Ordnance Survey Maps - Part 1

This begins my journey of understanding the GB Grid System and Ordnance Survey Maps. I fully admit to being a newbie on this subject. But hopefully I'll stumble along and find my way. :)

If you do a search for the ordnance survey maps, you'll find that you can purchase them at a number of places. Online and on-site at various parks (although the ones at the parks will normally only be the map for their area which may or may not be what you are after).

I already had the OS 28 map for Dartmoor. So I purchased the OS map for my area. Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be many letterboxes around here, so I won't get much experience with mapping out clues on it. But as it is likely to get a fair amount of use in just getting us from point A to point B, I opted for the laminated version. I suspect the laminated version of OS 28 would be quite desirable if you plan on using the clues in the Dartmoor letterbox catalogue. It appears you have to draw things out when orienting yourself to box locations. (More on this when I get to Dartmoor next time and try it out). And also the laminated version (or even a map cover will work if the the laminated version doesn't work for you) will keep from ruining your map on a rainy day.

Next, I've been searching for some online aids on using the maps. I found this to be very helpful on at least understanding the grid system: www.sutton.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/6B712C9F-1CB0-4873-9012-D0ACFECB7F92/0/map_reading_made_easy.pdf -

Now that I have a map and an understanding of the grid system, let's try to understand how letterbox clues are written and how to find them on a map. . .coming in Part 2.

Hoof and Mouth

What is this Hoof and Mouth disease? Where is it?

I was surpised to find out that the farm where the lastest outbreak took place is less than 15 miles from our house. As is the Pirbright lab where it 'escaped' from. . .yikes!

Although F&M is a highly contagious disease, it is rare in humans. Mostly it affects cows and pigs, but other hooved animals too. Besides the suffering of the animals, they usually end up being euthanized even if they survive the disease. The only way they can control it is to kill the infected animals and stop the spread. So, it seems like the Pirbright 'Institute of Animal Health' which is a leader in the study of H&M, is trying to do the right thing by developing vaccinations. But when things escape their labs, you've got to wonder. What if something escaped from Atlanta's CDC? In a major city. Ahhhhh! (Okay, I admit I've read 'The Stand').

Still I'm just finding it odd that H&M keeps popping up over here. Is it the walkers going across farmland? Why doesn't the US have outbreaks? You gotta wonder.

OT - I Hate Washing

Okay, this is another rant about my new nemisis - the washing & dryer machines. I used to have a big washing machine. A big dryer. You could put gobs of clothes in. And everything would come out just great. I mean, jeans didn't come out completely wrinkle-free, but they didn't come out looking like you had stuffed them in a bag while wet either. I tried the advice given of removing half the load before drying. Maybe it's just these machines. Maybe it's just me. But they didn't come out with much improvement.

But here, I hate washing the clothes. EVERYTHING comes looking wrinkled. As my sister in law said, "the problem with washer/dryer combo machines is that they don't seem to do either very well". Yep. That sums it up. So, I checked out new machines at the store. Oh my gosh. They are all small! All of them! No wonder things come out wrinkled. There's no room in the dryers for items to tumble. Boo. Boo. Boo.

On a further interesting note, I did go out to buy an iron. I can't recall the last time I used an iron actually. Back in the states, we took our 'good' clothes to the dry cleaners and the rest were fine at home. So, imagine my surprise when I saw the irons in the local appliance/electronic store. There must have been 25 different irons! 25! What?! In Houston, I think I would see like 5 in a store. 5. There. See. Why do people need so many irons? Because the appliances can't do the job here!! Ha.

Okay, so now I'm going to dig around the internet and see if I can find a suped up unit from the US. Then I'm going to import US appliances for UK consumers. Then I'm going to start up a rubbish pickup service where they pick up ALL your trash. And then. . .and then. . .

Oh what the heck. You gotta take the bad with the good sometime. :)

Wiltshire County - Stonehenge

Since school and work start up next week, we took a day off to drive out to Stonehenge. We're on the Surrey Hampshire border and it's just past the Hampshire Wiltshire border. So a drive west across the whole of Hampshire. Nice countryside. All farmland. Took about an hour. I kept my eye out for any crop circles, but didn't see any. :) I had to laugh when Stonehenge came into view. It looked some tall stones in a middle of a field surrounded by sheep. And people. And tour buses.

We had an enjoyable time. Always great to get out in the countryside for a walk. Lots of people were wandering around the fields and sitting out with their lunches. It was all quite interesting. I ended up joining the English Heritage society. It nearly paid for itself on this visit with the admissions and car park.

Luckily, I was able to find some of my letterboxing stuff amongst our wall of boxes. I had a little Stonehenge stamp I had carved some time ago but had never placed. So, it was taken and placed today. I usually try to do a title page for my logbooks and a FF certif, but we had our first blow out on a US to UK appliance. I put the converter on the printer and it started up and reset itself. Then suddenly, white smoke starts billowing out. Yikes. Thankfully it was old and inexpensive, so not a major loss. Inconvenient though.

England Football

Mr. TeamKing gets the call up today for the England Squad. (He wishes!) He loved meeting John Terry - courtesy of his brother's company 'King of Shaves'. Guess we'll be seeing some Chelsea games this season. :0

Adjustments

Since we haven't been out letterboxing yet, thought I'd make some notes on lifestyle changes. As a general rule, it really is quite surprising that the UK and US have a great deal in common. Obviously a lot of the specific systems differ. That was to be expected. Some for the better, some for the worse. But, all in all, it's a similar world.

That being said, these are the things that stand out. . .

-washer/dryer combo units (this is just such a bizarre concept that I'm not sure what to say - they're small and I've yet to figure out how to get clothes dried without them coming out wrinkled beyond belief. my domestic skills are looking bad.)

-hot and cold taps switched (instead of hot on left, cold on right in the US, it is opposite here - at least in our rental house. I keep burning myself and it's really annoying.)

-no mail pickup (the good part is that our mail delivers by 10AM. didn't even know mail COULD be delivered that early. the bad part is that they don't take outgoing mail. hence, you see the red mail boxes for pickup everywhere.)

-no extra trash pickup (maybe it's just our family, but we seem to create tons of trash every week. unfortunately, the 'rubbish' is only picked up one day every other week and then they only take the one standard trash bin. if you have more, you're out of luck. our chore this week is to find the landfill asap.)

-no pay at the pump gas (if you have young kids, this is really a drag. now I have to get them out of car seats, wait in line to pay, then back into car seats. boo.)

-military time (we bought a digital clock when we got here. imagine our surprise when we realized it was in what I've always called military time. 24hr time. I struggle looking at a clock that says 21:00 - what time is that, stop, figure it out. . .9pm. boo. I find myself using the analog clock and my watch in the afternoons and evenings.)

-TV license (did you know you have to have a license to have a TV in the UK?!)

I guess those are the most annoying things right now. I'll have to amend my list as time goes on. A few years from now I'll probably look back and laugh that these things bothered me at all! :)

Crashdown England!

We're here, we're here! Finally, all moved and settling in. Weather was great at the beginning of August. Then rainy for the last week or more. But beautiful this weekend. In between getting things sorted out, we found time to visit nearby Devils Punchbowl - awash in late summer purple heather, and then a trip to Suffolk county visiting family. I've been scouting out locations and ideas for letterboxes. So many places! And I ordered a new Garmin gps since my old one keeps cutting out in even the slightest of bushes. Looks like a fair amount of geocaches around here, but a bit lacking on the letterboxes.



Couple notes on things past. . .

A HUGE THANKS to the Georeynosos and the Popeteers for honoring me at their last geocache event in Houston! What fun to see the NW Houston crowd and a few of the other 'famous'? Houston cachers. I sure hope we can find an equally awesome group of people over here. Thanks guys! I'll miss caching with you. :(

A big Happy Birthday to boxing buddy Dewberry! Is she telling how many???

And finally another big thanks to my plb friends (you know who you are!) for the great birthday gifts! I had to hide them away from the younger TeamKing members who were quite interested. I'm going to miss doing postal letterboxing. Perhaps something will get started over here where we can pass some boxes around the country this winter. Wink wink. Nudge nudge.