www.nirvana-motorcycles.com amd www.philread.org have been down for three days as I forgot to renew my domain name registration (I was away, OK?).
All fixed now but apologies to anyone who was inconvenienced.
[insert “embarrassed” smiley here]
As the number of sites that I manage (and host) has grown, I have become increasingly frustrated with Microsoft FrontPage. Although I started off (a few years back) using FrontPage Extensions to do some clever* stuff, I find myself increasingly editing the HTML directly nowadays and using ftp via my desktop to upload files.
* well, I thought it was clever at the time…
Recently, I have been looking after www.YouTuba.org which is my son Chris’ tuba quartet’s site. He puts this together on his MacBook and as far as FrontPage is concerned, might as well not exist. He has struggled with the Mac’s built-in application as well.
Now we both have Dreamweaver – me for the PC and him for the Mac, which should make joint management and updates a lot simpler.
I have started to convert www.PhilRead.org (including a new eCommerce platform) and will move on to my other sites:
www.classicbikegallery.co.uk (includes old eCommerce platform)
www.YouTuba.org (includes old eCommerce platform)
This last weekend (19th – 21st June 2009), Jim, Eamon and I headed off to Eurotunnel for a weekend with 8-times world champion Phil Read at the Bikers’ Classic meeting at Spa Francorchamps in Belgium.
I had “planned” an “interesting” route from Calais to Spa (just tick the “avoid motorways” box on Google Maps and see where it takes you…) which included the obligatory getting-lost-in-Lille and a few very badly cobbled villages that had the other two wondering a bit. It was hot and sunny (which always helps) and the final run in to Spa through the forest from Marche-en-Famenne (via Bra) to Stavelot was just stunning! Wouldn’t want to try it in the cold/wet/dark though!
We stayed in the “Racing Hotel Spa Francorchamps” which was interesting. Think of a 1970’s Youth Hostel in Wales. Lino floor, steel frame bunk beds and loo/shower down the hall. It was however, only 500m from the entrance to the circuit so meant an easy walk in the morning, no parking charges and no need to carry kit around all day.
The aim of the weekend was to hook up with Phil Read, to watch the classic MVs, Hondas, Guzzis, Laverdas et al going around what must be one of the most beautiful race circuits in Europe. The noise of those open pipes in the pit garages is just stunning (take your earplugs)
On the way out we stopped for lunch at Ath which is just inside Belgium:
Jim in Ath
Eamon in Ath
Steve in Ath (Sprint in background) 🙂
Pics from Spa:
Steve & Phil with the MV Agusta
Jim & Sammy Miller
Phil on the RG500 in a Cloud of 2-Stroke!