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Matterhorn Ascent

May 20, 2018 / / 1 Comment

Well, not quite; that is two years away. But it is never too early to start training. These are a few photos of a little light limestone rock climbing on cliffs near Pennington Bay, on Kangaroo Island.

Limestone cliffs near Pennington Bay, Kangaroo Island, South Australia.

Limestone cliffs near Pennington Bay, Kangaroo Island, South Australia.

Limestone cliffs near Pennington Bay, Kangaroo Island, South Australia.

Limestone cliffs near Pennington Bay, Kangaroo Island, South Australia.

Limestone cliffs near Pennington Bay, Kangaroo Island, South Australia.

Limestone cliffs near Pennington Bay, Kangaroo Island, South Australia.

I don’t have any doubt about my climbing ability. But I need to get accustomed to the heights and drop offs. I will spend some time at a climbing wall in Adelaide this weekend to test some skills.

But I am sixty this year (how the heck did that happen?) and time is ticking. If I don’t do Mt Blanc and the Matterhorn soon, I will run out of time.

 

 

The Perfect Holiday

May 17, 2018 / / 0 Comments

Thinking ahead to 2020 and my perfect holiday.

800 days from today till the opening of the 2020 Wagner Festival in Bayreuth.

From there to Oberammergau for the Passion Play.

Then to Zermat for a few days, on the gondola and up the Matterhorn to at least the Hörnli Hut. I am pretty fit, but not an experienced climber. I would not make it to the summit.

Looking towards the Matterhorn

Looking towards the Matterhorn

Then to Lourdes, from there to St Jean Pied de Port and the Camino, with a few days in Santiago de Compostela before heading home.

It is doable, I think, and with cheap hotels and train travel, and walkng the Camino, would not be too expensive.

Can anyone who has done any of these things offer any advice?

Changes to Layout

April 15, 2018 / / 0 Comments

I will be making some changes to the layout and overall look of Qohel over the next few days.  These are to improve readability overall and especially on mobile devices.

Thank you for being patient!

Wynford Wilde Author Website

May 9, 2017 / / 0 Comments

I just finished the author website for Wynford Wilde. This is the place to go for news on upcoming adventures in the Jennifer Jones series, starting with Dark Turnings, which is now available for Kindle or in paperback.

Describing myself as a best selling writer was just wishful thinking a week ago, but within three days of being launched my short story Encomium had shot to number two on the bestseller list in its number one Amazon category, and the top ten in two others:

Wynford Wilde’s sci-fi adventure Encomium hits number two on Amazon’s bestseller lists after only three days

Fast-moving Fantasy Adventure

May 4, 2017 / / 0 Comments

My new book was released today, 5th of May 2017.

I like it, but more importantly, people who have read it tell me they enjoyed it too.

A fast-moving fantasy adventure for young adults. In the tradition of The Hobbit, it has the same moral heart as The lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Facebook Competitor Launched in Australia

July 6, 2016 / / 0 Comments

New Social Network Launched on 4th July

Could this Australian start-up be a Facebook Killer?

New online community https://www.blissyoo.com is a very small David to Facebook’s Goliath, but founder Peter Wales is undaunted. “Even Facebook started with just one member,” he said.

Mr Wales said large numbers of people were unhappy with Facebook. “There have been reports of Facebook removing posts and photos, for example of plus size models, or breast feeding mothers, or because they don’t share Facebook’s political views. One woman reported being banned simply for complaining about people being banned. Last month Facebook deleted Swedish journalist Ingrid Carlqvist’s personal account after she reported a 1500% increase in sexual assaults in Sweden over the last ten years, while Twitter deleted the account of gay activist Milo Yiannopoulos following the Orlando nightclub shooting.”

“We have a commitment to freedom of speech. That was our primary reason for developing Blissyoo,” said Mr Wales. “Ordinary people have had enough of someone else deciding what they can say, and what their opinions should be. Blissyoo lets people post their thoughts and stories without interference, and lets them choose what news they want to read.”

Other Facebook competitors have come and gone, but Mr Wales, from Kangaroo Island in South Australia, is confident Blissyoo has enough similar features for Facebook users to feel at home, while offering new features to make the switch worthwhile.

“Facebook has made Mark Zuckerberg and a few others very, very rich,” he said. “But users who do all the work of providing content get absolutely nothing. Blissyoo has a revenue sharing system so users who post regularly get a share of advertising revenue from their timelines.”

The new network launched on July 4th, and Blissyoo mobile and chat apps are available in Android Playstore and the iTunes Store.

“We encourage our users to make suggestions, and to be an active part of the Blissyoo community,” said Mr Wales. “Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook have billions of dollars and thousands of staff. We have a small team dedicated to our members and to freedom of speech. That commitment is the reason Blissyoo was created, and will be a permanent feature.”

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg could not be reached for comment.

Conspiracy Theorists

May 20, 2016 / / 0 Comments

Fukushima, vaccines, chemtrails. It is always the same.

CT (Conspiracy theorist) “Something really bad and scary is happening!”

Me “I don’t think there is any evidence to support that.”

CT “That’s because there is a massive cover-up. The (government, power companies, big pharma, Monsanto) are deliberately hiding the truth from the public.”

Me ” How do you know that?”

CT “Because there is no evidence. If they weren’t covering it up, there would be. Isn’t that obvious? Are you crazy or something?”

Blissyoo – an Update

May 12, 2016 / / 0 Comments

An update on the new website, www.blissyoo.com.

As some of you know, for the last several weeks I have been working on a new website, www.blissyoo.com, an alternative to Facebook.

There were two major reasons for this. Firstly, Facebook has made Mark Zuckerberg and a few others very, very rich, while those who do most of the work and provide all the content – you – get nothing at all. It is fair enough that most advertising income goes back to running the website. It is hugely expensive to develop software, run servers, provide support, etc. But how is it right that the people who put in what makes everyone keep coming back – you – get nothing for your efforts?

We have done the sums, and believe we can give users back 20% of all advertising income from their home page/wall/timeline (we call it your journal, but more on that later).

The second reason is that Facebook actively edits out news stories and posts it doesn’t like. That is just wrong. Who is to say that your opinion, photos, likes and and dislikes, should simply be ignored because they don’t fit somone else’s political agenda? We take the view that while anything publicly viewable should be family friendly, on your own journal, among your own friends, and in groups and communities you create, you should be able to post anything you like (as long as it’s legal, obviously!).

The other side of that coin is that this site is not a “safe zone.” If you are someone who is offended by the thought that some people might see things differently from you, or becomes distressed when you hear an opinion you do not share, this is not the community for you!

Below is the site logo, designed for us by Simone Halloran of Little Birdy Design.

It is a B for bliss. It is also a heart, and suggestive of a winding road – a journey – and perhaps a mother holding a child. I couldn’t be happier with what Simone has done for us.

We have just finished sorting some minor issues with text size and colour, chat system and music sharing, and are now in the middle of the move from shared hosting for development, to dedicated servers in the US and Singapore plus CDN for live/production mode.

Once that is done, two days of testing to ensure all database settings have moved across and then bang! A blissful flight into the future 🙂

Bliss logo - blue on white300

Too much, too much, too much …

May 1, 2016 / / 0 Comments
Sooo much going on at the moment.
 
Running the Post Office and doing house and yard work as usual.
 
Trying to get the new website operational. Bits of php scripts, yeah sure mate that is absolutely compatible, except it stuffs up calls in a completely different module, or someone changes the chmod permissions so his bit will run properly which messes with css files which means page layout is completely shafted … arrgh!
 
Then getting ready to move house over the next couple of weeks.
 
And writing my wregular wrants.
 
And last week of training for True Grit next weekend.
 
And proof-reading my sister’s research assignment on psycho-social construction of PMS from a feminist perspective.
 
So much to do I think I will sit here and whine about it for ten minutes, then go and have a beer and a nap.

Thanks to A2 Hosting

April 7, 2016 / / 0 Comments

I must say a big thanks to the guys at A2 Hosting.

I had been with 1and1 for the last eight years. As long as nothing went wrong, they were fine. as soon as I needed help, at all, with anything, forget it!

The support staff at A2 could not have been more helpful in transferring data over, and even fixing some of my mistakes. It is a huge difference in service level.

if you are looking for a web host, I am happy to recommend them.

Home – American River

April 7, 2016 / / 0 Comments

Evening light at my home, American River in South Australia. Not a river at all, but a large tidal lagoon. The American part of the name comes from a group of American sealers and whalers who in 1803 built here what was the first ship to be constructed in South Australia; the schooner Independence.

evening

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