Luke's Blog

pop3 picture extraction and API fun

2009-04-02T08:19:00.000Z

you may (or most likely may not) have noticed i've had a few problems with twitpic and twitxr of late. not that either of the services aren't admirable and thoroughly decent but for my purposes neither quite hit the mark. twitpic's xml feed changed since they switched to new servers (basically destroying my uberFeed call no matter how much fiddling i did to fix) and twitxr seems to have an issue with the shortening of urls when posted to your linked twitter account (if you post in the region of 120chars + url) - this was all much to the annoyance of some of my followers who were quick to pick me up on the fact that my boring snapshots had failed - nice one Dean / Tim / Rob!

if you want a job doing, do it yourself - the old adage runs true, at least this way i'd have full control over the output and not be reliant on a third party who might change their setup without warning and subsequently break my code.

the snapping of a scene and sending it to twitter with my mobile phone has so far quenched my prattling needs so that method needed to be followed with the new system. first off i needed an account i could access with coldfusion and being an avid google fanboy i set one up. after a bit of poking around it would seem CF7 doesn't directly support google's pop3 implementation over SSL but after some in depth research (we all know what that means) i found a nice stub of code which when placed before the cfpop tag utilises the underlying java to enable it:


<cfset javaSystem = createObject("java", "java.lang.System") />
<cfset jProps = javaSystem.getProperties() />
<cfset jProps.setProperty("mail.pop3.socketFactory.class", "javax.net.ssl.SSLSocketFactory") />
<cfset jProps.setproperty("mail.pop3.port",995) />
<cfset jProps.setProperty("mail.pop3.socketFactory.port", 995) />

the cfpop tag did its thing and looping over the data produced some fine header information about what was sitting in the box. it's at this point we really should consider security, you don't afterall want spammers emailing you obscene material only to find your autoEmail process has published it under your name for all the world to see. the best way to deal with it i concluded would be to only process emails that came from a reputable source ie me :) so a quick check before processing that the current email record's 'from' was from me did the trick.

using a second cfpop tag to get at the current message via it's uniqueId (uid) provided some more data to work with including checking for an extension of 'jpg' on the extracted attachment (not foolproof of course but enough for a single user). at this point we can be fairly confident the message isn't bogus and the real processing can begin:

<cfset thisTimeStamp = #dateFormat(Now(),'DDMMYY')# & #timeFormat(Now(),'HHMMSS')#>
<cfset thisFile = "posted_" & thisTimeStamp & ".jpg">
<cffile action="rename" source="#expandPath('./')#images\#email.attachments#" destination="#thisFile#">
<cfset thisPath = expandPath('./') & "images\" & thisFile>
<cfset thisUrl = siteUrl & "?post=" & thisTimeStamp>
<cfset thisSubject = email.subject>
<cfset thisSubjectLen = len(thisSubject)>

this little lot just renames the attachment to something unique (dateTime) and gives us the url which we'll ultimately be sending visitors to (that page is just one that's waiting for a post= url parameter to display the pic). please note #siteUrl# is a global variable and #email.xx# variables were provided by the cfpop query. now, why do you think we've set #thisSubjectLen#? because, frankly it matters if we want to update twitter with our new status since it has a 140chars limit - you'll see it later on.

now we move into the final exciting stages and API (application programming interface) goodness.

this was very simple but pleasing chunk of code for setting up the final status ready for sending to twitter:

<cfhttp method="Get" url="http://is.gd/api.php?longurl=#thisUrl#" result="shortUrl">
<cfset shortUrl = trim(shortUrl.fileContent)>
<cfset shortUrlLen = len(shortUrl)>
<cfif shortUrlLen thisSubjectLen GT 137>
<cfset status = left(thisSubject,thisSubjectLen-shortUrlLen-4) & " - " & shortUrl>
<cfelse>
<cfset status = thisSubject & " - " & shortUrl>
</cfif>

firstly a 'cfhttp get' to http://is.gd (url shortening service's API - i use the term loosely in this instance) and pass it our created url, then grab the newly shortened url from the fileContent returned and tack it onto the end of the email's subject. you may notice a basic calculation in there for making sure the subject and the hypen sandwiched by spaces + the url doesn't go over the 140 limit - something twitxr would be wise implement!

finally the status package is sent to twitter via it's own API and BAM! the job is complete!

<cfhttp url="http://twitter.com/statuses/update.xml" method="post" username="#twitterUser#" password="#twitterPass#"
<cfhttpparam name="status" value="#status#" type="formfield" />
</cfhttp>

i'd recommend setting up a test twitter account before you go live with this bit since you're likely to irritate any followers with test status updates.

don't forget to add your cf template to the cfschedule for processing every so often, if you don't the script won't ever check that bulging pop3 box of yours.

summing up

in short we've done all the following:

- checked a pop3 account for messages
- looped over each message check it's from a trusted source
- extracted a jpg attachment and created a url to it
- shortened the url
- appended the shortened url to the email's subject
- sent the status update to twitter

cfhttp and cookies

2009-03-24T18:40:00.002Z

following on from my work on Luke's uberFeed i had looked a bit deeper into the cfhttp tag and found some pretty cool stuff. i knew this was all theoretically possible but had never really had the reason or impetus to use it - and a man can't spend his entire day coding when there is tea to drink and biscuits to eat!

i'd written a script to enable some of our less technical (perhaps is should say 'more artistic') staff members to update a corporate news site with a bunch of repeated logos saving them having to faff around with HTML. it's been working well and everyone is happy with the setup - everyone that is except me (same old same old). once the artists have submitted their dazzling creations the auto-generated HTML copy gets sent my way and i manually cut n paste it into another form on the live on the corporate site. now, as any self respecting code hacker would know the word there that irk's me is 'manually' so in my quest for efficiency i needed to zap this job, i mean, you know it took me about thirty seconds - that's thirty seconds tea and biscuit time that i don't want to waste.

the magical CFHTTP will let you do http 'GET' requests which as we know can be useful but it can also do 'POST' requests meaning that you can (i like this bit...) pretend to be a browser. aside from playing with your scrollbar pretending to be a browser isn't all that exciting until you look at this:

<cfhttp
method="post"
url="http://www.somewebsite.com/someForm"
result="postIt">
<cfhttpparam name="whatDoYouLike" type="formField" value="i like tea and biscuits"></cfhttp>

that tiny amount of code will behave just like your browser would, it will head to the website, slap an "i like tea and biscuits" into a field called 'whatDoYouLike' and the remote website won't bat an eyelid. that's been somewhat simplified for the purposes of my lazy blogging technique but from that you should be able to customise it for your own needs.

i've neglected thus far to mention security, if you're dealing with a form you could well have a layer of security (read login form) in front of it which you're faux browser is going to hit long before it finds the biscuit box. in my case the problem was the server was expecting a cookie (haha, as i type i kid you not - i hadn't previously planned this whole cookie/biscuit thing!) now with that CFHTTPPARAM you can also send other types of vars including the 'cookie' type.

great! i'll do that then - but what's the name of this cookie and what's it's value? hmmm...

<cfset thisCookie = ListGetAt(getCookie.responseHeader["Set-Cookie"],1,";")>
<cfset thisCookie = #replace(thisCookie,'someKeyName','')#>

prior to this bit of code i had setup a simple CFHTTP named 'getCookie' just to get a reponse back from the remote server, the resulting response includes various useful variables one of which is structured header data (responseHeader) which contained a name/value pair called 'Set-Cookie' - this was the crumb i was looking for. all you need to do is get at it's value with the listGetAt() function and then strip out the useful key (with the replace() function) all ready for the return trip to the server.

<cfhttpparam name="someKeyName" type="cookie" value="#thisCookie#">
<cfhttpparam name="username" type="FormField" value="CookieMonster">
<cfhttpparam name="password" type="FormField" value="b1scu1t54me">

so, the overall idea being you firstly 'GET' your cookie value coming from the server, then 'POST' it back in response (just like enabling cookies in your browser) and finally in any subsequent CFHTTP's use that cookie variable to prove you are indeed the cookie monster. i've not had much time to finalise the code but it's getting me through security and dumping the HTML in the following form - just need to let it utilise global variables and the HTML generator should be sorted.

kettle on, where's my stash?

Luke's uberFeed

2009-03-17T18:04:00.006Z

with this itchy rash of web 2.0 sites out thee i've found i have a host of sites that im updating (twitter being the most regular, i really do like micro-bloggin') and it's all been a bit disjointed. now for the the more techi amongst you, why would you want multiple feeds coming in from one person? just fills your newsreader with junk. it's also kinda annoying having to point people in the right direction whenever something get's updated, eg:

a new crop of photos have gone online and i give my old man a call: "hey dad, want to see my new photos?", "sure son, are they on that twithead thing you gave me?", "uhhh, no - they're on picasa, you know the photo-sharing place", "nope, don't recall - do you have a link?".

something had to be done.

RSS to the rescue

you might have seen the little orange rss buttons floating around the web?! basically they provide a link to the raw data of a webpage and are usually consumed by another electronic service somewhere to re-produce the headline, link and brief description of the original article. so, in a nutshell, im able to grab these rss feeds from the sites i post to (blog, twitter, youtube, picasa etc) mix them all together and chuck them back out in date order and in the format i decide.

technical challenges (management speak for "pains in the arse")

only bother reading on if you're a web techie... (if not just go to Luke's uberFeed you'll get the idea.

feeds can be slightly different to one another which means some intervention would be required to make them all play nice. for instance, an atom feed is different to an rss feed - to be honest im not sure of all the differences - something about harvard doing one and someone doing something else, and.. well i don't really care, all i know is if it's structured - i can get at it :-) which is what i did. coldfusion offers some excellent xml functions and with a little bit of messing you can soon pull the fields you need out.

simply put if you create an object by calling a url with cfhttp, then parse it with xmlParse you can then get at the data fairly easily:

something like:

<cfhttp url="http://lukenukum.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss" method="get">
<cfset doc = xmlParse(cfhttp.fileContent) />
<cfoutput>#doc.rss.channel.item[1].title.xmlText#</cfoutput>

will bring you back my latest blog post title (swap the 1 for 2 to get the second title etc). you can then adapt this to get the url and description, it's not rocket science but it's a handy thing to know. all well and good, this enabled me to produce a pretty list and then repeat the process for my other feeds - all similarly tagged (albeit slightly differently) in the XML.

but how to get them mingled with each other so that they form a nice time line? a faux query of course. creating a query object from scratch means that once you have it you can query it just like you would say an SQL database, so using something like the following (ideally in a loop over your XML object):

<cfset thisCell = QuerySetCell(thisRss, "title", doc.rss.channel.item[1].title.XmlText) />
<cfset thisCell = QuerySetCell(thisRss, "published", doc.rss.channel.item[1].pubDate.XmlText) />

it populate that query object (thisRss) which you can then treat just as you would a database query (ie - select title from thisRss order by published) - magic. theres a whole bunch of other stuff going behind the scenes including date formatting and a fix for twitter which clears @[twittername] replies from tweets - they now get filtered out along with other bits of ugly HTML via some regular expressions.

tbh, im getting a bit bored of typing now, suffice to say im fairly happy with Luke's uberFeed (oh, and there's an rss spawn of it here). i know friendfeed is a very similar and far superior option *but* it's all a bit too much... i just don't need more than a link and brief description of something i posted.

i guess the only question that remains is why you'd want to efficiently bring together a bunch of prattle... good question, good question :-/

keep it real campers.

fancy learning some new words?

2009-03-16T22:43:00.004Z

ever in a conversation when the other person throws in a word you've heard a few times but don't know the meaning of? me too. it's easy to ignore but once you start looking for these words they're everywhere - tv, radio, books...

i don't like having to pretend i know a word, it's just plain wrong... so, i've decided to do something about it. every word i hear that i don't know the meaning of i do some quick research and then log it on twitter (in laymen's terms). this serves two purposes: firstly it keeps track of all the words (im the kinda person who will forget them a second and third time...) and secondly why not share the words with others?

you may well know the meaning of the word but if you're like me and fancy enhancing your vocab occasionally, why not follow: http://twitter.com/newWord/ i've put up the ones i've so far stumbled across.

NYC Rocked

2009-02-14T19:04:00.005Z

well if you had been keeping up to date with my twittering you'd not need to read this! im not going to bore you all with the time we had in New York but it was fabulous... i'd even go so far as to say i'd live there if the time/job was right! it's got so much and even though im a country boy at heart i could definitely do a stint there. hard to explain what the feeling of the place is, but whatever it is, it's got it.

Manhatten looking South with Empire State Building in the centre.

Grand Central Station, what a space!

Business District, the Twin Trade Towers used to stand behind this scene.

see the full album here.

quickest route to updating twitter status with a Sony Ericsson K850i

2009-02-05T18:26:00.003Z

twittering from my standard 'candy bar' mobile phone is still a bit clunky. the quickest method i've found is by sms text, even though twitter bangs on about not being about to send you texts remember you can still send texts to it! unfortunately for me though the UK network 3 seems to charge 25p for a text post which is quite a scandal but what can you do when you're stuck in a contract?! the cheapest way for me to tweet is to use my data allowance and use the web, this is not perfect as you have to open a browser, sign-in and then finally tweet. i've tried Twim but it seems slow to load the app and to load the recent messages, i wasn't overly impressed but will give it another shot in a different location [edit: tried it, still too slow, zapped it from my apps].

still, they say a picture speaks a thousand words and i think i've found the best solution for sending a picture which will also obviously include a tweet. note, im hoping you've already got a unique email address from twitpic to enable picture attachments to tweets (if you haven't go get one now and save the email address they give you in the contacts on your phone).

normally if you take a photo with the K850i the send button that's made available immediately afterward only allows you to send via MMS or blog - this isn't good enough as they've hidden the 'send via email' selection presumably to persuade you to pay for an MMS if they can, those dirty dawgs. the problem is i've found myself taking a picture, closing the camera application, opening the photos list, searching for the photo and then having to send via email, this isn't great but there is a work around which isn't intuitive but perfectly functional once you've done it a couple of times.

firstly i'd advise setting the camera up to take the smaller 640x480 resolution images, this serves two purposes:

a) it saves you having to resize each big picture before you send and
b) saves the time it takes to process the picture in 'photoDJ' which is a step you need to go through.

so... you're set, picture the scene, there you are walking along your favourite road and suddenly a martian aircraft crash-lands in front of you, GO!

1) pull the K850imNotGreatAtTwittering out rapidly from your pocket
2) press the little photo activator button on the top of the phone
3) take the picture
4) press the 'options' button (not the send button!)
5) select 'edit in photoDJ'
6) press the 'select' button
7) select 'send'
8) select 'as email'
9) fill the 'to' with your twitpic email (should be a shortcut by now)
10) fill the 'subject' with your tweet
11) press 'cont.' button
12) press 'send'

and you're done. it's not perfect granted but because you're using the default camera and the default email i think that's the quickest method to getting that photo and update to twitter. i've posted in just under 30 seconds from start to finish... not bad but im keen to hear of anyone else who has a better method or knows of a client that would be faster.

Some pics of the snow

2009-02-03T09:02:00.006Z

was glad i took the camera out yesterday morning, managed to get a few nice snaps on the cycle to work before the clouds closed in again:

top of Boscombe

Boscombe looking west to Bournemouth

Looking east from Bournemouth

Boscombe Pier

Bournemouth beach

Bournemouth Pier

and i took this because in a small way i feel a bit sorry of the hated ugly beast that is the old Imax building:

see all the snaps in higher rez here.

twitter? wassat?

2009-02-02T16:04:00.004Z

twitter? everyone is twittering on about it and yet it's been around for ages (well, ok, but it's all relative isn't it?!). now, im not claiming to have been an avid twitterer - oh no, far from it but two recent media jabs into my digital veins have prompted me to dust off the old twitter account and give it another shot (oh how fickle and trendy i've become!)

you may recall the story about the plane that came down into the River Hudson a couple of weeks ago actually broke on twitter which probably wasn't a first... but seemed to be the first *really* big story to have hit the headlines in this way. this along with Stephen Fry's keenness for the service has made me feel the time was right to twit-back-on.

what is it? basically it's simple, you make small (often regular) posts (aka tweets) to the twitter site - stuff like "sampling a new ale at the Winchester, so join me already!" (adding American twist is obligatory) and other people can 'follow you' ie - read the posts. you can 'follow' other people's posts and the result is a list of what each has been up to. you can also reply to each other's posts direct if you so choose and in this way you sort of create a semi-conversation-that's-public - i suppose you'd (ok, i'd) call it.

sounds sort of pointless and just a fat-free slacker's blog post which i guess it is, but the fact that you keep people up to date with what you're doing in snippets is quite a nice one. quicker than emailing, blogging and phone calls it would make a nice job of letting the folks know what you were doing whilst a long way from home. i think the fact the posts have to be so short (only 140 characters infact) forces you to make a concise entry that isn't a great chore and, as the article above points out, it sure is a fast way to break a story if you're in the right place at the right time!

you can also do some other nifty things with twitter if you're so inclined, eg - use your posts to keep your facebook status up to date, add a feed to keep things fresh on your main blog (look to the right!) and you can do it all via text message if you wish - handy.

in a strange way you almost feel 'close' to those who you are following, much more so than a standard blog write-up, the fact i know where Stephen Fry is on a particular night of the week is, dare i say quite exciting! anyway, i'm rambling to much, it's probably just another fad... but lets just tweet all the above:

[ now using twitter again, it's like terrific, follow me http://twitter.com/lukenukum, ps - it wont last ]

decoration's what ya need

2009-01-20T11:47:00.004Z

hello folks, it's with hands-a-white and face-a-speckled i greet you today. not the most exciting of news but news non-the-less. we've been focusing our efforts on painting and decorating the bedroom all weekend and have continued into the evenings this week and i have to say the hard work is proving to be very satisfying indeed.

i think the fact that this time round we've done a proper job and not cut corners or done any quick fixes im feeling a real sense of achievement, dare i say pride in the work. the walls have gone from the rather over-powering and strangely gloomy light violet to the homebase cheesily named 'contemporary' which to mere mortals like you and i would be considered 'cream'.

the ceiling has been a challenge primarily due to a particularly stubborn large brown damp stain that didn't shift after three coats of white emulsion [please feel free to yawn at this point] a tip from a friends mother (obviously well versed in such events) recommended sealant on it to prevent the stain penetrating to the new paint... low and behold this certainly appears to have done the trick - i suggest you jot that tip down, sealing the ceiling is inevitable and we will all have at least one heavenly stain problem at some point in our lives.

moving swiftly onto the glossing; often the most irksome of painting tasks, you must be patient and methodical - not so slow as to let the previous strokes dry but not so quick as to risk glossing that which should not be glossed, it's and art in itself but definitely worth the effort - so don't skimp and think that left over emulsion will do!

we're nearly there and tonight will be the final touches before the new carpet goes down tomorrow. i have to say, im rather excited about it all - i shall add a finished picture later in the week (you lucky guys).

Before:

Currently:

update 22/01/09

carpet down, just need to get some new curtains now!

Finally:

Chinese Democracy at last!

2008-11-11T14:50:00.002Z

i've not been this excited since i was born. seriously. the word is out (i might have been late hearing it but that doesn't matter now)... Guns N' Roses first album for 13 years (that's not a typo) titled 'Chinese Democracy' is due out 24th November 2008, fan-bloody-tastic.

a lot of people never liked GnR and just saw them as another big-hair metal band from the 80s this my friends is so wrong. ever since the release of the classic edgy Appetite For Destruction album which instantly set them apart from the other tripe that was around at the time, they've written some incredible tunes many of which are to be found on the epic (and i mean epic) Use Your Illusion I and II. for all those who say Axl is the 'problem' with Guns N' Roses you're incorrect, im not in anyway saying the original members weren't as important, im just saying that Axl was (is) the driving force behind the band and to my mind one of the best writers the rock world has ever seen - there's so much more to Guns than people think, i urge you - take the time to listen to the lyrics, analyse the arrangements, feel the quality of the recordings - it's always the complete package and i've got my fingers well and truly crossed for the latest product!

it takes a lifetime to realise how good some bands are and it's only years later i've come to realise that Axl Rose is one of the few people who had already given me answers to questions i didn't know someday i'd need to ask. thank you.

some of the great lines that just speak for themselves:

just because you're winnin'
don't mean you're the lucky ones (breakdown)

and the streets don't change but maybe the name
i ain't got time for the game (patience)

coz nothin' lasts forever
and we both know hearts can change (november rain)

old at heart but i musn't hesitate
if i'm to find my own way out (estranged)

sometimes we get so tired of waiting
for a way to spend our time (coma)

yeah you got to make a living
with what you bring yourself to sell (bad apples)

it don't matter how we make it
'coz it always ends the same (you could be mine)

i make the fire
but i miss the firefight (it's so easy)

read Rolling Stone's review of the new album here.

google chrome

2008-09-12T12:21:00.003Z

i like google, i'd be the first to yell from the rooftops "bring back my google" if anyone deleted the homepage. but seriously google - you bring out a new browser (google chrome) which is fairly sexy, slim n snazzy then i try to install your own toolbar to complete the setup and... i cant.

one word google,

dumb.

the post office

2008-08-15T16:18:00.003Z

sorry i've not blogged for ages, a couple of people have commented on my lack of writing which i guess is actually a good thing - it means people do read it! so here's a post (pardon the pun).

i'll just ease back into it with a good ol' moan. this time it's about the post office.

i went in to my local branch yesterday and immediately found i was (again) at the back of world's longest snaking queue. as i very slowly meandered through the lane i became quite aware of the lack of things to read, infact, the only material available to us wretched package bearers was a bunch of leaflets purely dedicated to different types of national savings and investments *yawn*.

so first off post office people get your queue levels down, this can be accomplished by stopping your staff talking to customers about the weather/hair/the decline of the post office. in the mean time provide some decent reading material to aid my epic queue journey.

eventually the sign above me lit up accompanied by a computer-sounding-argos-like "please move to position 5" announcement... i marched toward the counter with vigour. wanting to leave post office arena as quickly as possible i was concise: "hello, can i send this parcel first class recorded please?". the pretty Polish woman answered... "you can, how much is it worth?" "umm, i'm not sure".

i knew how exactly how much it was worth but i also knew telling her it's value would mean a slap in the wallet leaving more than just the bad taste of a stamp in my mouth. as far as i was concerned all she need to know was where it was headed and that it was properly packaged.

we continued our dialogue: "we can't guarantee delivery of recorded post and don't pay for damages - if you want it to get there safely i'd advise special delivery for £6.80" she said.

"you mean if i send this first class, recorded, it may or may not get there and if it doesn't i can't hold you responsible?"...

"yes".

POST OFFICE - how can you possibly do this to people!? im paying for a service to get my package from point A to point B end of story. im already paying over the odds for a recorded delivery because of past failings i don't trust you with 'normal post' (which i should be able to rely on!). you're hardly inspiring customer confidence and loyalty by straight away saying 'we can't guarantee delivery unless you pay more than double the recorded rate'.

it all sounds to me like a license to print money. i know accidents can happen but you should be priding yourselves on a great reliable service. i can just imagine the work-ex boys in the depot now "alright Dave, this one ain't got a special sticker, fancy a kick around?".

my mind whizzed through the choices...

1) give these idiots my package along with £3.20 and cross my fingers.
2) give these idiots my package along with £6.80 being ripped off.
3) walk away now and send it with another mail company.

i went for option 1, option 2 made me too angry and option 3 well, who else sends post for the public from the highstreet?! perhaps i should start a postal company and not guarantee any sort of delivery and offer no comeback and charge extra. hmmm.

my fingers are still crossed...

king of chutney

2008-03-26T15:20:00.005Z

made my first ever batch of chutney this weekend - a tomato based, spicy, slightly curried affair. not having done it before i didn't have a clue how it would turn out... but im glad to say it was pretty delicious! perfect with a nice bit of medium cheddar.

i was amazed at how much liquid i started with and how much it finally boiled down to - three jars in total. the kitchen still smells of the stuff but im looking forward to making a new batch. if you're interested in a jar - send me your order! ;-)

user rant

2008-02-18T17:48:00.000Z

they get my goat, and who are they? users, your bog-standard-joe-public-home-fumbling-pc-owning-net-illiterate, the people who come to me and say "i've got a problem with my pc at home - it was working fine, i didn't do anything but it seems to have slowed down, do i need to delete my temporary internet files?" NO!! you useless cockwomble, deleting a few html files and some low quality jpegs of glamour models isn't going to help. you NOT doing anything is the problem - passive use of a computer and a lack of any digital common sense is your problem.

its always the same and i need to rant! it plays out something like this...

somehow these dim-witted cretins have crawled into the slow lane of the "information super-highway". double-clicking where single-clicking would suffice they seem so far to have miraculously dodged the constant barrage of packets moving at great speed towards their clumsy analogue minds.

only today they got hit, today the fact that their pc was out of control dawned on them. any self respecting computer user would have noticed this behaviour early on and probably done something about it - maybe found out a little bit more, asked a few questions, googled it. but not them, nope instead they've been oblivious all this time until finally they threw the problem my way assuming i'd pull a solution out of my **** and be able to tell them exactly how to fix their myriad problems in a "jiffy". they want this information at 9.07am and expect themselves to be able remember and follow these verbal instructions twelve hours later.

they wonder why their machine grinds along as they try to open word... it's obviously not the surplus processing power, superabundance of ram or gargantuan harddisk causing the bottle neck. perhaps it's the cluttered desktop with icons precariously balanced on top of one another. maybe the tangle of free firewall applications inter-twinned with numerous other anti-virus and pop-up stopping programs lounging around in resident memory that now flash angrily in the tray demanding attention that never comes.

perhaps its none of these, perhaps it's the big 'OK' button screaming danger that somehow snuck through those chaotic defence mechanisms which they innocently clicked after xxx.com told them they have a virus and would they like to fix it? coz yeah, that'll be the problem solved won't it...

suddenly their 'my docs' full of files with imaginative titles like "Dear Bank Manager.doc", "internet passwords.xls" and "DON'T DELETE ME IM IMPORTANT.doc" is empty, the files traverse the ether finally ending up with the shady recipients whom the bbc warned us about.

whilst all this is going on and also unbeknownst to our cretin, his bloated pc has now been hijacked by a mafia type script kiddie and been turned into a zombie... so here is where i can take some solace in the fact that as it sends out another trillion Nigerian scam emails (some of which he'll receive at work and probably reply to) and as it mercilessly hammers a bunch of ftp servers whilst also broadcasting big 'OK' buttons to other numb-buttoned-keyboard-searching-dweebs - its finally utilising its processing potential.

i feel a little better now.

the Wedding of Chris & Charlotte

2008-02-11T19:05:00.001Z

Chris Charlotte Wedding 2008

it's been a long time coming but Saturday 9th February 2008 saw the wedding of Chris and Charlotte and what a fine day it was too! held in a beautiful church just outside of Telford the sun shone and the day's proceedings went off without a hitch.

congratulations Chris & Charlotte on your wedding - may you have many happy years of marriage :-)

Queen Elizabeth II trip

2007-12-16T15:32:00.000Z

QE2 2007

Friday afternoon we boarded the Queen Elizabeth II bound for Zeebrugge in Belgium - for the final part of my never ending 30th birthday celebrations, a mini festive cruise and boy, was i excited. the day was dull and grey but this did nothing to dampen my spirits - i'd always wanted to get onboard the QE2 and was planning to make the most of it.

once aboard we dashed about the ship eager to see all the various areas and places contained within. i can officially say - she's a beaut! very cozy carrying a real sense of nostalgia as you roam the decks, corridors, bars and restaurants.

my folks made the trip across Southampton water that evening on the Hythe Ferry and im hoping might have some video footage of us waving from he upper deck. we had a lovely meal that night and spent some quality time sipping cocktails in the Chart Room bar - one charming place i can highly recommend.

we arrived in Zeebrugge on Saturday morning planning on a shopping escursion to Bruges but unfortunately there was a rail strike on making it difficult to get to and from the city. we headed for the very chilly coastal town of Oostende and it's Cristmas market which was very atmospheric. after a few hours we finished off our Glühwein and hoped back on the tram to the ship.

now, even though the temperature was only about 2 degrees above freezing some crazy folks were getting in the outdoor jacuzzi's... im glad to say, we were counted in the small band of nutbars bound for the deck in our swimsuits. *brrrr* see the proof here!

Saturday night was the formal dinner and i think for possibly the first time ever i wore a tux - now i know i really must be 30. it was another excellent night, great meal (followed by a sneak out onto the deck to experience the chill of the channel in December) we then took in show, did some gambling, had some what you probably wouldn't call ball-room dancing activity and held all this together with wine, cocktails and brandy - splendid.

getting up early on Sunday wasn't so much fun, but we'll not talk about that. the QE2 met all of my expectations and i feel very lucky to have been onboard in her final year before she is 'shipped' off to Dubai in 2008.

imagine it

2007-12-10T17:20:00.001Z

you've really gotta feel for people sometimes. i came across this article today entitled "Man trapped in bowling club toilet for four days". and what a corker it turned out to be!

to be honest, you don't need to read the article, just the title says it all but there are numerous comical quotes you can't fail to be amused by in that cruel way some of us (okay, i) laugh at unfortunateness.

1) "I did a survival course once and knew I had to keep my feet warm, so I kept running a basin of hot water and putting my feet in, to send the heat through my body"

can you imagine how he got his body in this position... numerous times?

2) "A few days earlier the outside handle had fallen off"

must have been tricky getting in there - really didn't see it coming did he.

3) "I was lucky to get three hours sleep a night."

sounds like a hotel complaint! you know, i mean, i'd be expecting more shuteye on a cold tiled floor.

4) woman who found him - "I heard a voice shouting you can't get in here, I have been locked in here for four days"

even though he was trapped, still felt he had to prove no one else would be able to get the door open. where's the screams of "GET THE DOOR OPEN NOW!"

5) "Nobody had been looking for David. A wife may have wondered where he was but he is not married"

this may also explain point 6

6) "no food or mobile phone"

because whats the point of having a phone if you have no family or friends to come looking for you?

7) "at least i had somewhere to go to the toilet"

it just couldn't get any better could it.

don't cry people... its a good story and it all ended happily.

[note] the original article from which i took these quotes on the 10/12/07 seems to have been altered on the 11/12/07 which if you ask me is a little naughty of the Telegraph.

winner!

2007-11-26T11:35:00.000Z

well aren't i a lucky little troll? last week i entered a random competition i saw on mashable.com, the idea was to leave an insulting comment on a post chosen by the guys at mashable in the hope of tickling their fancy and scooping a $100 voucher for itunes or amazon.

yesterday i got an email from them saying i'd won! whooohooo! just in time for crimbo! see my name in lights here and the original post and comments here.

thanks mashable! jingle jingle.

cheap communications

2007-11-20T13:23:00.000Z

of late i've been on a bit of a drive to keep the cost of home utilities down. communications such as a mobile phone, landline and internet soon add up on the old monthly bill. my mobile phone is currently quite a good deal £15 a month for 300 anytime/network minutes and 1000 texts but this will be coming to an end soon. deals on mobiles aren't so good this time round, but i was intrigued to see UK carrier '3' are now doing a Skype enabled mobile phone and this got me thinking.

i'd had a Skype account for ages but not really used it - we had a landline and my mobile calls were cheap so why bother? i soon bought a cheap headset/mic combo and began testing the service for day to day home communications. i signed up for Skype-Pro which means for £1.50 a month you currently get virtually free calls to UK landlines for as long as you like and you also get a big reduction on purchasing a Skype-In number (so people without Skype can still call you) which i've subsequently bought.

so far its all working very well. because our broadband comes in via cable im on the verge of cancelling the £10 a month landline subscription (including call costs on top). i've also splashed out on a wifi Skype phone meaning you don't need the computer on to make of recieve calls. the wifi phone is a bit echoey which is a little irritating, but for the saving made in the long run think its a fair trade-off.

when my mobile contract runs out im more than likely going to purchase the 3 Skype mobile i mentioned earlier. the mobile functionality means you can walk n talk with Skype for free *anywhere*. it may all be a bit premature at this point but im hoping that people i know will soon get on the Skype bandwagon! it's worth noting you can't Skype-Out or Skype-In with the mobile, its a Skype to Skype only service, i guess 3 would be shooting themselves in the foot and totally opening their infrastructure to Skype. even if just Vicki gets the same phone, we'll be able to call each other Skype to Skype for nothing...

mark my words kids, someday you will not have a landline/mobile and all your calls will be made over your broadband connection - more than likely using a WiMax WiFi.

currently the saving works out at about £20 a month (less the outlay for the wifi phone of course).

monthly costings in £:

previous:

11.00 broadband (cable)
10.00 line rental
10.00 phone calls
15.00 mobile
-----
46.00

current:

11.00 broadband (cable)
1.50 skype pro
12.00 mobile (soon)
1.50 phone calls (the odd mobile etc)
-----
26.00
-----

20.00 saving

one off costings:

4.00 headset
50.00 wifi phone

Birthday trip to London

2007-11-18T18:17:00.000Z

yep, cakes can only mean one thing... finally hit the big three-O on Sunday and was lucky enough to be taken for a weekend away in the big smoke. my parents took Vicki & i up on the train and had a wonderful hotel booked slap-bang in the middle of London.

on the Saturday we visited the Tate Modern gallery in the old powerstation. i'd highly recommend it, even if you're not that into contemporary art - it's very eye opening (and its free!).

we had a lovely meal out in Leicester Square in the evening and i was able to see my birthday in at the stroke of midnight, bye bye twenties.

on the Sunday we went to the Cabinet War Rooms which is an incredible time capsule from World War II from where Churchill ran the war effort. there is also a great in-built museum dedicated to Sir Winston Churchill which documents his life pre and post war containing an awful lot of interesting information about him.

one of the other highlights of the weekend was my gift from Vicki... i'm going on the QE2 for a mini trip to Bruges!!! WOW! how cool is that? i didn't think i'd ever get onboard because she's been sold and will be turned into a hotel in the far east next year. i can't wait and will be sure to take lots of pictures!

thanks M & D for a brill weekend and thanks to everyone who sent me gifts, cards and wished me well (oh, and made me cakes!) - you all really made my day.

nearly 30

2007-11-16T19:12:00.000Z

hard to believe but i'll be thirty on Sunday. can't say im really looking forward to it but then again - can't really say im dreading it either. its a funny thing, the more i think about it the more it would seem to be an issue.

i guess being thirty means, at its most frightening, its the end of my twenties - which whilst being a teenager seemed the aim of living - freedom whilst still being young enough to enjoy it (to me anyway!) now its coming to an end perhaps it signals 'the end of fun'. however when i really ponder it some more, thirty is what i am. i might like the romance of being in my twenties, but the reality of it is, i do nearly feel thirty when i look back at all the things i've done and where im at now.

im pretty happy, outwardly im fairly cheerful which is how i feel inside too. yep, i can't complain about anything - im a lucky man.

still, onward and upward - i've got a whole 'nother thirty years before im sixty! *gulp*

Peru Photos

2007-11-02T12:53:00.000Z

Peru 2007

safely back in the good old U K of GB. what a fantastic trip we had to South America. every day was packed with exciting activities, there's an awful lot to take in and remember... i'd recommend the trip to anyone, the operator we used was Active South America who were fantastic - very well organised and good value for money.

i won't go through all the events, to get a better flavour - take a look at the photos!

not long now

2007-10-11T13:31:00.000Z

Vicki and i are soon to depart on our adventure to Peru in South America. right now i can't wait! very excited tinged with a slight feeling of anxiousness. im not quite sure what to expect, having read the itinery it's quite literally a world away from the normal day to day grind and going to be physically quite challenging at times.

right now i think my main highlight will be trekking the Inca Trail to the ancient ruins of Machu Picchu high in the Andes mountains - a place i've read about in countless books and have always wanted to visit (at least since Cities of Gold was on TV). im also rather looking forward to camping in the jungle hunting for wild animals such as Howler Monkeys and Cayman.

i've decided (apart from taking photos) im going to be tech-free while away, my mobile will be safely locked in the suitcase and im not going to update the blog. sorry to disapoint any of you but i think worrying about where my next net connection is coming from sort of defeats the point of going out into the wilds!

never fret though because i'll be posting lots of photos on our return!

so, as he dons his Tilley hat - this is Lukiana Jones signing off!

so what is an acre?

2007-10-05T15:31:00.001Z

havent made a post for a while, so thought i'd let you in on something i heard on bbc radio4 the other day which i then went on to research some more.

apparently an acre is an acre because (interesting fact number 1) back in the midst of time when we all used to be farmers, an acre was the area of land that one man and his ox could plough in a day. technically it could be any shape but because a longer straighter furrow is more efficent to dig than turning your ox lots of times, a long rectangle is more practical.

the area of an acre which we still use today is 1 furlong (220 yards) by 1 chain (22 yards) giving you 4840 square yards. (interesting fact number 2) the word furlong comes from the words 'furrow long'... but why a chain i hear you ask... ?

well, (interesting fact number 3) this came along later and was invented by Edmund Gunter to measure longer distances. Gunter's chain was 22 yards long consisting of one hundred individual links meaning you could measure larger distances in chains and links. you would however need links the same size as Edmund's links for this to work!

now im assuming that a furrow's length (or furlong) was only decided since the chain's length was invented - anyone able to enlighten me?

Jackie's Birthday

2007-09-24T21:18:00.001Z

this weekend was spent having mucho celebration of Jackie's 60th birthday. Vicki cooked a stunning dish friday night, we had a great walk on Dartmoor on Saturday and then cruised on down to Padstow for more birthday fun including a delicious meal Saturday night in the hotel.

Happy 60th Birthday Jackie!

Peak District

2007-09-18T17:09:00.000Z

Peak District 14-09-07

following the theme of hiking in and around the UK before we head to Peru, this weekend we went to the Peak District and stayed in Castleton. Castleton is a well placed little town and ideally suited to walkers and hikers. although the Peak District doesn't have the biggest hills around, its certainly got some decent peaks and many great varied walks no matter what your level of fitness!

hope you enjoy the pictures!

Brecon Beacons

2007-08-29T20:36:00.001Z

Brecon Beacons 2007

im proud to say Vicki and i have climbed no less than 6 mountains in the last 4 days. we set off to Chepstow on on Saturday to see some old pals and then on to the Brecon Beacons on Sunday to begin some serious outdoor hiking.

im not going to go into detail about each of our walks but suffice to say we came, saw and conquered the hills and were lucky enough to have some excellent weather leading to some great views from above. we reached the highest peak in southern Britain - 'Pen Y Fan' which was quite an achievement at 886m (2907ft) and one i'd definitely like to do again.

the hills were very exhilarating and we had a fantastic time... check the photos here!

Red Arrows in Bournemouth

2007-08-17T12:06:00.000Z

we managed to sneak out onto the roof of the office for a spectacular display from the Red Arrows at lunchtime today. they flew past numerous times doing fantastic feats of aeronautics i managed to get a few snaps but many were rather blurry. was quite pleased with this image though!

super torch

2007-08-07T11:45:00.000Z

whilst preparing for our up n' coming adventure to Peru i've been gathering equipment that might be useful (and in some cases essential) to the trip. we've got a standard list of gear that will be required, but this is primarily for clothing etc. the stuff im talking about is the fun stuff that you can relive your youth through.

normally when i go out and about i always take a penknife and my simple 'survival tin' it doesn't matter where you are - no matter how comfortable a place you end up in, some of this stuff is invaluable. it's a tobacco tin that contains matches, plasters, safety pins, ibuprofen, string, earplugs etc. this is going to now get beefed up to a proper survival tin for the trip and i'll get back to you once its complete with a full lowdown of the contents.

my first purchase howevere was a Pak-Lite. this little beauty i found by chance online when looking for outdoor equipment. its a small plastic cap with an on/off switch that holds two super-bright LEDs. you clip the tiny cap onto a square 9v battery and, get this, it gives you 20+ hours of light. we're talking bright light here too, not some crummy dull glow. the Pak-Lite is simplicity defined - they come recommended by US troops who currently use them in Iraq and by hospitals in the third world who find themselves with power cuts. all this for £5 from the very quick-to-ship needapresent.com (normally £10) - so far im very impressed and looking forward to using it.

Camping & Cycling

2007-08-07T09:40:00.000Z

had a cracking weekend in the New Forest. we found a campsite in Linwood and set off for a long ride in the blazing sunshine, got back slightly tired having covered about 17miles of varying terrain. got up early-ish on Sunday and went for an even longer harder cycle with quite a bit of off-road thrown in for good measure. arrived back very tired but with a real feeling of accomplishment.

backup your gmail account

2007-07-26T16:08:00.001Z

following on closely from my previous post about media backup i began to think about my email. since 2004 i've had a gmail account which is great. its always online, holds all attachments, give's me two gig of space and looks after all my contacts. the problem with it is, its only available online which is ok but i never download a copy to my local machine for safe keeping.

if google went 'offline' for some unknown reason or they accidently deleted my account i'd be up yabbi-creek without a paddle. luckily they provide pop3 access to the account, but im loathed to use Microsoft Outlook, its just to bloated and its proprietory .pst files can be such a pain in the arris.

in the end i settled on Mozilla's Thunderbird, sibling to their Firefox web-browser it offers a few advantages over outlook;

a) built in support for gmail accounts
b) light weight - 6.2mb installer
c) standardised mbox format of messages (should i need to restore elsewhere).

d) its got a cool name

i connected Thunderbird to my gmail account and it soon sucked down 400mb of email (whilst leaving a copy on the server). so now i leave the mail client running on my mediacentre machine quietly checking for emails every 10mins and, if finding any, downloading them - sorted.

back it up NOW

2007-07-26T16:00:00.001Z

of late i've been on a bit of a digital organisational drive covering such things as photos and music. i've had various media spread across machines and drives which has just sort of accumulated over the years. it's taken a long time to do, primarily because im such a paranoid hoarder i've ended up with duplicate copies of photos and had to sift through the stuff to filter it all out.

i can now see the light at the end of the tunnel and my thoughts have moved on to backup facilities. all my data is currently housed on an external portable 500gb drive which is pretty much permanently attached to a mediacentre machine providing photos/music/movies etc. now if the drive went 'pop' i'd be in trouble, i have a few DVDr's which i've backed up to over the years but;

a) they're not well organised
b) they're not complete
c) they're not where i thought they were :-/

make no mistake about it people, eventually your harddrive *will* fail, it's got moving parts and those platters move at blistering speeds. it might not be for a few years and you might well have the drive under warranty - but this won't get the data back. most people won't replace a drive until it fails so you *need* to have something in place to cover that point of failure. you might be lucky and get a new machine every couple of years, transfer your precious photos over each time and never actually see an unrecoverable disk 0 error, *shudder*. i'd prefer not to chance it.

nope, we need an active solution.

now, that mediacentre machine i mentioned earlier has a smaller 80gig drive which runs the operating system and there's enough space on that for backing up some stuff. priorities: photos i have to backup, they're irreplacable. mp3s i should backup, they're all tagged and ripped and thats a big job to re-do. movies i can live with losing, they're a bit big to store and i have the original DVD of course! :-)

enter ViceVersa, this software can be setup to mirror in any configuration drives, directories or files. this im now running to copy all photos, mp3s and personal data from the 500gb (f:) to the 80gb (c:) live. as soon as ViceVersa picks up a new file or a change to a file, it mirrors it at that moment - fantastic! problem solved. its unlikely both drives will fail, and even if they did, at least i've got two chances to recover my most important stuff. phew...

*Luke slips on his comfy wool-lined suede slippers, slides gracefully into his silk dressing gown, pours a large glass of port and reclines, fully relaxed on his sofa.*

active weekend

2007-07-23T12:34:00.000Z

had a very active weekend this time. Saturday Vicki and i confidently drove out past Worth Matravers for a long walk. the weather on this part of the south coast had cleared out and any rain clouds were all inland. we made our way up and down the steep (and in some places muddy) coastline. after reaching Kimmeridge we turned and worked our way back coming slightly inland and walking along a ridge which gave some of the most spectacular views i've seen in this part of the world. as we got back to the car the heavens opened! phew.

Sunday was also a sunny day - we cycled into Bournemouth to pickup Vicki's Harry Potter book first, then after some shopping we headed back to Christchurch for an afternoon out on Andy's boat. after some skillful manoeuvring we made for the Needles (just off the Isle-of-Wight) and set about some serious fishing. fishing was trickier than normal - we just couldn't seem to find the shoals! we headed back in with 7 mackerel though, enough for dinner!

dinner consisted of the mackerel, home-grown courgettes and tomatoes along with a potato. fantastic.

mobile google maps

2007-07-12T18:07:00.000Z

the title pretty much says it all i guess. im not sure when they introduced it but you can now get google maps via your java-enabled phone which is pretty darn handy for when you're out and about and not got any GPS on ya.

the bonus feature is that you can also turn on the satellite view (not to such a high zoom level) but still, its pretty impressive.

visit google via your phone's browser and you should be presented with a download maps link - follow the instructions and you'll soon be google-mapping on the small screen.

do you read what i read?

2007-07-09T13:56:00.000Z

most days i read a few news articles online, i mean when one works for a newspaper its pretty much a given to keep up with events and 'posh gossip' as i like to call it. often i'll read a news article and think that it may well be of interest to my colleagues/friends/family but it would also mean making a whole blog entry (ooohh the laziness of it all)... to be honest, im just not gonna do that for you people.

anyway i've finally got round to aggregating my news sites so that i can monitor all the changes from one place wherever i happen to be - i can't strongly recommend google reader enough, its great. you just need the rss url from the sites you like and then you can browse the headlines and read the ones you like the look of.

all well and good, but how does that help you guys read what i read? well when i now read any notable articles im able to flag them as 'shared' and by the power of google im given a public page with those articles! fantastic.

to keep things fresh on the site you'll also notice the latest 5 articles i've deemed read-worthy appear on the right under 'hand picked news'.

New Forest biking again

2007-07-08T16:02:00.000Z

headed out into the New Forest again on Sunday, did a 14 miler with at least one steep climb. was pretty tired at the end! thanks to Katherine and Keith for showing us the new route...

Watch Boris!

2007-07-05T14:54:00.001Z

just had to alert you readers to an awesome little site. whatever your political views you've gotta have time for the antics of the one and only Boris Johnson (you know the lunatic tory with the bleach blonde flyaway hair).

the site's tagline is:

"Boris Johnson is, frankly, the mutt's nads. And anyone of that calibre needs to be watched."

here here!

just to get you in the mood, check out the quotes page...

“He is a mixture of Harry Houdini and a greased piglet.”On Tony Blair

“Terrible outbreak of afternoon kipping in Henley. Always in their dressing gowns, hard at it.”
On Henley residents taking siestas while he was trying to canvass, 2005.

go visit BorisWatch.com

climate change?

2007-07-03T16:09:00.001Z

i dont care what you say, weather's gone bad.

it's now JULY and i've just caught on film a freakish hailstorm hammering down in Bournemouth - Britain's premiere seaside town.

and a few days ago this 'summers walk' in Abbotsbury:

has anyone seen 'The Day After Tommorrow?'...

Guns 2 Roses Live

2007-07-02T09:40:00.001Z

went to watch 'Guns 2 Roses' live in Christchurch Friday night - man they were good! i've not seen a GnR tribute act before but if these guys ever come to town i suggest you look em up.

the performed a blinding set of all the Guns n Roses classics including most of the Appetite for Destruction album. Paradise City, Welcome the Jungle and Nighttrain went down a storm. the guys looked and mimic'd the original perfectly.

i took some video footage on my phone but the sound was too loud and it distorted massively so im not gonna post it as it just doesn't do them justice. check out their site and huge giglist on their MySpace site.

the tale of Jonathan Woods

2007-06-29T17:19:00.001Z

a spooky little poem i wrote about my friend and colleague Jon...

Vomitus Eyes

2007-06-27T10:16:00.000Z

i've finished my second doodle which was initially called 'Module 2' but has now been renamed 'Vomitus Eyes'. it's in the same vein as 'Module 1' but on a larger A4 scale. once again i worked purely in biro but this time black on cartridge paper.

the piece is built around a dark industrial landscape with stark clinical zones interspersed. the eyes feature heavily and represent nature's own passive CCTV, watching the world we've create and destroy. the dream of this world is spewed forth by a man who has gone to far and is ironically now being swallowed by his own creation.

i'd originally planned to sell the doodle on ebay but having spent about 10 hours on it have grown too attached to let it go. i may well do some prints, if you're interested in a copy send me an email or leave a comment.

lunchtime encounters

2007-06-26T17:06:00.000Z

thought i'd vent a bit about my lunch hour. headed up the high street purely for a breath of fresh air. i must have looked like i was bored and a soft target because in under 30 seconds from leaving my desk i was accosted by a rather well-dressed 'homeless' sort who told me it was about time i finally caved and bought an issue of the BIG, "sorry mate, not this time either" i said. as i walked off i realised i'd never seen the guy in my entire life, he'd mistaken me for another hapless lunchtime wanderer and i'd even confirmed his thoughts for him. my self respect was fading.

next up i tried to walk around one of the precinct's many bin islands when bling'd up young mother pointed her snazzy pram in my direction and caught the back of my heel as she cut across my wake, i automatically apologised, she tutted and looked at me in that get-out-of-my-way-ive-got-chips-to-buy kinda way. why did i even bother? she'd not even seen me before the collision.

i'd not had time to breathe when a rather plucky red-faced woman with a clipboard came towards me. "NO!" i said, she uttered "hello" a second too late and looked slightly stupid. haha - Luke gets one up on the street people.

i had about two minutes respite but trouble soon reared its ugly head once again. my eardrums were being scraped by a tinny rhythmic crackling, intermingled with a conversation consisting primarily of 'innit' and 'wickid'.

i decided to cross the road for two reasons, one to get away from this irritating trebly sound and two so that i could get a look at the perpetrators. looking left i saw three fairly sub-standard tracksuit-clad humans heading for me. one female (i think) and two males. one of the males (we'll call him 'the DJ') had a mobile phone in his hand and was playing at maximum volume an mp3 of that god-awful umbrella song that seems to be doing the rounds. the female (we'll call her 'dancer') was doing some sort of funny walk. i couldn't tell if it was a not quite in time little jive she'd practiced while she really should have been at school, or if the poor individual had just got a gammy leg, either way she was lovin' the bangin' choon. last up was the taller male, he i deemed the vocalist of the three because he was actually singing out loud with the track moving his head and shoulders in semi-robotic sort of way.

i couldnt decide what i felt about the happy trio - sorry for them, angry at them, confused by them or just super-amused by them.

as to be expected, three parked cars later they also decided to cross the road and cut me up on the pavement. i was forced to walked very close behind them for a few yards at which point i realised anyone looking my way might now think i was the forth part in this unique musical quartet. finally they ducked off into a side road and the last thing i heard was the DJ say "is it get out the skins, skitz innit, uhh, hear the streets when we get back to home wikid". the kid was obviously having a hard time planning the rest of his set.

i managed to avoid any further encounters with anyone and got back to office safely.

fresh beans

2007-06-25T10:23:00.000Z

its not everyday you get to eat something you've grown in the garden but Sunday's roast was completed with super-fresh 'French Beans' which i, ok Vicki, has tended to for the past couple of months. they were delicious! very similar to runner beans, but somewhat finer in appearance and taste. there's lots more still to be plucked from our magical bean trees so it's greens ahoy from here on in.

cool switch

2007-06-22T10:42:00.000Z

my colleague Rob was showing me some rather special switches that he'd collected, they'd came out of one of our old printing presses back when they were dismantled about ten years ago.

this is a mercury tilt switch which in this case is basically a chunky glass tube that houses a small amount of mercury, as the tube is moved the mercury provides a connection across the contact heads allowing the signal to pass over. it may well have been the device alerting the press operator to the fact that something in the press wasn't level anymore and would need to be corrected before work continued.

above all though they provide hours of fun just tilting and watching the T1000 like substance roll around the glass.

a better mobile browser

2007-06-20T13:03:00.001Z

if you've got a fairly new phone you've probably got a laughable browser on it. most of these screw up the page and are just plain messy to use. an answer to your ebay down the pub problems could now be over thanks to the new Opera Mini browser.

the new browser is a tiny less than 100k java app that effectively loads a webpage and then zooms in on the bit you want, making it ideal for webpages you're familiar with such as news websites or ebay.

if you've seen any demos of the Apple iPhone's browser you'll have an idea of what to expect (only without the touch screen).

its free so give it a whirl! download a copy here...

http://www.operamini.com/beta/

bug hunt

2007-06-15T11:07:00.001Z

[two men in trenchcoats stand under a streetlamp in a quiet side alley]

male narrator in husky american voice:

"word on the street was some bugz had been spotted. word on the street was these bugz had been glowin' kinda bright. word on the street was there was a mission to hunt the critters down."

...we made our way to a bar on the northern edge of town, the locals seemed kinda interested in our arrival, were they sizing us up? or just checkin out our broads? either way i didn't trust em. i caught the barmaid's attention "3 beers and a white wine", she looked at me sharply, asking for liquer was usually an under-the-table kinda deal in these parts. she busily shuffled around and made polite conversation whilst pouring our booze.

we sat at a table where we could keep an eye on the door, our contacts soon arrived. we discussed the rumours... 'Nonce' spoke of the night before when one of the godfathers had been out in the neighbourhood dealing with 'business' - he caught sight of glow on the ground. this glow was no fairy light. it was bright, the kinda bright that cops use to find you pinned down under the stairs in some warehouse.

without a map this was gonna be a street sweep. we threw down our green-backs and made for the exit. outside the Roadster patiently waited, soon the car rolled out of the parking lot and into the blackness. later on we reached an area known to Nonce, the driver dipped the lights. we checked our shooters, these worms won't know what hit em - i wryly smiled at the thought.

we got out of the vehicle and slowly the four of us swept the street, our senses hightened as the corners of our eyes picked up even the slightest light increase. "i see one" Nonce whispered signalling to the right. quick as a flash we pounced, leaping over the kerb and down onto him. POP, POP, POP, the shooters flashed and this bug was done. not waiting a second longer than we needed we moved onward up the street, the first shots must have awakened the neighbourhood as worms were suddenly everywhere. i lifted my head... "the night is young... who's next?"

wheeler dealer

2007-06-13T10:34:00.000Z

a couple of years ago i bought £100 pounds worth of IMAX shares... (it's at about this point i wish the story had gone the other way).

i monitored my shares from time to time and, as to be expected watched them slowly decrease in value. i pretty much thought nothing of them until today when i had an email from my share company telling me they'd been sold. now this was a little odd because i'd not instructed them to do so, but anyway - i guess it meant i could get the remainder of my money back... ho ho ho, how foolish of me.

after having made a phone call to them to find out the score, it comes to light that after every quarter they have a 'non use' fee on dormant accounts of which mine was one. so this had been building up for the past couple of years and it turns out they'd sold my shares to cover these fees! basically i'd kissed goodbye to my £100 through a combination of the shares decreasing (which is just bad luck) and fees (which is just annoying).

the final kick in the happy-sack though came when the nice lady on the phone told me that even though luckily they'd managed to recover most of their fees through the sale of my shares, it wasn't enough and there was still an outstanding £3.43 that needed paying...

i then preceded to try and make light of my loss and joke with her about the success of my first foray into the fast moving world of stocks and shares, she laughed, i laughed... i closed the account.

a week in Cornwall

2007-06-12T17:42:00.000Z

Cornwall 2007

had a great week away in Cornwall, Vicki booked a cottage which turned out to be a genuine old Mill and a group of us headed down to make the most of it. the Mill was a great place situated right in 'Rocky Valley' which is just outside of Tintagel.

we visited the Eden Project, did lots of walking, relaxing, cycling and of course - eating and drinking. we even got round to a bit of hunter-gathering which included fresh mussels from the beach and Mackeral from a fishing expedition.

enjoy the pics!

photoshop shortcuts

2007-05-31T16:13:00.001Z

after recovering from the upset of having picked up ready SALTed crisps instead of SALT and vinegar flavour (due to too fast a cupboard glance) things got a little better.

i created a quicklist of my most favourite Photoshop commands. usually i find myself clicking the various menus available which being a heavy user adds up to too much wasted time. so i felt it best to expand my current list to a few more of my most useful commands.

everyone works in their own way with Photoshop, but just incase its of use you can download a PDF copy here which is sized perfectly slim for attaching to the side of your monitor. note, this was written for PS7, i believe CS+ version have some new custom shortcuts... so these may or may not work.

doodle up for auction!

2007-05-30T11:50:00.000Z

UPDATE: this sold! keep your eyes peeled for more in the near future. ENDS.

you get some crazy stuff listed on ebay so to add to it i thought i'd try listing something i'd created to see if anyone would actually be interested in something doodled from my imagination. the piece is called 'Module 1' and drawn on lined paper in biro, it took a couple of hours.

im not too hopeful of a sale but thats ok because even if i don't sell it i've grown quite attached the little artwork. don't let that stop you though! if you want to bid - check out the listing.

bank holiday camping

2007-05-29T09:23:00.001Z

Purbecks Camping 2007

and it was all going so well! a nice quiet campsite, a good walk in the countryside, a beer festival in Corfe. everyone was enjoying themselves but Sunday morning the heavens opened and unfortunately the camping trip was abandoned.

managed to get to the cinema to watch Spiderman III in the afternoon though - which was rather good. thanks to Keith and Katherine for letting us warm up at their's.

hope everyone got back safely, better luck next time, enjoy the pics and see you all again soon!

i feel free

2007-05-24T14:10:00.000Z

some things in life have always been an annoyance. one such example would be the wire that dangles down from a pair of headphones. yes you could get an infra-red pair which would be ok if you're sat at your desk, but what when your source signal is out of sight? the answer comes in the shape of bluetooth.

most bluetooth head phones have until recently been too big for what i require. i just needed something small, light weight with a half-decent battery life - enter the Motorola S9's. to be honest i can't see why this has taken so long, with the advent of blutooth eons ago - these should have been close behind. i'd put money on the fact that the newer generation ipod's will have something similar soon enuff...

anyway, these little wrap-round beauties weight about an ounce, will play audio for about 6 hours (150 hours standby) and charge via a standard USB jack. i'm really pleased with them. having recently picked up a 1gig MicroSD card for my Motorola V3x and upgrading the rather poor battery (850mah) to an un-branded 1900mah from the depths of Germany - i'm all set.

the headphones use the A2DP protocol meaning that you can play, pause, skip tracks and with their built in hidden microphone, answer phonecalls all from the headset. with the added bonus of voice commands on the V3x you can leave the phone in your pocket and get on with all the fun stuff keeping your hands free and body untangled.

thinking about Manhatten leads to an exciting future

2007-05-19T09:22:00.000Z

this morning i couldn't get the island of Manhatten and it's worth out of my head. im not sure why this particular issue wouldn't leave me alone, but anyway. it stemmed from the fact that yesterday i was reading an article on Wikipedia about compound interest.

further down the page i read a very interesting piece about the sale of Manhatten, its current land value and how the investment of the initial sale price would have beaten this by a long way had it been left in a bank account over the years.

If the Native American tribe that accepted goods worth 60 guilders for the sale of Manhattan in 1626 had invested the money in a Dutch bank at 6.5% interest, compounded annually, then in 2005 their investment would be worth over €700 billion (around US$820 billion), more than the assessed value of the real estate in all five boroughs of New York City.

it made me wonder how many of us have ancestors that deposited relatively minor amounts of money in accounts then it either got forgotten or they passed away and others had no knowledge of the account. with compound interest over many years, the value of these accounts could be quite substantial.

i did a small amount of research and was suprised to find (from a UK perspective) the following...

London's Financial Times reports there is a "sea of unclaimed assets sloshing around the financial system," very conservatively estimated in 1999 to be worth £77 billion.

there appear to be a number of options available to track down dormant bank accounts, pensions, endowments and life insurance policies all over the world. but you seem to have to know at least something about the claim - which is a shame! but reading an article on the BBC's website from 2005 i also have a sneaky suspicion that the government have their dirty little fingers in our unclaimed pie.

still, a good place to start is UnclaimedAssets.com.

even if we never find anything, perhaps now's the time to stick £100 into a decent interest account which left untouched might make one or two of your descendants billionaires! infact, being the astute type that i am - a better idea would be to...

1) put the £100 into the account
2) put a lock of your hair into a safety deposit box
3) get a will written which says the account must stay in the family but only the tenth descendant is allowed a stake in the claim after he or she has followed some instructions
4) wait...
5) wait some more...
6) wait ages coz this is like ten generations man!
7) have the fund given to the lucky descendant along with the instructions to take the lock of hair to the place where they can rebuild you from DNA to be 21 again (because of course this is now possible!)
8) give the descendant their stake
9) enjoy the rest of it and marvel at your foresight!

yep, thats pretty good, im pleased with that - bring it on!

mpg record

2007-05-16T18:04:00.000Z

aswell as driving like an old bugger and annoying other motorists by holding my speed at a steady 56mph on the dual carriageway i must have had a good tail wind to hit 74.2mpg in the Punto! it's a fairly straight road to work and the distance is about 33miles. i doubt im gonna beat a score like that, maybe now i can get back to driving normally?

cold wet and laughed at

2007-05-15T08:29:00.001Z

i look out of the window and there is a greyness in the air, not phazed i continue my morning routine and set off on my trusty steed. soon the drizzle comes, turns into bigger droplets and before i know it im in the middle of a full-on rain lashing.

soon i reach a crossroads that i cross every morning, and there sits the man with whom i've built up what can only be described as a passing morning-i-feel-a-bit-sorry-for-you-coz-your-simple relationship...

"HA HA HA, whoooop!", he screeches (like he's been waiting all morning for me) "YOU GOT IT TODAY DIDN'T YOU!!!", madly pointing at the rainclouds, slapping his leg and tapping the lampost in what seems like one erratic movement. even though i don't really need this abuse i can't help but chuckle to myself in the rain, i yell "not my day is it?!" back at him as i speed off. in the distance i can still hear him as he continues whoooping and squealing with delight at my bad fortune.

i get royally soaked as expected, but somehow its not quite so bad because that crazy old simpleton at the crossroads will probably be telling all his other simple friends on the funbus how he enjoyed the spectacle of the drowned cyclist.

Sky's Puppies

2007-05-14T11:02:00.000Z

this weekend we set off to Oxford to see Max and Lisa and their latest arrivals, a litter of 6 Lurcher puppies that are now three weeks old. they are truly adorable and, as im sure most people would - really wanted to keep one (or six) for myself! alas we had to leave them behind but look forward to seeing them grow. at least 3 are still for sale so if you're interested and can guarantee a GOOD HOME let me know and i'll put you in contact with Max.

hardcore biking

2007-05-08T10:45:00.001Z

went for an awesome bike ride on Sunday, the weather was a bit 'iffy' at first but we braved it. starting at 'Canford Keith' (see what i did there!) we headed down to the Stour valley path and *tried* to follow it. now, either we made a mistake or the route is built to make it as difficult as possible for cyclists to navigate. we must have clambered over about 10 fences, styles and gates. finally we got to part of the route which was fairly bike friendly and we could pickup the pace. we cut through Tuckton and then over to the seafront and headed into a very strong wind which made for a hard slog along the promenade.

after a quick drink at Boscombe we continued along to Canford cliffs and cut up back towards our starting point. a few hills later and we'd made it! 21 (quite tough) miles averaging 7.3mph. boy did that roast go down well!!!

busker man live

2007-05-08T10:07:00.000Z

Saturday night i had the pleasure of watching my bro perform his current set at a local pub (the Obelisk) in Southampton. it was a very good gig, Ross played and sang for about two hours covering a large variety of his own material and well selected covers thrown in for good measure. there were quite a few friends and fans there - good to see some old faces!

if you'd like to hear (and see) some of this talented solo artist, visit the Busker Man website.

SouthamptonShips top-trumps

2007-05-04T12:08:00.001Z

i was a approached a month or two back by a company who wanted to use
some of my SouthamptonShips photographs in a top-trumps game they were producing a site for
Business Southampton.

i saw no harm in it and the site is now live and the game can be
played here.

enjoy!

my political broadcast

2007-05-03T13:42:00.001Z

just a quick note to you youngsters [anyone who's not like 45+] to say make sure you go out and vote today. i know...

- "its boring"
- "they're all useless"
- "they're all the same"
- "its not as exciting as general elections"

but if you don't vote the grey brigade vote for the people who will do stuff they want like give em' free woolly jumpers and other not-applicable-to-you type stuff. there's a lot of oldies now and you need to make your younger voice heard...

don't be lazy! it would probably do you good to have a nice stroll to your local polling station.

find out if you can vote today

please pass this on to your other buddies if you can.

HTPC upgrade part II

2007-04-30T14:17:00.001Z

late Sunday night and i had the breakthrough i needed. the gfx card had been messing me around all weekend but after a rollback to when i first installed Vista and only installing a minimal driver set (which didn't include the official Nvidia 6 series Vista driver) i was GAME ON. the tuner was picked up, the channels were scanned and the (E)lectronic (P)rogram (G)uide downloaded just fine.

from then on in it was plain sailing. the Vista Codec Pack worked like a charm and all my old movies play correctly. the album art which i've spent an awful long time tagging up to my mp3s displayed perfectly (a real boon) along with the monitoring of various media directories.

if the drivers for the GeForce 6200 hadn't had a conflict with the TV tuner (which turned out to be Hauppage Nova-T!) it would have save many hours gruelling torment. still, got there in the end and so far im loving the new media centre interface.

some more tweaking of the software and an automated backup of important files such as photos will complete the installation. after that everything should be fine and dandy... hahaha! heard that before!

HTPC upgrade

2007-04-28T09:32:00.000Z

the old PSU in the shuttle died so i ordered a new one. having heard some rave reviews of Vista i thought i'd stick that on too but for that i also had to buy some extra ram. what the hell i thought! lets go the whole hog and get a 500gig portable drive too.

the silentx power supply and ram stall was nice and easy... the Vista upgrade, not quite as simple. to cut a long story short if you've got a Hauppage Win-TV 150 Nova card you could find problems. eventually after installing various drivers i uninstalled the lot and windows finally automatically picked up the tuner module which it hadn't done before. at the current time its working, but its taking a long time to download the programme guide and the audio is very crackly. will keep you posted on my findings...

NIN Multi-Track release

2007-04-27T09:53:00.000Z

old Trent Reznor is up to his forward thinking musical creativity again. after the success of the multi-track release of Nine Inch Nails 'the hand that feeds' (see, hundreds of mixes!) the single 'only' is now out in more than just GarageBand format and available for us PC users. im not aware of any other artists doing this yet although would like hear of them!

im sure most record companies would be hiding behind the sofa at the thought of letting any tom, dick or harry cut, remix and destroy their nice little cellophane protected investments. its got to be the way forward, nice one NIN, organic music - here we come!

UPDATE: wow, you gotta read this if you're anyway interested in Nine Inch Nails or music media/buzz/hype in general.

bomb disposal safety

2007-04-26T08:38:00.000Z

comedy moment of the day; reading an article in the local paper about Hi-De-Hi star Barry Howard who had a lucky escape when an unexploded wartime bomb was discovered in the roof of his house. apparently it fell onto his bedroom floor from a cavity in the ceiling, here's what Barry had to say...

"i rushed out and the builders very carefully picked it up, put it on a plank of wood and took it into the garden. Tim called the police, while another builder found a bucket and put it over the top, just to be safe."

the mind boggles.

Boscombe Pier Photos

2007-04-24T11:09:00.000Z

Boscombe Pier

on the days i cycle to work i thought i'd take shots of the gradual demolition and re-building of the Pier at Boscombe. the work is part of an ongoing scheme to re-develop the whole of Boscombe with some £8million being spent on the area.

if you want to follow the photos via a news feed, you can use this rss link.

vegetable patch started

2007-04-21T16:23:00.000Z

with such a warm spring we've cracked on and started to build our veg patch. last year's attempt in the old house wasn't quite the bumper harvest i was hoping for. this year with some serious amounts of compost and an area located in the right place we're hoping for more luck.

the fence walls are nearly complete, we changed the size slightly to accomodate more vegeatables. will keep you posted on the building and growing.

digital photo frame

2007-04-20T13:47:00.000Z

today i found waiting on my desk a new gadget! haven't bought a new toy in ages and this one was just to good [see cheap] to pass up. coupled with a google checkout account and a good deal from ebuyer, i was able to get this little beauty of a digital photo frame for just £22.50!

the 7" screen is a 480x470 resolution which is fairly low, but more than adequate for displaying a bunch of jpgs. you load in any size memory card (SD or CF) and it rotates the images at 3 different speeds. it doesn't have all the features of more expensive models such as mp3 playing etc, but thats not what i require anyway. its a great device and one im quite possibly going to get another of!

old wallpapers

2007-04-19T17:08:00.000Z

Wallpapers

some of you might remember these from a few years ago when i went through a phase of turning images into wallpapers. i dug them out and have posted them up a 1280x1024, feel free to download and use them if you like them.

i was particularly fond of the 'From Dusk till Dawn' one which was screen-grabbed from the DVD. also worth noting the 'Digital Death' one featuring my melon layered up on a skull was later used on the inside of the recursor mini album sleeve.

strike knob hard!

2007-04-19T09:41:00.000Z

this fire extinguisher has been in the family for years - come to think of it, it would probably fail to work in an emergency situation as its so old! i'd never thought much of it until a school friend came round an laughed his head off when reading the rather bold and possibly painful instructions on the front of it.

bicycle computer

2007-04-17T16:06:00.001Z

got myself a rather cheap bicycle computer from wilco's yesterday. sort of wanted a wireless model, but a) im a cheapskate and b) that seems to require more batteries. fitted it on as neatly as possible and recorded the stats for an average trip to work:

distance: 3.32miles
time: 19.43mins
top speed: 23.3mph
average speed: 10.1mph
calories burned: 18

so thats fairly good i suppose, cycling over six and a half miles a day. the good thing about taking the trusty steed to work is that no matter what the traffic conditions or weather, you always know how long it will take to get to work (give or take a few minutes).

im not sure however about how accurate the burning of 18 calories
is!

my bro the busker man

2007-04-16T17:52:00.000Z

my brother Ross has slapped a video of one of his latest tunes on youtube, i suggest you check it out! nice one Rooney!

if you want to see the busker man in action, his tour dates are listed on his blog.

Purbeck bike ride

2007-04-16T10:08:00.001Z

another glorius day in the UK saw us set out on a bike trek along the south coast. we weaved our way along a very packed shoreline at Bournemouth meeting up with Keith and Kathy along the way and then out towards Sandbanks where we caught the chain ferry to Studland.

Biking on the Purbecks

following a cruise down over the marsh area we ended up a on quiet beach where we got our breath back - then it was on to Old Harry Rocks, great views from this chalky outcrop even though it was slightly shrouded in mist. we then headed up to the top of the ridge and along into the start of the Purbeck countryside. The ride home was just as pleasant with a beer on the way to cool off.

you could be fooled to thinking it was already July!

camera back

2007-04-12T13:40:00.000Z

at long last my camera has been returned. to tell the truth it came back once before but after two months of repair STILL wasn't fixed. Pixmania are USELESS, they are cheap - but you'll pay handsomely should the product develop a fault. in the end i sent it back to the manufacturer Ricoh direct who i must say were second to none in dealing with the problem.

with a burst of excitement at being reunited with my camera i thought i'd re-read the manual incase there was anything i'd missed first time round - do i know how to party or what? i did find something, perhaps not the technical gem i was looking for but a line that made me quite literally LOL:

"The camera shake correction function cannot prevent shaking of the shooting subject (caused by wind, etc.)"

...and i was so sure the camera had robotic arms that would spring out and tightly grip the offending moving object whilst i took the picture.

its a whole new blog!

2007-04-05T12:00:00.000Z

ok, i've cracked. yep - given in and gone for a generic blogger blog which superceeds the www.holiblog.com site.

when i first created holiblog i'd planned to make an entirely wirelessly updateable site powered by such devices as a PDA or mobile phone. i then hoped to give away accounts to the site to enable other travellers a handy place to send pictures and text whilst they were on holiday (hence the name holiblog). the site worked perfectly and i'd built the now ubiquitous RSS feed channel along with a host of other fancy features for dealing with JPGs. unfortunately, during the last year or so things have lept on with the big-boys and they obviously had all the same ideas i did and have been able to crush my dreams into digital oblivion.

also im now using google's Picasa for picture organisation which now includes 'web album' functionality (you get 1gig+ of space for free which is pretty good). the web albums are neatly tied in with google's blogger as you can imagine so...

if you can't beat 'em, join 'em and here i am, slightly sad at the death of holiblog but quietly happy that blogger can pretty much offer me everything i required and more.

note, i've backdated a bunch of posts below from wordpress (which i tested for a couple of months) just to get things off the ground!

star trek pocket watch

2007-04-04T15:31:00.000Z

im sure i mentioned to Pat that im not a massive star trek fan, but what did i find nestled in a padded enveloped sat quietly on my desk Wednesday morning? a star trek pocket watch. it was slightly broken (the metal cover was snapped off and the winder didn't wind it up - so actually, pretty broken)... but i suppose it the lack of thought that counts - a note inside said:

"this came from someone on freecycle, i couldn't think of anyone else sad enough to send it to"

thanks Pat, good to know a) you think im sad and b) you don't care whether its starwars or star trek i like most!!!

Amsterdam getaway

2007-04-02T17:46:00.000Z

we escaped to Amsterdam over the weekend, the weather was great as were the sights and sounds! check the album for the pics.

Amsterdam 2007

i would NOT however recommend the hotel we stayed at. it's been properly dissed over on tripadvisor.com and i've just added my two pence worth: read my review

new car

2007-03-27T15:05:00.000Z

Well, it's not an Alfa, but it is Italian. Finally got a new-ish motor which will hopefully be a bit more economical than the Alfa Romeo was! The new mobile is a Fiat Punto 1.9JTD, its suprising pokey with its turbo diesel engine, a little loud perhaps... but im getting used to it.

New Forest biking

2007-03-26T12:04:00.000Z

a small clip of Vicki and i cycling in the New Forest on the Frogham to Fritham route:

2007-01-31T10:24:00.000Z

at last! i’m no longer sat on the floor hunched over a small coffee table whilst working on my PC. the wood found on the beach is now in place and fully useable as proper desk!

i've not yet had time to finish the wood properly, it still requires sanding and waxing but at least i can work in an upright position again.

2007-01-24T10:11:00.000Z

the wood scavenged from the beach has finally dried out and tonight i bolted the planks together which has formed the surface of the desk i'm fitting in the study. Had a bit of an issue with the length of the screws but finally decided on the correct ones.

Once I've got my sander back i'll smooth the surface and hang it.

chest of drawers

2007-01-19T10:18:00.000Z

finally the new chest of drawers arrived! and we were able to clear the small mountain of clothes that had grown from the floor for the past couple of months.

its a large pine unit with a wax finish, and rather nice it is too!

follow the yellow brick road

2007-01-14T11:29:00.000Z

Took to the New Forest for a jaunt today. Headed out Fordingbridge way and trekked out for a couple of miles amidst the January sunshine dodging the odd shower. The weather was amazing, throwing great lights, shadows and rainbows in our path. Looking forward to the days drawing out as we head into spring.

Cheese 2 - Cornish Yarg

2007-01-13T10:29:00.000Z

For my second cheese delivery I was greeted with the fantastically named ‘Cornish Yarg’ which sounds like some kind of mysterious monster that lurks the Cornish countryside looking for victims.

I’m not sure why its called ‘Yarg’ but it’s apparently a cross between Cheddar and Cheshire cheese. Insead of a wax covering the Yarg is housed in a layer of mouldy nettles! which seems very original to me… I wonder if its cheap?

The texture is more rubbery than Cheshire but more crumbly than Cheddar (which makes a lot of sense I guess!). The taste your buds are first greeted by is an almost synthetic one but soon a Cheddar-esque taste comes through, it finishes off much saltier and more like the Cheshire.

The Cornish Yarg is pretty fabulous as a cheese I’d say, it’s one you could eat quite a bit of in a single sitting and it’s one that I think most people would like.

Mysterious Ring of Glass

2007-01-10T11:04:00.000Z

This was quite a strange one. I found a ring of glass in the bottom of the washing up bowl and wondered what on earth it was. I left it on the side for future examination.

A day or two later Vicki’s friend Emily came round and was offered a drink. As she took a sip she noticed the top of glass was rather rough. It turns out there was a perfectly circular fault in the glass and somehow it broke in the hot water! I wonder how common this is? Anyone know of or experienced this or something similar?

Sizes of Things

2007-01-08T19:41:00.000Z

Whilst listening to the radio this lunchtime I heard an interesting did-you-know fact which I thought blog-worthy, it then reminded me of another did-you-know which is probably also worth sharing with you.

1) A large amount of water on the land that is less than than two hectares is considered a pond, anything larger is considered a lake.

2) A ship is a ship as opposed to a boat because generally a ship can contain other boats - namely lifeboats whereas a boat would not.

These aren’t ‘hard and fast’ rules, but might help when talking about them to give a good idea of scale. Got any more named differences in object sizes you’d like to share? let me know!

Alex & CJ's Wedding

2007-01-08T11:25:00.000Z

Saturday was the first wedding of the year - the marriage of Alex and CJ (aka Chris). The ceremony was held in Winchester in a very old chapel not far from Winchester Cathedral.

Alex and CJ are friends of Vicki and I was very happy to get an invite. The day went off without a hitch and there was a set of cracking speeches. The dinner and dance was held in a nice old hotel nearby, much fun. We had to catch the train home which was far smother a trip than I envisaged and well worth it to be able to wake up at home on Sunday.

Congratulations Alex and CJ!

Bathroom Shelves

2007-01-08T11:07:00.000Z

This is turning out to be a truly blogtastic day isn't it! Got home and put up a small shelf in the bathroom - ok so its not really that fascinating but it was the easiest bit of DIY I've done in a long time! Stuck it together then four screws later, BAM! it was up.

Cheese 1 - Wensleydale Tiptree Orange Marmalade

2007-01-05T11:15:00.000Z

Firstly I must apologise for the quality of the picture, my camera is ‘in for repair’ and I’m having to make do with the less well enabled mobile phone camera.

Well, welcome to my first review of cheese. I’m quite excited really about this little side project - however I am known for getting bored with projects and not completing all of them, fingers crossed this one will last the year.

The first cheese from my ‘Festive Hamper’ to land in the fridge was “Wensleydale Tiptree Orange Marmalade”. “MARMALADE!” I hear you say in disbelief. Yep, this little number actually contains real bits of orange rind. Adding these extras to cheese may or may not be common practice, at this early stage of cheese exploration, I’m just not sure. As for the look of the cheese, intially the bright orange wax adds to the overal Marmalade feel which is a good thing for people who like orange

The texture of the cheese is crumbly and its very light in colour - not displeasing for a cheese novice like me. Now I guess the important thing is the taste! I’ve decided to eat the cheese on its own initially, then to have some with a Jacob’s Choice Grain. Some may argue that Choice Grain’s are too salty for taste testing *but* to put it bluntly, it’s MY CHEESE BLOG and they’re what I like eating (over the blander cream crackers anyway).

It tastes, suprising, ‘orangey’ - very orangey. It’s nice, it’s pleasant but it’s not my favourite over other cheeses I’ve tasted in the past. Wensleydale Tiptree Orange Marmalade I’d probably not buy a whole chunk of in future but I’d be more than happy to serve some up on a selection platter at a dinner party. I’d say it’s more of a ‘novelty’ cheese than a workhorse such as cheddar (am I proving my amatuerish-ness yet?).

I’d like to try this cheese on a salad where it, i think, would add a fruity zest to an otherwise green salad.

I guess that’s it for the first review! let me know what you think, it’s a learning curve for all of us.