Smoking converters!

Woken at 8am, it did feel a bit like the middle of the night but the sun streaming through the window quickly made it seem like the real morning. Mid-morning there was a near disaster with the voltage converter. I had charged the laptop with it successfully on the first evening, but had noticed some evidence of overheating in the converter so I set my watch alarm for one hour when I tried to charge it again. After 15 minutes we heard a strange hissing followed by a definite "pop". Rushing through from the next room I discovered the converter smoking! To cut a long story short, the converter was fried, but the laptop fortunately was unharmed. My sister took me into Leeds and we managed to find a way to plug my Mac's power adaptor into a British socket for 4 quid. Otherwise had a quiet day, finishing with a 45 minute return to see the bluebells one last time and a long and successful Skype showing the family in the US around the garden.

Over the pond

Left Boston for Newark around 5:30 yesterday evening (ash was blown north of the UK a day earlier, opening all the airports again), then spent an uncomfortable night on Continental flight 100 to Manchester. No sleep, but no delays and after a train ride across the Pennines and a lift from the station from my older sister I made it to mum's house by around 2:30 this afternoon. Feeling pretty good, so we went for a local walk through Hetchell Woods and were amazed by the bluebells. Forecast for the first three days of digging is now sun, cloud, light rain, so looking pretty good. Time for some much needed sleep and will try to get up at 8am...

Ash moving in, temporarily?

A news report just came out on the BBC website, saying winds over the Atlantic are expected to push the ash cloud over parts of the UK from Sunday to Tuesday, closing some airports again. The UK Met office will now be publishing 5-day predictions of ash cloud movement, so that's another site to monitor. Fortunately, the current prediction is for a strong south easterly wind from midweek, which would push the ash well north of Britain. Until I actually land in Manchester on Thursday morning there will be no guarantees.

Football injury

Preparations for the trip all seem to be in place, but a deep thigh bruise picked up in a soccer game last weekend is causing me some serious discomfort, six days later. Half of my right thigh is various shades of purple, yellow and green after a deliberate late tackle by a Brimfield defender. Hopefully the remaining week will see the muscle stiffness dissipate, because if the digging started now it would be next to impossible. The silver lining is that I get to watch the Monaco Grand Prix first thing tomorrow morning; no more football for me until after Vindolanda.

Volcano watching

Just 10 days to go now before I leave. Getting excited to see family, and start digging, but the volcano-that-appears-to-have-no-name-judging-by-news-reports, Eyjafjallajoekull, remains literally a dark cloud on the horizon. The eruption is not as violent as it was when it first erupted back in mid-April, but if the wind is in the wrong direction it's still closing airports. Keeping a daily watch on the Icelandic Met Office website, which has a page giving all the latest info in English; hopefully I'll be lucky...