See ya Ceefax

Who among us is old enough to remember when British television was ruled by a squeaky gofer in a broom cupboard, Les Dawson chortling through the blanks and Blue Peter's random assortment of tropical pets?

If you can remember all that, then chances are you'll remember the time when a good Saturday night involved a chuppa chup lolly and a flick through the pages of the legendary BBC service Ceefax.

And if that memory's within your grasp then this week will be a sad one. For it's time to finally wave goodbye to good old Ceefax. The final sweep of analogue television signals across the UK will be complete this week when Northern Ireland go digital and their analogue television signal is turned off for good.

Ceefax was first transmitted by the BBC in 1974, and offered a whole host of useful, and useless, information from news headlines to lottery numbers to chess highlights. In 1993 ITV and Channel 4 released their rival service Teletext service, but this was closed in 2009.

These days, the big Red Button has replaced the idea of Ceefax on all digital BBC channels, but somehow it's just not the same!!
 

You can reminisce about the good old days of Ceefax with the BBC's brilliant journey back through time - click here

Bye bye Ceefax, didn't we have a ball....

Soggy Camping

Sadly, the weather was against me last week when I spent a very soggy week camping near the pretty town of Aberaeron on the Welsh Coast.

 

It was a week of rain, wind, snotty noses and soggy wellies, not to mention lots of walks along the coast path as I had lots of research to do for an upcoming publication. I don't like to think of myself as a fair-weather camper, but I came close to throwing in the soggy towel once or twice!

 

But, one thing the stormy, and unpredictable, skies were good for was beautiful sunsets, like this one by the campsite.

 

 

 

 

I absolutely love this part of Wales, and even in the rainy, soggy weather, I think it still looked fabulous. More photos of the adventure to follow soon!

 

 

OWPG

Earlier this summer I was thrilled to be accepted as a member of the Outdoor Writers & Photograhpers Guild. Formed over 30 years ago, it's a fine collection of photographers, writers, journalists, artists, designers, copy-writers and more who all have the great outdoors in common.

 

It's a great organisation that helps to promote the work of its members, the importance of sustainability in the outdoors and a social and networking community. I'm very much looking forward to the annual meeting in Jersey this month. There's a great line up of events planned, so here's hoping for some sunshine!

 

You can read more about the work of the guild on their website here http://www.owpg.org.uk/