Cycling to Eastbourne

Today the need for some exercise that I've been feeling for a while came to the fore and I decided to cycle to Eastbourne. I should have set out earlier but it took a while to persuade myself that it was better than lying around. The decider was that the sun was still shining at ten o'clock and it looked too fine a day to waste. Indeed it was a lovely day, the only drawback being the strong headwind on the outward stretch. I several times thought of stopping short, but once I reached Pevensey Bay it seemed, looking at the map, too short a distance left to call it off there. I went as far as Beachy Head, and had a meal at the cafe below the hill where the South Downs Way starts. Just to prove I did the trip, the photo is of Eastbourne pier taken on my way back. I arrived back at 6 pm, so it was four hours either way. Part of this slowness was due to the headwind on the way out, and due to taking some wrong turnings on the way back, trying to follow the cycle lane markings, and also choosing to walk the bike along the beach from Glyne Gap rather than cycle the heavily congested and polluted Bexhill Road. No doubt I'll be feeling a bit stiff in the legs and sunburnt on the head in the morning.

Autumn is Here

I took this photo of my favourite tree as I went out for a walk along the front as far as the old bathing pool site at the end of Sea Road. I have been thinking of getting out on my bike and going perhaps as far as Eastbourne, but left it too late to do that today. It was a very sunny afternoon. The other pictures I took haven't come out very well probably because the light was too bright and I couldn't see clearly what I was focusing on. The leaves on the tree are starting to turn brown, and some of them may have been shed already. There are a lot of leaves from other trees blowing around.

When I turned on my computer and activated the PCGuard I got a message "Rps: The parameter is incorrect" with no further explanation. Checking it on Google I was led to download a thing called RegistryBooster costing about £20. Whether this does any good remains to be seen. It claims to have cleared up a lot of errors in the Registry, but whether they are really significant or just listed to impress I don't know. Perhaps I shouldn't be so cynical.

Knight's Tours Again

I've been making some progress in organising my files on Knight's Tours into publishable form. It is taking the form of a series of separate "Studies", each of about 60 pages, covering a particular topic. These are at present: History, Theory of moves, Leaper tours, Knight on 6x6 board, Knight on 8x8 board, Knight on other rectangular boards, Shaped and holey boards, Figured and magic tours. I should be able to make these available in PDF form, if not as a book.

We had two three or four-hour power cuts here over the past two weeks. The first one on Thursday 3rd September 5-8pm was without warning but the other on Friday 11th September 11am-3pm was notified by the electric company EDF. I took the opportunity to give my refrigerator a thorough defrosting and clean. Fortunately I had kept a supply of matches to light the gas, and have a supply of candles somewhere in case of emergency, but not needed on this occasion.

A Walk in the Park

It has been a lovely sunny day here in Hastings. This morning at about 8 am I went up to Conquest Hospital on the Ridge by bus to deliver a supply of catheters that I fortunately no longer need to the Urology Department where they will be of more use.

Afterwards, instead of catching a bus back I decided to walk, following the slope downhill, along Hillside Road and Parkstone Drive, which came out to Buckshole Reservoir and Alexandra Park. This led me down Queens Road into the town centre to buy a few extra provisions to tide me over the bank holiday.

Finally a walk along the sea front where it was still sunny but quite windy. I arrived home just as the postman was at the door (but for me there was only an advertising circular). I rounded off a pleasant morning with a shower. In the aftermoon I felt quite tired, which however is not unusual now.

I must get out further a bit more regularly. I haven't used my bike for a while.

Euler and Me

As noted before I'm in process of tidying up my notes on knight's tours. One of the sections I've not previously published, as far as I recall, concerns the enumeration of all the smallest knight-tourable boards, at least up to 12 cells. The illustration shows all the centrosymmetric tours on boards of 12 cells.

The first two of these diagrams are not merely centrosymmetric, in the sense of being unchanged by a 180 degree rotation, but are also axially symmetric about the two diagonal axes. The first of these was published by the famous mathematician Leonhard Euler in what waa probably the first scientific paper on knight's tours, presented in 1759. The second is one of my own favourite discoveries, it is the 12-cell tour whose containing rectangle is the largest possible, the 6 by 6 square.

Cultivating My Garden

This is my "garden" such as it is. A strip of earth behind the front wall of the block of flats. According to the terms of my lease I am "Not to dig up, or cut down, any trees, shrubs or bushes or timber (if any), except with the landlord's prior consent." and "To cut the grass (if any) of the premises with an appropriate garden mower as necessary from time to time to keep the grass in, or bring about, a neat and tidy condition. Furthermore, to keep the patio areas (if any), paths, garden areas, lawns, flower beds, shrubs or bushes and borders (if any) as tidy, weed free and cultivated, as at commencement of the tenancy." So presumably if the garden is initially untidy, overgrown with weeds and uncultivated it should be left that way!

Whether any of the plants in the garden are weeds or were intentionally planted is difficult to say, apart from a few daffodils that came up earlier in the year. Do the millet or wheat-like plants count as "grass"? At what height does a plant become a tree? How tidy is tidy? The terms are evidently just a legal form of words designed to cover every eventuality. It is also unclear how far I as occupier of a ground-floor flat have responsibility for the "garden". No-one else does anything, so it is left to me by default.

A Touch of Flu

I've had a minor bout of flu over the past week. Whether it was the Swine Flu that we've been warned about I don't know. I sweated out most of it over the Tuesday night, although I'm still coughing and sniffing a bit now. At the same time I had some spots come up, which at first I thought might be connected to the condition, but now suppose must be some sort of insect bites. A little TCP ointment seems to have brought them under control.

The new kettle that I bought only recently tripped the electric power again so I've been boiling water for my coffee on the gas instead. I'm reluctant to test the kettle in case it blows it again. That's the third kettle I've run through in the last year. If they're that unreliable I think I'll look for something else, perhaps a more traditional design.

I also bought two further bookcases from Argos, same pattern as before. However the result is that I still seem to have just as many boxes lying about as before! What is the best way of getting rid of second-hand books? I'm reluctant just to give them away to charity shops. Setting up a shop myself would probably be too expensive, but even joining ABE Books as a supplier is by no means free.