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Welcome to our site. Pauline is an author, consultant, lectured in the Open University and is researching into innovation policy and Total Quality. Pauline's has recently completed a dissertation for an LL.M (Master of Laws) to keep busy and was awarded the degree in 2016. Peter was in the Space game - Earth Observation and Satellite Meteorology and now writes some Open-source software. Our background includes research, government service and small firms.

We enjoy problem solving, proposal writing and working as consultants or in partnership to offer practical advice on policy, strategy and tactical approaches, especially in support of Small Firms.

Our home is in England, alongside the River Thames. Our pastimes include Travel, photography (Still and Video), music, Winemaking, Watercolour Painting, Writing, IT, Fitness and much time restoring our listed house. We have a Narrowboat called Corinna and had a Birman cat called Tigger.

• News Flashes with the latest news, information and changes of interest to the regular visitor.
• First visit - why we have a web site and a basic guide to the site
• Pauline's Pages - of interest to Artists, Authors, OU Students and Tutors.
• Uniquely New Zealand - A Touring and Camping Guide to the places a "Package" can not reach.
• Travel Highlights - some of our more recent trips of interest to those who want to travel the world.
  • New - A Mediterranean Cruise on the Queen Victoria in 2022 A long awaited return to cruising, this time in the Princess Grill. This 19 day cruise, over Pauline's 70th Birthday, covered many favourite ports and a several new ones namely: Cartagena - Spain, a transit of the Messina Strait - Sicily, Corfu - Greece, Dubrovnik - Croatia, Hvar - Croatia, Trieste - Italy, Cagliari - Sardinia and finally Malaga which replaced Gibraltar which closed for the Queens funeral.
  • Recent - Australia and a Christmas/New Year Cruise in 2019 Three weeks in Perth and a Cruise on the Queen Elizabeth round New Zealand and Australia. Incomplete - Australia mostly complete, New Zealand progressing slowly.
  • Recent - Two consecutive cruises on the Queen Elizabeth in Autumn 2019 over our Sapphire Wedding Anniversary, taking us first to Amsterdam in the Princess Grill, followed by a longer Norwegian Explorer Cruise visiting Alesund, Tromso, Narvik and back via Stavanger. There there were overnights at the two northern ports to give an opportunity to look for the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) In 5 parts with 140 pictures.
  • Recent - A Cruise from Japan to Alaska and Canada on the Queen Elizabeth in 2019 - a memorable month cruise from Yokohama and returning from Vancouver after an extended period cruising in Alaska including the 'Inner Passage'. The full itinerary was Yokohama, Aomori and Muroran (for Sapporo) in Japan, seven sea days to Kodiak in Alaska, Anchorage, Juneau, Vancouver, Juneau for a second half day visit, Skagway, the Hubbard Glacier, Icy Strait Point, Sitka, Ketchikan, Victoria and Vancouver in Canada. In 5 parts with 320 pictures.
  • Recent - Touring in New Zealand 2019- 3 months mostly spent in South Island. A comprehensive write up, in particular of South Island, with 400 new pictures overall. Currently some pages are long and hence slower to load so they may be split with a resultant change in page numbering.
  • A Cruise to the Canaries on the Queen Elizabeth in 2018 - a fortnight cruise from Southampton to the Canary Islands visiting Lanzarote, Gran Canaria, La Palma, Tenerife before returning via Funchal in Madeira and Vigo in the Galician region of Spain.
  • A Mediterranean Cruise on the Queen Victoria in 2018 after arriving on the Orient Express. The three week cruise covered many favourite ports and a few new ones namely: Korcula - Croatia, Valletta in Malta, Messina in Sicily, Naples, Civitavecchia (for Rome), Barcelona, Ajaccio in Corsica, Villefranche in France, Livorno (for Florence and Pisa), Corfu, Split in Croatia, Piran in Slovenia and an overnight in Venice on our anniversary before flying back to the UK. In 14 parts.
  • The Orient Express 2018 - A Journey from London to Dover on the British Pullman and Calais to Venice on the Venice Simplon Orient Express - the Blue Train. An Experience of a lifetime starting on Pauline's Birthday and linking with a cruise on the Queen Victoria.
• Technical “How to” Articles - of interest to those setting up and supporting systems. Some of our most popular or recent articles include:
  • Fun with Android - My first look at Android Phones, Tablets and Media boxes and their integration with Linux machines and Global Computing and Communications in general
  • Fun with Linux - Actually my first serious look at migrating from Windows to Linux to give security and economy in data use whilst traveling. I am convinced and rarely use anything else on my dual-booted desktop or laptops. Now the entry point to a series covering specialised aspects of Ubuntu and Linux Mint.
  • Adding Spice to Ubuntu - Cinnamon and Mint - Cinnamon is a Desktop Manager developed for Mint to replace Unity in Ubuntu. It provides a very sophisticated conventional desktop which has been very well received. We have shifted all our more powerful machines to Mint and the older machines to Lubuntu.
  • The Lafite Ultrabook - a lightweight and long battery life Ultrabook with Core i5 8250U Kaby Lake architecture processor with 4 cores 8 threads, a Samsung 970 EVO 250 Gbyte SSD and 2 Tbyte hard drive working under Linux Mint 20.
  • New - Gemini - a small, quiet and economic micro-computer from Chillblast based on a Celeron J4105 Gemini Lake CPU, 4 Cores, 1.5 - 2.5 GHz processor, 4 Gbyte RAM and an extra Crucial 1 Tbyte MX500 SDD and dual booted with Windows 10 Pro and Linux Mint 20.
  • New - A Linux Grab Bag - a completely new page looking at the minimum one needs for a re-build, in terms of hardware, software, configuration information and data. It fully details the associated backup philosophy and procedures which are required to enable disaster recovery anywhere on any machine. It has been developed and tested using the initial setting up of Gemini.
  • New - Upgrading Corinna's Electrical Systems - a lot about adding Solar Power to our narrowboat and other power saving changes - of interest to the wider off-grid community.
• Small Firms Section - of interest to small enterprises that need a presence on the Internet
• Site Search - of use to anyone looking for specific places or information on our sites.
• Newsletters: 1996, 1997 , 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 , 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and our Current Christmas 2020 Newsletter
• Peter's Resume and Pauline's Full Resume and her Open University Lecturing and Consultancy Experience - of interest to potential employers and customers. (Currently restricted access, email us for a password using the message link below)
• Diary of the creation of a home page - a technical Diary of how it all started in 1996 when the Internet was young - of historic interest to those creating a web site. Now it documents the work leading to our technical 'Howto' Articles. Now on Part 34.
• Our Poster Collection covering 1895 to 1915 - Vintage Prints, Bovril Prints by C W Faulkner and Co of London, Pears Posters and Vintage Calendars of Melksham, Bristol and Calne - of interest to collectors
• Fitness Peter's attempts to bring a scientific and objective approach into a world of hype - of interest to all wanting to extend their life.
• Watercolour Painting - Pauline's diary of progress since she restarted painting on a recent cruise - just admire or buy a print.
• Diary of an Author - Pauline's experiences in succeeding in getting a book written and published - of interest to others either contemplating or already starting to write seriously.
• Completing the Circle - Research, the Law and the Challenges of Assisted Dying - Background to Pauline's dissertation on the differences in the law between England and New Zealand in this topical area which was successfully submitted for the Degree of Master of Laws (LL.M) - complete with a download of the dissertation.
• Privacy and Cookies Statement- almost mandatory these days.
• Peter's Home Winemaking page - of interest to all who get this far!

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Revised: 23^rd November, 2022