Yeovil has finally made the BT list of Fiber optic upgrades

Looks like Yeovil has finally made the BT list of Fiber optic upgrades possibly in 2012!
"The date on the BT Infinity Site for Yeovil is teh 31st dec 2012"

It will possibly be FTTC (Fibre to the Cabinet) which still give speeds far superior to current broadband speeds. The quoted speeds I have seen is up to 40mbs download speeds for FTTC.

Well I will believe it when it is in and working; it will be a vast improvement on my 3mbs down load if it is a good day.

BT FTTC Yeovil

Coffee Shops in Yeovil

Its a nice sunny day and can you find a coffee shop with an outside seating area where none smokers are welcome.

I am a regular in starbucks in Yeovil and like many other eating and drinking places there is no such thing an outside area for folks who would like fresh air and sun.

Any thoughts

Pedestrian Crossing on Reckleford, Yeovil part 2

Work appears to be under way, lights have gone of the poles, the buttons still appear active and people are still crossing without a care in the world.
There is no real signage to state the obvious i.e. the crossing is not working.
The pavement at the bottom end of Goldcroft is blocked off by plant and vehicles parked on the double yellow lines. From the crossing side there was not much choice take to walking in the road up Goldcroft to avoid the hazards on the pavement and take your chance with the traffic. I am sure it will only get worse.

Pedestrians are directed between the Van and the arm of digger (Mind your head).

Pedestrian Crossing on Reckleford

Pedestrian Crossing on Reckleford between Gold croft and Yeovil town centre is going to be closed in the from Monday 11th July for approximateley 3 weeks.

There is a map attached to the crossing showing a suggested alternate route. It suggests the best way to cross is use the crossing 260m down the hill!

I think folks will take their chance and cross just past the barriers adjacent to the Fire station. I certainly don’t advise that.

Not to sure how this will affect the traffic, long queues and will take for ever to get through Yeovil.
I am sure this has been planned by Somerset County Council with little thought for local residents and business.

Work has started but as yet is not affecting users of the crossing.

Steam on Preston Road Yeovil

A steam Roller having a Sunday afternoon drive down Preston Road Yeovil.

Glovers walk in Yeovil Town center - Closed

Glovers walk in Yeovil Town center still appeared to be closed this morning following incident on Sunday night.
See report on Avon and Somerset Constabulary website Link

How to make your pc go faster?

Have just heard PCgofaster.com advertised on local radio, there wasn’t much detail, I have tried the website advertised pcgofaster.com, and the page would not load.

I am intrigued to find out more as an IT pro I am always interested in these sort of sites.  My regular customers will be calling to find out more.

Have you experience of this site? Please let me know your views.

There are things which can be done at no cost to speed up a PC, Running an anti virus scan, uninstalling unwanted software, defrag your disk.

If you have vista see how much memory your pc or laptop has, make sure you have at least 1GB or even more.

Microsoft has plenty of helpful tips

Abbey Hill Steam rally, Yeovil Showground

Abbey Hill Steam rally, Yeovil Showground

The Abbey Hill Steam fair has just finished. I visited on the Sunday the first time I had been to this Steam rally.

I was expecting a steam to be the main focus; there were a range of traction engines, Lorries and other steam related items. 

My last visit to a steam rally was the Town and Country show at the Royal Showground near Kenilworth when as a teenager I was roped into stewarding.

That time of year to get tidy up the garden

That time of year to get tidy up the garden following winter. Have just purchased a few new plants to fill a few holes in the borders.

In recent years I have bought plants from the local Garden Centers in Yeovil, but a good frost and they are turned in to compost.

I have also bought a few plants from Warden Hill Farm on the Dorchester road (probably the highest point and most exposed). I guess if the plants can survive at Warden Hill then they should live in my garden. I work on the principle of as little effort as possible.

Yeovil has now got another garden centre, if you live in Yeovil and want some good plants with out the frills of a fancy garden centre try Yeovil Market.

There are some amazing private gardens around Yeovil and Somerset Council do a great job around Yeovil.

St John’s Church yard (the Beach) is a blaze of colour.

Yeovil Garden Centres

Warden Hill Farm

Help for Heroes Event - Childrens Disco and Auction

I have a work colleague who with a few other folks arranging to Sky dive in aid of Help For Heroes.

They are also arranging a "Little Soldiers Disco" and Charity auction on the 17th April 2011 at the Labour Club in Yeovil.
More information

St Michaels Tower Montacute

The folly is on the hill top behind Montacute House and the village of Monacute in Somerset.

The Tower is known as St Michael's tower, the tower is made from local Ham Stone (Guess from Ham Hill). The top of the tower is reached by a steep spiral stone stair case.

The tower is about 15 M high and 5 M in diameter,
You can easily get to the tower if visiting Monacute house, albeit a steep climb in a few places. There excellent views from the top of the hill which once formed a hill top fort. During the last year trees have been removed to preserve this historic site.

You can easily get to the tower if visiting Monacute house, albeit a steep climb in a few places. There excellent views from the top of the hill which once formed a hill top fort. During the last year trees have been removed to preserve this historic site.

If you have more time you could walk over to the top of Ham Hill and may stop for a pub lunch in the Prince of Wales.
These pictures were taken in March 2011,
 

Vodafone down in Yeovil

Vodafone down in Yeovil, not sure for how long

Just Noticed my phone is SOS only on Vodafone, (Yeovil)

There seems to be reports on Twitter about a major failure across various parts of the country not just Yeovil! Must be a single point of failure somewhere.
Yeovil Vodafone Shop Message about 28th Feb 2011 outage

Vodafone Press release:-
"We had a break in last night at one of our technical facilities which resulted in damage done to some of our equipment. This means that some customers may be experiencing temporary loss of voice, SMS and internet services.
"We are working quickly to restore these and will be back to normal as soon as we can. There has been no impact on the privacy of customers' data."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12595681

A breakin in one location can bring down most users in the South of England,

sounds a bit suspicious to me, where is their disaster plan and failover recover system?

Parcel Force Collecting Parcel Yeovil

Just had a card thru the door from Parcel Force, which states collection times from 8am. Guess what your local collection centers operate different hours from 9am – 5:30am. There must be a contract with post offices to hold parcels, shame they can’t use the sorting office in Huish which opens at sensible times and has some parking.


The collection centre is a sub post office in Huish, with no readily available parking.

At least I will be able to collect at some stage, not like City Link with the Yeovil collection point on the out skirts of Exeter.

Reckleford Traffic Lights Yeovil

When walking across the bottom of Eastlands Road with Green man showing, cars can still appear across the lights from Wyndham Street.


The junction from Wyndham Street is signed and laid out so that traffic is not allowed into Eastlands Road and cars should only go towards Yeovil hospital or Sherbourne.

There is enough space in the layout for cars to easily get across the junction in to Eastlands Road and take unsuspecting pedestrians by surprise crossing on the green man.

I am sure this will soon be resolved now it has been raised as an issue with the council.

Do you have any comments on these lights?

A film worth seeing

A film worth seeing,


For the first time in an age I was persuaded to go to the Cineworld in Yeovil. It is a while since I have been.

“The Kings Speech”, what can I say it is the best film I have seen in a long time. I normally like a film with plenty of action and special effects, none of that! It was a mix of the serious, the funny, and a history lesson.

There was a mix of ages from the young to the more senior and the cinema was packed.

About - The King's Speech - Official Site

My biggest shock was the price for the essential snack and drinks, how can a price of £2.25 for a small paper cup of standard coffee be a reasonable price? When you can get a proper drink in a real cup on the high street for less? I would suggest don't buy snacks in the cinema it could cost more than the £8 plus to see the film.

Traffic queues on Abbey Manor Park yeovil

Traffic queues on Abbey Manor

View Comments on the traffic queues on Abbey Manor Park Yeovil

See update at bottom of page, now traffic is flowing again.

I have been trying to find out why over the last couple of Months the traffic has been backing up onto Abbey Manor, Stourton Way and Western Avenue.

A journey that used to only take 15 Mins into town is now taking 45 Mins.
My theory is that becuase the “Bunford Bridge” adjacent to the Westland’s back gate is closed the traffic that used to commute into Westland’s via the bridge now has to use the Western relief road and Bunford Lane.
This is causing the traffic from the Abbey Manor Park direction to backup due to the extra traffic turning right into Bunford Lane.

I don’t know why the bridge is closed, do you know why or have a better theory?

Update 19-1-2011


The journey from Abbey Manor is back to normal, the queue has disappered.
My theory of the Bunford Bridge I think has been proven; the bridge is back in use.
I have recently found out that there was suspected structural damage and it was awaiting an inspection by engineers. I guess the inspection proved it was ok.
Not sure why it took so long I hate to think of the real cost with so many folks were stuck in their cars burning extra fuel and been stationary for so long.

Still not sure who owns the Bunford Bridge? Do you know?