Spent a very pleasant...

...evening in the company of G, S and tiny (but rapidly growing) Alexander...giving them a little break from the amazing hourly routine of - feeding for 15-20 minutes (which involves regularly waking him up, as feeding is obviously really exciting!), winding for 15 minutes, playing for 15 minutes, changing nappy (5 minutes), 5 minutes more play...then start all over again! This goes on all day until it's time for sleep...exhausting!

More snippets...

...new tent arrived today, got a half price 5-man one with steel poles. Pole choice is for good reason too, I didn't mention this before but in the rain and strong winds at Bug Jam, the old tent, despite the careful repairs, broke yet again (this time 3 more of the poles snapped, luckily right at the end of the festival!)...The new one is an interesting design, whereby you can move the front door between the different sections to almost create a "porch" like affair at the front if desired...

It's been raining steadily here all day, but this hasn't been the normal cause of mild dismay (during the summer months) that it might have been as it releases me from the twice daily garden watering routine...which brings me onto the subject of the garden, the tomato plants are coming along really nicely, loads of fruit, nothing even approaching ripe yet, seems like I've been looking after these things for rather a long time now...some fruit would be appreciated, at their earliest convenience, obviously... ;)

Yes!

All of them are under arrest...well done Police and SAS... ;)

Two of them came out only after generous quantities of CS Gas was deposited into their flat, having been told to strip naked before exiting...they then complained that they had "rights" and proceeded to *dance* in front of the men with guns....they must be off their nuts!

"It'll be better for you in the long run, laddie, if you just tell us the truth from the off, the other lads have already told us everything anyway, you're only harming yourself...I tell you they're already making their deals...fancy a cigarette?"

Yeah, I know the routine, I saw "In the name of the Father"...JUST *JOKING* ;)

As of my train journey...

...this morning, I now understand the difference between está and están... So I can now correctly ask the way to "los servicios" in an emergency... ;)

Trying to learn French first (as a second language) really put me off, you know...if it had been Spanish they had taught us in schools it would have been a huge boost to morale quite how close much of it is to English...I'm actually quite upset about that, I may have taken a much greater interest in languages otherwise...I understand the reason though - proximity - hence why so many Americans know a bit of Español...

30 minutes is all I have invested into listening to the audio course (astonishing when I think of all those hours spent chanting "Je suis, Tu es...etc.") I can say "Hello", "Good Morning", "Yes", "No", "What is that"/"I want that", "What is that in English?", "What is that in Spanish", "How are you", "How much is that?", "What time is it?", "Where is the bus/train/taxi/toilet/etc." (wouldn't have a clue about what answer I was being given though, admittedly...)

I know it is a bit of a false economy, as I only have about 6 nouns (at least one of which is the word for a small cake), but armed with "¿qué es ése en Español?" I really think that even these simple phrases could be of real value... :)

Is it April the 1st?

The IRA are disarming (something I predicted would happen after 9/11, but didn't), story here...

And in a frightening reflection of events in HP6 we have a Tornado/Death Eater/Giant attack in Birmingham, story here...

What a crazy day!

This picture has been doing...

...the rounds on email (after the shooting on the 26th)...I can't claim responsibility for it, but it is very funny (in a twisted sort of way)...it's either a Tube worker with an incredibly wry sense of humour or a clever photoshop...

You'll have to click it to read it unless you have very good eyesight... ;)

The rail system...

...(and so I am lead to believe, the tube) are positively teeming with uniformed Police today (it being a Thursday again)... and I think it almost goes without saying that there are also a large number of armed undercover officers pretending to commute with us...ready to squeeze an inconceivably large number of hollowpoint rounds into, hopefully, a guilty parties head...

At Kings Cross four officers were yelling at a Chav in an attempt to explain to him that today wasn't really the best time to be mucking around on the railway, and he really should buy a ticket in future...he was yelling back (but in an embarrased sort of way) spouting some mindless attempt at a justification for his behaviour and loudly, but amusingly enquiring if they didn't have anything more important to be doing with their time...(I could almost hear the cell doors being slammed shut)... ;)

Uh oh...

...looks like the shuttle crew might have a chance to try out their repair kits for real...! Story on the BBC...

Ooooo....

...just noticed this post from Reynolds (the London ambulance man/Smartphone user/Geek whose blog I often read) mentioning, among other things, the fact that this festival is coming up...I might be tempted to go and attend...although someone might have to carry me home again afterwards... ;)

Spotted a bit of really early...

...Oker work at Redhill station the other day (either that or done in a serious hurry) -

- he definitely owns London at the moment, you can't move for his "throw ups" (that's a bit of graffiti slang, he isn't actually being sick everywhere)...I've even seen one in Brighton (near the car park at the top of the lanes), so at least you can say his hobby gets him out and about about a bit... :)

Here is a better example... (update - that link may be down, if so, follow this one)

Bug Jam...

...site report is up on the official site...

Getting back to work was tough today, had to snooze the alarm clock twice before I could drag myself out of bed...zzzz...

On my way in I decided to have a go at a Spanish audio course (10 minutes a day), got it as MP3s on my phone...so my head is full of "¿cuál es ése?"..."es un pasaporte"..."¿dónde está el banco?"...not sure if this is the best way to try and learn a language, but "Pulp Fiction" already taught me "mi casa es su casa", so it might work... ;)

Just got around to...

...sticking a selection of the shots from Bug Jam 19 up onto a Flickr Stream (not posting them all here) and updating my moblog posts from the field so you might want to scroll back down to see the pictures from the posts...here are a couple more "sights" though -

- (rather on the expensive side, I thought, although it does depend quite how "large") -

- well, I think we have their number anyway... ;)

- wondefully decorated fuel tanks and below the glue spraying tractor -

- some seriously powerful cars -

- and this bus looked like it was ready to pounce! -

- as I said though, loads more on my Bug Jam Flickr Stream if you like this sort of thing... ;)

Heh...

...ITV have just been showing a long programme basically saying nothing else other than "Aren't we great!" which has overrun by about ten minutes...prats.... ;)

Forgot to mention ITV Digital failing miserably (thanks to the hugely stupid football deals they made which they couldn't make good on thanks to basically no-one being interested) and being saved by the BBC... :)

Didn't know they did "World at War" though, so they aren't all bad...

Now, on with the GP... :) Button could win here, but it's most likely to be Rikkenen or Alonso again unfortunately...

Back home now...

...been here for a couple of hours trying to dry everything out on the washing line (haha)...just about starting to feel warm, got my bath coming up soon (3rd in the queue)...

Also found out that they guy the Police shot five times in the head while we were away was innocent (nice guy and just late for work apparently)...London is obviously getting too jumpy...next week might be "interesting"... :(

Note to self - Don't run away from shouting, armed Police officers in the middle of serious terrorist threats, even if late for work...

But sincerely sorry Brazil... :(

Well, it had to happen...

...eventually, it's been raining solidly since about nine am, everything is soaked, no escape from having to pack up a wet tent this time...no racing either so we sloshed round the show and shine and hid for a bit in the comedy tent, which was truely terrible, but at least dry...now we are making a start on packing the car...what a shame...

Having a great time today...

...racing is fantastic...weather has really improved...Jet car did a fantastic 240 miles per hour quarter mile and Queen and David Bowie tribute bands later after the street eliminations...cool :)

Rain stopped...

...glue is down, the queue has formed...let the racing commence! :)

Bah...

It's raining...we have a few hours before the racing is due to start though, so hopefully it'll get it all over and done with before that...we've got a really good spot for our camp, right by the facilities, so no nightmare obstacle course for night-time emergencies...Oh and I took a wander up to take a peek at the site from the bank by the strip a little while ago and spotted someone has come along in an old London routemaster double decker bus...! Cool...
;)

Well, here we are!

All set up already and it's only about ten am! The skies are looking really black and threatening though, and one spot of rain and all the
racing is suspended, fingers crossed it stays up in the sky...

I've got the fridge working btw... ;)

Zzzzzz....

...up super early, packing the car, cooking bacon, watering the garden and catching a last minute news update on the bombings yesterday...same disclaimer as last time, no posts for a few days..we'll see if I can get GPRS though... ;)

Brum! Brum!

Bloody terrorists...

...same pattern, NSEW at the same moment, but a dismal failure, as I have already said... ;)

Two quotes -

• "Attempts have been made to set off explosive devices" - Sir Ian Blair
• "The intention of the attacks was to kill" - the MET

My journey home was interesting, Kings Cross (even though there was no threat there) was closed, I was advised to get a number 17 bus to Blackfriars, I joined up with 5 other people who were seeking the same journey as I and did my best to guide them (3 were foreign tourists and rather worried, 2 were Londoners who described "blind luck" walking methods of getting out of the city on 7/7)...we got to Blackfriars (ended up on the 63) keeping together via one of the few buses still running...I left my posse at the foot of the stairs (two of them being rather old) and ran up to the concourse only to hear "All Thameslink trains southbound have been suspended until further notice", I managed to blag the group onto the tube to Victoria without valid tickets and we took the District line to Victoria together, the six stops took a long time... :(

Victoria was running okay, lots of Police and the Victoria line on the tube was closed (obviously), I hopped on a Brighton train and changed at East Croydon, then back to Redhill...

I will be pleased to be heading North for Bug Jam for the weekend.... :(

Okay...

...looks like 3 bombs went off, but only the detonators actually exploded leaving the main package intact, no death or injury reported but the tube has locked down again with a "Code Amber"...the bus might be more serious, the only eyewitness report said the bus windows are blown out but it certainly isn't the disaster we saw on 7/7...there is talk of "nail bombs" but I think that is just speculation...

We might have a *real* result here, potentially some living bombers taken into custody! If so - this is excellent news! :)

Oh shit...

...here we go again? Breaking news on Sky say that there have been further explosions on the underground and an "incident on a number 26 bus"...Looks like it didn't go according to plan this time though, everyone was evacuated from one of the tube stations after a "small explosion" left a man holding a rucksack looking "dismayed"...

Oh dear..."Scotty" has died...

...aged 85...Story here...I think he is the first one of the TOS lot to go, apart from Rodenberry of course, whose ashes were blasted into space (fittingly)....Rest in peace Jimmy, thanks for your part in the adventure... ;)

Third star to the left, and keep on until morning...

Got within...

...about 20 pages of the end of HP6 on the train this morning...what a finale! All the clues were there, but it never occured to me who the "Half-Blood Prince" might be...
Just need someone else to finish reading it now so I can discuss it...can't talk about it here because it might spoil it for somebody! Bah...

Interesting...

...this is a list of Technorati bloggers who linked to me...(curiously it is my top referrer today, so far)...it's mostly - This London blogger was in the (terror) sh1t...or commenting on...

Well, "hello" Technorati, you are most welcome, can I get you a drink of something...? ;)

I do find site stats interesting from time to time (although it's nowhere near my motivation for blogging my thoughts) I might actually pay to see what search keywords end up giving my site hits too...(it's locked on my free account and from what I can see it's a source of some amusement among the rest of the blogging community)...perhaps on a slow day... :)

Very odd situation...

...on the platform this morning, Flyingpops had got onto her regular train and I had waved goodbye and gone to sit down to carry on reading HP6...but her train didn't pull away...

Guards started to appear talking quietly to each other on radios and running up and down the platform, which caused me to raise an eyebrow and peer out of the corner of my eye at what they were doing...the minutes ticked by and I caught one of them speaking into his handset saying "So what are we going to do with this train then, get everyone off?" (it had now been stood still for about 5 minutes)...this prompted me to send Flyingpops a text, telling her that there was an odd situation developing and they were talking about cancelling the service...she replied that "they had better not!" and that they were making announcements to find the whereabouts of one "Mr Williams"...bit strange, I thought...

Anyway, the next thing I saw, three guards were unloading lots of bits of luggage from the train (big Sampsonite cases, not the kind of thing one would forget you had in your possesion) and no more than 90 seconds later the guard blew his whistle, signalling that the train could leave...

I called Flyingpops to give her an update and she said that they had had a second announcement a short while ago explaining that the train was suffering "technical difficulties", which it blatantly hadn't...makes you think, doesn't it...? This was definitely a bomb scare...take those announcements with a pinch of salt...

W O W !

Check out this flickr stream of the World Sand Sculpture Festival at Brighton, amazing!! If we weren't going to Bug Jam this weekend I would definitely be heading down to take a look! Simply incredible! (Thanks Timmy)

Considering HP6...

...sold rather well over the weekend...I was suprised, upon starting my journey into work today, to find I was the only person (I could see) on the platform clutching a copy...however, by the time the train (4 blooming carriages *again*!) had got to East Croydon, I had 3 fellow Potter-ites (in my half of the carriage alone!) sharing glances and half smiles in our little gang...(only one person was ahead of me, and she was on about the last 10 pages... :)

Flyingpops is literally *flying* through "Order of the Phoenix", and will soon be clamouring for HBP so I'm doing my best...I'm on Chapter 18 now...(I'll probably grab a sandwich and read through lunch)...

Bits of other news...

...some statistics first - just at the end of chapter 11 now (still excellent), laughed (out loud) at least 3 times and felt (genuine, heart racing) excitement on 2 occasions (the style is extremely visual this time too, almost cinematic screenplay-like, but I guess she can't help but have been influenced somewhat by the process of book to film conversions for the previous movies)...All in all, still a 10 out of 10 story (so far!)...

Went to Horley car boot sale this morning, just for a nose round -

- it wasn't really very busy, to be honest, it was probably too hot to be sitting around selling stuff in a car park, kids were getting stroppy and people were packing up (this was at about 1030am)...As a result of which, I think I got rather a bargain on this little puppy (if you look really closely at the table you can see my old tripod which I used from time to time in the past for a size comparison) -

- and a closeup (oddly they are both made by the same manufacturer!)...Check this out though, the tiny tripod cost me £6 at Heathrow airport's Dixons Duty Free shop, and the appropriately named "Titan 404" (being rather larger) was £2 from the boot sale (this size, without the head, which this came with, start at around £80)...Heh... ;) -

- gotta love those boot sale bargains... ;) Right, back to the garden now, and the book...

Just realised I haven't blogged...

...any of the pictures of the Ardingly Vintage Vehicle show we went to last Sunday...(a week behind, that has to be a record... ;) This is the sign at the "Blue Gate" where we made our entrance to the show...(and the guidebook)...

Vintage Vehicles of course seems nowerdays to include quite a lot of militaria -

- this for example seemed to me to be excessive defence for the site (appearing to be a portable, radar guided, surface-to-air missile installation) -

- yes, I think any terrorists visiting would have had quite a nasty suprise... ;)

Of course there was the usual selection of steam (nice ancient vs modern comparison this one, also showing the "all steam" fun fair in the background) -


- any number of classic cars -


- a huge number of static steam engines -

- and grown men (having great fun) mucking around with all sorts of remote controlled aquatic models -

- the *wonderful* CAMRA (volunteer) run beer tent -

- and there's more on my Flickr photostream if you are interested... ;)

Three chapters in...

...and I'm as happy as a man who thought a cat had done its business on his pie, but it turned out to be an extra large blackberry... ;)

Watering the garden...

...I spotted a lone, struggling figure in smart blue and red livery making his painful, sweaty way up the row of houses, I stopped my watering of the front garden for a moment (dripping can in hand forgotten) and the words "Harry Potter?" came from my mouth in a hopeful voice...

Reaching out to hand me the parcel, the postman replied "Don't talk to me about bloody 'Arry Potter, had twenty of these to deliver to one bloody road! Saturday round is normally about 6 letters...total!" (he held out the tiny selection of letters he had been expecting to breeze round the estate with)...I laughed, probably quite cruelly, waved the parcel to him, popped the watering can down, and came inside...

"It was nearing midnight, and the Prime Minister was sitting alone in his office..."

Just sat watching the...

...Proms on the BBC (it's taking place at the Royal Albert Hall, don't bother with the BBC link at the moment, it's rammed *hard*)...quite extraordinary performances so far, in fact "virtuosic" as they say (looks quite different in there too from my visit to see "circ de soleil" do their interesting "thang")...I know there are a bunch of people watching it sat in Trafalgar Square on big screens this evening in the early summer, early evening sunshine...that might be nice... ;)

In a state of *minor* panic (*under the breath* - "I *can* deal with this"), I have also been trawling the web for a copy of HP6 in electronic form, just in case Tesco muck up, and none has been forthcoming (even .RU sources)...But I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that in this aspect the internet simply cannot provide for me the means to "fair use" what I have paid for in advance of the event...*cry!*
*Fink throws his dummy to the floor *and* blanket from the pram DELIBERATELY *so* awkwardly as to catch it in the front wheels thereby stalling it in the middle of the busiest aisle of the supermarket* *SULK* :(

(Sincerely well done to the publishers for keeping it *totally* off the black market thus far)...damnit... ;)

I am really starting to regret...

...ordering HP6 from Tesco...I would rather have been in a queue at a store at midnight...then holding the book in my hand - waiting for the delivery seems like a bit of a lottery, they didn't say *when* in the day they would deliver, they might try and deliver it while I am out and about...this was a BAD IDEA™... :(

Please, Tesco, prove me wrong...

Flyingpops has got the camera...

...today and I must confess that I feel really quite lost without it (which is interesting). Two ideas for things that sprang into my mind to say today have had to be put on hold because I couldn't take the shot I wanted...

I have my C500, but camera/phones can't (yet) be compared to even a basic point and shoot...I mean, I always have been guilty of taking a lot of photographs, but since starting this little venture the trusty FinePix basically hasn't left my side (apart from the Xbox LAN party) some redundency in this system would be nice...(and thus, item -

• "a new camera"

- moves slowly up my mental priority list)...

Unexpectedly made the paper...

...a photographer (you can just see him in this shot, top right window) was sneaky enough to go upstairs in McDonalds and take a shot of the whole crowd from above (wonder if they made him buy a Big Mac? ;)...

I honestly didn't notice him until we were leaving the scene, and had no idea I had snapped him until I was looking through the pictures later. This is exactly why the police asked for copies of all our photographs (I did send all mine in btw, never know, perhaps the Bus bombers missing minutes might have been spent in my vicinity, I'll have to go back and look through them again now I know what he looks like)...

- The picture is on page 3 (which is a claim in itself, "Yes, I was on Page 3 once, back in the day"... ;) in the Daily Mirror if you fancy having a look (it's a really stunning shot, from where I was stood I had *no* idea quite how many people there were)...take a peek, if you get the chance, it's heartening stuff...(and if you peer very carefully you might even be able to "spot the Fink" wearing his grey shirt ;)

Walked down to Kings Cross...

...at lunch time with a load of colleagues from work. We went to observe the two minutes silence to remember the victims of the attacks of 7/7, the logical place to gather seemed to be the shrine that has sprung up in the tiny garden at the corner of the station...

...it almost goes without saying that lots of other people had the same idea...

...the media were present, represented most intrusively by the Paparatzi who didn't stop taking photographs the whole time (mine were all taken as we waited for the hour to approach)...

...the Police were out in force too, even some on horse back...not that there was any trouble...I've never had 2 minutes vanish so quickly in my life before...and almost without a word everyone went their separate ways as soon as the time was passed...

...it was a profound experience, and very surreal, for London to fall so silent that the sound of a camera mechanism seems loud and intrusive...and it was chillingly reminiscent of the day itself, with so many people standing in just the same places as after the attacks, and so many police around....

You will fail...

Really good, simple idea...

"The Ambulance Service have launched a national "In case of Emergency (ICE)" campaign with the support of Vodafone.
The idea is to store the word "ICE" in your mobile phone address book, and against it enter the number of the person you would want to be contacted "In Case of Emergency".
In an emergency situation ambulance and hospital staff will then be able to quickly find out who your next of kin are and be able to contact them. It's simple and effective.
For more than one contact name ICE1, ICE2, ICE3 etc"

Article here...might have helped a few days ago...

"Gravity doughnut promises time machine"...

...great article on Nature today... ;)

"One of the major difficulties of travelling backwards in time has just been solved, according to an Israeli theoretical physicist. And the solution, he says, is doughnut-shaped."

Read the rest here...

Thanks to Luton being...

...totally shut down yesterday (was lucky to get home) because of the terror threat (and controlled explosions that were conducted later), all the trains on the Thameslink were severely disrupted, so today I was expecting trouble on my way in...The announcement "The service today is only made up of 4 coaches, and I must apologise to inform you that it has been reported as being 'Full and Standing'"...I groaned and walked down the platform expecting the worst, but amzingly the train door stopped right in front of me, lots of people were fussing about with luggage and one seat right in the corner was still free (I made it!) ;)

It's funny just...

...how quickly things get back to normal, today (although on the seven o'clock train again), I got on, opened my book (Anne Rice - Pandora), and just slipped off into ancient Antioch for the duration of the journey...the arrival at Kings Cross suprised me (I got rather used to the train terminating there and being told to get off during the cross-link works, you see... ;)

The only thing marking today out from any other (they even had the ticket barriers back on) is the huge number of Police everywhere (which does make me wonder where they all are normally), there were at least 10 of them in the queue at Burger King (which looked quite funny, I did take a snap but their HVJ's just flashed back at me and ruined the shot), at least one on each of the stations we went past (although I spotted 6 at East Croydon and 5 at Kings Cross, if you count the two outside the door that I took a picture of yesterday)...The railway also seems to have suddenly sprouted a "security" arm, with white shirts and cracking radios joining the ranks of police officers in giving everyone suspicious looks...makes you feel quite secure though...