Christian Mayne

Blog

Charity Shop Madness

Now that every last classic album has been rinsed from the charity shop racks, there's nothing left to do but to crank the prices up on a few lesser known modern classics. Who is advising the shops of the value of - or even market for - these records is beyond me. Here's some absolutely insane record pricing spotted in the charity shops of Plymouth recently. Fucked 12" copy of B list disco hit: A Fiver Routinely used as an envelope 'stifferner' when sending more expensive ...
Visiting Broadhempston

Visiting Broadhempston

Today I took a drive out to Broadhempston, a small village in the South Hams near Totnes. The main purpose of my visit was to see if I could locate the grave of my Great Great Great Grandfather James Elliott (1780 - 1857) who was recorded as being buried in the churchyard of St Peter and St Paul. Broadhempston really does appear to be in the middle-of-nowhere, approached (according to my satnav, anyway) by miles and miles of single track roads with no passing places. A very attractive ...

Death of Queen Elizabeth II

https://youtu.be/owp8rksdWrA We anticipated it was coming so had the laptop on standby whilst having dinner. This is the news report as it was broadcast live on BBC News at 18:30 on 8th September 2022
Peli iM2075 Concertina Hard Case

Peli iM2075 Concertina Hard Case

I've been looking for a workhorse case for my Concertina. The original refurbished Victorian jug case feels too nice to drag around pubs and already I can feel it's taking the strain. It's quite hard to find a decent quality and durable concertina hard case- most available from the popular folk music stores are lightweight covered chipboard efforts which don't feel quite up to the job. I tool receipt of a Peli iM2075 Storm Case today which I'd seen recommended elsewhere as a decent ...
Bongo Camping Trip 0.2 – Coombe View Farm

Bongo Camping Trip 0.2 – Coombe View Farm

First time using the Auto Free Top poptop for the kids and as we were camping up with Jono we didn't bother with the awning. A few things: It turns out the sliding door has a childlock. We found this out at 3am when we needed to take one of the kids to the loo urgently. As all our possessions were piled up in the front seats, leaving the vehicle was a complex problem. Make sure the child lock is off! The hatch in the poptop floor is a accident waiting to happen. A child's finger in ...
Bongo Camping Trip 0.1 – Tencreek Holiday Park

Bongo Camping Trip 0.1 – Tencreek Holiday Park

We took the Bongo for it's first overnight test run yesterday. We chose Tencreek Holiday park near Looe as it is local with good facilities and we weren't too sure what we would find when we unpacked the awning. We now have a better idea how to setup the awning and we now know we were missing some awning/vehicle attachment parts. We were also without electric hookup as we stripped it out the previous week when it transpired the entire system had been jerrybuilt and the fusebox was full ...

M7XIA

My call sign has now been assigned by the RSGB: M7XIA (Mike Seven X-Ray India Alpha)

RSGB Amateur Radio Foundation Exam

I passed the RSGB Amateur Radio Foundation exam (25/26) today. I used the excellent (and free) Essex Ham Foundation Online training course to study for this.

I’ve got my Facebook Account Back

So, I've got my Facebook account back and it was literally by chance. Three days after my account was hacked I received an email from Facebook inviting me to take part in a paid study. As this invite came from a real person with an @fb.com email address I agreed to take part in the study and sent the real person an email asking if they could assist in getting my account back. I received no reply to this message. A few days later I received another email confirming my place on the ...

Secret Bastille Gig

Last night local Plymouth band Hungry Bears and friends played at the Union Inn at Saltash, Cornwall accompanied by Woody from Bastille on Drums. Woody was joined by Bastille singer Dan Smith, Kyle Simmons, Will Farquarson and Charlie who each performed at various times throughout the night, as well as my wife Claire and Bastille tour support The Native. I managed to get a handful of photos.

My Homebrewed Facebook Alternative

So, Last week my account was hacked and I was kicked off Facebook. It wasn't my fault, but Facebook don't want to give me the account back and I'm passed caring. I've written about this in detail here. But this whole process set me thinking about my relationship with big tech. For the last 16 years I have been handing my data, personal photos, work information, location, interests and thoughts to an enormous faceless tech giant who has whored out this information willy-nilly, ...

Facebook Subject Access Request

I have today submitted a Subject Access request to Facebook Ireland Ltd using the sample Data Request form found here following advice the Ruben Verborgh's excellent blog on the subject here.  I've sent it recorded delivery. Will it get through to a human being? Who knows?