themselves would lay claim to significant musical ability, but their show was certainly spectacular. When I saw them during their 72/73 tour they were rather loud with lotsa lights and electronics and probably (no, certainly) lotsa drugs. A jolly good evening.

Stacia - 6'2" tall with 52" bust - habitually danced naked and this encouraged a particular kind of audience: simple arithmetic will tell you I was a male in my late teens ....

In a splendid documentary on the band Lemmy explains that "It was very easy to get into our band in those days ... she had an uncontrollable urge one night to take all her clothes off and paint herself blue ... ".

Diligent research reveals that Stacia is very close to me in age and attended school in Exeter, as I did. I have no recollection of her at all from those days, which is odd. I attended a boys' grammar school.

The documentary includes a clip from the immortal "Hurry on Sundown", covered by Vetiver (who can indeed play their instruments) in their 2008 release Thing of the past , which is strongly recommended.

The hourly knell ringers

I attend Coventry Swimming Pool.

Much of it is busied by the junior section of City of Coventry SC, who are moving at quite a pace.

As I plough up and down, I spot a man of about my age. He sits fully clothed at a lane end in an easy chair, and has over recent years eaten many pies.

Tiny water nymphs approach him at pace, performing arms-only butterfly. "HEAD DOWN. HEAD DOWN" he bawls at them. They turn to do the next 50m legs-only. "LEGS. KICK. KICK." My, how this takes me back.

[I was swimming in the "General, medium" lane - not the slow lane - and was faster than most in it.]

Some corner of a foreign field

...there's some corner of a foreign field,
That is for ever full of old ironmongery

The Internal Fire Museum of Power near Tanygroes is one of those unsung wonders of this earth. I've driven past the end of its road N times and not registered its existence, but we went on Saturday and wasn't it splendid?

They have 3 "power" days each year and we went to see one - nearly every one of their many machines is in good order so it's hard to estimate how many gallons of diesel they got through. Of course, you've got to like engines.

But, as is so often the case, it's the incidentals that really take your fancy. Who could fail to be entranced by a Replica of a one-legged milking stool (left), and some technical drawings (right) that have enhanced my German vocabulary no end.

Photo-voltaic cells: free money

We have a 4KW photo-voltaic installation on the roof, installed most efficiently by Llani Solar just over a year ago.

The annual statistics augur well for the future: the picture shows a plot of generation (slightly smoothed with a 5-day moving average) (blue) and a best fit sine wave (red). It also shows a similarly smoothed plot of use of the external supply (yellow) overlaid with another "best" sine wave (green).

The two sine waves are (click to enlarge)

(It's reassuring that the offset coincides almost precisely with the spring equinox - do note the lamentable weather in June). This implies an average daily generation of 9.79KWh; the FIT is 41.3p/KWh, so we grossed 366 x 9.79 x 0.413 = £1480 tax-free. Ha!

The external usage is slightly foxy to analyse as actual usage is the sum of the measurement and whatever the PVs can supply when the demand is made. Since we habitually turn on the washing machine and toaster at noon, actual usage may be much higher than the plot. Similarly, it is not possible to measure with precision the surplus power we feed into the grid which attracts another modest payment.

New career for Lady GaGa

I am staying at The Croft Guest House.

Predictably, there is a cooked breakfast on offer. I quote: "Eggs sourced from our own hens - Lady Ga Ga, Hildatwo, Kissing Hariot, Phyllis, and Lulu".

Swyddfa'r Post

My local Post Office is run by two ladies of a certain age who chatter to each other incessantly in Welsh.

This morning, I embarked on a lengthy transaction (don't ask) with the Chief lady (Pennaeth), during which the Deputy lady (Dirprwy) opened up a long narrative which I guessed might be a joke.

As the Deputy culminated, the Chief dissolved into helpless giggles for some time. Catching my eye, and remembering the precise level of my fluency in Welsh, she said, "Only I had to laugh, you see - she said something funny".