Video - Crazy superfast backwards drive from Heage Windmill to Belper.

This footage was never used as it was a stormy day when I captured it but thought I may as well get it online in a different format. It was recorded on Friday 24th July 2009.
The backwards drive starts at Heage Windmill with a view of their Well Dressing for that year. I then drive backwards at 6 times normal speed to Belper.


Music Credits :
Songs of Triumph by Hebber Zepherin
www.ccmixter.org/files/scottaltham/19075
Used under Creative Commons License.

Use my map here  http://tinyurl.com/nqjcp6  if you want to plan YOUR journey to this windmill.

Heage Windmill in Derbyshire, U.K. is the only working 6 sailed stone tower mill in Britain, The windmill became operational in 1797.
Heage Windmill was originally called Nether Heage Old Tower Mill, the gritstone tower was built by Edmund Lee in 1745 and originally had 4 sails,
During a severe gale in 1894 , its cap was blown off and the sails destroyed. The four sails were replaced with six sails.
A preservation order was placed on the mill in 1966 and the mill was restored by Derbyshire County Council
In 1997 after years of neglect the Heage windmill society was formed, with an aim to bring the mill back to working order.
Heage windmill was opened to the public on the 1st June 2002.

For more information on this mill such as opening times please visit their website:
Heage Windmill website:
www.heagewindmill.org.uk

Andy's Driving videos around Derbyshire, UK :
Are you an ex-pat of Derbyshire, feeling homesick? Or perhaps you just want a clear way of giving someone directions to a location in Derbyshire or just want to show people your village. Well in this video and the many others I have made, you will be able to take a virtual drive around the streets as though you were in the driving seat. I use a dash-mounted camera, Traffic lights and heavy traffic have been edited out.

The name Heage comes from the Old English and means "high edge or ridge".
Heage village is 2 miles west of Ripley, 2 1/2 miles North East of Belper set on rising ground above the river Derwent east of Ambergate.

Follow the driving route using my interactive map :
http://tinyurl.com/loldr5

*** This video is not real-time, it is time-lapse ***
The real driving time covered 9 minutes
--------------------------------------------
If you visit Heage Windmill then you will be able to have a go on my Virtual Reality Tour at the visitor centre, this tour won an award recently:
http://derbyphotoscouk.blogspot.com/2009/09/heage-windmill-my-virtual-tour-wins.html

You may also like to see Dame Ellen MacArthur opening the mill in 2011 :
http://youtu.be/No2MWATm3PE

Please rate and comment if you enjoyed this driving video through beautiful Derbyshire.
Subscribe to keep up to date with my latest local videos.

Cheers
Andy

How old is YOUR Washing Machine? Older than my Zanussi ?

How old is YOUR washing machine?
I have a Zanussi WDT1085 washing machine and its now 19 years old!
Its still working perfectly, no leaks or rust or funny noises. It gets used probably 3-4 times every week.
I have never used water softeners.

Would I recommend a Zanussi? YES ! or rather yes if you could go back in time to 1994 to buy one, I can't comment on washing machines these days as everything seems to be poor quality and designed to go faulty after a couple of years. Perhaps you own a Zanussi that was bought a bit more recently than my model and can comment.

I did not realise you can get lots of spare replacement parts for washing machines from Amazon, Not that I'm ever going to need any Zanussi parts :)




Here is the washing machine still working perfectly....

My Zanussi WDT1085 still working ok !

This was not an expensive model, its a Zanussi WDT 1085 Type P6296154, Made in Italy in 1994.
Because its a tumble dryer combo it only has a wash load capacity of 4.5Kg. I think I have only ever used the tumble dryer part of it five times. Seems better to let the sun dry clothes than pay lots of money on Electric to do it.!

Thanks
Andy

Video - Belper Indoor Car Boot Sale, The drive from Derby to this car boot sale via Little Eaton.

Here is my latest local video. A speeded up car journey from Derby to Belper Indoor Car Boot Sale.
The drive starts on Alfreton Road in Derby and ends at Belper Leisure Centre.
This was filmed on Sunday 10th March 2013. As you can see it was sleeting and snowing on the journey, but because this particular carboot is an indoor one it does not matter if its raining or snowing, its always nice and warm and dry.

The next two dates for 2013 are Sunday April 14th and Sunday May 12th 2013.

On the way you will see
1:13 Derby Garden Centre on the right.
1:47 The Queen's Head pub, Little Eaton on the left.

Here is the video:


Belper Indoor Car Boot is held on the 2nd Sunday of the month. For more information on this carboot see their website : www.belpercb.com



Follow my work on Twitter : www.twitter.com/AndySavage1969

Music used :
Diving by TerraNation
www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/345936
Used under Creative Commons License
CC BY-NC-SA

Andy's HD Driving videos around Derby, Derbyshire, UK :
Are you an ex-pat of Derby, feeling homesick? Or perhaps you just want a clear way of giving someone directions to a location in Derby or just want to show people your Derby Street. Well in this video and the many others I have made, you will be able to take a virtual drive around the city of Derby's streets as though you were in the driving seat. I use a dash-mounted camera, Traffic lights and heavy traffic have been edited out.

Please comment if you enjoyed the drive, subscribe if you want to keep up with the latest local videos of Derby and Derbyshire.

Thanks
Andy

Video tour of the strange and funny things you can see in the 320 Gigapixel panorama of London.

The record-breaking 320-gigapixel interactive panorama of the capital lets you zoom in on streets and buildings 20 miles away.
Here in my video I will take you on a tour of some of the strange and funny things I have found hidden in it. I'm sure there are lots of funny things to see, this is just a collection to give you an idea.


Please pass this on to anyone you think will enjoy it. Feel free to embed on Facebook and Twitter

My video tour :

Or use this link :
Video tour of the strange and funny things you can see in the 320 Gigapixel panorama.

Have a go with the real thing now : www.btlondon2012.co.uk

Its made from 48,640 individual photographs stitched into a single multi-resolution panorama.
It was captured with four Canon EOS 7D cameras with EF 400mm f/2.8L IS II USM lenses and Extender EF 2x III teleconverters (800mm total). They were mounted on Clauss Rodeon VR Head ST robotic panorama heads and positioned in four locations around the 29th floor platform (177 Meters in the air.)

Each photograph from the Canon EOS 7D camera is 5184 x 3456 pixels (18 megapixels).
The captured photographs took up 3 terabytes of data, They used JPG rather than RAW simply because there would be far too much data to deal with !


It took the stitching software around 200 hours of render time. The computer that was used to do the stitching was a Fujitsu Celsius R920 workstation with 256GB of RAM and 16 cores at 3.1GHz !

The Autopano Giga software used for stitching the photographs :
http://www.kolor.com/image-stitching-software-autopano-giga.html

View the amazing panorama here, See if YOU can find anything funny :
http://www.btlondon2012.co.uk

You simply move the viewpoint around with your mouse. Use the mousewheel to zoom in and out.
You can also use the keys on the keyboard (except when in fullscreen mode)
A/Z zoom in and out
Cursor keys for moving.

The man in the "One Show" T-shirt is JJ, a presenter from the BBC TV series The One show. You can see him near Buzby and also on the top of St Pauls Cathedral.

How did I record this video tour?
I reduced my screen resolution down from 1920x1080 to 1280x720
I used Google Chrome to view the panorama and put it into fullscreen mode.
I used camtasia studio 8 to record the fullscreen at 1280x720 pixels.

Just in case you have never heard of the BT Tower, then here is a Google StreetView of it :


View Larger Map

Follow me on Twitter :
http://twitter.com/AndySavage1969

Hope you enjoy the tour.
Thanks
Andy

Snow again in Derby !, Just when you thought spring was here.

Even though its now officially spring, another lot of snow has arrived in Derby. It started about 11pm Thursday and is quite heavy now.
Using my Derby and Derbyshire webcams you can see just how much snow has dropped in the night.
Here is nesting ledge of the Derby Peregrine Falcons, would you want to sit in that !

Derby Peregrine nest Webcam showing the snow.

If the snow stays around then we may be able to go sledging, have a look at my Derby Sledging Guide for details.
Its meant to be snowing all Friday night and well into Saturday too so sounds like there is going to be a lot of snow in Derby for the weekend.


Confused Daffodils in my garden in Derby :

Andy

My videos of Martin Atterbury at the Wurlitzer, Burton Beer Festival 2013.

Here are my videos from this years Burton Beer Festival where Martin Atterbury played some great stuff on the Wurlitzer in Burton Town Hall. Perfect accompaniment to a beer festival.
He played all the classic songs such as...
Roll out the barrel, I do like to be beside the seaside, My Delilah, Goodnight Sweetheart, There always be an England, God save the Queen, Land of hope and glory etc

This Wurlitzer Opus 1165 dates from 1925, when it was originally installed at the Cameo Theatre, Cleveland, USA. there was a fire in the early 1930s and it was repossessed by the Wurlitzer company and shipped to the UK where it was installed at the Forum Cinema, Wythenshaw, Manchester which opened on 10th July 1934.
The organ remained in the cinema until 1972 when the Burton Corporation acquired it for installation at the Town Hall.







Here you can see Martin Atterbury playing it at this years Burton Beer Festival.
For more information on this beer festival see :
http://derbyphotoscouk.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/burton-beer-festival-2013-thursday-14th.html


Follow me on Twitter : https://twitter.com/AndySavage1969

Thanks Andy

New Google Street Views of Derby are now LIVE. See the streets in 360 degrees.

Tweet

Last year I reported that I had seen the Google Street View car capturing streets in Derby. And have been waiting for them to go live since then. Well the waiting is now over, Those street views that were captured around Derby in November are LIVE NOW for us all to look around using Google Street View.

The latest Google Street View car with distinctive blue camera dome.

Finally no more Google Street View images from way back in 2008, you can now see the streets of Derby as they were seen in October and November 2012 by the Google Car as it drove around our area.

Google Street View has recaptured Derby with new 360 degree views in Oct/Nov 2012.

Check out some of my selected Google Street Views of Derby here, These views can be rotated around using your mouse. If you would prefer to look around yourself then simply goto Google Maps and search for your street and then drag the little orange peg man from the left side and wait for the roads to turn blue (like in my photograph above) then drop him onto the street you want to look around. After a few seconds it will show you the 360 degree views that were captured late last year.

We can now see the new Derby Bus Station Riverlights complex :


View Larger Map

Friar Gate Square Office Developement :


View Larger Map

Mercian Way :


View Larger Map


Derby Royal Hospital :


View Larger Map

Jury's Inn Hotel :


View Larger Map

I have spotted a few strange bits such as :

Cathedral Green from Full Street - Click this and wait for the Streetview to show, notice how this shows the view from August 2008 but move one step forward towards the Old Silk Mill pub and suddenly the view updates to November 2012 !

I wonder if at some point you will be able to choose which google street view images to view, i.e. the old ones from 2008 or the new ones from 2012?
I dare say at some point they will allow this feature. At the moment I'm not sure how to get the 2008 views. If you look at my 360 of the new Derby Bus Station on my blog post you will see that is still showing the 2008 view !

Its worth pointing out that you need a reasonable spec PC to use Google Street View well, also broadband. If you try using streetview on a old slow PC then it can be a real pain to use.
Google Chrome seems to work best of all with it, but I guess it would do !

Hope you found this of interest.

Thanks
Andy

Croots Farm Shop and Cafe, Duffield, Derbyshire. The best sausages in the world !

Croots farm shop and Kitchen is located in Duffield, Derbyshire. I have visited this farm shop a few times and can thoroughly recommend it to anyone that wants to try some great tasting locally produced foods.
Croots Website.

Their award winning Cumberland Sausages are definitely the tastiest sausages I have ever had, if you like a quality sausage then try them with some nice mashed potatoes, I guarantee you will be impressed by them.

Driving Video to Croots Farm Shop
Here in my video you will be able to see the driving route to get to this farm shop from Derby. So now there is no excuse for not knowing where to get your food from :


This video is not real-time, it is about twice normal speed.

If you would like to skip to the bit near the entrance to the farm shop then click HERE.

This driving route is 6.6 Miles total, here is an accurate complete map of the route for reference :


View Driving Route map for my video to Croots Farm Shop in Duffield, Derbyshire. in a larger map

Or link to map : Driving route map for my Croots Farm Shop video.

Music Credits for my video.
"I Fell Out of the Sky" by DoKashiteru
"Revolve" by hisboyelroy
Both songs Licensed under Creative Commons.
www.ccmixter.org

Even though this is a short drive, you see some daft people :
0:15 Black car decides to park on the zig-zag lines while the Skylink bus comes.
0:56 Keep your eye on that silver car on the left flying in and cutting up the green car!
1:36 Watch the couple crossing the road looking the wrong way !
3:28 Motorbike does not slows down on entering the island and almost hits red car in front of it.

Croots sell some nice food, you must visit and see

Hope you found this of interest.
Thanks

Andy

How to keep a box of Cider chilled without using a fridge.

This may be of interest if you have bought a box of cider for home. I have found a cheap way of keeping a box of Cider at a nice temperate if you don't have a suitable fridge to keep it in.
As you know these cider boxes are 15" long x 11" width x 10" high so a bit large to fit in your domestic fridge, well unless you don't keep any food in it :)

This box contains 20 Litres (35.2 Pints) so getting it cold enough is not easy but I have a solution to the problem which I have tried and seems to work well.

You will need to buy a metal baking tray and three "ice packs"
The baking tray I use is 320mm x 210mm but you can use any as long as its a metal one and sits inside the box. The ice packs I use are 170mm x 90mm so three of these side by side cover the baking tray perfectly. How many you need to use will depend on size of the ice packs and the baking tray.

First thing to do is get a retractable Stanley knife and set the blade depth to about 10mm, the reason for limiting the length of blade is because we are going to cut into the box and I don't want to risk cutting the bag. The bag should be well clear of the top of the box. The cardboard seems to be around 8mm thick.
We need to cut a door into the top, as you can see in my photograph below I have cut three sides to a door, its best to cut this hole about an inch from the edges to retain box strength.
Once you have cut the three edges, score a shallow line to form a sort of hinge.

Now lift the cardboard door up (you may have to go back over some of the cuts if you didn't quite make them deep enough.)

Place your baking tray on top of the bag making sure that its in the centre. Now place the ice packs from your freezer onto the baking tray and shut the door down to keep the cold in.

Because the ice packs are in contact with the metal baking tray and the baking tray has a large surface area that is in contact with the cider this will dramatically cool down the Cider quickly.
Remember there is NO air in the bag, the liquid fills the entire space of the bag.

The cold temperature will sink through the Cider and keep it cold for many hours.
I have found that the best way is to have 6 ice packs, 3 in the freezer while you have 3 in the cider box and you can simply swap them out every day to keep the temperature down. I guess you could use more or larger ice packs to get it really cold if you wanted to.

Ice Packs are available from most shops and Amazon :


Here is a photograph of the top of the cider box showing the "hinged door" that I have cut into it using a retractable Stanley knife.

Door cut into top of cider box.

Here is a photograph showing the thee ice packs sitting in the baking tray that is floating on top of the bag of cider.

The ice packs on top of baking tray on top of the bag of Cider.

Hope someone finds this of use.

Thanks
Andy