Hello, all you out there in Blogland, and welcome to the GhostOfClayton twice-weekly Blog. Are you sitting comfortably? No? Tough! I'm cracking on with this anyway. I haven�t got all day to wait for you to shuffle round and get settled.

High-achiever in the family

OfClayton Nephew 1 of 3 (I'm sure he has a name, but as I mentioned in a previous blog, it's easier to keep track if I number them) has had his name mentioned in the media. OK, so it's only in his college's newsletter, but at the tender age of . . . 18-ish (?), it's quite a big deal.

Engineering News

Congratulations goes to OfClayton Nephew #1 of 3 for completing his Nuffield Bursary during the Summer Holiday. #1 of 3 worked with Lockheed Martin on 'Investigating the Mechanical properties of a lightweight, thermally ablative material'. Through his work he successfully completed the project, which also gained him a Gold CREST Award. #1 of 3 has entered his work into the National Big Bang Festival. We should hear soon if he has been successful. If so, he will attending the festival along with students who gained Bronze CREST Awards whilst in Year 8 at Henlow Middle School.

The National Big Bang Festival is the name they give to the National Science & Engineering Competition in order to make it sound cool for kids. And I can also now confirm that #1 of 3 was successful, and has been entered into the Senior section of the 'Science/Maths: Individuals'. However, the majority of the 28 other competitors are either from private schools (posh kids) or home schooled (posh kids with ambitious parents). Struggling as he is with the albatross of a state education round his neck, we�re very proud he got as far as he did. Let�s hope he isn�t just the token pleb that the organisation is contractually obliged to include, in order to secure government funding. I only hope he has the OfClayton gene that allows him to talk convincingly as if he knows everything about everything! That will stand him in good stead for the future.

The Cosmos in all its bejewelled majesty

There�s been a bit of talk on the UNRV blogs of late about the BBC�s Stargazing programme. I�ve always had an interest in space, but have never felt rich enough to own an astronomical telescope, so only ever looked at the stars through the naked eye. Wonderful though they were, I couldn�t help but think that they all looked the same as one another � a lot of blue-white points of light exhibiting varying degrees of brightness. However, I returned home last night from the cinema (having seen The King�s Speech � very good film, but that�s a different story) to find the little village of Aquis-of-the-Romans beneath a beautifully cloudless firmament. Inspired by the outstanding intellect that is Prof. Brian �What a guy!� Cox, I rushed into OfClayton Towers and dug out my binoculars. We are fortunate in Aquis-of-the-Romans that, situated as we are far from any kind of civilisation, there is very little light pollution, and so the view of the heavens through the binoculars was stunning. Just with something so optically unambitious as binoculars, so many more stars were visible than with the naked eye � a breathtakingly beautiful sight. I really appreciate now what makes amateur astronomers sit out in the cold all night, huddled over a telescope. Probably the most amazing thing I spotted was The Orion Nebula. Easy to see when you know where to look � here�s how: Most people are familiar with the constellation of Orion. Establish the three stars that constitute his belt. Hanging down some way below the left hand two are three more (quite close) stars in a line (Orion�s sword). The middle one of these is the Orion Nebula, and even through binoculars it resolves itself as a nebula, rather than a star.

No longer a dragonhunter - I now qualify as a dragonfinder

This dragon hunting lark is a doddle. What better place to look than the little village of Dragonby in north Lincolnshire (I say 'village', it barely qualifies as a hamlet, consisting only of one short street.) The village is named after the adjacent unusual rock formation , which you could easily convince a young and na�ve child (like OfClayton Niece 1 of 1) is a Dragon, sleeping half underground. In actual fact, I would think it is an ancient underground watercourse that has deposited a track of lime scale before becoming totally furred up. The topsoil on the surface of the escarpment beneath which it ran has subsequently eroded by a few feet, leaving this rough dragon�s back visible. Hey presto, my first dragon.

Weekly stuff

It is now just 30 days until the Eagle of the Ninth is released in the USA, and 76 until it's released in the UK.

Asterix book of the week is one that was conspicuous by its absence from the young OfClayton�s collection - �Asterix & The Banquet�