Skywatch Friday (3)

No, it isn't the sun... this is the full moon

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Delivery

An enormous cardboard box just arrived at my house. It is the Avonex already. The saga of the bad injection site reactions with the Betaferon was resolved in the end. Change back to Avonex. The reasoning being that it is a) once weekly and b) intramusclar so reactions are less likely... and c) when I took it before there were never any problems.

Just in time for Summer. Not that I'm particuarly bothered or wear clothes showing acreage of skin but the marks on my arms would have shown if I wore short sleeved shirts in the summer... and they look rather like bad bruises (at best) and horrible scabby messes (at worst).

The Avonex takes a delightfully small amount of space for a month's supply (compared to the Betaferon) I don't even mind that it is living in the fridge! All the other associated supplies take the space... cool bag, travel bag, information folder.

I just need to wait for the nurse to call now... just to remind me how to take the Avonex, and then I'm all set.

Tuesday things

Excellent start to my morning today. The bus I got on had a broken Oyster reader, so the driver was waving on all passengers... including those who would normally pay a cash fare but were pretending to have an Oyster. Free ride to London meant that I could get another bus from Whitehall to Piccadilly instead of having to take a long walk. Ironically that bus had the revenue inspectors get on at the next stop. I wondered why the guy next to me suddenly swiped his card... he must have been a seasoned fare dodger and spotted them in advance of the stop. Yes, of course it was a bendy bus.

My little corner of Mayfair has turned into an urban wildlife habitat. The light-well/fire escape area behind our building has been inhabited by about a dozen love-sick pigeons. All you can hear from the common areas is incessant 'coo-ing' and when I looked out of the window so intent were they on their courtships that they didn't even notice and carried on puffing and strutting regardless.

I'm hoping that there is better dissemination of information than the white-board at North Greenwich station. According to an obviously hastily written sign tomorrow night's concert at the O2 starring Tina Turner has been cancelled. Now what are the odds that more than about half a percent of the attendance will be passing through the station on the night prior to the Concert?

I had a moment of panic at North Greenwich when I couldn't find my iPod in my (admittedly capcious) work bag. I sent Rich a text asking if it was at home. Of course it was, came the reply. It would appear that I had made a conscious decision in the morning not to take it with me. Further evidence of my truly appaling memory. The frequent failure of my memory is excellent for enjoying books, movies and TV shows for a second time as if new - but it is getting to be quite irritating in day to day life!

Commonwealth Day

The second Monday in March (which was yesterday) sees the celebration of Commonwealth Day. Parliament Square was appropriately decked out in the flags of the Commonwealth Countries.

It's good to talk

The internet has always been about two things - information and communication. Over the years the way in which information is presented hasn't really changed; things have got slicker and better presented, and more reliant on graphics as download speeds have increased and broadband has taken the place of dial-up modems. Perhaps you don't remember the early days when there was an option (frequently enabled) in Mosaic and Netscape to disable the download of images to increase the speed of page loads. Ah, happy memories. Or the common use of anonymous ftp file servers to download large amounts of information instead of reading it online. Happy memories indeed. Things haven't changed that much - it all just works faster.

What has really changed is communication. Email is still there of course, although it is a lot less useful than in the early days - something upwards of 80% of email traffic is now spam. Less used than fifteen years ago (when the internet first began to emerge into popualar consciousness) are the other communication. When I first met the internet the most popular way to while away time was using a Telnet client to connect with an IRC (Internet Relay Chat) network. This has evolved into the chat rooms we use today. The other form of communication popular back then was newsgroups. These are still around; although the need for more 'real-time' communications means that these have largely been replaced by forums.

It doesn't end there though. It has always been the case that anyone with the time and skills could have their own space in cyberspace. This was either in the form of free hosting (from the likes of Yahoo! etc.) or paid for domain names and webhosting. This still required the formulation of a webpage, and usually a rudimentary understanding of HTML coding if the page was to look anything other than basic. This has all changed with the explosion of the 'Blogosphere'. Blogs allow anyone to get a fairly polished looking page with little or no effort. The author posts, but then readers comment. These readers usually have blogs of their own; the original author reads that blog and comments in turn. Before long an entire 'ad-hoc' community has emerged.

There are now so many ways of communicating with the rest of the internet it is impossible to mention it all. A great deal of the time it is down to personal preference, and a question of who you want to communicate with. For friends and family email and instant messaging services (such as  Windows Messenger etc.) does just fine... for a wider audience there are forums and chatrooms. For those with the time and inclination there are the micro-blogging services such as Twitter... which can almost be like a 'stream of consciousness' with every impulse and thought sent to cyberspace.

Blogging, forums and chat-roooms allow almost real-time communication. It means that content on the internet can be more relevant - equally due to the fact that anyone with a keyboard and internet access is now an author it also means that the internet is less relevant. Luckily technology is always abreast of developments; the use of modern browswers with a multitude of add-ins means that you can customise your browsing experience any way you like.

My cold and I might have spent the day in bed together but the rest of the world was never far away!

Bugs and Bees

Every year a colony of ladybugs takes their Winter hibernation in our bedroom. Every Spring they wake up and all try to leave at once. This usually happens around the middle/end of February - so having got to March already I was a bit worried not to have seen any of my little red and black friends. I worried that perhaps the recent snow had been too much for them.

I was relieved to see half a dozen or so yesterday on and around the bedroom window performing their usual exit strategies. It was quite mild weather yesterday and Friday so maybe that finally woke them up!

Just woken up

Climbing... too lazy to fly

Looking for the way out

Whilst the weather was so fine I decided to spend some time in the garden, hoping that Jaws was feeling a little less persecuted now that the heron seems to have given up on the pond (touch wood).

As I sat on the bench and watched Jaws (I didn't want to get to close in case he was startled again) I saw the most enormous bumble-bee on the table next to me. I'm not fond of things that go 'buzz' (wasps or bees). Actually I generally suffer quite badly from apiophobia (fear of bees) and spheksophobia (fear of wasps). The strange thing is that (as far as I can recollect) I have never been stung by either - no matter, I can't be near them... just the sound of buzzing is enough to have me running for cover.

This bee was a little different, it was clearly just woken up from hibernation... no buzzing, no flying, just crawling sleepily around the table top.

Queen Bee

Jaws has been joined in the pond by an extremely large amount of frogs. I would guess that it will be a matter of weeks if not days before they start spawning. It is nice to think that this year they will be safe from net disasters and predators.

Welcome sign for amphibian friends

Jaws in lonely splendour

The work of art that keeps the netting up

Countries of the world

Here's an interesting question. How many countries are there in the world? This shouldn't be a difficult question to answer... after all, the world is a finite and (extremely) mapped place.

It shouldn't be, but it is... and really does seem to depend on who you ask as to what the answer is. My curiosity was roused playing a simple game which challenges you to name as many countries as you can in fifteen minutes. The total to be named 195.

So; the game has 195, the United Nations has 192 member nations and the US Government (in the CIA World Factbook) lists 194. So, what is the difference?

The UN started in 1945 with 51 member states. It took almost twenty years to double that number. Countries come (and countries go) as the political landscape changes. It took, for example, until 2002 for Switzerland to become a member of the UN; even though the Swiss Confederation was founded in the thirteenth century. So the UN maybe isn't a definitive source.

What about the CIA World Factbook; which is an amazing resource with information about countries and territories across the globe. They list two more countries than the UN member state list, these being Kosovo and  Vatican City. Vatican City is a non-member observer state and Kosovo (which declared independence from Serbia in 2008) is not yet an internationally recognised political entity with only three of the five members of the UN Security Council recognising it.

That gives 194 countries. What is the 195th on the quiz not listed by the CIA Factbook or a member of the UN. That would be Taiwan. Another complex political situation, Taiwan's sovreignty is a subject of dispute between Taiwan and China.

So the answer to the question "How many countries are there in the world?" would appear to depend on your terms of reference!

Occasional Tourist

New Occasional Tourist post about the Thames Barrier

Skywatch Friday (2)

Another beautiful Spring day - fantastic of blue sky with some wispy white clouds -
but Big Brother is watching!

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Space Invaders

These two strange artworks were found on walls near my office. The second one I've walked past so many times I don't even give it much thought, it was only when I found another similar a few streets away that I began to wonder.

A few quick internet searches gave me the answer. A street artist known as Invader who has many of these little mosaics across the globe. According to the website there are currently 101 in London - a few still to find then!

One basket?

You know what they say... never put all your eggs in one basket. Yet when it comes to the internet, that is what many of us do. Google pretty much runs my life, there's Calendar, Docs, Bookmarks, GMail, Analytics, oh and of course, Picasa and Blogger! Let's face it, it is much easier to choose a provider (whether it is Google, Microsoft or another) that gives you all your services. Less log-ins to remember, everything works together; it really works well, most of the time.

The problem is that what you are doing is putting your trust in a service over which you have no control. Your data is on a remote server, and when it all goes wrong... well, what can you do?

Earlier this week Google's popular GMail was hit by an outage. This is not the first time Google has had problems with their services. There was the famous case of the dissapearing iGoogle pages and email (as with any email service) does come and go. The most frustrating thing with an online provider is that you don't really know where to go to find out what is going on, if anyone knows it is broken, and if the are going to fix it. Well Google users need worry no longer. Google have used their Apps Status Dashboard which means that when your Google service isn't working you can see what is going on.

So much for deterrents

Not only did the plastic heron not discourage the real thing from helping himself at our pond, but it actually encourage him. Rich saw the real heron attempting to share a fish with his plastic counterpart. So it would now appear that the contents of the pond consists of Jaws and the frogs.

We spent yesterday morning putting the netting back to protect Jaws and the frogs. To make sure there are no frog spawn disasters (or similar) the netting is raised a foot above the water on bamboo poles.

There were a lot of frogs in the pond with Jaws, so it hasn't been for nothing. RIP little fishes for whom it was too late.

Some of the frog population

A ladybird which doesn't live in my bedroom!

The heron, still watching the pond

Skywatch Friday (1)

Out in the garden this morning and it finally felt like spring!
This was one of a dozen or so planes I saw, as you can see from all the chemtrails!

 

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Occasional Tourist

New Occasional Tourist Post; Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother (London Statues 1)

Another garden emergency

Honestly, we do learn from our mistakes. We were all ready to prepare the pond for the frogs this year, it is just that the frogs have arrived early!

We opened the back door last night (it got rather hot in the kitchen whilst cooking pancakes) to hear splashing from the pond. At first we assumed it was Jaws getting lively after his long winter sleep; but after shining some light on the situations we discovered that the pond was jumping (literally) with frogs. We could hear one in the center (behaving in a rather cliched manner, and making a loud 'gribbit') and we could see a good few trapolining over the netting. One step away from being tangled in the netting.

So, of course. The netting has to come up. Never mind that it is gone nine o'clock and it is dark outside. Rich and I hastily remove the netting startling all the frogs into what remains of the lily pads. A couple of sensible frogs remain in the Frog Pond (where they belong), the rest are just waiting to lay frog spawn.

 

Frog hiding in the ivy

 

Frog taking a rest

Plastic birds and rubber ducks

This afternoon I looked out of the bedroom window to see the damn heron standing in the middle of the pond. Standing in the middle of the pond despite the fact the at the protective netting is still down. The centre of the pond is where the plants are, and the netting had dipped into the water, the heron was standing in the puddle that resulted. I banged on the window and the heron flew off. I went out into the garden to inspect the netting (badly in need of replacement) only to see that heron had only gone as far as one of our neighbour's trees. I shouted and waved my arms (much to the amusement of some watching neighbouring cats) and the bird flew off.

I took myself off to B&Q with the intention of buying some bamboo rods in order that the new netting can be raised above the pond (thus avoiding frog spawn disasters). I spotted amongst "pest deterrents" a plastic heron. I bought this and placed  itnext to the pond to discourage any future poaching from long-legged birds

Fake birds in the garden made me think of the bird collection in our bathroom. Our bathroom has a 'rubber duck' theme.

The collection started with a few traditional yellow types some years ago, and over time has grown and grown to the present size (some 30 ducks!). We also have a collage of duck photos on the back of the bathroom door (hiding some damage where a mirror fell off a few years back!).

These were originally a set of postcards which my nearly-mother-in-law took to the copy shop and had enlarged and then laminated.

I spent a very energetic afternoon hammering them into the door wiht small brass tacks. The overall effect is very cheerful in our small rather dark bathroom.




Below are some pictures of the rubber duck collection, it has to be admitted that nearly of all of them belong to me!

Rock Duck and Sue-Ducku

Diamante Duck and James Pond

Darling Duck and Bud 'Breast Cancer Awareness'

This pair light up when their bases get wet

Duck with shower gel (!), temperature checking duck (the base turns red) and ducks that squirt water!


The pair on the left change colour in hot water, the pair on the right glow in the dark


Sparkly ducks and duck a colleague brought back from a hotel visit


Christmas duck, tiny duck and paddling duck (wind him up and watch him go!)


Parent ducks with baby ducks


Traditional yellow ducks

Very small love ducks

Take a walk on the wild side

Whenever workload and weather permits I like to leave the office at lunchtime and take a walk. Sometimes this is a brisk walk around London's streets and other times a more leisurely stroll in the park.

The nearest park to my office is actually Green Park. Green Park is great if you just want to sit and enjoy the sunshine and read a book, but there isn't much to see, it is pretty much just grass and trees.

Walking through Green Park and across the Mall brings you to St James's Park; an altogether different proposition. Although there are neatly mown lawns and beautifully manicured flower beds the focal point of the park is the lake with attendant wildfowl; although wait a couple of weeks if you want the birds as the lake is currently undergoing maintenance.

As you walk down the path towards the lake more than likely you'll meet some squirrels. They are extremely tame, and if you have some nuts to offer them they will eat out of your hand!

At the lake you will find a variety of wildfowl and birds; pigeons, seagulls, ducks, geese, swans and even pelicans! Again most of these birds are extremely tame (especially the ducks and geese) and will definitely try and join you if you sit down for lunch!

The pelicans are quite stunning with their enormous beaks - and more than happy to pose for the tourists!