Ys, and Violence against Women

Okay, I am forced to reply to Ys' post of this afternoon with regards to this all too common occurrence and this shocking event...I respond with a posting I wrote back in 2005 which I hope will give her some faith back in the human race...

Sorry Ys, I should have commented after I read what you wrote, those couple of posts were some of the finest blog writing I have been privy to, even if just for the sheer honesty and skill of expression, they really merited a more carefully measured response from your readership...I hope this goes some way towards making that up to you...

Fink's Links #41

A very pleasant Friday to you, thanks for dropping by! You are just in time for another little collection of the interesting, strange and amusing wandering lost on the world wild web, herded into this little post-shaped pen by yours truely...

Let's start with checking out that little one in the corner - the work of Aaron Huey, a photographer for National Geographic, especially his time investigating the Afghan drug war...stunning stuff...

More cool urban exploration next, this time Robot City, Pittsburg...

The haunt project...

An *awesome* fancy dress costume...

Check out (rather retro-looking site, and they have a truely terrible camera, sorry) a guy who has built a working replica of the Nautilus submarine from 20,000 Leagues under the Sea...

Supermarketing, an excellent site crammed with all those amazing small ads from American comic books, and then testimonials from people who actually fell for them and coughed up...

Proof that MC Escher is working for Google maps...

Take a little visit to Nasa's industrial design centre (they are working on the moon base and a pressurised manned rover at the moment)...

A rather amusing (in the darkest possible way) shower curtain (thanks to my folks for pointing this one out)!

Enjoy a rough few months for Bigfoot true believers "They can cover 90 feet in just three steps, or 30 feet per step. So obviously, they have immensely powerful thighs"...oh apparently they enjoy a diet rich in peacocks...absolutely *hilarious*... ;)

Check out some exploding teddies...

A 9 volt tragedy...

An amusing Redneck thermos flask...

...and finally a good "Engrish Menu Fail" and (for bonus points) a rather amusing Welsh translation fail...

No more now, look the packet is empty! Worry not though, plenty more for next week of course and until then you can find previous round-ups back in this direction...! Have a jolly good weekend! ;)

Earlswood Station - Power Cut

The last few days have been a bit of a pain for us (nothing like the track works though, this is just a very minor inconvenience)...because of the arrival of Poppy the Beetle Flyingpops has taken to parking on the far side of the station, necessitating a daily wade through the puddles in the spooky underpass that allow the wealthy residents of Royal Earlswood park to access the (comparitively) "chavy" side of the tracks (where the station entrance is located), however, probably because of the frequent flooding, it was deemed necessary for there to be some resurfacing works which closed off the underpass completely (and blocked off 3 of the parking spaces at the station) where it appeared several workmen slept the night in their van between/during working sessions...as a result the usually easy job of finding somewhere to safely leave Poppy for the day has been a little more challenging...

Now this all should have been over by today, so we zoomed over the rail bridge to park in the nice car park as usual, only to find that (although the resurfacing work has apparently been completed - perhaps too well - worryingly all the drainage channels appear to have been completely filled with tarmac too) somewhere along the line someone has managed to cut the power...so the tunnel was pitch black (luckily I had a mini LED torch)...but the platform and the ticket office were dark too, and the PA system was down, even the displays showing when the next train is due (and how it's getting on with staying on time)...so we had a bit of a tense wait this morning, with no idea if the trains were delayed or cancelled (as they frequently seem to be)...heaven only knows what anyone that needed a ticket had to do, just get on anyway and try and blag it I guess...!

Strepsils - Charing Cross Station

So, it appears Fink is not the only one to get freebies on his commute into work. Strolling across the concourse at Charing Cross this morning, I suddenly broke from my conversation with Sarah and grabbed not one, but TWO free Strepsil samples... I can't tell you how they taste as they are still at the bottom of my handbag, but it will be moved into the top drawer of my desk and will be taken out when I get a cold (So far, I've managed to avoid coming down with the one that struck Fink at the weekend).



Special thanks to my commuting friend Sarah, who scanned this image and sent it through for inclusion on the blog and regularly listens to me twittering on (when I'm sure she would rather be reading the paper). I hope your head and arm are feeling better after that very very nasty man let his bag fall from the overhead locker onto you this morning
;o)

A stroll around Dorking (in pictures)

Vinopolis - A wine tasting evening review

So last Thursday was my old bosses leaving do, and to (urm...) commemorate the occasion, he opted for a wine tasting tour at Vinopolis (which is situated in the now extremely famous Borough Market near the banks of the Thames at London Bridge)...We started the evening with a few drinks at the Old Kings Head just opposite the market entrance -

-nearly getting into a fight with three drunk scaffolders when they overheard us ordering beers on the company tab, apparently our paper's coverage of Millwall fans behaviour hasn't been the most sympathetic over the years, and frankly they did absolutely nothing to redeem themselves (I think only my extreme height prevented things from turning ugly when one of them stood up to push his point home - gazing up at me, saying he didn't care how tall I was and then promptly excusing himself to the toilet)...

When the appointed hour arrived we all grabbed our coats and trickled across the road (taking a slightly longer route than needs be) to the venue -

- leaving us standing around in the entrance for a while as they found someone to look after us...Apparently (Flyingpops has been here before on a similar event) normally, you pay your money, drop off your coat/bag in the cloakroom and then are left completely to your own devices, wandering the themed halls -





- completely at will, stopping at the occasional stall to be poured a centimeter or so of a selected wine (don't expect to come away swaying or singing) and reading the signs or watching instructional video footage -

- however, either enough money had been paid, or we looked rowdy enough to merit a proper somelier, who led us to a secluded location and proceeded to talk us through each wine, gently encouraging us to look for the flavours and aromas present in each grape variety -

- we were taken through six bottles in all (shared between our group of about fifteen people), so (as I already mentioned) not a *huge* amount to actually drink on offer, but the atmosphere was thoroughly intellectual and highly entertaining...when we had tasted everything and compared notes we were dropped off in the "Gin Bar" for a free cocktail - the one I had completely changed my opinion about Gin - frankly loathing the stuff beforehand this was actually quite good (lots of citrus), but I'm still not going to call myself a fan...

I think there is something to be said for both ways of enjoying the place, when our tour finished everyone just decided to go back to the pub (there was still money behind the bar apparently), but had I just come to Vinopolis (with no peers to worry about) I am almost certain I would have been lured into the room one further on from the Gin Bar...a large restaurant...I can certainly imagine a leasurely stroll through the arches tasting and sampling aromas and then settling down for a hearty meal with a bottle of something that took my fancy matched to the food...as it was by the time I had run around with the camera (and found the "gentlemans salon") everyone else had already vanished off to continue their evening, so I took this opportunity to bow out (living miles outside of London), grabbed a BK Angus Burger with cheese at London Bridge and headed home to bed...yes, I'm that classy... ;)

Vicks Breathing Sensations

Well this was a bit of happy timing (or perhaps not depending on how you want to look at things) - I've spent most of the weekend lolling around the house in my dressing gown feeling all sorry for myself with a really sore throat and some pretty annoying (and sneeze-ridden) congestion...my constant companions have been olbas oil and sudafed tablets, so it was a pleasant surprise this morning at London Bridge to be handed a couple of tiny sachets of Vicks new "Breathing Sensations" chewing gum, which, if I could smell or taste anything at all, I imagine would have tasted of peppermint and blasted my nose with menthol...neither of those experiences were forthcoming, however, my sore throat *does* now feel slightly soothed, and my nostrils are clear for the first time in three days...might have to keep my eyes open for them in the shops!

Link update! Stop Press...

Bruce Lee playing ping pong with Nunchaku...(advertising nonsense, but absolutely awesome)... ;)

Fink's Links #40

Well, the ice rink is finished and we're another week closer to the festive season, can't believe we are nearly at the end November already! Anyway...on to the business at hand! Links of the week (whoever would have thought there was this much crap...(ahem)...quality entertainment on the internet!) ;)

Let's begin with an awesome Japanese alarm clock (involving guns)...

Watch a guy playing Guitar Hero (sort of) on a push bike...really amazing... ;)

A rather cheap stun gun (not sure they are strictly legal in the UK though)...what made me laugh though was it is listed as suitable for (and I quote) "entrepreneurs, taxi driver, guards and shop assistants, gas station attendants, employees of restaurants and bars, kennel attendants, women etc."... ;)

You have got to love the Americans - "Baconnaise - because everything should taste like bacon" bring it to the UK Mr Tesco, I'm there...! ;P

Star Wars (and Star Trek) origami made from American dollar bills which obviously have to be put to other purposes now they aren't terribly useful for buying things (they actually look really cool)!

A slow news day in Australia means I learn a trick to force those "left brain" "right brain" visual things to do what I want (the trick is in the comments at the bottom, won't tell you now or you won't be able to tell which side of your brain is dominant and spoil their story)...

"Solomon's real mine? 3,000 years on, archaeologists uncover fabled site in desert"

"If David Lynch owned a TV station"...

The results of the US government experiment in the 50s when they fed LSD to an artist under clinical conditions...

Incredible video demonstrating a (not exactly new, but still absolutely mind blowing) method for re-sizing images...

Next - 23 tubes, one bowl (check the picture links out at the bottom)...

HOW KEYBOARDS SHOULD BE MADE...(pic)

A slightly scary bit of egg art....

Take a little trip to the border with North Korea...

An amazing cloud (captured by NASA over Africa)...

...and finally an excellent shopping trolley fail (wouldn't you just hate to be those guys) and a little bit of a packaging fail...

...and that's your lot! More next week of course and until then you can find previous sets by clicking this link...! Enjoy the weekend! ;)

IT Crowd Season 3 - Starts Friday!

Absolutely can't wait! The internets favourite utterly absurd TV show is back! If you have never watched it before (especially if you enjoyed Father Ted - as it's the same guy responsible) immediately stop what you are doing and go back and watch season 1 until you have seen all the episodes, then watch season 2 (each show is only about 25 minutes each so it won't take you long)...those links are to youtube, but all the episodes are also on 4OD...

This is the only tears-running-down-your-face, laugh-out-loud television of the last two years (that didn't involve a camcorder, a small child, a bat and someone's genitals)...In essence it's the tale of an extremely uptight young professional female - Jen Barber - (who knows nothing about technology but pretends she does, with cringe-worthy results) being put in charge of one (slightly mad and extremely lazy) Irish help desk technician (Roy "Did you try turning it off an on?" no-surname) and one (slightly confused and extremely innocent) über-geek (Maurice "hot ear" Moss) and the utterly farcical situations they get into working in the impossibly surreal office environment of Reynholm Industries...

Season three kicks off at 10pm tomorrow....Woo Hoo!

Christmas arrives at Canary Wharf

Sometimes I forget quite how tall this building is - you know, it's funny, but when I first started to work here I would be ever-so cautious when I would get near the window (just in case)...where I sit now, my printer is right up against one and I think nothing whatsoever of walking right up to it and peering down at the ants below..quite enjoy the view actually... ;) It seems that one can get used to anything, given time...

Anyway, coming into work yesterday it being distinctly cold and rainy, I decided to take the route in through the shopping centre, and behold -

- absolutely hundreds of Christmas trees have materialised (like this one) over the weekend! They are various different colours, variations on red around Cabot Square-

- and purple around Canada Square...and yes, they've done it again...Be Festive (By Order)...any Christmas spirit is tempered by the reminder that your every jolly move will be monitored on CCTV (as if anyone needed reminding)...we are, after all, home to one of Englands few T-Ray cameras (capable of peering right through your clothing)...so more than any other collective public body we are aware not much is going to happen around here without someone knowing about it... ;)

Christmas Shopping - The correct method...

Well, this has to be a record - Flyingpops and I, having taken a day's holiday on Monday, have now largely finished (a few interweb orders aside) the Christmas gift shopping...!

Last year we weren't in this position until the 26th of November (still fairly organised, one might say, but) this puts us well over a week ahead of schedule...and doing it a week earlier actually made a whole lot of sense, the Christmas lights aren't even switched on yet in Crawley, but all the potential pressies are sitting there sparkling away, the point being the very few shoppers who actually dragged themselves out of the house into the drizzle on Monday morning were largely ignoring them, for most people it's simply way too early - in fact I think at one stage we found ourselves on our own in Littlewoods gift section...and shopping for *gifts* (rather than just DVD/CD/Games) is so much better when you can actually pick items up and examine the quality...

When it came to pay it was soooo easy, in fact, when we did hit a queue (in the Disney store) Flyingpops just put what we were planning to buy back on the shelf again and we continued to another shop! The result was that we had a completely lovely time...! Shopping, especially Christmas shopping, is normally a stress-filled affair - screaming kids, battered boxes, millions of shopping bags, millions of shoppers, queues, tripping over (or being blocked in by) push chairs, card machines failing due to increased demand, yelling, no parking places (etc. etc.)...to walk the customer-free aisles at our leasure and calmly browse all the pristine goods was (and I'm astonished at myself for saying this) actually a pleasure...

Poppy the Beetle

Hehe...says it all I think... ;)

Poppy Matilda - Our New Beetle

Let me introduce you to Poppy Matilda ...

She was conceived on Remembrance Sunday (deposit paid), Born on Saturday 15th November (collected)  and Christened on 16th November (splashed with Holy water from Maria's christening).

The name 'Poppy' was suggested by Vodqueen so she has become Poppy's Godmother.  I chose the name Matilda as I thought it was a fun/happy name and reflected the personality of the car!

We have owned Poppy less than 48 hours, driven over 300 miles, have flowers in the bud vase and its absolutely fantastic! 

Oh and the best thing of all, if you drive past another beetle, new or old style, you wave and flash your lights...

Christening

We are just off to Maria's christening, where I will become a god mother... when we get back. we will be opening a bottle of champagne and naming the beetle...

Watch this space!

x

My New Baby...

Since getting married, the question on everyone’s lips is “When will you have a baby flyingpops?” ...If I drink lemonade on a night out, everyone assumes I’m pregnant, and God forbid, I feel a little unwell...Do people not realise that I’m so happy and content having a fantastic husband, amazing house and incredible career that in my contented state, I might just be putting on a little weight? ;)

So, with a big birthday approaching in January and in the middle of a credit crunch... I have gone against my normal, sensible, practical self and have bought a beetle....Much cheaper than a baby, a lot less work and you don’t have to give wait 9 months for it!

I’ve been trawling autotrader for 3 weeks, checking insurance groups, petrol consumption and generally researching what you get for your money... and then last Saturday my hunt was successful... blue Beetle, slightly outside budget, but in Brighton, 1600 engine and from a Porsche garage... Upon seeing the ad, my heart began to race and I knew – this was the car for me! My Golf came from a Porsche garage in Chichester, my last Bug was a blue 1600 and I got the feeling which told me, everything was right and I should check out the car.

We bombed down the A23 – and within no time at all, I was test driving it! Fink was in the back, the salesman beside me and words cannot describe how I felt behind the wheel...I tried to remain cool, calm and collective, but I knew I wanted the car! I drove past another bug and waved at the driver. When she waved back, I could barely contain my excitement. People who drive a beetle know, it’s not just a car to get you from A to B, but a real love affair and way of life! We sat through the sales talk, got a P/E offer for the Golf and then ‘Net went into work mode’ not committing to anything (which totally shocked Fink, who was prepared to pay the asking price and couldn’t believe I had walked out and not left a deposit!)...

We raced back to Oxted for a very late lunch with the family (sorry Alan/Krysia) and 20 minutes into the journey, I got a call from the garage offering more money for the Golf...this negotiation was going to be one I would enjoy...they wanted our business...and would have to wait for it!

We finished our family day, went to Brockham and then I went to bed, thumping headache (excitement, anxiety, running around) .. Woke up on Sunday morning still feeling rough, so took tablets and went back to bed.. when I got up at 12.00 I had 2 voicemails from the garage! So, again going into work mode, I constructed my case, put forward my arguments and entered into a 4 hour negotiation! Needless to say, it was hard. The saleman has probably been on the same courses I have and after lots of offers / haggling (including free servicing and MOT next year and a fresh flower when I collect it) – I got a deal! Fairly standard text book negotiation, but it takes nerve and patience and I really enjoyed it! When we finally got to a win/win state – I paid the deposit ... then bounced around the house with Fink celebrating...before sorting out the insurance and then ordering a flower for the bud vase!

I’ve spent the last week trying to find a name and all my friends on facebook have put forward some excellent suggestions.. But I think we’ve chosen one! When we get the car home later, there will be a small christening involving champagne and she will be named... watch this space for pictures, names and thank you Yam, for being a fantastically reliable Golf.

Fink's Links #39

Another week passes us by (with a cheeky gesture from the rear window), and as Galileo Galilei once said "I have never met anyone so ignorant that I couldn't learn something from them" and so in that general spirit lets peek out from behind our fingers and see what all the "anyone"s of the internets had to say (or show us) just recently -

Shall we start with "and then Toby heard the 'snap' of the rubber glove"...

Look at what happens when a balloon is dropped in liquid nitrogen for a second or two...

Sad shark is sad... :(

...but it's okay because happy planes are happy... ;)

A self balancing unicycle (about half as difficult to ride as a normal one, apparently)...

A nice "Wake me up at xxxxxx" sticker set for sleepy commuters...

The anatomy of a lego man...

Learn about NASA's floating Sky Crane...

Sticking with NASA, an incredible shot of a solar eclipse (from orbit)!

An amusing (and practical) way to settle parking disputes...

Witness the strange phenomenon "Dead Water" caught for the first time on film

A walking house (of sorts, perhaps "hut" would be more accurate)? Actually looks like something "the Empire" would have built...

A cheap way to become an astronaut...doesn't look terribly comfortable though (spaceship one this certainly isn't)! Scroll down for the pics...

Woken by a bump in the night? How about a bedside table that breaks down into a shield and club?

And on your table, how about a noose table lamp? Remember to put it carefully on the floor before you go charging downstairs though... ;)

Read about the "Last Voyage of the Cúlin"...a tale of modern day piracy...

...and just to finish off, how about a nice "headline fail"... ;)

That's all for this week...! More next Friday, until then you can find previous collections over here...!

Brockham Bonfire 2008

Set your wayback machine for last weekend (okay not so wayback) and join us as, despite the fact that it had been raining really very hard all day, and Flyingpops mum had already called us in the morning to cancel attending (she normally walks along with us), we decided (perhaps unwisely) to go to the Brockham Bonfire...the easiest route for us, as we discovered before, is to drive to Reigate, park the car in Morrisons car park and then pay to get the special bus service (which this year was actually quite a posh coach instead of a broken down semi-retired double decker) -

- it's not actually that far to Brockham from Reigate (about a ten minute drive), so in no time we were trudging through the dark past the odd stalls selling glowing items for draping around one's person and over the river -

- to join the surprisingly (considering the way the weather had been) swolen crowd awaiting the festivities and gorging themselves on the constant stream of burgers and sausages coming out of the bustling kitchens -

- we went and checked out the hog roast, overheard the guys cooking it saying that it was totally burnt, but that they couldn't take the heat shield off it as they feared it would be ruined if it rained (and it was starting to drizzle) -

- so we wandered back away from the grassy area (as it was starting to get extremely muddy and slippery), I slipped a few times trying to get up the little slope away from the hog roast fence and then back onto the road and we made our way up to watch the torchlit procession from a position not far away from the organisers watchtower...and it was here that we spent the next 25 minutes waiting, at one stage we did catch a glimpse of the procession, but we were then told (as the rain continued to build into a proper shower) that because the conditions were so bad in the car park we would have to wait for everyone to park before everything would kick off, so the torches vanished back round the corner again as the rain did it's best to soak everyone through and dampen our enthusiasm...when the final stragglers from the car park did finally manage to drag themselves to the green the procession started up again, the guy was hoisted onto the top of the (increasingly saturated) pile of wood -

- and this time the torch bearers managed to make it all the way to the bonfire (which we were jolly pleased about as we were now completely soaking and getting rather cold, Flyingpops muttering something about "rather being curled up on the sofa in front of X Factor") -

- unfortunately the wood was so wet by this stage that the flames took *forever* to reach the top -

- it was literally another 20 minutes before the bangers started to go off (one or two at a time, not the usual cacophony at all, which was a bit of a let down), during this time we made our way back along the road so the massive amounts of smoke coming off the bonfire wouldn't be in our way of the display -

- and then (thank goodness) the usual having to cheer louder/"I can't hear you!" cycle was broken as on our first (as cheerful as possible in the circumstances) collective yell was answered by the start of the fireworks (making me think the guys controlling it were perhaps getting damp and cold too) -



Shame about the weather, but an excellent display (as usual)...when it all finished we made a mad dash for the buses, got on the first one and then had another mad dash through Reigate from the Red Cross in an absolute cloudburst (couldn't have got any wetter if I had jumped in the bath) and all the way across the car park at Morrisons (as I had stupidly advised Flyingpops to park near the pick-up bus stop rather than the dropping off one)...oh well, maybe we'll remember for next year!

20,000 picture landmark - 102_FUJI

Not sure how many people manage to hit this particular milestone, but my camera (on Saturday) had to create it's *third* storage folder - 102_FUJI (I use continuous numbering rather than risk having any with the same name and accidentally overwriting anything), which basically means I've taken over 20,000 pictures since I bought it back in May last year! That's about 1111 per month, or roughly 37 pictures a day...in reality of course it's all in fits and starts, some days I don't even pick the camera up, and others it's never out of my hands...That is still a pretty crazy number though, even by my standards! ;)

Say cheese... ;)

Fire Drill - One Canada Square

The fire alarm system at One Canada Square is a bit different to any others I have experienced...I guess it goes off about once a fortnight (when someone burns their toast in one of the kitchens or a birthday cake incident occurs), the first indication it's about to go off is a series of polite tones, a long low (and slightly crackly) 'boop' noise (accompanied by lots of people groaning and rolling their eyes), then a posh woman's voice comes on over the PA system "May I have your attention please, may I have your attention please, the fire alarm system in this building has been activated. Please remain at your workstations while the cause of the alarm is investigated"...at this stage, all the lifts in the building are locked down (it's happened at lunchtime before and we've all been trapped in the office muttering discontentedly) and down on the ground floor security guards will be running over to (and locking) the doors to stop anyone else coming into the building...then (normally) about five or ten minutes later the 'boop'ing noise will return and the voice will announce "May I have your attention please, may I have your attention please, the fire alarm incident is now over, the lifts and other services are returning to normal operation, should you hear a further emergency announcement after this one, please follow the instructions given, thank you for your cooperation"...

Today it was a bit different - the same wording apart from our attention being called to the fact that there actually *was* a fire and we were to evacuate immediately...and we are on the 20th floor... :(

I guess it took about 10 minutes stomping downwards to pass the sign that said "Concourse", but to add insult to injury the escape route then continued down through several other floors (a few called M and a number - nope, no idea) and then into the basement where we had to loop round through a few heavy fire doors that didn't want to open very far and then go back *up* another flight of stairs (grumble, moan) out into the cold bright autumn sunshine...at this stage about 20% of the people evacuating either headed straight into Starbucks or disappeared into the Cabot square shopping center leaving the rest of us to walk to our evacuation point (past lots of disinterested security guards) -

- where we assembled...so we waited there, the DLR clattering past above -

- no-one counted us, no role call was done...nothing like that at all, and within five minutes a small lady in a high-visibility jacket was waving us all to go back into the building...

Great. A fire drill...I put my poor old knees through 45 flights of stairs for absolutely no reason...bah...Still, at least the building was okay...actually, I was kind of pulled between wanting everything to be fine and anticipating the excellent pictures I could have shot if it really had been on fire... ;)

Anyway, once we finally all made it back up to our desks I did query why no-one seemed bothered if we had made it out alive or not and discovered that it's actually normal procedure here - two people on each floor are paid an extra £60 (per month) to be fire marshalls, their job (in the event of an emergency) is to scour every part of the floor they are responsible for to make sure that everyone is out, this (apparently) is much more reliable than trying to make sure everyone doesn't just nip off for a cup of tea or to browse round the designer clothes shops while One Canada Square burns to the ground (full of fire fighters sacrificing their lives to find people who are currently sipping a skinny latte and laughing)...