An Australian Summer

TODAY'S EDITION OF 'FOX TOWER is all about Summer. Yes Summer is here at last! Well, at least if you're in the Southern Hemisphere, it is. Three - sorry, four - people enjoying the Summer in Sydney, Australia, are my feature today.

First is Mella, featured in the photograph on the left, in her role as the Prom Queen. Mella is a citizen of Sydney, a city she loves, as you will find in her MySpace webpage, which you can visit here.

Second is Miss Stine Slettemark, who is living in Sydney whilst she is studying a Tourism course at college in the city. Stine has her home in Oslo, Norway, a city which takes on a much different appearance to Sydney at this time of year, a fact not lost by Stine, as her blog on her Windows Live Space shows. Visit Miss Slettemark's webpage by clicking here.

Greetings to my cousin, Sarah Cowin and her partner Dave, who are also in Sydney. They have travelled from the cold, wet, UK, to Sydney, where, in a letter home recently, Sarah also found the summer weather a shock to the system, saying she kind of missed the cold and rain which is constant here in the UK at this time of year!! Sarah & Dave report they have secured accommodation and employment, close to the harbour, with views of the World-famous Opera House. After their stint in Sydney, Sarah & Dave plan to travel to Perth, Western Australia, but that is in the near future. This is Sarah's second visit to Australia, her previous visit was a decade ago, December 1996. How time passes...!

Wallpaper Of The Week

TODAY'S WALLPAPER is a photograph I took on the evening of April 10th 2006, as the Northern Rail evening service was passing Garsdale, heading north to Kirkby Stephen. Enjoy...

And Finally... An Eventful 2006...

Missed the chaos? Fat chance!

TRAFFIC was brought to a standstill after a wagon spilled cooking oil all over the road.

The lorry was driving along Marina Way, in Hartlepool, when its side door suddenly opened, causing several barrels to fall into the road. Traffic chaos quickly followed and at least two accidents were caused by cars skidding on the oil. The lorry driver, who did not wish to be named, said: “It’s just an accident. I didn’t mean for it to happen. “The clip on the side door has broken off, so the side door came up. “The first right hand turn I took, the barrels tipped out, and when I looked in my side mirror I could just see them coming out.” The driver of the Eden Valley Oils wagon was turning right into Middleton Road when the barrels full of used cooking oil spilled out. Two fire engines attended the scene at around 1.15pm yesterday and firefighters closed the road and worked to remove the oil. Watch manager at Stranton Fire Station Barry Waites said: “I believe there were a couple of minor bumps as a result. “Our job was to remove the oil from the road surface. “We use something called elcef fibres and we brush them into the road. It’s also used in petrol spillages as well. “We also used two tonnes of sand from the council.” The affected area was temporarily made a 20mph speed limit zone in a bid to prevent any further accidents. Buses, meanwhile, were diverted along Lancaster Road and Clarence Road.

16 November 2006, The Hartlepool Mail.
Nobody was hurt, so at least those of us in the know (no names!) can raise a smile, I guess...

If you would like to leave a comment, please do so below, or to take the opportunity to E-Mail me, click here.

Finally, finally, may I take this opportunity to wish you a Happy New Year and say if you make a wish this New Year, I hope your wish comes true!

God Save The Queen

1. God save our gracious Queen,

Long live our noble Queen,

God save the Queen!

Send her victorious,

Happy and glorious,

Long to reign over us;

God save the Queen!

2. O Lord our God arise,

Scatter her enemies

And make them fall;

Confound their politics,

Frustrate their knavish tricks,

On Thee our hopes we fix,

God save us all!

3. Thy choicest gifts in store

On her be pleased to pour;

Long may she reign;

May she defend our laws,

And ever give us cause

To sing with heart and voice,

God save the Queen!

4. Not in this land alone,

But be God's mercies known,

From shore to shore!

Lord make the nations see,

That men should brothers be,

And form one family,

The wide world over.

5. From every latent foe,

From the assassins blow,

God save the Queen!

O'er her thine arm extend,

For Britain's sake defend,

Our mother, prince, and friend,

God save the Queen!

6. Lord grant that Marshal Wade

May by thy mighty aid

Victory bring.

May he sedition hush,

And like a torrent rush,

Rebellious Scots to crush.

God save the King!

Want to go Digital? Play the game...

I MAY HAVE POSTED this before, but the boffins at BBC Research & Development have come up with a game, in which your challenge is to switch all the analogue main TV stations [transmitters] to digital. Do have a go, it's great fun (well, for a media anorak like I am, I think so).

To Download and play the Switchover Challenge Game, click here.

For the Game Instructions, click here.

Do let me know how you get on, leave a comment at the bottom of this post or email me.

A Cumbrian At Christmas


LAST CHRISTMAS was the first posting of 'A Cumbrian At Christmas', in which Reporting From The Fox Tower featured the Cumbrian television actress Roxanne Pallett (You can find the post in the archives, December 2005).

This year, Reporting From The Fox Tower would like to present Cumbrian singer Amanda Tinkler.

Amanda began singing at events around the Eden area, before applying to compete on the television programme 'Stars In Their Eyes : Kids 2002'. Amanda took part in the show, singing "I'm Like A Bird" by Nelly Furtado. The other contestants on the show that day (September 2002) were performing songs by Annie Oakley, Richie Valens, Charlotte Church and Lulu. A vote taken by the studio audience saw Amanda come out on top, winning her a place in the programme Final, which went on air November 2002. All the contestants had a video of support from their friends aired on the show prior to their performance, Amanda's video featured her friends Lesley Davidson and Stephanie Guy.

In the 'Stars In Their Eyes : Kids Live Final 2002', Amanda once again performed as Nelly Furtado, competing against performers singing songs by Donny Osmond, Irene Cara, Eva Cassidy, Millie and Robbie Williams. The competition was open to a public vote, which saw Amanda receive 55 638 votes, placing her fourth in the final results. The final was won by Charlotte Gethin, of Staffordshire, performing as Eva Cassidy singing"Over The Rainbow", for which she received 282 422 votes.

Following her appearances on television, Amanda's bookings for performances began to rise, which included her appearing at events as diverse at the Carlisle Sands Centre Senior Citizens Christmas Party and the switching on of the Christmas lights in Kirkby Stephen, both 2002. In 2004 Amanda appeared on the bill at the inaugural 'Pop2ThePark', an all-day music concert at Bitts Park, Carlisle (featured picture).

Most recently, Amanda has performed at the 2005 Whitehaven Maritime Festival and in 2006 featured on the panel of judges for a talent search sponsored by Eddie Stobart, called 'The Stobart Factor'. Amanda's performance highlight of 2006 was when she was on the bill for an inaugural music concert at Brunton Park, Carlisle, sharing the stage with Lulu and Tony Christie at 'Party On The Pitch'.

Wallpaper of the week

Another inauguration for Reporting From The Fox Tower: I'd like to share with you some of my favourite photography, which makes wonderful desktop wallpaper.

I hope you like the following image of Cardiff, a photograph I took April 2006. If you would like to use the image as wallpaper, click on the image below, which will open up to a full size image, save on your computer and then post as your wallpaper. Enjoy!

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas, have a good one!

711kHz - 837kHz December Medium Wave Round Up

ON SATURDAY 2nd DECEMBER, I spent the late afternoon and evening listening to the Medium Wave band on my Roberts R881 radio, here are the results:

711 kHz 1645 GMT : France - Rennes transmitter, France Info / France Bleu.

720 kHz 1657 GMT : BBC Radio 4 via Lisnagarvey transmitter, Northern Ireland. On the air: 'Weekend Woman's Hour'. Programme webpage - Click here.

729 kHz 1709 GMT : RTE Radio 1 via Cork transmitter, Ireland. RTE webpage - Click here.

738 kHz 1720 GMT : RNE 1 via Barcelona transmitter, Spain. Listen Live to RNE 1 by clicking here. Saturday night is best - Live La Liga football!

747 kHz 1735 GMT : Radio 5 (ex- Radio 747 AM) via Flevoland transmitter, Holland. Webpage - Click here.

756 kHz 1746 GMT : BBC Radio Cumbria via Carlisle transmitter. On the air: 'Saturday Sport'. Webpage - Click here.

756 kHz 1828 GMT : Deutschlandfunk (DLF), Germany. Coverage of the Bundesliga (football). Webpage - Click here.

765 kHz 1953 GMT : Option Musique via Sottens transmitter, Switzerland. Webpage - Click here.

774 kHz 2006 GMT : RNE 1, Spain.

783 kHz 2021 GMT : Radio Mirimar via Barcelona transmitter, Spain. Information webpage - Click here.

783 kHz 2031 GMT : MDR Info via Leipzig transmitter, Germany. Webpage - Click here.

792 kHz 2045 GMT : France Info via Limoges transmitter, France. Webpage - Click here.

792 kHz 2057 GMT : BBC Radio Foyle via Londonderry transmitter, Northern Ireland. Webpage - Click here.

801 kHz 2110 GMT : Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR, Bayern) via Munich transmitter, Germany. Webpage - Click here.

801 kHz 2122 GMT : BBC Radio Devon via Barnstaple transmitter. On the air: David Lowe 'As Time Goes By'. David Lowe webpage - Click here.

801 kHz 2220 GMT : RNE 1, Spain.

810 kHz 2230 GMT : BBC Radio Scotland via Burghead / Westerglen transmitter. Webpage - Click here.

837 kHz 2252 GMT : BBC Radio Cumbria via Barrow in Furness transmitter. On the air: John Caine 'The Rock Show'. John Caine webpage - Click here.

837 kHz 2305 GMT : France Info via Nancy transmitter, France.

Well that's all the radio had to offer on that day, I hope you find it of interest. If so, please leave a comment below, or email me.

Cheers!

Peoples Millions Result!

VIEWERS OF ITV BORDER will have seen the appeal for the Brough Community Fund on 'Lookaround' during the evening of Wednesday 15 November 2006, with the result on Thursday 16th.

I'm pleased to say the Brough Community Fund raised a higher number of votes than the opposing project, a footpath in Brampton. During the day of Thursday 16th, Tim Backshall of ITV Border travelled to Brough to present a cheque for £50 000 to Keren Jane Steadman, Secretary of the Brough Community Fund Committee, and Edward "Chris" Christopher, Chairman, at a packed Brough County Primary School. Well done to all concerned!

The Ashes are GO

THE WINTER 2006 - 07 Ashes series has begun. If I tried to record all the events here, it would definately take a while. Take a look at both sides of the fence, visiting Cricket Australia and England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) by clicking the links provided.

Radio Roundup: November 2006

Shortwave Band:

WWV, Boulder, Colorado, USA. Click here for Time Signal station WWV online. This link plays an audio sample, requires QuickTime Player.

Radio Slovakia International, Bratislava, Slovakia (Central Europe). Click here for Slovak Radio online. Takes you to an intro page, choose English from the toolbar.

China Radio International, Beijing, China. Click here for China Radio International in English language. May ask you to install language packs for simplified Chinese, which I will leave to your own discretion, at your own risk, I accept no responsibility for difficulties thereafter.

Radio Bulgaria, Sofia, Bulgaria. Click here for Radio Bulgaria in English language.

BBC World Service, London, United Kingdom. Click here for the BBC World Service homepage.

"And that concludes this edition of Reporting From The Fox Tower, until next time, goodbye!"

Please Call and Vote!

'06 - '07 : The Season So Far . . . Part 1

WELCOME to The Season So Far - This is where you can keep up to date with the results of Carlisle United Football Club in Coca-Cola League One this season! Here are the results of the first third of the season : August - October 2006. The layout is as follows:

Month/Date - Teams - Result (corresponds with teams) - (Goal Scorer surname) for Carlisle United :

August:

Sat 5th - United v Doncaster Rovers - 1-0 (Paul Murray)

Wed 9th - Chesterfield v United - 0-0

Sat 12th - Yeovil Town v United - 2-1 (Kevin Gall)

Sat 19th - United v Leyton Orient - 3-1 (Gall x2, Karl Hawley)

Tue 22nd - Carling Cup Round One : United v Bradford City - 1-1 (Derek Holmes) - AET: United win 4-3 penalties.

Sun 27th - Oldham Athletic v United - 0-0

September

Sun 3rd - United v Cheltenham Town - 2-0 (Hawley, Gall)

Sat 9th - United v Northampton Town - 1-1 (Hawley)

Tue 12th - Bradford City v United - 1-1 (Chris Lumsdon)

Sat 16th - Nottingham Forest v United - 0-0

Tue 19th - Carling Cup Round Two : Charlton Athletic v United - 1-0

Sat 23rd - United v Brighton & Hove Albion - 3-1 (Hawley, Kevin Gray, Simon Hackney)

Tue 26th - United v Blackpool - 2-0 (Lumsdon, Hawley)

Sat 30th - Crewe Alexandra v United - 5-1 (Hawley)

October

Sat 7th - United v Millwall - 1-2 (Jermaine Beckford)

Sat 14th - Huddersfield Town v United - 2-1 (Hackney)

Tue 17th - Johnstone's Paint Trophy Round One : Accrington Stanley v United - 1-1 (Holmes) - AET: Stanley win 3-1 penalties.

Sat 21st - United v Tranmere Rovers - 1-0 (Gall)

Sat 28th - Gillingham v United - 2-0.

The picture shows United defender Danny Livesey at the Championship presentation night, Brunton Park, May 6th, 2006.

C'mon ye Blues!

Happy Hallowe'en 2006 . . . ?

"TRICK or treat, Mister?!"

"EH? Who the fook are you? Fook off!"

Lombard Rally 2006

THE LOMBARD RALLY 2006 passed through Brough this weekend, so I thought I'd place a couple of pictures taken today to mark the Rally:

The above picture shows a group of cars in Brough late morning as they were on a 'time-out' stage of the rally, the official website of the Lombard Rally 2006 is here.

To prove that rallies are also contested by Ladies, here is the car driven by Becky Kirvan and Amanda Cornforth:


Well, that's all the motoring news for now, happy driving!

One Year On

WELCOME TO the latest instalment of Reporting From The Fox Tower, this edition marks the first anniversary of this journal which passed earlier this month, I hope you will continue to read.

A Friend In France

MAY I introduce my friend Cindy De Delley, who resides in the beautiful city of Nice, in the south of France.

Cindy enjoys travelling, which is part of her employment, Cindy is currently in Colombia, Latin America. Cindy told me Colombia is a nice country, very warm at this time of year, very relaxed people.

Cindy has an online journal which you can access here, in which Cindy tells of her experiences. Please note Cindy's journal is in the French language, which I hope will help with language skills.

Radio Round-up : October '06

RECENTLY I'VE had a spot of bother with my radio, I had a difficulty with which it would not function fully, thankfully I seem to have overcome the problem and I listened to a few broadcasters on the Medium Wave band, which are as follows:

BBC Radio York on 666 kHz (Click here for the BBC York website),
Arrow Classic Rock of The Netherlands on 675 kHz (Click here for the Arrow website),
RNE 1 of Spain on 684 kHz (Click here for the RNE website),
BBC Radio Five Live on 693 kHz (Have your say on the Five Live Message Board here)
and finally for this lot: France Bleu on 711 kHz (click here for the France Bleu website)

Regarding the above websites, the RNE (Radio Nacional Espana) site is in the Spanish language, whilst the France Bleu site is in the French language. I hope you enjoy the links provided!

And Finally . . . Local Link of the Day

A NEW FEATURE is that during my posts I shall try to include at least one link to a website based in the Eden Valley area. For your Spiritual needs, I provide a link to the Brough & Stainmore Parish Churches webpage, which you can visit here. I hope you enjoy the site and I hope to provide another 'Local Link of the Day' in my next post.

Have a cheerful weekend, see you again soon.

Radio Round-up: April - September 2006

HERE is what I have been listening to this summer:

April 2006: MediumWave
1314 kHz - NRK Euuropakanalen, Norway (English website)
1341 kHz - BBC Radio Ulster, Belfast (website)
1368 kHz - Manx Radio, Isle of Man (website)
1377 kHz - France Info (French website)
1422 kHz - Deutschlandfunk, Germany (German website)

May 2006: ShortWave
15400 kHz - BBC World Service (website)
17490 kHz - China Radio International (English website)

June 2006: MediumWave
1413 kHz - Fresh Radio, North Yorkshire (website)
1458 kHz - BBC Radio Newcastle (Tyne, website)
1485 kHz - BBC Radio 4, Carlisle transmitter (website)
1557 kHz - BBC Radio Lancashire (website)

June 2006: ShortWave - Radio Nederlands, Holland (Dutch website)

July 2006: ShortWave
3955 kHz - WYFR, Family Radio, USA (website)
3965 kHz - Radio Taiwan International (English website)
3975 kHz - Radio Budapest, Hungary (English website)

August 2006: MediumWave
567 kHz - RTE Radio 1, Republic of Ireland (Radio 1 website, Worldwide website)
585 kHz - BBC Radio Scotland (website)
603 kHz - BBC Radio 4, Tyneside transmitter (Radio 4 Message Board)
621 kHz - RTBF1, Belgium (website)
639 kHz - Czech Radio 2 (Praha / Prague website) (English website)
639 kHz - R N E 1, Spain (Spanish website)
648 kHz - BBC World Service (Listen LIVE to BBC)
666 kHz - BBC Radio York (website)

September 2006: Shortwave
3975 kHz - Radio Budapest (Hungarian website)
5000 kHz - W W V, Time Signal Station, USA (website)

Follow the links to the websites and enjoy!

Announcements

Happy Birthday, Freddie ...

Today marks what would have been Freddie Mercury's 60th Birthday.
"Lover of life, Singer of songs"

Steve Irwin, 1962 - 2006

Flambuoyant Australian television personality and expert of all things animal died today following an accident involving a Stingray.
"It's alright, mate, it's alright..."

On to lighter matters ... A return of 'World Of Blog'

Welcome to the world of Punished Angel, the MySpace site of my friend Sarah Smith, pictured above. Look in, log in, have fun!
And Finally...
Coming soon - More from 'Visit Cumbria in 2006', but until then, take care and be good!

Autumn 2006

SEPTEMBER 1st has arrived, and so 'Autumn' has arrived . . . but fear not, it is still time to take a 'late summer' break and Visit Cumbria in 2006!

I know I did mention a project I was going to undertake this summer called 'Visit Cumbria in 2006', but sadly my plans went AWOL and I didn't get anything 'off the ground', so to speak.

I'm starting with Visit Eden, the area in which I live, and you can visit the Visit Eden website by clicking here. Hope you enjoy the site and will plan to visit Eden, which looks great at any time of year, not just the summer.

Summer 2006 : Celeb Tourist Shocker!

THE picture above shows teenage soul singer Joss Stone foregoing the usual overseas climate for a celebrity holiday, choosing to take a dip in the sea off the Cumbrian coast, somewhere along the Allonby Bay coastline. Obviously, the singer's security and wellbeing is paramount, so when and where the picture was taken is a closely guarded secret, only leaked to me by one of the tabloid papers (the picture that is, not the secret). As you can tell by the expression on young Joss' face, maybe the water off the Cumbrian coast was, to say the least, a little chilly this summer.

So there you go, you wait ages for a post and - bang! - celebrities spotted in our fair county! Always first with the hot gossip, here at RFTFT . . . *

* Some of the 'Summer 2006 : Celeb Tourist Shocker!' story may not be true. All right then, none of it is true, but hey, nice picture!

Be careful . . .

G'Day, Stine!

GOOD LUCK to my friend Stine Slettemark of Oslo, Norway, who will soon be departing Scandinavia for Sydney, Australia, to begin a course studying Tourism, which is scheduled to run for three years. Stine has a 'Windows Live Space' (formerly known as an MSN Space) which I have linked to here. I'm sure Stine will update her page with how life is in Australia in due course, but for now join me in sending Stine good wishes and 'Bon Voyage'!

A Classic

I will leave you to make up your own jokes for this one...

More showbiz news!

FOLLOWING on from the post celebrating Zac & Kate's marriage, Reporting From The Fox Tower brings news of more recent celebrity nuptuals!
Saturday 15 July 2006 set the date for the marriage of Canadian couple Deryck Whibley and Avril Lavigne, who are both successful musicians on the rock scene, Whibley is a guitarist with the band Sum 41, whilst Lavigne is a successful solo artist (backed by a band) who has had hits in the singles and album charts for over three years now.
The same date saw the celebration of the marriage of, as the tabloid newspapers called them, 'Ash & Chezza' - Ashley Cole and Cheryl Tweedy. Cole plays football for England, and Arsenal / Chelsea / Arsenal / Chelsea, or whoever, until he makes his mind up. Tweedy is a singer (I think) with the reality TV show created 'vocal group' Girls Aloud, who have been successful in the charts for a while now. Tweedy is also famous for being a Geordie and fighting in pubs. Nice.
More recently, one of 'Ant' and 'Dec' got married too, I guess you may have seen the pictures in the good old tabloid news outlets.

Well I guess that is all for now, oh, hang on, almost forgot -


Phew! Nearly missed that one out. That's better, that will do for now.
As Nick Ross says, "Sleep well, don't have nightmares" . . .

Brough Pram Race, Friday 21 July 2006

SATURDAY'S post of a photograph of a man in a dress is the first of a selection taken at the Brough Pram Race, Main Street, Friday 21 July 2006.
The photograph above is the '118' team, Claire (seated) & Holly (doing the running), who were 'would be' winners, had they not cut short the course to return early, crossing the line first, only to find they had been disqualified.
Saturday's picture features Steve on the right (in the dress), who was half of the 'Sheila's Wheels' team, who were third in the race. So what is the Pram Race? First of all, the 'pram' is a child's pram, wheelbarrow, shopping trolley, wheelchair, cart, etc in which one person sits and the other pushes. A course is set on Brough Main Street which includes drinking stops, where the teams drink half a pint of lager before continuing on the course. May I point out this is an annual event, so you have plenty of time to prepare for the next Pram Race in 2007. More pictures of this year's event soon. Be afraid, be very afraid... ;D

One Day, This Could Be You...

Hello again

I HAVE been rather lazy regarding this page quite recently, so I'm popping by to say Hello and that I will write an article of interest soon... and that's about it for now! I don't think I need tell you how the football or the tennis went this summer, or how the cricket is going at present.

Until then, I shall leave you with a picture relating to my previous post regarding Wimbledon 2006, showing Miss Sharapova at her best, I think.

Until the next time, take care and be good!

If you're sick of football...

WHAT A thing to say! As if anyone could be sick of football, what with the World Cup on 24 hours a day, the fixtures for next season already doing the rounds...

I guess you see my point. For those who don't worship that certain round ball game, you do have salvation this summer. Hoping the weather will hold for some decent cricket this summer, be it the village game (all those simmering rivalries and the like), the county cricket scene or the Test Match Special variety, that the leather on willow game will be entertaining this season, even if the highest level do have alot to live up to (Small matter of the Ashes to play for once again later this year).

Also the time has come for Wimbledon, which begins at the All England Lawn And Tennis Club (SW19, isn't it?) this coming Monday, 26th June. Can Henman, Rusedski or Murray bring home (so to speak) the big prize in the men's game? Messrs Federer, Nadal, Roddick et al will no doubt have their own plans for the tournament. As for the Ladies' tournament, Venus Williams will be looking to retain her Rose Plate (I think that is the description for the top prize in the Ladies' game), whilst Maria Sharapova (pictured above) will be looking to repeat her triumph of 2004. Best of luck to all involved, whatever your game.