Barton Peveril now officially twinned with here...
Friday, March 10, 2006
Sunday, March 05, 2006
Happy 70th Birthday!
The world and his war veteran were lining the Waterside earlier on today to see the formation fly-past of five Spitfires.
Even I managed to get a good view, despite the fact that three local councils had conspired to shut off the best vantage point...
Now, you will agree that this is not the best photo of them...
...but they are there somewhere hiding amongst the pixels. The 11x zoom feature on the camera makes for very blurry photos, but confirmed once and for all that Weston Shore is actually home to Balamory...
...something which I had previously only suspected.
So, I thought I had missed them until, like in all the good war films, they looped round and tipped their wings at me (and everyone else)...
...I hope none of them lands to find out his dog has been run over. (Can't remember what film that was. Probably not a Spitfire one. Someone will tell me.)
Anyway, jolly good show all round, chaps!
Even I managed to get a good view, despite the fact that three local councils had conspired to shut off the best vantage point...
Now, you will agree that this is not the best photo of them...
...but they are there somewhere hiding amongst the pixels. The 11x zoom feature on the camera makes for very blurry photos, but confirmed once and for all that Weston Shore is actually home to Balamory...
...something which I had previously only suspected.
So, I thought I had missed them until, like in all the good war films, they looped round and tipped their wings at me (and everyone else)...
...I hope none of them lands to find out his dog has been run over. (Can't remember what film that was. Probably not a Spitfire one. Someone will tell me.)
Anyway, jolly good show all round, chaps!
Oh Lord...
BBC NEWS - Entertainment - Dance track wins Eurovision vote
Do we never learn? Altogether now, "Royaume Uni, nul points!"
But hang on, isn't this kind of thing just what passes for high art in most of Central Europe? Maybe we have pulled off a winning masterstroke...?
... or just maybe, something with big ethnic drums sung by a woman wearing (not much) rabbit fur will win, like it normally does these days.
Do we never learn? Altogether now, "Royaume Uni, nul points!"
But hang on, isn't this kind of thing just what passes for high art in most of Central Europe? Maybe we have pulled off a winning masterstroke...?
... or just maybe, something with big ethnic drums sung by a woman wearing (not much) rabbit fur will win, like it normally does these days.
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Mardi (très) Gras...
If it's Pancake Day, it must be Paul and Nikki's house! Home to the best Pancake Day Pancakes in the world!
Previously I had thought that this was because Nikki was using a batter recipe handed down her family through the generations in a warm and comforting country-cottage styley. But now I discover it's because she gets the recipe out of an old Be-Ro book with food stains and no cover, just like everyone else does.
That aside, there are always some additional special ingredients which the book does not mention. This year, they were...
...Celebrations, Brandy and Flumps!
With the traditional orange/lemon juice and sugar varieties always available, this year's menu was as follows...
The brandy provided the fireworks...
..and the compulsory annual joke about who was the biggest tosser can this year be answered pictorially:
Previously I had thought that this was because Nikki was using a batter recipe handed down her family through the generations in a warm and comforting country-cottage styley. But now I discover it's because she gets the recipe out of an old Be-Ro book with food stains and no cover, just like everyone else does.
That aside, there are always some additional special ingredients which the book does not mention. This year, they were...
...Celebrations, Brandy and Flumps!
With the traditional orange/lemon juice and sugar varieties always available, this year's menu was as follows...
The brandy provided the fireworks...
..and the compulsory annual joke about who was the biggest tosser can this year be answered pictorially:
Friday, February 17, 2006
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Latest update on Miss Ambler..
Here is my niece, seen with a new toy. One of those mobile-touchy-feely things which parents hang over cots, etc to stimulate the senses.
As you can see, she is so impressed that she has one eye shut, one eye open and her tongue out. Aren't modern toys wonderful?
Anyway, I got to see her too, which was my main reason for the "National Express" tour over the weekend. When I saw her at Christmas, she was still in her plastic box and I couldn't hold her, so it was very special to be able to this time.
However, no-one noticed at the time, and I didn't notice until I blogged this photo, that Evil Tony Blair is keeping a watchful, Nanny-State-style eye on proceedings... Scary!
As you can see, she is so impressed that she has one eye shut, one eye open and her tongue out. Aren't modern toys wonderful?
Anyway, I got to see her too, which was my main reason for the "National Express" tour over the weekend. When I saw her at Christmas, she was still in her plastic box and I couldn't hold her, so it was very special to be able to this time.
However, no-one noticed at the time, and I didn't notice until I blogged this photo, that Evil Tony Blair is keeping a watchful, Nanny-State-style eye on proceedings... Scary!
In the news...
Digital Spy: Stone wants to quit singing for nursing...
..and who, precisely, (other than presumably any future patients) will complain??
Maybe they will make her wear shoes as well.
..and who, precisely, (other than presumably any future patients) will complain??
Maybe they will make her wear shoes as well.
Monday, February 13, 2006
Monday is Lincoln - "Quick, Sophie! Run!"
This is Lincoln Cathedral - "one of the finest mediaeval gothic buildings in Europe..." (it says here).
And it is! Seen here from the castle (which I didn't know Lincoln had), it's very imposing and grand.
Looking the other way from the castle, you get a picture of how flat and tedious the rest of Lincoln (and Lincolnshire) is...
...and that somehow makes the cathedral all the more striking.
I haven't been here since I was about ten, and my Dad hadn't been here since before I was about ten, so we spent a long time looking round and having digital camera shoot-outs. My photos (camera cost about £200) came out loads better than my Dad's (camera cost more than double that) so I was quite pleased...
You really do have to wonder exactly how they built it without modern technology to help and Health and Safety law to hinder... "Have you been hurt building a cathedral? We can help you on a no win, no fee basis..."
If I play with the settings on my digital camera enough, I can often (through no skill or judgement) get good photos of hard-to-get-good-photos-of things like stained glass windows. This is the one good one of about twelve which didn't really work...
...and here's another with lighting effects. Don't ask me what part of the cathedral this is. I'm guessing the high altar?
Now, I suppose that the inside of one mediaeval gothic cathedral is a bit like the inside of another one, and this has been exploited by the makers of The Da Vinci Code, who filmed inside Lincoln, pretending it was Westminster Abbey...
These very ornate looking cathedrabilia are, in fact, fake. The tomb is plywood...
...and blokey here is made of polystyrene...
Look out for them as Sophie Neveu runs past when you go to see the film. What would be really funny would be if they ran past them several times, repeatedly, like the gang does in Scooby Doo...
(If you zoom into the picture above, you will be able to see that the inscription is done with Letraset...)
There's obviously a huge debate about whether they should have allowed the filming to take place in the Cathedral, as the story (if you don't know, and until Christmas, I didn't) details the Church's supposed duplicity and gynophobia over a number of centuries. Did they sell out to Hollywood money? You can read the Chancellor of the Cathedral's views yourself, but I liked this little extract from his sermon the week the crew packed up and left...
"Many have come this week to get a glimpse of Tom Hanks. We know from the staff and from our own experience that a few have also caught a glimpse of God. That is our work and that is our mission."
Anyway, they can now afford the thousands needed to restore the huge "Dean's Eye" stained glass window in the North Transept...
...and even though I doubt Tom Hanks paid for the scaffolding personally, Sophie-Neveu-like, I can't help but see a connection.
And it is! Seen here from the castle (which I didn't know Lincoln had), it's very imposing and grand.
Looking the other way from the castle, you get a picture of how flat and tedious the rest of Lincoln (and Lincolnshire) is...
...and that somehow makes the cathedral all the more striking.
I haven't been here since I was about ten, and my Dad hadn't been here since before I was about ten, so we spent a long time looking round and having digital camera shoot-outs. My photos (camera cost about £200) came out loads better than my Dad's (camera cost more than double that) so I was quite pleased...
You really do have to wonder exactly how they built it without modern technology to help and Health and Safety law to hinder... "Have you been hurt building a cathedral? We can help you on a no win, no fee basis..."
If I play with the settings on my digital camera enough, I can often (through no skill or judgement) get good photos of hard-to-get-good-photos-of things like stained glass windows. This is the one good one of about twelve which didn't really work...
...and here's another with lighting effects. Don't ask me what part of the cathedral this is. I'm guessing the high altar?
Now, I suppose that the inside of one mediaeval gothic cathedral is a bit like the inside of another one, and this has been exploited by the makers of The Da Vinci Code, who filmed inside Lincoln, pretending it was Westminster Abbey...
These very ornate looking cathedrabilia are, in fact, fake. The tomb is plywood...
...and blokey here is made of polystyrene...
Look out for them as Sophie Neveu runs past when you go to see the film. What would be really funny would be if they ran past them several times, repeatedly, like the gang does in Scooby Doo...
(If you zoom into the picture above, you will be able to see that the inscription is done with Letraset...)
There's obviously a huge debate about whether they should have allowed the filming to take place in the Cathedral, as the story (if you don't know, and until Christmas, I didn't) details the Church's supposed duplicity and gynophobia over a number of centuries. Did they sell out to Hollywood money? You can read the Chancellor of the Cathedral's views yourself, but I liked this little extract from his sermon the week the crew packed up and left...
"Many have come this week to get a glimpse of Tom Hanks. We know from the staff and from our own experience that a few have also caught a glimpse of God. That is our work and that is our mission."
Anyway, they can now afford the thousands needed to restore the huge "Dean's Eye" stained glass window in the North Transept...
...and even though I doubt Tom Hanks paid for the scaffolding personally, Sophie-Neveu-like, I can't help but see a connection.
Sunday, February 12, 2006
Sunday is Derby
Well, to be fair, Saturday evening was Derby too - a blaze (or possibly a blur) of food and alcohol! (Happy Birthday, Jo!) - so let's concentrate on Sunday, which was really Posh Derby. Darley Abbey - a little enclave of sophistication and refinement not 3000 steps (by pedometer) away from the hustle and bustle of the City.
Had lunch here:
OK, to be more accurate, as it is not the 1930s any more, had lunch here:
OK, OK, to be even more accurate, as it was raining and the people outside were pensioners in anoraks, not posed postcard-fodder, had lunch here:
This is The Abbey at Darley Abbey, barely big enough to fit 40 people in at a push*, it nonetheless serves brilliant Sunday lunchtime food. Roasts and hotpots and burgers and vegetarian sausage and mash, which is what I had. Highly recommended!
It does, however, serve very questionable-looking soft drinks...
...which are probably made in someone's front room with a Sodastream.
*Quite how you managed if you were a monk, I don't know, because you would have been very fat and your habit would have swished the candles over (or is that just in films?)
Had lunch here:
OK, to be more accurate, as it is not the 1930s any more, had lunch here:
OK, OK, to be even more accurate, as it was raining and the people outside were pensioners in anoraks, not posed postcard-fodder, had lunch here:
This is The Abbey at Darley Abbey, barely big enough to fit 40 people in at a push*, it nonetheless serves brilliant Sunday lunchtime food. Roasts and hotpots and burgers and vegetarian sausage and mash, which is what I had. Highly recommended!
It does, however, serve very questionable-looking soft drinks...
...which are probably made in someone's front room with a Sodastream.
*Quite how you managed if you were a monk, I don't know, because you would have been very fat and your habit would have swished the candles over (or is that just in films?)
Saturday, February 11, 2006
Saturday is Nottingham
Speaking to colleagues over the last week, I have learned that, during half-term, one was off to the Red Sea, one was going to Iceland (the country, not the shop), one was on a mini-break to New York... you get the idea. My performance management assessor was telling me about his recent holiday to Cuba. The Chappell family are bathing in the temperate waters of some estuary in Australia and the Streets are off to Devon, where it will probably rain, but at least it's touristy.
I am doing the Tour of Urban Population Centres of England, to which the soundtrack is probably National Express by The Divine Comedy. Southampton, Northampton, Nottingham, Derby, Lincoln, Birmingham, Reading and back to Southampton - between Friday and Tuesday I shall have passed through all of them.
Saturday is Nottingham.
I went on the tram for the first time:
Much better than queueing for ages to drive into the Victoria or Broadmarsh Centres, paying the best part of a tenner to park and then finding out that someone in their yellow Smartcar opened their door and knocked your wing mirror off.
The tram even has a conductor who chats jovially and sells you your ticket. And it has one of those "elevator voices" which tells you when you are stopping, saying helpful, calming things like "The Next stop is High School, for the Arboretum" and "The next stop is Nottingham Trent University, not really a proper University, it used to be Trent Poly."
Anyway, it drops you off in Slab Square (or Old Market Square as it's more properly known), which used to look like this:
...at the moment looks like this:
...and in a few months time, apparently, will look like this:
...but don't hold your breath, because it's being done by the same people who did the Diana (comma, reverential pause...) Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain Ring of Water Thing in Hyde Park which broke down and had to be closed.
But some things never change, and it's nice to know that people still sit around, eat their sandwiches and shout at their children near the Victoria Centre Clock. People stand around and text near it now too.
Whatever they are doing, they all ignore it when it goes off - all birds-a-flapping, frogs-a-jumping, squirrels-a-squirrelling and harpsicord music-a-playing. It's nice to know that some things don't change - people ignored it 20 years ago too. After all the effort Rowland Emett probably put into designing and making it, it seems a shame. But as he's been dead since 1991, I doubt he minds...
I am doing the Tour of Urban Population Centres of England, to which the soundtrack is probably National Express by The Divine Comedy. Southampton, Northampton, Nottingham, Derby, Lincoln, Birmingham, Reading and back to Southampton - between Friday and Tuesday I shall have passed through all of them.
Saturday is Nottingham.
I went on the tram for the first time:
Much better than queueing for ages to drive into the Victoria or Broadmarsh Centres, paying the best part of a tenner to park and then finding out that someone in their yellow Smartcar opened their door and knocked your wing mirror off.
The tram even has a conductor who chats jovially and sells you your ticket. And it has one of those "elevator voices" which tells you when you are stopping, saying helpful, calming things like "The Next stop is High School, for the Arboretum" and "The next stop is Nottingham Trent University, not really a proper University, it used to be Trent Poly."
Anyway, it drops you off in Slab Square (or Old Market Square as it's more properly known), which used to look like this:
...at the moment looks like this:
...and in a few months time, apparently, will look like this:
...but don't hold your breath, because it's being done by the same people who did the Diana (comma, reverential pause...) Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain Ring of Water Thing in Hyde Park which broke down and had to be closed.
But some things never change, and it's nice to know that people still sit around, eat their sandwiches and shout at their children near the Victoria Centre Clock. People stand around and text near it now too.
Whatever they are doing, they all ignore it when it goes off - all birds-a-flapping, frogs-a-jumping, squirrels-a-squirrelling and harpsicord music-a-playing. It's nice to know that some things don't change - people ignored it 20 years ago too. After all the effort Rowland Emett probably put into designing and making it, it seems a shame. But as he's been dead since 1991, I doubt he minds...
Bruno (Really Does) Chart the Future...!
I suppose it's worth pointing out, briefly, that I actually own two "records" which are in the top five of the singles chart.
This hasn't happened since about 1982 and has only happened now because Dead or Alive and Leo Sayer have been re-released and remixed (why does one have a hyphen and the other doesn't? Chris Purnell?) and both original "tracks" are already shelved up somewhere in the photo on the previous post...
It could easily be coming up to 7pm on a Sunday evening and the chart rundown with Bruno Brookes and his Mullet. I should be waiting for Annie Nightingale's request show to come on the Stereo Sequence, when Radio 1 was allowed to be on FM for a few hours before giving the frequency back to Radio 2...
...and reverting to mushy medium wave (yes, youngsters, that did happen... and Paul will know what I'm talking about even if no-one else does...) and I probably should be getting on with my Chemistry homework for Mr Fletcher (Beaker), or I might fail my O Level...
This hasn't happened since about 1982 and has only happened now because Dead or Alive and Leo Sayer have been re-released and remixed (why does one have a hyphen and the other doesn't? Chris Purnell?) and both original "tracks" are already shelved up somewhere in the photo on the previous post...
It could easily be coming up to 7pm on a Sunday evening and the chart rundown with Bruno Brookes and his Mullet. I should be waiting for Annie Nightingale's request show to come on the Stereo Sequence, when Radio 1 was allowed to be on FM for a few hours before giving the frequency back to Radio 2...
...and reverting to mushy medium wave (yes, youngsters, that did happen... and Paul will know what I'm talking about even if no-one else does...) and I probably should be getting on with my Chemistry homework for Mr Fletcher (Beaker), or I might fail my O Level...
Sunday, January 22, 2006
Near a tree, by a river, there's a hole in the ground...
Right, time to respond to Andy and his comment about people feeling it necessary to advertise what they have been listening to on their blogs.
I have a last●fm profile which gives you personalised charts showing what you have just listened to. It works by installing a plugin (Audioscrobbler) to Windows Media Player (or whatever other player you are using) which watches your playlist and uploads it to a server somewhere. It's all "opt-in" so it bypasses the hassle which Apple has just had spying on i-tunes users' listening habits.
You can then use an RSS feed to add this information to a website, and that's how it appears on this blog. I've chosen to show you only the most recent three tracks I've listened to:
a) because you then can't see the full horror of my listening habits, and...
b) last●fm classes "recent" as about 24 hours, so even that disappears soon.
But... it only tracks what you have listened to on your computer... and so provides a completely false record of what you are actually listening to. I listen to most of my music in the car or on my i-river (like an i-pod, but better...) or around the house.
The music I listen to on my computer tends to be very random and it's often stuff that I have downloaded (legally!) or tried to find online for a specific reason. I listen to so little on the computer, despite having nearly all my CD collection on there, that if I listen to an artist twice, they appear at the top of my weekly charts. The other week it was Tears for Fears, because I had been talking about Donnie Darko. You make the connection.
Anyway, Andy got me thinking about my vinyl collection. My singles are all in the loft, about 500 of them (some of them picture discs and flexi-discs and 33rpm EPs) but my LPs are still on shelves in a spare room, even though I no longer possess anything to play them on. Most of what I still want to listen to, I now have digitally in one form or another, but I had a fun half hour looking through the gatefold sleeves and feeling the static as I took the albums out of their inner sleeves for the first time in about 16 years.
Not being in the least bit ashamed of my wide (and sometimes crap) taste in music, I am quite happy to share that the last piece of vinyl I ever bought was The Riddle by Nik Kershaw...
...which is in here with the rest of the stuff - a real slice of naff 80s!
I have a last●fm profile which gives you personalised charts showing what you have just listened to. It works by installing a plugin (Audioscrobbler) to Windows Media Player (or whatever other player you are using) which watches your playlist and uploads it to a server somewhere. It's all "opt-in" so it bypasses the hassle which Apple has just had spying on i-tunes users' listening habits.
You can then use an RSS feed to add this information to a website, and that's how it appears on this blog. I've chosen to show you only the most recent three tracks I've listened to:
a) because you then can't see the full horror of my listening habits, and...
b) last●fm classes "recent" as about 24 hours, so even that disappears soon.
But... it only tracks what you have listened to on your computer... and so provides a completely false record of what you are actually listening to. I listen to most of my music in the car or on my i-river (like an i-pod, but better...) or around the house.
The music I listen to on my computer tends to be very random and it's often stuff that I have downloaded (legally!) or tried to find online for a specific reason. I listen to so little on the computer, despite having nearly all my CD collection on there, that if I listen to an artist twice, they appear at the top of my weekly charts. The other week it was Tears for Fears, because I had been talking about Donnie Darko. You make the connection.
Anyway, Andy got me thinking about my vinyl collection. My singles are all in the loft, about 500 of them (some of them picture discs and flexi-discs and 33rpm EPs) but my LPs are still on shelves in a spare room, even though I no longer possess anything to play them on. Most of what I still want to listen to, I now have digitally in one form or another, but I had a fun half hour looking through the gatefold sleeves and feeling the static as I took the albums out of their inner sleeves for the first time in about 16 years.
Not being in the least bit ashamed of my wide (and sometimes crap) taste in music, I am quite happy to share that the last piece of vinyl I ever bought was The Riddle by Nik Kershaw...
...which is in here with the rest of the stuff - a real slice of naff 80s!
Postscript...
In replying to Andy's comment, I asked What's wrong with Shalamar?
I believe I now know...
I believe I now know...
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Hole in the wall...
Have discovered a new (and not particularly convenient) feature on my Chip and PIN card which has not been very well publicised by my bank...
HSBC Call-centre wage-slave: "Don't worry, they will just swipe it and you can sign..."
HSBC Call-centre wage-slave: "Don't worry, they will just swipe it and you can sign..."
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
The Anti-Bunnies gather....
I breathed a sigh of relief this morning, and put an end to a slight element of internal confusion, when I discovered that there are other people, people I respect and trust, who don't get Donnie Darko...
I fell asleep several times during the film and had to rewind lots, but had previously kept very quiet about this, for fear of being pronounced thick or lacking in culture, but now it can be said...
Donnie Darko is rubbish.
And I refuse to be persuaded differently... "When people run in circles, it's a very, very mad world..."
Now all I need is to find someone else who agrees with me about...
I fell asleep several times during the film and had to rewind lots, but had previously kept very quiet about this, for fear of being pronounced thick or lacking in culture, but now it can be said...
Donnie Darko is rubbish.
And I refuse to be persuaded differently... "When people run in circles, it's a very, very mad world..."
Now all I need is to find someone else who agrees with me about...
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