Below Belief

Hot air ballooning

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 23:45:46 +0000

Our weekends are frequently put under strain by S's work schedule but this week We took a rare weekend off and "did what normal people do". Well, maybe not everyone. We went to the Ragged Cot, a recently renovated pub/restaurant/inn in the small Cotswold town of Minchinhampton - I can highly recommend it. One of those places where you just know the experience is going to be great - chic, modern rooms, very clean, nice smell (important), little details, friendly staff.

On the Saturday morning we got up at 5.30am (again, maybe not particularly normal) and headed off for a hot air balloon ride across the Cotswold villages. We were incredibly lucky, ours was the only flight in seven days (due to inclement weather) and there were people with us who'd been waiting more than 12 months to actually fly and had nearly concluded that the company was just an elaborate scam to hold their money.

The weather was beautiful though and the flight - especially the inflation and the landing, was a great experience. Few nice photos below.

We followed the experience (after a nap) with a trip to Woodchester Mansion - the most incredible building I think I've ever seen... built (or rather not quite finished) in the mid 1800s by one William Leigh, it was designed to be a family home (on a grand scale) mixed with a Catholic commune. It is elaborately gothic (see the pictures below), still a building site and quite eerily spooky. The fact that the builders departed swiftly (when William ran out of cash) means that unlike most gothic buildings, you can see how they built it - with the most incredible stone engineering and what the Victoria/Georgian's thought was most important in such a building - "clean air" was a priority, for example. But there was a shower room with overhead gargoyle spout as well as a deep bath, carved out of limestone (and intended to be lined with lead) with gargoyle taps.

The place is really a very elaborate folly - it is estimated it will cost £6-7million just to "restore to it's original condition" the chapel (just one part of the building). And donations and grants are relied upon just to keep the water out. It will never be finished and thus is destined to be an expensive and eccentric oddity as long as it still stands.

It was a wonderful diversion for an afternoon though and if I had the money, I'd want to buy it and turn it into the most fantastic (if crazy) house.

Few photos:

Email not working - oddpost.com down

Sat, 08 Aug 2009 17:54:33 +0000

If you're trying to email please using @yahoo.com instead of @oddpost.com. Or you can email me via this site also.

Inexplicably, Yahoo has done something to screw up my Yahoo account - or at least the @oddpost.com one. I haven't received any email since Wednesday.

So if you're trying to get in touch, swap the yahoo.com extension for the oddpost.com one and job's a good 'un.

I have tried taking up my complaint with Yahoo and they say they're on it - but won't give any ETA for a fix. I consider this pretty poor service since I pay them for the account. Their live chat facility is functional but when you talk to the agents (who must be based in India) they are insincere.

Hopefully it'll work soon.

We went to see Take That

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 20:06:47 +0000

As you can see from the photos, we went to see Take That at Wembley.

It was really S who drove this, but I can't deny it was a damn fine show. Those boys know how to put on a show.

Take a look - the balloon, the clowns, the circus tent and the incredible animated elephant with men inside controlling each part. Absolutely mind blowing - a different world for a night.

Happiness is: 5 chickens and a glass of wine...

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 18:55:20 +0000

Crazy Deranged Fools

Sun, 24 May 2009 08:45:50 +0000

I've been a big fan of Hugh MacLeod, cartoonist over at Gaping Void for many years. I find his cartoons refreshingly honest, sometimes challenging - but always amusing.

He now sells his cartoons as limited edition prints, but allows anyone to download them off his site for free for people to use them for whatever (thanks Hugh!). Turns out lots of his followers do this, including me, and he's coined the term "Cube Grenade" to describe their use as disruptive social objects - printing them out, putting them up somewhere and using them as conversation-starters.

Mine are in the hallway at home, rather than in a cube, but I love the fact that people do find them interesting and they are a conversation starter:

I've also used Hugh's cartoons to illustrate newsletters I've sent out at work - always selecting an appropriate cartoon from the huge back catalogue to summarise the mood of what's going on.

And Hugh's right - in the future I might very well upgrade some of my favourites to a limited-edition version in much higher quality (than my tatty printouts) so that I can always enjoy his art and continue to start bigger conversations...

"Came a cropper"

Sun, 24 May 2009 08:22:00 +0000

I was cycling home the other night, about 11pm, along a luckily deserted stretch of road near home, when this happened:

For the uninitiated, that's the seat post off my bike and yes the saddle just sheared off...

Other than being further evidence that I must be fat, this was a pretty nasty incident - because the bike shot out in front of me and I landed on the tarmac on my coccyx.

For the first few moments I was winded and could hardly breathe - then finally I came to my senses and got off the road - my back was in agony and I thought I might have broken something. Luckily I hadn't but I've been walking round like an old man for 3 days now and it's very painful to sit down in the wrong way!

Anyway, bloody painful experience and I'm lucky it didn't happen on busier roads earlier in my journey. Am wondering if I should report this to the bike manufacturers as it seems the seat post might have been defective for it to shear like that.

Cilgarren

Sun, 10 May 2009 22:36:45 +0000

We had a lovely time over the bank holiday staying with J & K at her parents in Cilgarren - a tiny village on the West Wales coast near Cardigan.

Shelterbox - it made old men of us, but we did it

Sun, 26 Apr 2009 18:00:36 +0000

We completed the course last weekend and came 8th out of 40 teams - improving on 13th last year. We covered the 30 mile course in 10 hours 49 minutes (over two days) and we pushed hard so we made sure we beat the two other teams from Holiday Rentals. They did great too - one team coming 11th and the other 27th overall.

We were especially pleased as the 7 teams in front of us ran a lot of the way and had done a lot of training - and we managed to tail them all the way without either! However, our efforts have left us weak and feeble old men this week and it will be a few days before the stiff limbs and blisters subside.

Thanks so much for your generosity - the event itself raised over £40,000 for Shelterbox.

Fabulous Tanzania

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 12:21:42 +0000

Wonderful safari

So here they are. My favourite 16 pictures from our fabulous holiday in Tanzania.

I am an amateur photographer and subscribe to the theory that the more pictures you take, the greater the likelihood of taking a good one. So I was disappointed that of the thousands of frames we took, only a few were really serviceable - they were good but not as great as I'd hoped from the amazing subject matter we got!

A combination of low light conditions (early morning and late afternoon), ~300mm lenses at full stretch (leading to hand shake at even decent shutter speeds) and rapidly moving targets (sometimes) led to a prevalence of blurriness. Dust also made keeping expensive camera gear clean and functioning tricky.

Anyway, as memories of a fabulous time, they serve good enough and I look forward to going again one day to Tanzania to try to improve on my score!

If you are in the market for a safari, I heartily recommend WayoAfrica - they're a small, Tanzanian company with a focus on high quality and on customised safaris to suit you.

Not so "soft" Soft Hotel

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 20:08:14 +0000

I was in Paris this last couple of weeks - something I hope to do more of in the near future as I work with a new part of our business.

I stayed in the "Soft hotel". This is an anti-recommendation.

All "mid-priced" hotels in big cities tend to be terrible. London and Paris are no exception. But the soft hotel managed to be "just shit enough" in a number of areas to warrant me actually blogging this "don't go there" message.

The Soft Hotel happens to be closest to the office where I was working. It was cheapish and someone else had already stayed there from the company. She said it was "ok".

First experience: standing on the doorstep for 15 minutes, waiting to be let in to the hotel. They very nearly didn't get me as a guest, only the punitive cancellation policy stopped me from walking to find an alternative hotel nearby. I had phoned them once (no answer) before I was finally let in.

The staff were decent, if apologetic. Reception was being renovated. I felt like I'd arrived in Beirut.

The room was tiny. Close to the minimum that would classify as a "hotel room" in my mind. The bathroom was miniscule. It smelled of damp.

The wifi network worked in the chilli lobby downstairs. It did not work in my room. Nor did they fix this in the 3 days I stayed there.

Lift was like a carpeted coffin. For one person only. Buried alive when the cable finally rusts through.

Breakfast was in a tiny guest room (in lieu of the reception/downstairs being renovated). Horrible.

Don't stay at the Soft Hotel, Paris.

Lily Allen and modern life

Sun, 22 Feb 2009 19:41:29 +0000

I was driving to the supermarket in the car and overheard Lily Allen singing "Fear". The lyrics seemed poignant of our current times.

Tesco has just opened an Express store (in the old Woolworth's building) opposite Waitrose - no doubt putting the well-to-do of Sheen in a quandry. "Do I go in Tesco where it's cheaper and risk being "seen" or do I stick to dull old Waitrose?!"... etc. The endless commercial pressure makes me weary sometimes.

So I'll quote the lyrics here and you can go listen to the track if you get a chance:

I want to be rich and I want lots of money I don't care about clever I don't care about funny I want loads of clothes and fuckloads of diamonds I heard people die while they are trying to find them
I'll take my clothes off and it will be shameless
'Cuz everyone knows that's how you get famous
I'll look at The Sun and I'll look in The Mirror
I'm on the right track yeah I'm on to a winner

Chorus
I don't know what's right and what's real anymore
I don't know how I'm meant to feel anymore
When we think it will all become clear
'Cuz I'm being taken over by The Fear

Life's about film stars and less about mothers
It's all about fast cars and passing each other
But it doesn't matter cause I'm packing plastic
and that's what makes my life so fucking fantastic

And I am a weapon of massive consumption
and its not my fault it's how I'm program to function
I'll look at the sun and I'll look in the mirror
I'm on the right track yeah I'm on to a winner

I don't know what's right and what's real anymore
I don't know how I'm meant to feel anymore
When we think it will all become clear
'Cuz I'm being taken over by The Fear

Bridge

Forget about guns and forget ammunition
Cause I'm killing them all on my own little mission
Now I'm not a saint but I'm not a sinner
Now everything is cool as long as I'm getting thinner

Chorus

I don't know what's right and what's real anymore
I don't know how I'm meant to feel anymore
When we think it will all become clear
'Cause I'm being taken over by fear

Listen to it here

Snow in London

Sat, 07 Feb 2009 13:39:16 +0000

Most snow in London for 18 years this week... few photos to remember it by. Probably won't happen again in our lifetime.

Was great fun, work took second place to snowmen, snowball fights with the boys next door and general comraderie.

Selfridges Personal Shopper

Sun, 01 Feb 2009 17:47:30 +0000

In Christmas presents this year, S and I operated a "ten presents for £100" scheme. It made Christmas shopping both challenging and constrained - which was great. One of the presents had to be a BOGOF (Buy One Get One Free) and another had to be from a charity shop. S, cleverly, won the prize for "cheapest single present", giving me an appointment with a Selfridges Personal Shopper which was, to her, free.

S is not just a pretty face.

So yesterday was my big day. I must admit to being a bit nervous. Selfridges has never particularly appealed as a shopping destination and whilst I'm happy to shop like the rest of them, my style is typically a bi-annual "re-wardrobing": getting into the mood for one day every six months to shop for an entire new set of clothes in one go. It's not that I don't enjoy shopping more often, I do, it just seems to need a certain frame of mind to discover clothes that really fit and look good.

Anyway, I had a blast. In total I spent 3 hours in a private room deep inside Selfridges, being lavished with and fitted into an array of designer clothes by Martena and her assistant, Louie. Martena is a slightly stern, good looking Swiss woman in her late-40s. She judges a man by his shoes and his watch - and has me instantly recoiling when she pronounces my chisel-toed brown Clarkes shoes "muesli-shoes" - because she says only muesli-eating Germans wear such horrid footwear... She herself is wearing "hand-made" white shoes, presumably made by non-muesli-eating Swiss workers. This is clearly a woman who knows her style. She says she likes "classic, with a twist". I like it.

Anyway, she asks me to stand up and, without measuring, tells me what suit and trouser size I am. Unless S gave her them in advance, I'm impressed. She leaves me reading the Saturday papers while she and Louie go running round the store to collect appropriate clothes.

And so it continues, once it's clear I will definitely be purchasing one or two items, they bring me a glass of champagne and I keep trying stuff on. The room is well set up - you can choose how cool or warm it is - always a personal bugbear of mine, that changing rooms are too hot. Also the light is mostly from a large dome in the ceiling which mimics sunlight and makes clothes look the right colour. The mirrors seem to flatter one - or maybe that's just the champagne.

If there's something that needs a different size (and they got most of it right first time), they skip off and bring the right one. Every so often they return and help me with my choices, picking ties and belts, shoes and shirts to match the look they envision. The only problem was there was rather too much "that looks really beautiful" and not much "ouch, that's expensive" and so when the bill finally came and items were presented in tissue-paper and yellow bags it was a bit of a shock. Nonetheless, breathing deeply, I did come away with a couple of really nice quality suits, several shirts, some shoes, two pairs of jeans, a cool jacket and a couple of casual pieces I thought looked great.

When I got everything home, I did another pass with S and took the most extravagent items back today for a refund. This was a good idea. There's designer clothes and then there's being ripped off. Now I feel I've got some quality items which will last a long time and give me "the twist". Who knows? You be the judge.

Building a 3-bedroom flat

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 20:06:09 +0000

I spent the weekend in Bristol volunteering to work on the self-build project C and R are attempting. They've bought into the commonhold of an ex-industrial building which is being refurbished (on the outside) and have basically just taken possession of a 100m2 shell on the 1st floor and have plans to turn it into a 3 bedroom flat with space for their them, their young son M and baby-on-the-way.

There were 6 of us - including fortunately C's dad who has many years experience in joinery and shopfitting and by the end of the weekend pretty much all the internal wall structure was in and built. We used metal studwork which I'd never used before but the design of curved wall meant there were various complex aspects to getting the studwork in the right place and with the right centres such that plasterboard can be easily nailed on top.

Pictures to follow once I can get them off my phone.

Had a great weekend anyway - hard work but great fun and will post more pictures if I can of how the build progresses. They're hoping to move in in March and with progress like this, they might stand a chance!

Banff - skiing in beautiful freezing Canada

Sun, 04 Jan 2009 01:12:47 +0000

Although quite unbelievably cold at -30'C , skiing here in Banff at Lake Louise is absolutely superb. The snow is new but in great condition - no ice and lots of powder.

Staying out all day in the alpine scenery requires many layers, no exposed skin and a modicum of pain and discomfort. Canada has organisation licked though and we both want to live here...