AP4000: Villa Views:BlackBerry Thorns: Super Colours.

I thought I'd  start this week's blog with a splash of colour. This picture was taken at the Mount Inn, in the village of Stanton, on the 10th September. A good complement to a pint of outstanding beer from the nearby Donnington Brewery.

AaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaP

On Thursday 7th November the Tony ' AP ' McCoy reached his 4,000  winner. 

An impossible total, for a national hunt jockey. 

 I remember, not so long ago, when approaching a mere 2,000 winners; I suggested to my friend that when he reached the winning total matching the current calendar year; he should call it a day.

But, of course Mr. Tony had other ideas and on he has pressed.

 Certainly in my life-time; probably in yours, we will never see these scores again. AP a genuine one-off.

However, in spire of these statistics, I would rather have Ruby Walsh  ride my horses, as I feel at times AP can be a little hard on horses. He may get a 'tune' out of them, but greedy me, I want a 'concert.' He is of course, a gentleman and a sportsman.

I was interested to find that AP nominated his ride on Wichiita Lineman in the 2009 festival, as his top ride.

I was lucky enough to be there and my goodness, did he come from a long way back ( he drifted out to 59/1 in running) to snatch victory on the Chetenham hill.

I couldn't find a video of it, but here are the details. An amazing ride on the 5/1 fav.

AP's best ride?

I was pleased that AP's 4000 winner was at lowly Towcester, where he has amassed 93 winners so far. He has won at every course and it is precisely this relentless desire , that has allowed him to accumulate this amazing total.

Towcester,  has free entry with a lovely friendly feeling. A right hand track with  a stiff uphill finish and usually very heavy going; just the conditions favouring Tony's famous driving finish. I visited Towcester once, enjoyed the racing and went home with a nice piece of stilton, which I purchased from one of the stalls there.

Here is the racecourse link:
Towcester

AaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaP

Last Monday ( 4/ 11 )  on a lovely bright Autumn morning, D. and I went for a short walk up to the Roman Villa at Great Witcombe. Here are some colourful shots we took there.

AaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaP

There was this Russian lady maths teacher, who made her class read out the problem to be solved and then read it out again breaking down each individual part, in order to really understand what was required. I should have taken her advice the other day.

My problem was I had inadvertently locked my BlackBerry mobile 'phone and  the resulting error message instructed me to" press the mute key to unlock the instrument". In vain I scanned the keyboard to find the mute key. To no avail.

Usually with the BlackBerry,  forcing the 'phone to re-boot by removing the battery for a few seconds,  fixed problems. Not this time.

Troubled, I turned to the internet for help. After working out my model type  I eventually found a support module which told me to press the play/mute key to effect the 'phone operation,. Then it hit me (yes, I know, you are way ahead of me ), what was the point of hitting keyboard keys, if it was locked?

Solution: the mute key must exist elsewhere and it did on the top edge of the 'phone. A simple press there, followed by a re-boot and " bob's your aunty"; back in business. Silly me.

AaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaP

Finally to end this week; colour can be found where you least expect it to be, as in this picture I took of the car-park in our local Waitrose supermarket. Have a good week and watch out for those puddles.

Cheerio,

Ck.