captain

Back home now and suffering a bit with jet-lag and whatever. I'll post up the rest of the story if anybody's interested. Austin and Dallas were epic. Here's a taster. Guess where?? PS - There is no chance of installing a camera in there. I tried.

Buy a second-hand Nikon D300 on e-bay and a couple of second-hand lenses. Try the Tamron 17-50 2.8 and the Nikon 55-200. Ifnot buy the Nikon 18-200 and never take it off the camera. If you want a camera to behave like and look like an SLR, buy the best "pro-sumer" on the market. Simples.

Day 6 - Let's go GAY!! Up and out early to look at some of the pretty little towns to the North of San Antonio. Took the TX87 and not the I-10 so we could go via a place called Comfort. Very pretty. Lots of Germans settled here last century and it's evident in the architecture: All very nice but nothing beats a drive-thru BANK On to Frericksburg which is VERY pretty. Fist building is a public toilet!! The store below had "testers" for EVERY single thing they sold, about 10,00 items. Spent 45 minutes in there eating everything from peanut butter to chillied pickles to jam to cream cheese etc. Will shortly be applying for a heart transplant but for the time-being, still beating........ The town is so pretty, in fact, that I decided to complete my Texan "look" by buying a hat. Nobody in Texas doesn't have a) sunglasses facial hair and c) a hat. I had bought the shades in Galveston, and been growing some fuzz since landing. Now it was time to top it off with something! I had visions of Robert Redford in Butch Cassidy but unfortunately I've turned in to one of the Village People. Few nice cars as well. First one does NOT need lowering. Z count now about 15. They love 'em and they look great as they're so different and there are very few TTs and Z4s to dilute the effect of seeing one. Then back to San Antionio for happy-hour up the tower (again) and an Italian on the River Walk. America is rubbish!

New RNS from RRL. Succesful drilling in Texas. Very nice. I consider these "my" oil wells given my current location........ viewtopic.php?f=13&t=48493

Day 5 - The Alamo Breakfast gratis at the Comfort Suites. If you've ever stayed in one, you'll understand why. Could have tarmacced the M1 with the scrambled eggs but, just 'cos I think I'm going gay (more later) I had juice, coffee and something called yoghurt?? Guardian readers may have heard of it. Quite nice really. Off to the Alamo. Now, I didn't know the full story but it goes something like this: John Bonham and David "Jim" Bowie were on tour in the '70s and met up for a drink at this hotel called "The Alamo". Evidently it all got a bit messy and they refused to pay the bill. They holed up in the bar with 30 or so roadies and Dave Lee "William " Travis. Some Mexican waiters, under General "Manager" Santa Anna laid seige to the bar for several days. DLT wrote an impassioned telegram to the rest of America but only Davie Crockett, from Miami Vice, turned up. This clearly wasn't enough (especially without Tubbs to help) to fight off 2,000 angry waiters so they all died. I'm sure that's all true. Here's the proof: Clearly the record companies had to cover this up. This accounts for Bowie cahnging his "image" many times and Bonzo growing a long beard and getting fat. Stand-ins you see. And here's what's left of the bar/hotel: Along the River Walk. Really impressive. Here's a hotel lobby: and out along the river. Saw nutters on Sadways: and a heron (crane??) trying to eat some ducklings: When I saw some trees melting in to the ground I knew I was too far from a Mojito so had to turn back. It was 3:00 and In America, that's the beginning of Happy Hour: And where else better than Happy Hour then on top of a 750' tower: At that altitude it's very easy to go from mildly sophisticated to mildly silly in 4 cocktails flat: Evidently only the restaurant portion of the top of the tower rotates but TBH I couldn't tell after the 4th one: Everything went techni-colour after that. Thinking of chopping in the Z for this puppy: or was it this one? And to top it all, this on the way home. Unbelievable! Only in America. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lf_jku_Qs9o

Day 4 - Road to San Antonio via Freeport, Bay City and Edna. Back to Millers after the hippy breakfast yesterday. Proper American breakfast of Papas and eggs. Didn't quite know what to expect but it turns out this is potoatoes, onions, peppers, sausage all mixed up with scrambled eggs. Served with soft tortillas, juice and coffe. Mel had the veggie version. Felt surprisingly good considering last night and the fact it was 08:00. Aviators needed though...... Basically Galveston is an island which is a bit shabby due to Hurricane Ike which struck a few years ago. 20,000 of the 60,000 population left and so it's just getting back on it's feet. I live in Weston-super-Mare and it's kind of the Texan version. Bit scruffy. needs some money spent and faces an ugly bit of muddy water. We've both got busted piers as well... So now the road trip really starts. Off to San Antonio via some narrow, twisty Texan back roads to test out what the 'Stang has got under that golden hood: This really was a back road along the coast! Interesting architecture to keep the buildings away from any flooding I suppose. The coast really is strips of land connected by bridges with inlets everywhere so global warming is really going down a storm (whoops!) around here: First stop was Bay City. Very pretty and the start of a series of Texan surprises. The little towns really are attractive and almost Swiss in their cleanliness and civil order. We expected more dust and shabbiness so a nice surprise. Great ice cream at the I Skream Company if you're passing. I had Birthday Cake flavour and Mel Cookies and Cream. Much needed 'cos it was getting towards 80 by 09:00. The forehead Beetroot-o-Meter was reading 5 so time to think about a hat. More later. Roads started getting REALLY good as we headed inland but as EVERYBODY uses the I10 freeway we had them to ourselves except for some locals. Had my first "moment" where you realise just what a great country the US is and it couldn't be better than blasting through Texan back roads (admittied the width of the M5) in a Mustang listening to Boston, Foreigner, AC/DC, Journey on rotate. Had to pull over as I had "grit" in my eye. Pulled over at Edna 'cos you don't see this every day: Again, stunningly pretty and clean: Arrived on the outskirts of San Antonio late afternoon. I say outskirts 'cos this is one big, sprawling city with a road system designed by someone on acid. Really difficult to find hotel and lots of shouting and finger-pointing until Mel eventually got the map the right way up (joke) and we found the right exit Note the proximity of the I37. Our "secure undercrfot parking" was basically under the flyover. The room was a proper American-sized one. We needed a map to get across it and sometimes I'd set off to do something and forget by the time I got there or give up and have lie down for a rest.... Headed to the "world-famous" River Walk (nope - me neither ) which was a bit like what they've done to bits of the middle of Birmingham except times 10,000. Goes on for miles and every 20 feet there is a bar or restaurant. Few quick Mojitos and snacks listening to some jazz and home for beddie-byes.

Day 3 NASA and cocaine!!!!!!!! Change of location for brekkie, Sunflower Cafe. Bit "worthy" TBH - could have been in some "hip" cafe in West London but hey, check out the Crab Cakes Benedict!! Quick blast in to Main Street to get some cheap holiday shades and to look at the lovely architecture again: Off the NASA HQ in Houston. Really good drive and the Z count is up around 7 or 8, more than I see in a month in the UK. Quite a lot modded and of course the Yanks love a white Z. Arrived at NASA: The first bit (the building you can see above) is basically a theme park/store with movies/rides etc. As it's the US, it's all done really well but the main event is the tour of the HQ behind it. Had to go through airport-style security and then on to a little tram. Mission Control was "off limits" because they were doing secret stuff in there so we went straight to a huge hangar where astronauts (or "actors" according to Mel's conspiracy theory) trained to use the Space Shuttle: Then on to Rocket Park and a whole Saturn V - unused becase of cancellation of space programme - or something like that. The tour guide sounded like she was making stuff up as she went along TBH. The diagram on the outside of the hangar is 1:1 scale Very impressive but Mel maintained her "they're just models" line all the way through the tour. She thinks the whole thing was faked and filmed in the desert in Arizona. Back to Galveston and the time had come for a bit of an afternoon session. Decided on the Poop Deck - the roughest bar we could find on the front in Galveston. Proved to be a great call as you could smoke inside and you got to meet a coke-fuelled good-ole boy called Thomas. He was an amazing character. Off his tits but could recite whole scenes from movies (particularly good as Vinny Jones in "Snatched") Made the mistake of trying to match him at 3 in the afternoon on an empty stomach. In the 4 hours we were there he/we drank 6 beers, 4 tequilas (with Tabasco sauce ) and smoked 20 Camels. Staggered back to the Galvez and Mel had to hold me up in the hotel room to stop me passing out. She wheeled me round the coner to the Saltgrass Steakhouse and for the first time in nearly 35 years, I eat a meal in a restuarant WITHOUT ALCOHOL!!! Was so wasted had a gallon of iced-tea and it got me back on track. That and the rack of ribs and half a chicken that appeared 5 minutes later. Slept quite well. Gold Bless America!!

Day 2 Hotel fantastic but no free brekkie so had to go out. Diner about 400 yards from reception so obviously we drove. It is America after all. The hotel is the big building in the background to give you an idea of distances: As we had an extensive itinerary of sports, cultural and literary activities lined up for the day, we decided on a light breakfast. Two eggs (sunny and runny) 1/4 lb of ham, large hash brown, 4 slices of toast, 4 cups of coffee and oj. Seriously, this was the smallest thing on the menu. Those barrels to the right aren't jugs to do re-fills. They're glasses of water - Texan size: Right then. First up, on to the golf course to see and play 18 of Galveston's finest links: . . . . . . . . . . The tricky Par 4 1st: The 6th: "If I Could Turn Back Time" - Yeah, right. And the legendary 4th: We left when we heard the sirens............................. After the healthy sport option, time for a little cruise around to wonder at the majesty and grace of Galveston's architecture and history. The 1920's majesty of The Strand: And not forgetting the exquisite suburban conurbations of West Galveston. Wooden structures on stilts designed to resist the hurricanes of the Gulf of Mexico: And finally, to my favourite bookshop to browse through some of Ameirca's finest novelists and their ironic humour. Deeply rooted in the genre of Swift, Wilde and Waugh: With the day almost done it was time to head home. I'm keeping a Z count and so far it's 4 in 2 days. Here's the 4th: Finished the day at Sonic Drive-Thru. Just like Happy Days!!! For anybody who's not been, you drive up to a stall in a parking lot, press a button and order. Without getting out the car! Brilliant. Lovely lady comes out and gives you 1/4 pounder with cheese and bacon, coke and hash browns and you eat it with the roof down, listening to the sound of the Gulf of Mexico washing against the shore.............. Now, where's my defibrillator.......

Thanks for the interest. I'll continue later/tomorrow but we've just driven to San Antonio to the Comfort Suites - Alamo Riverview. So obviously you'd expext to see The Alamo or a river from the window? No? Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't that the Hammersmith flyover? I think we took a wrong turning at Stockdale. Need beer/tequila and chillis. See y'all tomorrow.

Currently on a bit of a road trip around Texas with Mel so thought I'd share it with you. After all, Texans love cars, booze and classic rock so I'm assuming this might be of interest to some of you. Flew in to Houston on the morning of the 17th. Immigration fine (unlike the Nazi's employed in NY airports) and sailed through baggage re-claim in 5 minutes. What can go wrong? No doubt there will be 500 queueing at Dollar car hire.......... Nope. Nobody at Dollar except for a very camp Pee Wee Herman/Alan Cummings-esque chap who was all over me (because I'm bloody gorgeous ) and I needed to be quick on my feet to avoid any "Deliverenace" style welcome to Texas. Got out with my trousers still on with him shouting "come back with a cowboy hat on sir!!" as I scurried to the rental pick up bay..... "Gotta get a Mustang, gotta get a Mustang, gotta get a Mustang........" Anybody who has booked on-line ticking the "Mustang convertible (or similar)" must of gone thru this so guess how I felt when I was met at the bay by a lovely Southern belle saying, "take your pick, sir. They have all got keys in so just drive it away............" Be still my beating heart. Guess which one. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Correctimundo. So roof down, 85 degrees, Boston, AC/DC, Led Zeppelin on 93.7 Classic Rock and and hour to Galveston. If I was religious I'd be on my knees right now. To be honest, it's such a terrible car to drive, taking up religion is an option I'm considering. I've hired the 2003 model before but this is even worse. Imagine sitting on your sofa and getting your mates to push you down the M1 and then steering with strands of spaghetti tied to the coasters. Large inputs of effort either to the wheel, brakes or accelerator do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Above 80 it is too frightening to even consider changing direction so you set the cruise to 65 and frankly, lie back and watch the world go by. I swear I drove 20 miles yesterday and didn't touch ANY of the 3 controls above. Anywaaaaaaay. Arrived at the hotel and it's a big disappointment. Shabby and over-crowded. Not. Hotel Galvez, Sea Wall Boulevard, Galveston. $90 a night but no brekkie which is a good thing because going out to brekkie in the States is almost as good as driving around in a Mustang convertible listening to Aerosmith. Proof coming on next post. ......mmmmm......what shall we do.........it's 6 o'clock so it's........ Down the Strand to Crow's Bar for the worst "open mic" rock you have EVER heard and some fuel. Bring on tomorrow................

Correct. RRL (or we as shareholders) have just paid £52million via the 17p placement for something worth hundreds of millions of ££££££. To put it simply, if you have paid £5k for a 2011 370Z are you worse off than yesterday?

+1 I missed the boat on this, is it worth a punt at 19.5P? Yes.

5:00 in the morning here so a bit frazzled (on Tequila with Tabasco sauce last night in a biker bar in Galveston, Texas)...and this was at 3 in the afternoon..... Market strange. TT and Texas news fantastic (500% increase in oil flow rates at 2 of their drills there/here if you're me) and the shares drop 20% As Chesterfield says, med/long term great news. Anybody with shares in the company now own a smaller slice of something that's got a whole more potential than 24 hrs ago. Would you rather have 50% of a company worth £1,000 or 40% of a company worth £2,000? Still a buy. Wish I'd been awake still at 02:30 (Texas time) to catch the 17-18p levels. I'd buy more but my exposure is a little, er, frightening. £20k down today.........

Espeically when you're holding 400,000 of them.......... jesus christ! i bet! what price did you buy in at? Started at 3.7p and last bought at 20p. Have traded as well through spikes and have a cash outlay of £20k and £8k "profit" reinvested so either 5p or 7p average, depending on how you look at it. Either way, it's keeping me awake at 03:14 in sunny Texas........

Espeically when you're holding 400,000 of them..........

DJ Range Resources LTD Trading Halt TIDMRRL 19 April 2011 TRADING HALT Range Resources Ltd ("Range" or the "Company") wishes to advise that its shares have been placed in a trading halt on the Australian Securities Exchange pending the release of an announcement regarding a significant acquisition and associated share placement. This announcement will be made as soon as details are finalised. Range shares will continue to trade on the AIM market during this period. Yours faithfully PETER LANDAU Executive Director END (END) Dow Jones Newswires

ALL trading suspended until news issued.............. Feeling a bit giddy TBH. Possible acquisition of bigger slice of Trinidad is the favourite.

RRL suspended by the company on the ASX when it hit 42p......... I need Valium..............

Tick.........tick................tick 1:33 to RRL BOOM BOOM!!! All the way from sunny Texas. Yee hah!!

Nice piccies Ian. Wish I'd been there. Last year was v. good as well........................

I've just had a moment.......... Lovely find.

Texas on Sunday. Don't forget Castle Combe on 5/5.

Up 10%. How happy do you want to be?? I'm so happy I just did this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yJRvsGI_F8 I'm 47 you know.................

+1 The K1 has given me permanent hearing damage which, according to the doctor, will be with me for life. Don't fit it.

http://www.blueflameperformance.com/car ... -350z.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwrcu1wTtuc