Istanbul, 26th November 2012. After stopping at the glorious Blue Mosque I go nearby to the Basilica Cistern, a large underground chamber constructed in the 6th century. Inside a walkway takes you on a gentle lap through the ordered forest of stone columns, below me in the clear water a few fish glide past. The chamber echoes with the splashes and drips of water, orange lights illuminate each pillar gently, reflecting sharply in the shallow and gently rippling water. The atmosphere is pleasantly quiet and humid, the steady repeating pattern of columns offers a simple beauty. What I like most about the cistern is that unlike the other sites in Istanbul this wasn’t intended to impress people or deities, it was designed purely to be functional, but it has still become a beautiful space.

Istanbul, 25 November 2012. Today I’ve decided to take a cruise up the Bosphorus to the edge of the black sea, hopefully giving my legs a chance to rest while the ship does the hard work of sailing us up and down the narrow straits that separate Europe from Asia. I take the tram down to the waterfront at Eminönü, the closest pier to the Galata Bridge on the south side of the Golden Horn. All along the waterfront are touts shouting “Bosphorus, Bosphorus, Bosphortour…”, each wearing a cheap fancy dress captain’s hat and holding a laminated card with a picture of a ferry and various sights along the Istanbul Strait. Ferries depart from here to many parts of Istanbul and in the morning rush hour thousands of people flock to and from the piers. The only ones who seem unhurried are the many anglers lining the Galata Bridge, chain smoking while leaning wearily against the railings next to their rods, watching of the web of lines that hang across the restaurant terraces below the bridge and into the green waters.

Istanbul, November 24th 2012. I start the first day of my holiday with the inclusive hostel breakfast of olives, cheese, bread and cucumbers in the colourful downstairs canteen. I eat these clumsily with a fork in one hand while I try to flip between the pages of my guidebook with the other. I’ve already decided that ebook readers are the future purely on the ability to read from them over breakfast without these one handed contortions or having to use stray heavy objects to hold the pages open.

Bristol, November 23rd 2012. You have to start somewhere and for me it is Bristol Temple Meads Station and the eleven o’clock to London Paddington. A clear November sky lets a low and yellow sun give the countryside a slumbering fuzzy glow, inviting the start of hibernation. The recent heavy rain has resulted in flooding, causing the Avon to be lost in wide, smooth brown lakes that run under hedgerows and across fields; in Bath the river is almost touching the undersides of the bridges.

The idea is simple; fly to Istanbul and then travel back to Bristol by train. My 3700 kilometre route should take me through Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Austria, Switzerland, France and finally back to Britain. I love travelling, seeing the world roll by, the kilometres counting out the changes in peoples, beliefs, countries and cultures. In two weeks there is no chance of grasping anything but a small fraction of the history and people covered by my route, but even that small fraction will be fascinating.

Hidden down a single track lane and announced only by a softly spoken brown sign in the shadow of the M25 it is a treasure of aircraft design evolution. The de Havilland Heritage Centre is a fantastic collection of aircraft from a fast evolving period of aviation history. Having most of the collection come from the same company provides a consistency of approach that makes changes easier to identify between aircraft. It high-lights what drove design decisions, from payload capacity to engine integration.

For my pedals I wanted simple plain colours with printed writing and logos. I used this for both the Tubescreamer and Soda Meiser clones I’ve built. Before you start sanding, screw the back of the enclosure onto the front. It means when you sand across the join between the two you get a matched finish that helps to hide the join and makes it look a lot smoother. I sanded the aluminium enclosures down with wet sandpaper, starting at grade 80 to get the bigger imperfections out and then through grades 180, 280 and 400. It’s best to do this wet over a bucket of water; it helps get a nicer finish and prevents everywhere being covered in a fine layer of aluminium powder. The last point is especially important if like me you don’t have a dedicated workshop and need to keep what is usually the kitchen clean.

Memories are easily stirred by music; a lyric that speaks to your own experience or a melody triggering an emotion linked to past events. We’ve all been snatched back in time by hearing a song that saturated the air of our teenage years again. The stereo’s shuffle button erratically throwing out new songs and deep memories with impunity. This connection is strong and unpredictable. A cassette version of Blur’s Parklife bought on a ferry back to Britain means any song from that album is tinged with a strange melancholy. The end of a summer away and returning to the classroom routine, the leash of homework and longer nights only short days away. Having one or two nights of freedom left, but too paralysed from the oncoming term to enjoy them.

Shorty flying display by the Qatar bound 787 under moody skies.

Earlier in the year I built a Tube Screamer clone from a kit, pleased with the result and feeling more ambitious I thought I’d try building another design. This time I picked the more exotic Devi Ever Soda Meiser ; it’s a fuzz pedal with a wide range of gain and the ability to create some very strange, broken sounds. The other reason for this choice is that Devi has published the schematic for this pedal, which along with the stripboard/vero layout, guided my build. If you’re using this stripboard layout be warned that while the legs of the transistors are labelled correctly the MPSA18 transistors I bought have the flat side on the other side to that show in the layout, so double check the data sheet before you solder them into place. All the components were bought from Bitsbox.co.uk , apart from the enclosure which I got from Gap Co .