Banbury long stay moorings

Or it seems that way. Because it’s a little bit out of town it’s a little less popular and people tend to squeeze and extra week or so out of it. I like it. And that’s what important.

In the winter it can be very muddy. It’s not winter anymore. Today is set to be the hottest May day ever, so not much mud.

It’s a nice spot. The reservoir is over the field at the back. It’s about a mile to walk around the perimeter. If I fancy a walk during the day, I go over there.

The devil will find work

For idle hands to do. I haven’t. Found work that is. There’s been at least 3 instances where I’ve been offered paid work after an interview, then the people haven’t got back to me. I’ve got to assume this is normal, as it has been in the past.

I’ve had to find alternative areas of pursuit to spend my day. I don’t have to claim JSA anymore. That only lasts 6 months. The government means test and currently I have too much savings to be eligible for any help. At all. It just means I don’t have to apply for dead end jobs I don’t really want to do. That used to take some time, but was fruitless, in the end.

I’ve been programming an offshoot of my site using AI, namely (Gemini and Claude Code). The level of knowledge and expertise at your fingertips is undoubtedly game changing from a programming perspective. I’ve been programming in PHP, HTML, CSS and Javascript. Previously, I’ve worked with all but Javascript which I found to be complex and unwieldy to the eye. The level of complexity is way in excess of what I’ve been able to program myself in the past and simply has the effect of making sites seem intuitive, light and functional.

There are some caveats: AI isn’t always correct. There have been numerous times where it’s removed hours, even days worth of code in the name of making a page render, or ‘work’. It continuously forgets what tasks it’s performed in the past on your behalf.

Sometimes, AI just flat gets it wrong and starts looping through the incorrect set of conclusions over and over again. That’s why I use 2, Gemini and Claude Code. Claude Code is possibly a bit better, but has certain drawbacks like a very stingy usage limit for non-paying customers.

Programming AI is a little like teaching, if it doesn’t understand what you’re saying, you need to give it the same information but phrased in a different way. A way it can understand. Phrasing and re-phrasing until it comes up with the correct answer.

Perhaps you can have a look at a preliminary program I’ve made.

It’s for a tablet game I play called Forge of Empires.

If you play this game you’ve be familiar with the concept, pretty meaningless if you don’t. It runs on a database and some very simple queries that run to parse a page uploaded by a user.

I actually need to do some re-jigging of my environment, (in-game), and whilst I’m on the dole, I’ve decided to build an AI tool to do it for me.

Once it’s up and running, I’ll post it on here and you can have a look at it.

I enjoy programming. It takes patience, attention to detail, creativity, plus it gives a great sense of achievement – when you get things working!

Boat moving

Between Cropredy and Banbury.

Some nice person has left some knitwear on the locks.

3 Lots of knitwear, A daisy, a plum and what looked like some grapes, (difficult to see, the sticker was in the way). They are free. Not sure how much interest there was. The boats that had gone before me had turned up their noses and I personally don’t need a key-fob. Still, it seemed quite novel and worthy of comment.

Little Bourton lock house

Now appears to be occupied.

What you can’t see is that they’ve created a little pathway and garden on the opposite side of the Lock.

There’s no access to this building. You have to walk around 1/2 a mile from the nearest vehicular access, Chapel Lane in Little Bourton.

I guess that’s why for the last 5 years or so, it’s been derelict.

There’s someone in now, and they’re doing the place up.

Cotswold Cyclist

You can’t avoid the hills, you have to work with them.

The weather has improved markedly. The last two weekends I’ve been around the borderlands.

It’s a 25 mile loop around Banbury and the countryside is pretty amazing.

Once you get off the main road, the air is very fresh and clean.

Very refreshing, and 25 miles ain’t too far. More of a sprint really.

Pam’s Funeral

Mum’s neighbor and friend Pam passed away. I attended. I always enjoyed Pam’s company, she was an elegant person and always fun to be with.

The church was on the side of the hill looking down on Sandon Estate, where they have the ‘Point-to-Point’.

You’ve got to take what you can from situations, even when things may not be all fine and dandy.

Until next time.