This section covers my life outside of Trainz and other rail simulators which this site is mostly about. This reflects what else I do in my spare time and you will find the following topics come up amongst others – sometimes with Youtube videos.
- Parish Council work (I am currently as I write this a Parish Council)
- Computing and remote VDI solutions for personal use
- Work (VERY occasionally!)
- Travels
- Website troubleshooting and design.
- Other situations like social situations. As I am openly on the Autistic Spectrum, I sometimes find myself in difficult social situations.
-
Virtual Insanity (Part 2.5 – The hedgehog!)
Read more: Virtual Insanity (Part 2.5 – The hedgehog!)I think you can safely say that I am insane now. This network project has gone on way too long than I expected too. I created this video on 09/10/2026, so is more than a few days out, I was staying in Scotland in a lovely place in Whitebridge. Seriously, it’s a lovely out of the way place and it accepts dogs. I’ve been twice and there is one slight problem from a system admin point of view (and the booking wasn’t in my name I should say) The Wi-Fi isn’t the best, I found this with previous experiences, so…
-
A year in a Parish Council..
Read more: A year in a Parish Council..So I don’t talk about this much, mostly because I didn’t know how it was going to pan out, a recent google search means I have several legacies now attached to me. Some making a difference and some not. For those wondering, I joined my local Parish Council, if you want to be nosey and look (trust me, its nothing to do with trains – well sort of does as we have a railway line where I am), have a look for my mug shot (hint, ginger hair, dead giveaway!). https://www.fishbourne-pc.gov.uk/the-parish-council/councillors/ . I just realised, I didn’t mention Trainz in…
-
Moving on..
Read more: Moving on..Time to talk about work as I mentioned it on my CV. In the “about me”, an unfinished page, you may of noticed my CV. Now I try and keep work off this page but sometimes its relevant and today is one of those days it becomes relevant. It’s also an interesting and rather funny story (Sorry if anyone is offended, but please do laugh at my expense.) So from today, I make the jump from CO4 Short Term Planning clerk to CO5, about the highest I can go, I totally wasn’t expecting this and my boss always told me…
-
Sussex Eclipse
Read more: Sussex EclipseIts rare for me to talk about the universe or even take an interest in it, it doesn’t help that my dad has an interest in astrology. So when we had an Eclipse event, my dad couldn’t help but set up his telescope and I couldn’t help but get my camera out. These were taken in the Chichester area on the 12/08/2026. We didn’t get a total eclipse but a partial one. The telescope has a “refractor” (I think he said) on it, making it safer to use. Don’t stare into direct sunlight! It causes eye damage immediately. More maybe…
-
I brought an Aliexpress thing (Part 2, Look inside)
Read more: I brought an Aliexpress thing (Part 2, Look inside)I finally found time to take it apart, iit was interesting and it worked. I guess that is also one way to get around the AIpocolypse, find cheaper drive and a 3D printed extension. Yes, I struggled to take it apart gingerly. I also for some reason, ran out of space at the very end on my flashcard.
-
Virtual Insanity (part 2)
Read more: Virtual Insanity (part 2)I thought this was going to be a one part thing, not 2 parts! Ok, time to do some explaining. (I broke it up into sections, so hopefully it is easy to read and its very technical on computing stuff). Some ideas seem like good ones, I mentioned in this blog about the server I am still running in 2026 despite being 12 years old and still running. It crashes every so often as its got too many servers, its running Windows 11 and Hyper-V which is a resource hog and keeps getting hacked. How it all started……is that I…
-
I brought an AliExpress thing….
Read more: I brought an AliExpress thing….Its a Coolpi Genbook RK3588 and I did a video of it. So if you watch the video, I really couldn’t find much or if anything at all on this hackable, programmable computer. I didn’t get much time to spend with it, all 20 minutes worth, but I finally unpacked it. I’ll edit this post when I’ve taken it apart so you can see the guts and how it performs, its got a few programs I don’t like and if you hadn’t noticed or hadn’t watched yet, it doesn’t like my dual monitor setup, it mirrors both, it’s suppose to…
-
Virtually fun! (Or virtual insanity!)
Read more: Virtually fun! (Or virtual insanity!)It was a good idea… I thought! (Feature image downloaded from Pixabay (Edgar Oliver), not my own image, so credit to the author for providing a royalty free image for me to use as I don’t have any server images that are suitable!) So I paused 3D modelling, well sort of, to work on a computer as I wanted to put my stuff in the cloud. First problem was finding a cloud provider cheap enough, I didn’t care what it was, it just had to be something. So, did a Google search and got in contact with a company called…
-
Turning 40
Read more: Turning 40God, pretty much half way through my life (I am guessing, but with the age I’m expecting to live to) and this year, my birthday sucks, hard, literally. You’ll see below what I mean. The time came to deal with being 40, to be honest, I wasn’t looking forward to it, until I got my pressie which for birthday’s, is a rather odd choice, considering that if someone was given it, it will be thrown out the window pretty quickly, especially if your husband buys it and you didn’t ask for it. So, leading up to my 40thh (the day…
-
PPQG (for Trainz) – minor update
Read more: PPQG (for Trainz) – minor updatePassenger Point Queue Generator, the program that took my site offline once.