Fire alarms and bus stops

Yesterday afternoon we were all sitting quietly in the office, getting on with things. The tranquillity was shattered by a loud sound... the fire alarm. That's funny, I thought to myself, they're late today (the alarm test usually being at 10am). Then I thought, even funnier... today is Monday not Tuesday... and the alarm isn't stopping. Either we're on fire or we're having a fire drill. The same thought process was obviously happening around the room as one by one my colleagues reluctantly gathered their jackets and we all trooped off downstairs. We gathered on the pavement (which is our extremely safe muster point) and blocked traffic for a while. Once the man in the fluorescent jacket was satisfied each floor was accounted for we headed back to our offices.

I heard one of the chaps from the fifth floor grumbling about having to trek all the way down the five flights of steps. Bah! That is nothing to those of us who have worked in tower blocks and trekked down 30-something flights of steps. Ah, happy memories.

When I first worked in the tower block work was still being undertaken on unoccupied floors, and I think the first month we were there we had to evacuate the building at least once a week. Our muster point was a grassy square a few blocks away (the only place large enough to house a building that size) where you had to go and stand behind the person holding the wooden paddle with your floor number on it. The whole fire drill experience would take the best part of an hour; once all floors were satisfactorily accounted for the building then had to be re-populated in stages. Enough to say on several occasions, after registering our presence, some of my colleagues and I retired to the pub.

Yesterday evening as I was on my way home I found my bus in a queue of slow moving traffic heading past Cemetery Lane. There have been one-way diversions around Cemetery Lane for a few weeks now, and the entire road seems to be affected. Much to my relief the previous threats of no replacement bus stop seem to have been reconsidered as there is a temporary stop just along the road... which is great, as the two either side aren't exactly close.

I had an irritating replacement bus stop experience at the weekend. I decided to circumnavigate the usual annoyance of not being able to find any parking at the library on the weekend by taking the bus... the bus stop being usefully situated right by the Charlton House. Not this weekend. We passed through the Village and sailed through the temporary traffic lights and rapidly onward towards the Standard. Lucky that the road was obstructed by parked vehicles and the bus driver heard me and a fellow passenger complaining and decided to do the decent thing and let us off. That is an even longer walk back from Victoria Way!

The best thing about today, though, is that after labouring under the delusion all morning that today is Wednesday I've just had it pointed out to me that it is in fact Tuesday, so I've just gained half a day! Hurrah!

Little London moments

The other night as I was going home on the Jubilee Line the train driver made the following announcement:

"If I say mind the doors... and the guy on the platform says mind the doors, what do you suppose we want you to do?" (pause) "Mind the doors".

This was after the doors had tried (and failed) to close several times.


This morning our office email wasn't working. Given reason for communications outage. Power cut in Edinburgh. The reason that a power cut 400 miles away kills our email is due to the fact that the Exchange server which processes email lives in Edinburgh and services the whole of the UK (and Europe). I was going to ring the IT guy and hassle him, but after Boss-one rang from overseas and told me he was going to hassle the IT guy I decided that was more than enough for any one person to deal with!

I was feeling a bit guilty this morning. There was a project meeting for one of my projects scheduled at 10am off in the wilds of North (ish) London. The meeting had been arranged about six weeks ago and absolutely nothing has happened on the intervening six weeks (or is likely to in the next six weeks). I told Boss-two that due to an impending deadline I wouldn't make it... he stoically said that he would go (even though he had more meetings to go to in the afternoon). The thing was - six people were attending the meeting from three companies... two from each. Two obviously belonged to the office at which the meeting was being held... two were the Client and two were me and Boss-two. Boss-two called the offices twenty minutes before the meeting (to which he was about to be late) only to find out that the meeting was cancelled. This left me wondering... when exactly was anyone to be told of the cancellation?!

The Occasional Tourist - Part Seven, Southwark

Now available on the Occasional Tourist Blog.

A whole lot of complaints

Yesterday morning I fell out with the Jubilee Line. First of all there were the advertised 'minor dealys' which meant that three trains came and went before I was able to squeeze on one. I  eventually managed to get on a train and was quietly minding my own business listening to my iPod. This in itself would have appear to have been a mistake. It meant that I missed the announcement (if indeed there was one) at Westminster that the train would not be stopping at Green Park. So the train and I sailed on to Bond Street. Faulty communications equipment was the give excuse for the closure of Green Park. Not a disaster in the normal course of events, just a short walk South from there to my office. However, yesterday it was raining (quite enthusiastically). Superb. Wet and annoyed, what a way to start the day.

Things didn't get any better by the evening rush hour either. I arrived at Green Park to be assured of a good service on the Jubilee Line. Five minutes to wait until the first advertised train and thirteen minutes to the second advertised. The first train arrived and I decided to squeeze on as the next train eight minutes away wasn't likely to be any better. Nobody offered The Stick and I a seat - it didn't really matter, the train was so full it would have taken a special skill to fall over!

I finally arrived at North Greenwich to find that the whole of the tube and bus station had turned into a lethal skating rink due to the wet weather - let's face it, it doesn't take much for the bus station with its leaky roof! The 486 was already at the stop and still had an enormous queue - fortunately the 422 had pulled up behind it, so I decided to get on that. I then spent the next however long crawling through what was almost a traffic gridlock which seemed to have engulfed most of the peninsula. The only good thing was that the rain pretty much held of until I reached my front porch!

Today hasn't been much better. First of all I started suffering from my semi-occasional pain in the side. Every time I worry that I've appendicitis and every few months I go and see the doctor who tells me that it isn't. So, I decided to forgo the usual palava of trying to get through to the surgery on the dot of half past eight and cut the queue and go early. I'll get an appointment before nine for sure I thought. I was wrong. Ten o'clock was the earliest available (this was 10 minutes before the phones opened and five mintues after the doors opened). What do I have to do to get an early appointment I asked, as I'm already late for work. Oh, I was told, you can book a week in advance. I pointed out that a week ago I didn't know I'd need to see the Doctor this morning. Stupid system.

Eventually ten o'clock came (and went) and I saw the Doctor half an hour late. He poked (ouch) and prodded (ouch) and determined that it almost definitely probably surely wasn't appendictis. It obviously was 'something' and he determined I should go up to the hospital for a scan. I was told to present myself to Women's Services (what an awful name). I duly did (after the 486 on diversion attempted to take me off along Woolwich Common). The disinterested receptionist looked at my form and told me that althought the Doctor had written 'urgent' this in fact wasn't urgent but 'routine'. Seriously. Does someone want to buy the NHS a dictionary? Routine "regular course of procedure". Not for me. Urgent investigation required to establish the cause of ongoing pain and discomfort. Appointment set one month from now.

I then had to shchlep off to find where the 486 was leaving from as the road outside the hospital was closed. When are they going to be finished digging up the entire Borough?

The Occasional Tourist

One thing I really enjoy about London (and any city if it comes to that) is how much there is to discover. Every so often I find a new bit of London (and perhaps somewhere else) and write about it here in the "Occasional Tourist" series.

The Occasional Tourist posts now have their very own home -
http://occasionaltourist.blogspot.com/

Lord Mayor's Show

Today saw the annual Lord Mayor's Show in the City of London. I really enjoy all the pageantry  and afterwards there is lunch at the Livery Hall; so always a good day out.

This year the weather was not on our side. I arrived at Cannon Street to a light but persistent drizzle. I made my way to my mother's office only to find I was the first to arrive. I amused myself watching the parade participants queuing for the Porta-loos; there were soldiers and airmen, a few Roman centurions, some Victorian maids and a girl on roller-blades; they made an incongrous sight!

We went up to Cheapside to find our spot, and I met my friend and her sister - so well had I described our customary spot they had no trouble finding us. It was still drizzling as the parade started, and this became a steady downpour through the entire parade, subsiding just in time for the Lord Mayor's Coach!

More rememberance

I got off the bus by Trafalgar Square this morning as something caught my eye. Was it a new display on the Fourth Plinth at last? No - it was 'Vigil'. This is a remembrance of the First World War. The names of 68,000 Canadians who died in the conflict are being projected onto Canada House - one by  one. This year is the 90th Anniversary of the end of the 'War to End All Wars'.

I also bought my second Poppy today. My first Poppy was affixed securely with a pin to my coat two days ago. This morning I noticed that whilst the pin remained securely fastened the Poppy itself did not. I'd like to think that someone picked it up and gave it a good home, but given the disappointing amount of Poppies I've seen this year I doubt very much that would have been the case.

Remember, rememeber

Last night I was waiting for a bus at North Greenwich station (as I do nearly every evening) and watching fireworks light up the sky (there's a very panoramic view of much of the Borough's of Greenwich and Newham waiting there). "How lovely", I thought to myself, "that the UK are celebrating the new US President". It took me some moments to come to the conclusion that as the 5th November it might be Guy Fawkes Night (aka Bonfire Night) that was being celebrated.

I've never been much of a fan of fireworks. As a small child I didn't like the noise, and as I've got older I just cant' see the point of spending all that money - unless you go to a really splendid organised display. As a pet owner for many years I also dislike the distress that they cause to animals. The thing I like the least is the trend in recent years for fireworks to stretch through the Autumn from Diwali (which can fall up to two weeks before Guy Fawkes night) to New Years and even beyond.

Every year we hear about the terrible accidents that have been caused by carelessly used fireworks. Every year I put up with fireworks at anti-social times of day and night. Every year I wonder why there is no apparent attempt to enforce the law with regards to fireworks. Yes, there is a law. You may not set-off fireworks between 11pm and 7am except on a number of exempted days (5th November, Diwali, New Year and Chinese New Year).

I wonder how many of the fireworks being set off on and around the 5th November this year were done with any thought as to why? It is my long held belief that anyone wishing to purchase fireworks for the 5th November should be asked what it is, precisely, that they are commemorating. That would cut down the pops, the whizzes and the bangs!

As for me, well, I manage a good few free displays courtesy of my neighbours through my bedroom window every year.

Remember, remember the fifth of November; gunpowder, treason and plot. I see no reason why gunpowder and treason should ever be forgot...

Brave new world

I've always been extremely interested in politics. I studied British politics as an A-level course for two years and US politics as a minor credit for a year at University. At one time I even thought I might like to be a politician (my family certainly thought I was argumentative enough!).

I therefore took very seriously last night's US Presidential election. I did a great deal of research yesterday lunchtime, and even formulated myself a spreadsheet to track the results. There was only one fly in the ointment... the 5 hour time difference between the UK and the East Coast (let's not even contemplate the West Coast). My solution (as to all late night events) take a nap and get back up again. So, at half past midnight I settled myself down to watch the election results roll (or as it turned out drip) in.

The last Presidential election was (fairly predictably) four years ago; and haven't things changed in that short time. Yes, of course I remember watching the BBC, and possibly occasionally flicking channels to see what was happening with other media outlets. I don't remember using the internet much though. Not so this year! At one point I managed to crash Firefox as I attempted to simultaneously follow CNN, ABC, ITV and the BBC at once. I had Twitter open twice - once to Tweet myself and once to follow the dedicated Twitter election feed. Oh yes, and I was keeping up with other night-owl friends awake on Facebook. Information overload. It gave me cause to ask myself - can one person possibly need that much information?!

In the end it was all to naught anyway, as 3am approached my body gave up and I had to go back to bed again in order to be awake and alert for work on Wednesday. Fortunately the V+ box did stay awake through the night, so I got to see the moment when Obama's Electoral College tally tipped the magic 270 votes.

So, all changed today... a Democrat in the White House for the first time in 8 years... a black President for the first time, well, ever... and an election result which appears to be happily accepted without any accusations of impropriety being levelled. Brave New World indeed.

Hallow'een

Halloween doesn't have a long tradition in the UK the same way that it does in the US. I have very few memories of Halloween as a child... a costume party here and there (mostly my memories are of bobbing for apples) certainly we never went trick or treating. I'm not sure that we'd have got very far in semi-rural Kent knocking on our neighbours doors, I'm pretty certain they'd have been straight on to our parents to find out what we were up to.

However, childhood traditions aside I always do get a pumpkin to carve. I've never managed to work out any recipes for the flesh but I do like to roast and eat the pips. Best hot and straight out of the oven.

Random moments from a day out at Wembley

There were quite a few strange/random little moments during our day out at Wembley yesterday.

I was wearing my Giants hoodie, such is the tradition at the Wembley game that everyone wears the merchandise of the team they support, not necessarily the teams playing the game. We arrived on the platform at North Greenwich, and I spotted another couple wearing Giants gear. I had barely pointed them out to Rich when the bloke came rushing over and hugged me, saying "Well done, well done". Obviously the Superbowl hangover doesn't end until someone else wins the Superbowl (or the Giants win it again!).

Having complained to Rich when we bought our program that there was no free gift this year we were pleased to find when we took our seats that every seat had been given a free Saints flag to wave during the game (be a Saint). During our discussions of 'worst job in the ground' the person (or more likely people) who had to put a flag on each and every one of 80,000 seats eventually won.

Best of all were the two team mascots that had travelled with the Saints. One was called 'Sir Saint' and rather reminded me of Dick Dastardly from the Wacky Races Cartoon. He had a Saints helmet, a shiny cloak and an ENORMOUS chin. The other was called 'Gumbo' and was a dog. He kept me in stiches for quite a lot of the time as he took to tormenting the stewards. One hapless chap standing on the corner of the field got a good ten minutes of attention, but kudos to him he took it all in good humour.

Rich told me about another of the stewards who was captivated by the Cheerleaders (the 'Saints-sations') and apparently was castigated by his supervisor for not attending to his duties.

There were also some chaps sitting near us who were determined to start a Mexican wave. Determined. They kept leaping to their feet and throwing their arms in the air. It just wasn't catching on, only a few rows and about three-quarters of a block were taking part. Most of the rest of us were falling about laughing at their antics.  A real Mexican Wave did start eventually which actually encompassed all three tiers of the ground. Quite awesome to behold.

There was of course the inevitable queuing to get back to the Underground station. We didn't do as well this year as last as we were a bit further around the ground. Once you get onto Wembley Way (sorry, Olympic Way) you are held at several points by Police barriers (either cops on foot or even better cops on horses). There was (of course) a good deal of barracking of the police officers including the immortal "Que Sera Sera, Whatever will be will be, we'll never leave Wembely, Que sera sera".

NFL Wembley 2008

Yesterday afternoon saw us taking a trip off to Wembley again to watch the NFL. This time the Saints taking on the Chargers.

We arrived at Wembley Park station and took the walk up Wembley Way (although apparently it is actually called Olympic Way!) . Despite the promises of rain, rain and more rain although cloudy it stayed dry. We stopped only to buy a program, whereupon I comment to Rich "No free stuff this year"... although we were fairly unimpressed with the Dolphins turquoise towels last year.

We arrived in plenty of time, and quickly made our way into the stadium. Technology has progressed since last year as the turnstile operators seem to be there only to make sure nobody gets stuck as you present your ticket into an electronic scanner.

I then had to join the 'ladies search line'. Unfortunately although two turnstiles had been labelled such there was only one female security guard. Bottleneck.

By now we thoroughly deserved a beer. Be prepared to take out a small bank loan to eat and drink at Wembley. £3.80 for a pint of (indifferent) beer and over £5 for a burger. Steep.

We took our seats just in time for the pre-match ceremonies. First of all were a couple of songs by the Stereophonics whilst two mini-blimps with banners were paraded round the pitch.

 

Now (at last) it was time for the teams to take to the pitch. The Chargers as the designated 'away' team came out first through the guard of honour of cheerleaders and a bit of dry ice.

Unfortunately somebody didn't tell the Saints to come out of the same tunnel, and they snuck out the side tunnel - causing general confusion around the ground.

 

This was followed by the unfurling of two giant flags (one each for the UK and US) by assembled soldiers. Very patriotic. Very American. This was accompanied by renditions of the National Anthems. Clearly all the spectators watch enough American sport to know just the right moments to cheer at the end of the 'Stars and Stripes'. Joss Stone was on stage to do 'God Save the Queen' which she did well enough, but it really doesn't lend itself to the theatrics she attempted at the end.

Time at last for the coin toss, and then at last the game begins. I haven't many photos of the game as it is hard to capture the plays, and much more fun to actually watch the game anyway!

Half time saw a New Orleans type Carnival. This year they went around the track at the side of the pitch, presumably to allow the ground staff full and unfettered access to replacing divots in the turf.

The second half began - and was over all too fast. Happily the Saints won the game (I was supporting the Saints) and I now tip them to follow in the footsteps of my mighty Giants and win the Superbowl. Reasons 1) the team that won the game at Wembley won the Superbowl and 2) the team that Jeremy Shockey played for in London won the Superbowl. Tenuous, very tenuous.

The Occasional Tourist - Part Seven, Charlton

This afternoon I took a healthy walk around my local area. First of all a brisk stroll through Charlton Park where I saw a girls football (soccer) team taking practice and about a half dozen squirrels.

View looking towards Queen Elizabeth Hospital

 

View looking towards Charlton House

Here are some of the dozen or so squirrels - just after they chased each other up the tree!

 

Charlton House - 400 years and counting

St Luke's Church, Charlton

Although there has been a church in Charlton since the 11th Century this church dates from only the 17th Century. Apparently there is only one bell left now since the bells were removed in the WW2 and only one made it back... the same is true (sadly) for the stained glass windows.

Here's another famous part of Charlton, the football Club.

And, nearly the last famous part - the level crossing.

Just down from where I live I Marion Wilson Park - famous in history as a lair for highwaymen. Now famous for the collection of animals that inhabit the various enclosures.

The herd of deer

Flock of ducks

One of the horses

Goats (complete with magpie friends)

More little London moments

This morning I took my (now) customary walk from Whitehall to my office of Piccadilly. I was struck as I walked through Horseguards Parade that the Cavaliers (who at that time of day are generally without horse) had changed colour. Usually they have white trousers, long black boots, shiny helmets and red jackets. This morning the jackets were blue. Strange. Happily there was a handy notice on the wall to explain to me. The Queen's Life Guard (it would appear) is made up of the Household Cavalry (red jackets) and the Blues and Royals (blue jackets). So there it is.

I crossed The Mall and was about to come up the steps to Waterloo Place. My way was impeded by what appeared to be a film crew (and associated facilities). There were lights - and what I presume were actors - there were some people in smart suits just standing... in the trade I think they were 'on their marks'. Waterloo Place itself was full of buses and trailers and all sorts. I'll have to keep an eye on movies and TV and so forth to see if I spot it!

There was strange behaviour tonight on the way back from North Greenwich. Given that Charlton were at home tonight which occasioned more travellers than normal - but there were still an unusual amount of people waiting for buses, and total chaos when they finally arrived and several buses worth of people tried to pile on each. We then queued along to get to West Parkway and the cars continued to queue (luckily the Pilot Busway meant that we carried on!). Then came the turning for Millennium Primary School, and the traffic vanished. Strange.

I got home to find that Rich had already left for football... leaving the back door open (nicely ventilating the kitchen) and a small amphibian friend sitting in the middle of the kitchen. I picked him up and took him back to the Frog Pond. He very happily settled into my hand for the journey, I suspect that he might have been waiting for me!

Some Saturday

Today my broken laptop and I took a trip to Harrow. Our purpose, to decide whether the motherboad was fried or whether a new power jack would suffice. Off we travelled, using SatNav (first time it took us somewhere that we didn't already know). Via Old Street, Angel, Kings Cross and Euston to eventually land ourselves in Wealdstone. Good news, none. Bad news, the motherboard is actually fried. Several hours of bad traffic then ensued to get back to South East London. Home to Charlton and PC World, and a new laptop. It had to be done. Several weeks of no real computer (I love the office laptop, but honestly, it's three years old and it sucks). So... I spent several hundred pounds I didn't (really) have and bought a new laptop. New laptop rocks. Back online from the sofa wihthout several tens of minutes delay. Still really annoyed that one year and two weeks (therefore two weeks out of warranty) the old one broke down, but c'est la vie?!

Online shopping woes

Generally I'm a big fan of online shopping. It means that I don't actually have the irritation of going into a shop and dealing with crowds, unruly children, surly shop assistants, lack of stock and all the other things that blight a shopping experience. It also means that I can sit at my desk (or in bed, or on the sofa, or anywhere else) and not schlep around a several miles of mall. I also find what I want (nearly) every time with minimum  inconvenience and comparing and contrasting is easy. These are the advantages of online shopping.

Online shopping does have disadvantages though. If you buy in a shop you see what you are getting there and then, and (generally speaking) you take it away with you there and then. Transaction completed. If you then (at a later date) have any difficulties you can march back into the store and give a hapless sales clerk an earful... there and then. If you buy online you don't see what you are getting, quite often you have to wait to get it and when you want redress - well, it isn't as easy as you'd like it to be.

Last month I did some shopping on eBay. My reasoning for the purchase (keyboard and mouse) was that a) it was cheaper than I'd find it in the shops and b) given the specialist type shop that I'd need to visit and the timeframes I had available it would probably arrive faster. Faulty reasoning. First of all the PayPal transaction (because eBay own PayPal and pretty much force you to use it) was one of those annoying eCheques (yes, unless you add 'back up funding' they won't do instant transfers anymore). So this took time to clear (just like a real cheque). Fair enough. I then get a 'payment reminder' from the seller. I write to them and politely point out that the eCheque will take time to clear but if they would like to check their records they will see the transaction is pending. Another payment reminder arrives which I ignore (two items were combined under one payment).

PayPal then send me an email to tell me that my payment is cleared. The seller then sends me what I now assume is an automatically generated email confirming that the payment is cleared and informing me that they will contact me when the goods ship. The next thing that happens is that I get an 'unpaid item strike' from eBay. How?! Why?!

Bear in mind two points. The seller has acknowledge the payment is cleared.  I write (several times) to the seller... who eventually apologise and agree that the payment is made and that the 'unpaid strike' will be removed. Nothing happens. I go through the whole process with eBay who remove the strike for me. They won't however let me leave feedback for this transaction because I "didn't participate in the dispute". Whatever. I emailed the idiot seller after the first reminder! Now over a week has passed since the payment cleared and still no goods or indication of when the goods will arrive.

The thing that annoys me the most (it's a tough call on this one) is that PayPal is owned by eBay. It should therefore not be possible if you used their 'preferred' payment system to have an unpaid dispute. The systems should talk to each other. The PayPal transaction uses the eBay item codes. One should look to the other and refuse to let the seller mess the buyer around in this way.

The next thing that is going to happen is that I'm going to file a dispute of my own against the seller for 'goods not received' as this is getting beyond a joke!

Almost Autumn

It is now practically a daily necessity to clear the fallen leaves from the front driveway. Although the weather has been quite mild occasional showers turn the leaves into slippery coatings for the front path. The weather this weekend was amazingly mild (for the time of year) meaning that we must be heading for some bad weather in the next few weeks (especially seeing as my holiday is coming up!).

On Saturday I had my annual flu jab. Not only did I get the jab (ouch, but not as ouch as last year's pneumonia jab) but I also got quantified. Height and weight, because (according to the nurse) the government wants to know. The government got duff info then, as I wasn't required to take off my shoes or anything, so I'm an inch taller and several pounds heavier than in fact. I felt quite ropey for a lot of Saturday after the flu jab, combated by the intake of paracetamol - but according to the nurse this is quite normal and to be expected.

Saturday night's movie was 'Fool's Gold' with Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson. This was a pretty rubbish movie, if we're honest. Pretty much made because they did so well together in 'How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days' I should think. There wasn't really much story, a few funny lines here and there, and some very under utilised actors (Donald Sutherland springs to mind). I wouldn't bother watching this unless you can't find anything better to do. 2 out of 10.

Bad news for Greenwich Park?

My eye was caught by the headline of the Evening Standard lying on my colleague's desk this evening, "Greenwich 'must host' 2012 equestrian events". A government funded report is set to say that it would be 'too expensive' to put the equestrian events at any alternative location.

Little London moments

Yesterday morning I got the bus to work (as I try to do most mornings). Advantages of the bus over the tube is that a) it is cheaper... by quite a bit and b) you have a much better chance of getting a seat. I got on the 53 bus on the downhill bus stop (miraculously restored to its proper position now that the rolling-roadblock replacing London's Victorian water-mains has moved up the road). I sat on the 53 until Deptford Bridge, where a 453 pulled out of the bus stand just in front of us. No worries I thought, plenty of time to get off the 53 and onto the 453. Well, yes - if the 453 wasn't a bendy bus and the driver couldn't see me and the Stick fighting the roadworks trying to get on the back door. Off went the 453 as I shook my fist at it. The driver of the 53 I had just got off then stopped and opened the doors to ask me if I wanted to get back on. I explained that sadly I wanted to go further than his bus was going and I waited another five minutes (not so bad) for the next 453.

My journey onwards was uneventful until we arrived at Trafalgar Square. Here there were an extreme amount of TfL high-vis jacket wearing employees and a fairly large amount of Community Police Officers. The TfL staff were checking tickets, and i can only assume that the CPO's were implementing the full letter of the law against fare evaders. There must have been twenty or thirty people in various uniforms congregated there to carry out this exercise. It reminds me of the days when I used to walk from Blackfriars station to Clerkenwell and under the Holborn viaduct they used to set up road-blocks to check car tax.

Coming home yesterday I was walking along from the bus stop to my road past the rolling-road block that is replacing London's Victorian water-mains (also known as the Littleheath roadworks). As usual I noticed several cars skipping the lights. Not just the 'turning amber so I might just make it' sort, no, the full on 'lights are red but I'm going anyway'. During the moment when no traffic was coming in either direction a car came out of the side-streets (which are informed that traffic on the main road is under signal control). I watched him, he wasn't even trying to guage which way the traffic was going. So, driving along the signals turned green for the traffic coming in the other direction. The car at the front of the queue must have seen this other car turn out from the side street, but decided rather than waiting for the car to pass through the signal control to just 'go on green'. Two cars face to face in single file road amongst the roadworks. Fortunately there was just enough room for the car from the side street to pull over and let all the signal control traffic past. Would it have been too much for that first car to just wait a few minutes to let the other car through?

This morning as I was walking up from Lower Regent Street to my office (just off Piccadilly) I noticed that there was a queue of people outside Waterstones on Piccadilly - some of which had clearly spent the night as there were tents. I idly wondered what might cause such devotion - and a cursory Google search informed me that it was a 'Girls Aloud' book signing. So, now you know.

Grand opening

Today was the 'grand opening' of the newly refurbished toilets in our offices. There are many things which are amazing about this. Firstly they are finished on time (to budget? who knows?) after one month they have finished on the projected day. Unprecedented. Secondly they have learnt from the mistakes of the two previously refurbished toilets.

Mistake one - the toilet roll holders were the spring loaded sort, but rather cheap, and inclined to unspring from their holders if you so much as looked at them leaving toilet paper on the floor. Solution - minimalist toilet roll holders which are just an arm on a hinge... no spring to fall out.

Mistake two - ridiculous wall mounted bin for paper towels with spring lid which either wouldn't open at all or got stuck open. Solution - elegant (?) wire bin on the floor with no lid at all to get stuck.

Mistake three - wall mounted soap dispenser too far from taps and basins leading to unsightly trails of soap over the counter. Solution - free standing soap dispenser (asking to get nicked, but there you go).

Tiny little project, but apparently an exemplar of how things should happen. We all watch and learn!

Not quite marathon

Today was not the weather for being out of the house. As far as I can tell it started to rain sometime around dawn and continued pretty much all day long. You had to feel sorry, then, for those taking part in the half marathon that was trundling around the Borough of Greenwich today. Sony Ericsson's (that's with two S's sign-writers!) 'Run to the Beat' was closing roads in SE7 (amongst other places). Terribly badly advertised it would appear. I saw a great deal of irate motorists trying to get onto Littleheath only to find their way blocked by barriers.

I went out (in the rain) several times to see what was happening. Some irritating drum-and-ethnic type music coming from Charlton Park... a great deal of St John's Ambulance staff... a lot of event organisers on motorbikes... and rain (of course). Just to set themselves apart from the London Marathon the runners were coming from the other direction, eventually. Around eleven some very wet runners finally appeared up the hill from the Barracks. I watched a few of the frontrunners... decided I was wet enough, and went home again. Given the weather there was an impressive amount of people on the street watching... but not many compared to the London Marathon. To be fair, who knew? I don't partake of any local media - maybe it was advertised there, but not much else. The mis-spelt road closure signs (lost amongst all the Thames Water signs) and the plastering of the ticket barriers at North Greenwich - that's it. The annoying music might have alerted you, I suppose.

I've managed a good haul of movies this weekend. Last night was 'My Sassy Girl' - which I almost enjoyed. It was quite cute, but one of those movies where you sit there at the end and say to yourself 'so what?'. There were some funny bits, some touching bits... and it was well written and acted, but it was just a bit tame. Five out of ten.

Today I had a much more satisfying experience with 'Sex and the City' (at last!). This I deeply enjoyed, having missed the TV series since it finished five years ago. If you liked the TV show you'll love the movie... if you didn't like it or never watched it you probably wouldn't get much out of it. Lots of loose ends were tied up - and the end was utterly satisfying for all fans. The only thing you would ask yourself is what is left to put in another movie?! Nine out of ten.

I spent the rest of the afternoon watching 'Paycheck' with the ever lovely Ben Affleck. Superb movie - seen it before, but thanks to my rubbish memory didn't remember much (any) of it, so enjoyed it just as much as the first time that I saw it. Ten out of ten.

I've just enjoyed the 'early' game of NFL on Sky Sports - watching my Giants annihilate Seattle. Mighty Giants 4-and-oh. Unlikely but possible that we could be the annoying will-they-won't-they-go-sixteen-and-oh team. 

The end of the day... the end of the week

It's been another long week at work. The economic slow-down is beginning to bite. The phone doesn't ring so much and the work is getting slower and slower. We're not giving up hope yet, but times are looking lean.

Today was a 'working from home' day. I didn't manage it last week due to the pressures of deadlines; what with that and the set of ten hour days I've been feeling pretty bushed this week. Happily the days have been normal length this week, that and a lot of sleep and not having to do the big commute today, I'm almost feeling 'me' again.

Tonight I'm catching up with the neglected TV and enjoying a glass of wine. Rich is taking a nap prior to the baseball tonight, off on the West Coast so a late start. I'm not participating with the baseball until we get to the World Series, at which point I may have to find a team to support!

This weekend the road up the top of my street is closed as 'Run to the Beat' is passing by - a half marathon sponsored by Sony Ericsson. The thing that made me laugh was all the road closure signs that have been put up have spelt the sponsors name wrong, with only one 's'. Oh dear.

My laptop is still busted. A friend who works with computers took a look at it, and recommended getting the internal power fixed. I'd been hoping he was going to circumnavigate me having to spend any money. C'est la vie. Off to Harrow then.

All about Sunday

Another Sunday full of sport. This afternoon was the first ever F1 night race in Singapore. Eagerly anticipated and hugely hyped. Also from the point of view of night-time, very anti-climatic. Apart from the reflections on the body of the cars and shots which showed the night sky you really couldn't tell it was night-time. It was actually rather like a cloudy day.

The race itself was pretty good. A horrible crash by Renault's Piquet (amazingly he wasn't hurt) brought out the first safety car of the afternoon. A happy few drivers had been brought in for pitstops as soon as the crash happened in anticipation of the safety car (Alonso included). An unfortunate couple didn't and then had to stop under the safety car but before the pit lane opened as they were running out of fuel. Oops, that's a rule infraction. Best of all was another Ferrari FUBAR with their ridiculous automated car-release system. Yep, again. Massa was signaled to drive off with the fuel rig still attached to his car, almost into the path of Sutil, whose quick reactions avoided an accident. Realising the fuel rig was trailing from his car Massa stopped at the end of the pit lane whilst the Ferrari crew had to run down and fix it. Dumped him right at the back of the pack.

Worse to come though... Massa (and Ferrari) are given a drive through penalty for unsafe release in the pit lane. He isn't the only one though. Both Kubica and Rosberg are given stop-go penalties (like a drive through, but worse as you have to stop in your pit box for ten seconds). This is for pitting under the safety car before the lane opened. This is where it gets ridiculous. These infactions happened around lap 16/17. The safety car came in on lap 19. The stewards started investigating the incidents on lap 23 (a lap after they looked into Massa even though his incident was after these!). In the intervening four laps since the safety car came in Rosberg, leading the race, has had the chance to build up a nice big lead, so the stop-go doesn't even really hurt him that much! Ridiculous.

There is still to be another safety car in this race... after that though it all calms down a bit - apart from the delightful moment when Kimi put his Ferrari in the wall. I like Kimi but I hate Ferrari, so that amused me. Alonso wins the race, but Lewis takes third, to increase his lead in the Championship again. Ferrari manage a total of no points, oh dear.

All in all I'm not a huge fan of this new track. Not enough chances for overtaking, the walls are a bit tight leading to otherwise avoidable accidents... there really are too many road races now, what with this and Valencia added to Monaco. There should only be one, the original and the best... Monaco.

Currently I'm sitting watching the NFL - which is what we do in this house on Sundays during the season from six o'clock onwards. My Giants have a bye week this week, but my Jaguars have managed a win and it looks like the Jets will too. Triumphant!

Baseball is practically in the post-season now. Unfortunately despite my conviction that the Yankees would make an amazing come back to be the Wild Card team I was wrong and they didn't. Happily my second favourite team the Cubbies will be there, so maybe this is the year for them to break their curse!

Technology failure

So... the new Dell charger for my laptop finally arrived. And guess what. It still didn't work. Bah. So I decided to contact their online 'live chat' (after failing to get any progress on the phone and being held in a queue for five minutes on a not free phone line). Eventually, after about 15 minutes, I managed to get onto the live chat... and after another ten minutes it finally connected. The whole exercise took nearly an hour... and included numerous ridiculous exchanges. I'm quite convinced that the people who man the live chat have no technical expertise whatsoever and are merely following flow-chart diagnostic guides. We eventually agreed that there must be a problem with the motherboard (which my rudimentary internet searches had already suggested). As the computer is two weeks (two weeks!) out of warranty I have to pay for repairs, so the agent arranged for me to be called the next day with a quote. £190 - which is about half the cost of the damn machine in the first place.

I instantly started looking for alternatives. Which, to be fair there are. Not only there are alternatives, but it would seem that the equally likely problem could be that the power jack needs repairing/replacing. A much cheaper operation. Would the Dell technicians have checked this or would they have just changed the motherboard and cost me £190 anyway. Sadly the best option for the repairs is out in Harrow (they were the only people I could find who weren't going to charge me just to open up the laptop and see what the problem is). Sadly because Harrow is a very long way from SE7.

I have, however, managed to get an internet connection of sorts (in addition to the desktop). I bought a wireless USB device which couldn't be made to work (of course) but a cable out the back of the router has done the trick and the office laptop can just about manage the job. Back on line... and what a backlog. It's been a busy week at work and I haven't had much time to do anything so I've huge amounts of email and blog to catch up with.

So this is democracy...

I get home from work last night to find a brown envelope. Brown envelopes are generally considered ominous. Few people use them... two I can think of are the Hospital (who I can recognise immediately as they put their postcode in their postage franking) and the Tax man (never a good thing). This one however had 'Courts Service' stamped on the front. Immediately I wondered who was suing me. The reality was almost as bad... a summons for jury service. The fact that I might get called for jury service had never even occurred to me, and I can't honestly say that I'm too pleased by this. Yes, democracy in action - there is no way to get out of it. With really good reason you can apply for deferral... and criminals and those lacking mental capacity are exempt... but that is it.

I immediately sent Boss-one a text message to find out if the company still pays me whilst I'm not working. I knew he'd reply straight away as he's surgically attached to his phone. He has no idea, he's considered the possibility about as much as I have.

The shocking thing is that you don't get compensated whilst you are doing jury service for loss of earning. You get paid an absolutely nominal daily amount (about £30) which covers absolutely nothing in this modern world. Clearly the Courts Service need to adjust their allowances for inflation.

Good news is, though, that my random purchase of a EuroMillions ticket yesterday (due to the immense 'must be won' prize fund) netted me £13. Added to the £10 on last week's lottery draw I'm definitely making a profit.

Late night NFL

Does it get much better than this? Sky's NFL games tonight started with the Giants hosting Cincinnati. Superb - I was quite convinced that the might of the Giants would overcome the Bengals. Maybe... almost... eventually. What a game. The lead changed hands... well I lost count but maybe six times. The Giants finally won in overtime (always a scary way to win). Even scarier for me as I'd made the mistake of choosing my own team in our weekly NFL pool (everyone chooses a winner, the complication being you can only choose a team once during the regular season). I was on the edge of my seat.

Even worse, the second game was Indianapolis (yeah, one of the will-they-won't-they potential sixteen-and-oh teams from last season)... which we missed the start of due to the Giants going to overtime. I didn't have much faith in the Jags ability to overcome Indianapolis and "Eli's big brother" (yep, only a Giants fan has it that way round!). The game started pretty slow, and I complained that this was going to be a let down after the Giants game. How wrong can a person be. Although the Jags started behind (for a good while) they managed to pull it back thanks to big second and third quarters. Just ahead going into the fourth somehow it all got tied up. Now it has to be said, Garrad (Quarterback) wasn't having much of a game. Certainly not in terms of throwing (some excellent running plays). They managed some amazing running drives and the clock is ticking and ticking and running down. But, Indianapolis do the unthinkable and get a touchdown to tie the game. Happily my boys still have time-outs... and they move down the field to be in field goal range (just about). It's fifty-one yards (four from eight I'm told our kicker for field goals over fifty yards). I'm biting my nails, sitting on the floor (I fell off the edge of the seat)... I've seen to many failed field goals to have any expectation. Wait a moment... he makes it... it is good! Jaguars win!!! Jaguars win!!!

So... this weekend, my teams are two for two (so far). The Jets are playing San Diego tomorrow night as the Monday night game, so they're on TV too. In an ideal world I get home from work on time... eat dinner... get a nap and wake up for the game. We'll see.

The Jags endgame was scarier than the Superbowl. I always had faith that the Giants would win the Superbowl (even though it got scary at the end)... let's face it... I bought champagne to celebrate the day before I was so confident. I know that the Jags was only one game (and so early in the season)... but nobody wants to lose - and lets face it, they haven't been that good so far this season!

NFL - gotta love it! Happy until January now, me!

Tell me why...

... I don't like Sundays.

My laptop is giving me grief. Again. Turned it on this morning to find no AC power (again) running off battery (again). Given that I've not been able to charge the battery since I replaced the AC charger a few weeks ago that wasn't good as the battery power is beginning to run low.

This time the AC adapter appears to be still working (lights are on on the power pack) it is just that the damn computer doesn't admit that the AC power supply exists. Hopefully when the official Dell version arrives later this week that will fix the problem. If not we're pretty much sunk. I've just paid off the Hire Purchase. I own the machine and the warranty has run out. Typical.

Going mobile!

A blog isn't just for sitting at home with your PC (or your laptop) these days the internet is mobile. This means that you can now pick up 'London Calling' when you are out and about (thanks to the good people at Wirenode). To read 'London Calling' from your mobile phone go to this address: http://beansmail.wirenode.mobi 

The Occasional Tourist - Part Six, London Bridge

Yesterday lunchtime I took a short hop on the Jubilee Line from Green Park down to London Bridge. The reason for my journey? World Traders were organising a sheep drive over London Bridge.

Unfortunately my lunch-break happened too late for me to actually witness the sheep crossing the bridge but I did arrive just in time to see the sheep being taken back to their truck for the journey home.

Here's what happened. About 500 Liverymen (and women) from around the City took the opportunity to take turns driving the sheep across the bridge. This is the exercise of an ancient privilege (of hearsay and legend rather than documented evidence) which allowed Freemen to drive sheep across London Bridge (thought to stem from the fact that Freemen of the City were exempt from Bridge tolls/taxes and London Bridge is the oldest and at one time only bridge over the Thames). My parents (both Freemen of the City - as am I) both took part, wearing robes and so I'm told straw boaters (that would be something to see). For more about the Sheep Drive see this report from the Telegraph.

Some of the 15 sheep

London Bridge

Far left - the Corporation of the City of London wash the bridge!

Whilst I was there I took the opportunity to walk across London Bridge to Monument and back. There isn't much to see at Monument right now as the eponymous Monument itself is being cleaned. The Monument commemorates the Great Fire of London and if laid down would reach from where it stands to the site of the Bakery in Pudding Lane where the fire started. The Great Fire of London burned for four days and nights and decimated large parts of old London including the original St Paul's Cathedral and Guildhall along with thousands of homes and 87 churches. Only five deaths were documented but hundreds of thousands were left homeless. The fire did effectively wipe out any remainders of the Plague (1665) and also allowed the redesign of some parts of London - including many of the beautiful churches designed by Christopher Wren, the current St Paul's Cathedral and a new Guildhall.

Monument

Just after crossing the Thames looking east (or west) will afford views of another London curiosity. Some examples of the elevated walkways that populate the City. Part of a post-war planning initiative these were imposed on many developments through the 60s and 70s. Much was built but little was connected, which means that largely these remain unused.

Elevated walkway

I walked back across the bridge to London Bridge to get the tube back to my office. There are quite good views each way from the Bridge up and down the Thames.

The Thames (looking East)

The Thames, Black Cab included (looking West)

City Dragon

London Bridge must be one of the ugliest main line stations in London - probably matched only by Euston and the new frontage of Kings Cross.

London Bridge (including red buses)

Arriving back at North Greenwich in the evening I took the opportunity to capture Canary Wharf with a lovely sunset and some evening shots of the O2.

Amphibian friends

It's been a while since I posted pictures of my amphibian friends. Not that they haven't been around - they have been visiting the kitchen (and the other night even as far as the lobby) practically every evening. They've become very used to hopping on my hand and taking the taxi back to the Frog Pond! Tonight, however, they all seemed to be in the pond together (I counted six at one point!).

Creativity

It must have been the nature of the week... the whole chained to the desk, head down, deeply concentrating vibe that inhabited this week; but today I felt remarkably creative. I spent the morning scanning old photos into the computer - mine this time, rather than my parents' to put together online albums.

I had to disturb this pleasant pass-time for a trip to the optician. Happily my eyes are healthy (although I must be getting old as I had to have the puff-off-air test for the first time) but unsurprisingly my prescription had altered as my vision had deteriorated. I had guessed this, as the incidences of managing without my glasses has decreased to pretty much not at all unless I'm watching TV in the living room (our living room is VERY small). I can't even see my work computer or the TV in the bedroom now without my glasses. Ah well. I chose a very nice pair of frames (which were happily remarkably cheap) and then came the lenses. The frames I chose were £89 (which considering they were from a 'designer' range was pretty good) and the lenses came to £150. Ouch! The problem is that I like Reactions lenses which negates the need for me to have sunglasses. That is an extra £60. The cheapest lenses available were £90. Those weren't the first ones offered me... oh no. The first ones were £150 (not even the most expensive) I flatly told the sales assistant that I wasn't paying over £200 just for the lenses!

This afternoon I carried on with my creative vibe and got musical. First a little time with the piano. A bit rusty as I haven't played in a while - so I murdered Mozart for a while before moving onto Lloyd-Webber and the like. I find it very difficult to play and sing unless I know the song really well so I decided that I might go and take my guitar out of mothballs instead. I only play the guitar in the sense that I can strum chords to accompany myself (classical guitar and I parted company when I was around eleven after a short and not very profitable relationship). I was delighted to find that Audacity (which I can't even remember why I installed now) allows me to plug in the microphone and record my singing. It even then exports it to MP3. After rediscovering some old favourites (Danny Boy, Amazing Grace and more) I remembered why it is that one should regularly practice. Not just so that one improves... those who don't play the guitar regularly get soft fingers. Those fingers get sore from fretting the strings... and thumbs get sore from strumming. I am finding it painful to type with my left hand now as the fingers are extremely sore for that couple of hours... hence I shall now stop and go nurse my poor fingers!

Interactivity

I seem to spend a lot of my time using email and the internet. Whether at home or at work I seem to be pretty much permanently attached to a computer.

I increasingly find email an irksome way to communicate. Generally speaking the email system is overstretched. Example: at work they email server has a filter attached to it. Every incoming email is scanned and those that are flagged (whether it be for content or sender) are caught in the filter. On an average day between 85-90% of the email received by our company domain is rejected by the filter. Of the fraction of email traffic that anyone actually wants to read you then have all the other things that might go wrong. Often enough it will be wrongly stopped by a spam filter, or the person you are emailing's server is down, or the attachments are too large and it bounces back... and on, and on. It used to be that email was instant (like instant messaging) but it seems more and more frequently to take the same amount of time as posting a letter and having that go on a round trip.

I've increasingly been turning to other mediums to express myself online. First there was MySpace. MySpace and I didn't last. I got fed up of repeated Friend Requests from people I didn't know and from people who certainly would never be my friends if I met them socially. Next  I moved onto Facebook. Facebook and I still get on pretty well. Apart from a handful of people I met on Facebook via an MS group my Facebook rule is 'only people I know'.  I still find it an excellent way to keep up with friends who are spread pretty much globally. I have also tried Bebo (breifly, a long time ago) and Friends Reunited - their limited appeal (especially geogrphically) makes them not very worthwhile for me.

If Facebook is too much (all those irritating applications, and people constantly 'poking' you) then how about Twitter. It's pretty much the 'status' bit of Facebook. It allows you to 'Tweet' short bursts just about as often as you have something to say. You can also link Twitter to your blog so it tells the world you've made a blog post and you can share links that way (if you're using Firefox using a handy add-on).

It doesn't stop there though. There is a whole internet out there, and the best thing is to be able to share what you find and what you're doing with other people. There are lots of ways you can do this... the two that I use are Stumbleupon and Tumblr. Stumbleupon allows you to select interests and rank pages. Once you've installed the toolbar you can press a button and a page that matches your interests will be delivered to your browser.

Tumblr is like a scrapbook. It allows you to collect pretty much anything from pretty much anywhere and put it all together in one place.

This is scratching the surface. There are dozens (and dozens) of other sites. The best ones to use to get the most out fo the experience is to find ones people you know are using or recruit your friends to use them too. The whole community thing really enhances the experience... otherwise you feel like you are sitting talking to yourself!

So now, when I post a blog here on Blogger before you know it Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter and FriendFeed all know about it! If I'm talking to myself it sure happens in a lot of places at once.

Strange urban wildlife moments

Yesterday afternoon I was sitting in my doctor's waiting room. This is a light and airy double height space with some sort of plexi-glass (or equal approved) roof. Suddenly there was a rattling and scratching and general loud noise. I looked up to see what was going on and on the roof I could see the outline of two bird-shaped feet pottering about... with a vaguer fuzzy outline of a bird-shaped body. One of the burgeoning local rook population had stopped to see if there was anything edible for a bird. I'm thinking he was disappointed.

I arrived home from the doctor and parked up in the driveway. As I got out of the car there was a flurry of squirrel tail. A small squirrel was waiting for me to get out of the way so he could rush across the driveway and back to his tree. In his mouth was the most enormous conker... clearly a prize worth having! As I unlocked the front door the squirrel darted across the drive, still clutching his conker-prize (half the size of his head it was, once would have been the apple of a small boy's eye) and shot back up the tree.

My final wildlife moment came in the evening when Rich found Small Toad in the kitchen (he was checking for snails after the recent rainy weather). Small Toad doesn't usually get much farther than a few foot from the door, but this time he'd made it all across the room and was about to hide behind the freezer. Luckily Rich managed to dissuade him just in time and I scooped him up and took him back to the Frog Pond where he joined King Frog for the rest of the evening.

Freddie and Fannie - or how the US Government saved the world

Front page news on the free paper this morning (that which is the Metro) was about the $3trn to 'save the world'.

Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have been (in essence) underwritten by the US Government (by means of the tax dollar) to ensure their continued healthy financial operations. The first thing I was pleased to discover was, despite the pictures of a building labelled 'Freddie Mac' both these institutions have proper names - Fannie Mae is short for Federal National Mortgage Association, Freddie Mac short for Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation. My mental images of two old timers from the Wild West - the finely dressed bar lady with the garter and the old chap smoking his pipe on the porch have now gone up in smoke!

The exact function of these two companies is difficult to understand as there is no direct equivalent here in the UK. Essentially they buy mortgages from approved lenders and sell them on to investors. Between them they apparently guarantee (or own) about half the mortgages in the US. Failure of one (or both) would have brought chaos upon the already unstable global financial markets.

The financial benefit is being seen already as shares in Asia and across Europe rose by up more than 3% already today.

As most people agree that the sub-prime mortgage crisis in the US was at least partly (if not wholly) to blame for the start of the credit crunch it is only right that the solution to the problem should start on that side of the pond too. The BBC had this excellent article on who is to blame for the credit crunch.

Sports on Sunday

Having celebrated the excellent end to this afternoon's Grand Prix it turns out that I was somewhat previous in my celebrations. It isn't over until the Fat Lady Sings... or in the case of Forumla One until the official results are published. The stewards decided that Lewis gained an unfair advantage over Kimi in the 'off-track' passing incident (even though he gave the place back) and fined him 25 seconds... which dropped him down to third place. Mclaren will of course appeal this - but it all takes time.

I'm now enjoying the start of the NFL season. Having seen the Giants beat the Redskins in the first game (and thus make an excellent start as reigning Superbowl Champions!) I was eager to see how my other favourite teams were going to fare. The Jets were playing Miami... the Jets with their new quaterback Brett Favre and Miami with their new quarterback Chad Pennington (who used to play for the Jets!). Happily the Jets won (although it got a bit hairy at the end). The Jaguars dissapointingly managed to lose to Tennessee... two out of three isn't bad, I suppose. Everyone in this house is now cheering on Cleveland as they take on Dallas. Sundays as they should be - lots and lots of football.

The Yankees are playing Seattle at the moment... and winning in the second inning. Although they are still way back in the AL East I refuse to accept that they won't be making the post season until I see the letter 'E' in the elimination column. No matter how unlikely I keep the faith until it is mathematically impossible!

F1un!

This afternoon we were racing at Spa for the Belgian Grand Prix. It was appearing to be a fairly unremarkable race until the very end of the race. About half an hour before the end of the race the notice came up on the screen "Weather Forecast - Rain expected in twenty minutes". Oh yes. We do love a nice fall of rain.

We're three laps before the end of the race when the rain starts to fall. Kimi is leading Lewis and both are struggling to keep their cars on the track as the dry tires lose grip on the wet track. Lewis tries to pass Kimi and runs wide. He's sensible enough to give the place he gains off the track back, and then goes for it again. He passes Kimi... but almost immediately lose sthe place back to Kimi. Cars are all over the place, traffic appears. Then Kimi spins his car into the wall! Kimi is out of the race. Several middle placed cars pit and change onto intermediate tires. Lewis and Massa stay out and somehow manage to keep their cars on the track as they finish the final lap. Lewis practically creeps over the line to win the race. What a superlative finish! Lewis is one step closer to taking the Championship this year.

Sunday catch up

It's been another busy week, and another busy weekend. Yesterday I was off down to see my folks - the primary purpose of the visit (apart from catching up of course) was to help them set up their broadband. Mission accomplished, my parents finish their migration to the twenty-first century. We did it online using their dial-up 46kbps connection... it would have been quicker to do it by phone!

Whilst I was there my mother was going through the drawers in the sideboard, looking for more photos for me to scan into the computer. The drawers of the sideboard are an amazing collection of years of collected flotsam and jetsam. There are ashtrays (in a house of non-smokers) assorted old coins, cards from various occasions, and all sorts of other items presumed lost forever; amongst which: a thermometer, a tape splicer for 8-track tapes, a radiator key, a music box and something for drawing curves. Uncluttered is something that is never going to apply to my parents, and with genes like that what hope is there for me?!

Saturday night movies last night were an interesting collection. First up was 'King Solomon's Mines'. Not a new movie, it must be admitted. Chosen by me because I loved the book when I read it as a kid. Deeply (deeply) disappointing film. The script was terrible (laughable sometimes, and not in a good way), the acting was awful - there really was absolutely nothing to recommend it. The poor man's Indiana Jones (and that is a bit insulting to Indy). Do not (on any account) bother with this one. I'm afraid it get's 0 out of 10. Next up was 'Hot Tamale' - pure comedy. I was worried it was perhaps going to be a bit silly - but as it turned out it was just pure fun. Although it was all about a guy who wants to play salsa they didn't go too heavy on the whole salsa bit. 6 out of 10. Here's hoping that movies by post are going to be sending us some of the new releases we are eagerly awaiting soon!

This morning was completely disastrous. I woke up and turned on the rubbish TV, as I usually do on Sunday; made myself breakfast (tea and croissants) again as I usually do on Sunday; and settled down to the Internet, as I usually do on Sunday. The funny thing was that the laptop was in power-saving mode with the screen brightness turned down. Oops, I thought, the power cable must have fallen out. Nope, power connected. Ah well, I thought, the power cable isn't plugged in properly. Checked the socket. Cable plugged in. Then I noticed that the little green light on the power-pack wasn't lit. Uh-oh. Tried another socket. Nothing doing. Tried every socket I could find. The power lead is dead. Quickly turned off the computer to preserve what little battery power was left.

Off I raced to PC World. It's quarter past ten and they don't open until eleven. Then I decide that actually Maplin Electronics might be a better bet anyway. Rich and I ran across it a few weeks ago when we were on the way somewhere, and noted how useful it might be that we had one so close by. Where were we going? Where is Maplin? I get to Maplin just as they open at eleven and explain to the (very young) sales assistant that I need a power adapter for my laptop. He shows me one that has many connectors and will fix into 'any' laptop. I purchase the power cable (for £35 ouch!). I drive all the way back home (two junctions down the A2) and settle down to plug in the computer. Amazingly none of the eight or so connectors fit into the power output on the back of the computer.

Back into the car. Off down the A2 to Maplin. I explain to a different (very young) sales assistant that I want to return the power adapter I just bought as it doesn't fit my computer. This time I have had the foresight to bring my power lead with me. I am given a replacement (which he shows me the output to prove it will fit). Back into the car, back down the A2, back home. Hurrah. The power cable fits! However because it isn't Dell the laptop notes that it isn't the right cable and that the computer may 'work sluggishly' (what even with all the new memory?) but even worse - the battery doesn't charge.

Next I go to eBay and buy a power cable (that will arrive in about a fortnight). Luckily this costs me very little, and even less because I have a free postage voucher. Sorted - just about, although not quite what I had planned for my Sunday morning!

Off on the town...

So, it's time to say goodbye to one of my Saffie colleagues as he heads back to SA. Farewell to Captain Awesome the Human Jukebox; it will certainly be quieter in the office without him!

We're off to have pizza (or something) tonight at our favourite pizza restaurant just off Berkeley Square. We often have difficulty finding anywhere affordable to eat near the office - that's not really Mayfair, is it?! After pizza - who knows? We have various bars and pubs we have frequented, so I daresay we'll go for a drink (or two) somewhere nearby.

Memory boost

Having had my laptop for almost a year I decided this month that it was finally time to treat the machine to a memory update. Groaning away under a mere gigabyte and toiling daily with Vista, Firefox and the rest my increased use for work purposes was pushing the wee machine to its very limits. More than a few programmes open at once and things would move slower and slower - and a certain few memory hogging webpages would bring the entire system to a crashing halt. I ordered the memory at the weekend and two beautiful gigabytes arrived today. Rich kindly fitted the new memory for me (I only do software, not hardware!) - and off we went. Woosh!

Everything is running faster. The default level of RAM use seems to reside below 50% now (previously usually somewhere around 60-70%). Firefox goes faster... Thunderbird goes faster - the graphics card (which shares the RAM) should also now work better. It's all good really!

The thing that they don't tell you when you buy a computer is that although Vista could run with 512 megabytes (technically, apparently) most manufacturers actually recommend 2GB. So why did both the computers we purchased new with Vista installed each only arrive with 1GB? Inexplicable. Now the memory is sorted I think my next aim will be to upgrade my Vista from Home Basic. That's another thing nobody tells you. To fully integrate on a home network requires Premium not Basic. Whilst the PC running Premium can see the laptop the laptop running Basic can't see the PC. Annoying. It also means that the Xbox 360 needs an wireless adaptor as it can't connect to the network via the laptop running Basic! Oh the trials and pitfalls.

Most immediate computer task - connect my parents to Broadband. The poor things currently connect to cyberspace via a dial-up pay-as-you-go connection!

A trip to the X-ray Department

The Saturday before last I slipped and fell down the stairs. Bumpity-bump and landed on my bottom. It didn't hurt that much at the time and it didn't really hurt much through the following week. Suddenly over the weekend, for no apparent reason, it suddenly became very painful. It hurt to stand, it hurt to sit and it hurt to lie down... oh yes, and it hurt to move between any one and another. This morning as I struggled to work on the bus I resolved to take myself off to the Doctor (again).

I hate making Doctor's appointments. The surgery has a 'book on the day' policy... which is randomly enforced. Example: if you work in town and aren't around during surgery hours you are supposed to be able to book an appointment the day before to ensure that you don't waste your time. Practicality? Well - the surgery opens its doors at twenty past eight. The phone lines don't open until eight thirty. Smart people visit the surgery in person and all the appointments are gone. Today the best they could do for me was ten to four - not early enough (I was already in work by half eight) and not late enough (around six would be much better). Oh yes, the late appointments seem to only be available by booking (a week in advance the receptionist told me today) or by calling the Duty Doctor at half past four (when you then have to rush to get back in time!).

Off my soap box. The doctor poked and prodded me some (that did the whole pain thing no end of good) and said that I had better go and get an x-ray "just in case". We'll get the results in two weeks she told me, unless it's anything serious. So off I trundled to the hospital (which is fortunately a mere half mile from my house). Although I regularly frequent various outpatients appointments I don't go to the hospital for much else. This was a new experience. Imaging (the x-ray etc. department) was extremely busy. During the time that I was there four trollies came and went and three wheel chairs, plus an assortment of foot traffic. Given that outpatients can't generally keep a schedule when they have one I didn't hold out much hope for a speedy resolution in 'on demand'.

I didn't much envy the trolley patients who were lined up in their nightclothes . I didn't much envy the small boy next to me in a wheelchair (I'm guessing he had a broken leg) whose mother told him to stop complaining as poor children in poorer countries would be grateful for an x-ray when they had a broken leg. I didn't much envy the harassed staff racing around trying to get done and keep everything moving. A stark contrast to the genteel nature of outpatients waiting rooms.

A mere 45 minutes after arriving (I'd guessed it would be two hours) I was asked to put on a baffling hospital gown and remove all items of clothing and jewellery except my underpants. I then had to walk back across the waiting room (oh the indignity) to get the x-ray. The radiographer (?) checked it and told me my doctor would have the results in a fortnight; from this I assume that there is nothing therefore seriously wrong.

This is my favourite bit. The waiting. You'd want to hope there is nothing to tell the time it takes them to find out. My worst ever experience was some years back. I fell ill after a course of steroids and my glands swelled up alarmingly. There were cases of the mumps around at the time and as (apparently) mumps is a notifiable disease the doctors sent me to the hospital for a blood test. A blood test for a contagious disease which took somewhere in the region on two or three months to finally be returned. A good thing it turned out that I didn't have the mumps!