Just Beyond The Bridge

Merge Hotmail Accounts

2008-07-10T17:47:00Z

Here’s another tip.

If you didn’t know already, you can now combine multiple Hotmail / Live email accounts into a single account (or pretty close to) - which means you only have to log in using one account to check the mail in all of the others.

For someone like me who rarely uses my Hotmail accounts these days, it’s handy to speed up the process by merging my hotmail.co.uk and hotmail.com addresses.

You can do this by:

Logging into Hotmail as usual
Click on your email address in the top right hand corner of the page (right above the Sign Out text link)
From the drop down, select Link other accounts
Follow the instructions to tie in your Microsoft Passport/Hotmail/Windows Live Mail

You will be asked to enter your password and email address for the other account, then once the process is complete, you will be able to click on the same menu as in step 2, and change to your other email account inboxes on-the-fly.

Zattoo: Watch All The Usual TV, Live

2008-07-09T21:41:00Z

Maybe I’d missed this before, but I’ve just discovered a fantastic little app (that runs on Windows, Mac and ‘Nix) that allows you to watch all the UK channels for free, live.

Zattoo just requires an email address, and the funky little program allows you to watch the following useful and semi-useful channels:

BBC One
BBC Two
BBC Three
BBC Four
ITV 1
Channel 4
five
BBC News
BBC Paliament
Al Jazeera
CBBC
CBebbies

According to the website, it’s completely legal and I’ve been really impressed with the quality so far. It comes with an inbuilt schedule too.

My advice? Go try it.

2008 British Grand Prix at Silverstone

2008-07-07T22:13:00Z

If the rain had stayed away I’m sure Sunday would have been drier, but probably not as good as it was.

Even though I’ve been to Silverstone before, I’ve never gone for a Grand Prix, and being that it’s going to be the penultimate one for a little while at least made the opportunity to get in an amongst the action all that more special.

Will, Henry, Alan and myself managed to get ourselves some pretty decent tickets thanks to a contact of ours (to whom we’re really grateful) which meant we got access to the private BRDC car park, clubhouse, marquee, bar and grandstand. We also ended up with pit lane walkabout tickets thanks to Adam and the time in between races making the most of the very good coffee and muffins.

Despite the bad weather (which was inevitable) spirits were high, and by the time the race kicked off and Hamilton raced into first place the atmosphere was buzzing and the crowds were excitable. We had the use of a hill and grandstand with particularly good views (some might say the best on the circuit) and a corner that went from dry to wet to dry to wet during the course of the seventy-odd laps which meant there were plenty of retirements, spins, tussles and overtaking. There wasn’t a dull moment.

Also of note, I’ve never seen so many Aston Martins in my life - the car park was packed with interesting beasts; Ferraris, Lambos, Maseratis and the odd Veyron. On the walkabout we ended up on the right side of the line (also a couple of friends of ours managed to crash a certain Mclaren afterparty), the red arrows were impressive, for the morning races I was standing about six feet away from Tony Hamilton, and despite having to wait about an hour to escape the centre of the track at the end of the day, I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Grand Prixes may become a regular feature of my calendar in the future.

Usually I’d just mention the big Grand Prix as the big event of the weekend, but I’ve been packing it in recently, but Saturday had also been busy. We took Aid clay pigeon shooting for his birthday, something I’ve not done for just over ten years, but had a great time doing that too, and surprised myself by being better than I thought I’d be (that’s not hard - I really believed I’d be as abysmal as I was last time).

Overall, a lot of photos and tiredness but above all, a really awesome weekend.

The All New BBC iPlayer

2008-06-28T09:28:00Z

I’ve been a iPlayer fanatic for a good while now, and I think the popular response it’s seen in the past few months means that a lot of other people think the same way.

So now the new iPlayer Beta is live and after a good play I went back and reread my article about the service when it launched six months ago.

Undoubtedl the big, indeed massive, benefit to me is the rolling together with the BBC’s Radio iPlayer service which is long overdue, and for a audio junkie like myself I am more than delighted with the results. The antiquated RealPlayer has been axed (why do I still need it on my Mac come to think of it?), and has been replaced with a beautiful full-size iPlayer window with a decent sized image - a visual cue that until now has been sorely missing even if I never realised it.

Sticking with radio, they have also cleverly replaced the full-screen option with a more useful ‘pop-out’ player which due to a bit of javascript wizardry makes sure you don’t lose your place when you switch between the two player types. The pop-out also allows you to browse related programmes again without losing the audio.

Even the exceptionally long radio programmes (3 hours for example) are now 100% skippable back and forth - a long time bug bear of mine. The old solution of limiting skipping to only going forwards in 5 and 15 minute intervals only, was highly frustrating, and for a long time I’ve been using Firebug to get the url and just loading up the RealPlayer window option, just like you had the option in the shorter 30 minute programmes. Good riddance to nasty interfaces.

All that said, the streaming interface still uses ASX files, although these do load in Quicktime with the Flip4Mac plugin. I’m unsure if the intention is that this is going to stay this way (I’m not sure of flash’s realtime streaming capabilities) but it is one of the few unpolished edges in the system.

The drill-down category menus, search and enhanced descriptions for radio shows is delectable - I now can get exactly where I want, although there is one really big missing feature (and the same applies to the new TV iPlayer) and that’s the ability to sort all programmes by date (everything is done alphabetically). I try to listen to new comedy almost daily, but it’s hard to find what’s new today across the board.

Switching between media types otherwise is very clear, a three-buttoned TV & Radio, TV or Radio option on every category page making filtering very simple, and the new and big icons work well. Dare I say it I think the radio logos come into their own on their own page - thank god they decided not to leave them all on white backgrounds.

Scheduling (and past days programming) is now built in by default and it’s bliss not to have to leave the pages to get there, and this makes it a lot easier to check the week ahead. A nice touch is that it also already ‘fills-in’ the schedule with repeats that are in the existing library, so you know it’s already there somewhere and available to watch. They’ve also started bundling programmes from the same series into expandable sections within the listings, so you can also backtrack through a series right from the point you find it if the episodes are still available.

The default iPlayer window has been super-sized, and although it’s not immediately obvious if the video size/quality has been altered, if it has I’m sure the UK’s ISPs will all be hopping mad… fantastic :)

The related programme link has also been bundled in with the description, category tagging, a much more discrete title and a very exact expiry date - all in a hide-away box on each programme page which gives a lot more open real estate for that big screen to fill…

Of course, the interface has become very busy with all the new options, cluttered maybe, but I would imagine that if that is the general response they get they could always implement an iGoogle style customisation system where you could pick or choose your version, or more likely what could happen, a ‘simplified’ option or ‘show more’ style interface. That said, as someone who looks at the new homepage and thinks there is nothing they’d want removed, I’d keep the whole lot on there all the time.

My prediction of playlists hasn’t really come to form, but I wonder whether this is down to complexity of interface reasons (e.g. they don’t want to make it anymore complicated). They could have taken the cue from 4radio, so the idea is out there, but clearly is has been dismissed for some reason. I can’t say it troubles me much however, and would only be a bonus if they do ever introduce it.

You may have deduced that I am elated, delighted and brimming with anticipation to really get going with the new iPlayer. Already proved as a very good product anyway, the new version considerably raises the bar for other broadcasters (ITV, C4, and I would imagine, five - like I even know) and this will make this service even more popular; it can’t do anything else.

Well done the Beeb. For all the criticism that could be hurled at you for other reasons, the iPlayer is one place you excel and exceed expectations.

(Now I’ll sit back and wait for Lloydy to complain I wrote this too quickly… ;P )

Last Weekend

2008-06-27T21:04:00Z

Being Duff’s birthday last weekend, and that everyone had been complaining they’d not seen me down there in a while, I took myself down to Tooting for the weekend.

Duffy has moved since my last visit to his, yet the place still seemed very Duff like, just with a less impressive view (last time I was down there I watched sunrise over the city from inside my sleeping bag from the balcony).

We met for a few beers and then wandered out into Putney - a German bar where they served really quite ridiculous slabs of beer in huge chunky mugs. Swanny, Day, Ambrose, Jess, James and a few of Duff’s London mates came out, but it wasn’t long before we were all introduced to some new (drinking) games that Day had dreamt up. I won’t go into any of them here, needless to say they are hilarious, but only after a few drinks and in a ‘you had to be there’ kind of way.

We ended up in a place called Fez (anywhere called Fez that Duffy recommends has to be taken with a pinch of salt - I remember the last time he made a similar suggestion) and it was a good night. Jojo and Emma made a sneaky appearance later on, as did one of Jess’ mates and a Bolivian.

All good clean fun, yet once again not quite so cheap as just going to the pub methinks.

Aside from this, Will met Lewis Hamilton this week. I’m really looking forward to the F1 now.

The 10 Most Best Biscuits

2008-06-19T17:40:00Z

It occurred to me at some point today that I have never shared the following life-critical information.

The Bourbon
McVities Mint Chocolate Digestive (special occasions only)
McVities Dark Chocolate Digestive
The Foxes Cream (too sweet for everyday use)
The Gingernut
The Malted Milk (chew around the cows for most enjoyment)
Jammy Dodger
The (Controversial) Jaffa Cake
Squashed Fly Biscuits
Rich Tea (to be eaten with plenty of liquids)

The Hobnob is like eating sandpaper, and creates an uncontrollable mess. It is most certainly not in the top ten biscuits.

These are cold, hard facts and I realise maybe hard for some people to swallow, but you can’t argue with the truth.

Jay Leno and Quite An Important Car

2008-06-16T19:40:01Z

The first thing I ever typed into a search engine (as far as I can remember) was Bligh, the name of one half of my family, and an action that had lasting consequences on the following few years when it provided the starting point for some investigative family history.

My mother (who put the real research in) found that a large portion of my ancestors were creative and practical people (printers, jewellers, stone masons, seafarers and coach builders) - and we always knew there was a point in the first quarter of the last century when horse drawn vehicles saw their first real competition, and motor-powered vehicles started to come in.

My great-grandfather had worked at the Austin works around this time, and family stories say he was hand-picked by Lord Austin to manage coach construction on his new motorcars. The family in Ramsgate had been coach builders for a few generations, and now with the modern advances, had turned their skills to the new technology. After all at this stage there still weren’t too many differences between the building techniques used for the two forms of transport.

We discovered in the ensuing research that for a period whilst they we’re still living in Ramsgate, the family had themselves taken to constructing cars under the name of Bligh Brothers. We’d never seen or heard of this minor manufacturer until then, but have since been aware (and optimistic) that potentially one of these rare machines might still be locked away in someone’s collection, or at least their might be some photographic record.

A few months ago a battered and dismembered lantern from a Bligh Brothers car turned up in an eBay auction, but like all these things, was lost to a higher bidder. It was therefore a bit of a surprise to find that American comedian and talk show host Jay Leno was to supply us with an unexpected twist to the Bligh Brothers story.

As a keen collector of vintage cars, Leno recently launched a website where he catalogues his extensive collection of vehicles. During a routine Google for Bligh Brothers related images, this photographic gem surfaced, an image on Leno’s car site with the accompanying note,

So, it’s only by coincidence that Jay Leno happens to be in this photograph standing behind the car. This picture was taken this August at Pebble Beach and the car is a modified 1921 Mercedes Bligh Brothers Tourer. As I learned from Jay at the event, the car was created by England-dwelling, Polish nobleman Count Louis Zborowski who created four high-performance large-engined vehicles all dubbed by him to be “Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang” (words derived from Cockney rhyming slang). This car, number 2 in the series, was built on a Mercedes chassis around an enormous 18.8-liter Benz BZ IV series aircraft engine. Back in the day, this 230 horsepower engine was able to carry the car to speeds reaching 113 mph. Zborowski raced the car only once at Brooklands and later took the car to tour the Sahara Desert.

Author Ian Fleming was inspired by the Count and his cars and adopted the cars’ name for his novel “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” - which in 1968 was made into the successful movie.

It seems so strange to find this. It’s one of those nuggets of interest that lost in the transition from one generation to the next. To rediscover that the car was both a desert tourer and also the inspiration for Fleming’s immensely famous children’s book is really quite special - in fact it was one of four, and now the only surviving one. An 18.8 litre aeroplane engine - that’s insane even by modern standards. Not content to leave it there, another one in the ‘Chitty’ range was fitted with an incredible 450bhp aeroplane engine. Even more extraordinarily, a modified Chitty 4 went on to claim the World Land Speed Record (171.02mph) before killing it’s driver and owner, JG Parry-Thomas on the third attempt when the neck-height drive chain snapped with pretty gruesome consequences.

As it happens quite a few people took photos at the event and there is now a pretty good public record of images, plus one or two other pieces of Bligh Brothers information have come to light in recent days. I seem to recall that there might be another car in the motor museum in Beauleigh - hopefully one day I’ll actually get to see that one, the now-reconstructed Chitty IV, or perhaps even the original Chitty II Tourer.

BMW Gina Concept Car

2008-06-12T18:47:00Z

Once in a while I see some truly ingenious thinking, and it’s rare to see a product that is so functionally trend-defying, especially when often concept cars are beautiful, but little else.

The Gina prototypes with fabric ‘skin’ is a really good demonstration of how approaching a problem from a different angle can reap big rewards. I can remember as a kid watching Thunder in Paradise (yes, a truly masterful programme) where Hulk Hogan’s boat could morph shape. Incredibly futuristic, but now here is a real and simple alternative to produce lightweight, flexible, form-altering products.

Of course spaceframe technology has meant this has been possible for years, but I’ve never seen it put into practice. There are inevitably ‘issues’ too - how many times would you return to your posh looking cloth convertible to find someone had slashed it - but it’s not like a new paint job or sidepanel doesn’t cost a lot of money anyway.

Unfortunately, I don’t ever really expect to see a car like this in production, at least not in such a stark and complete form. Clearly cutting down weight and simplifying panel creation would be very desirable for manufacturers (each being expensive in their own way), but metal isn’t likely to be thrown out for fabric in the foreseeable future. However I do think it gives a good platform for moving car design forward and hopefully will stimulate truly beautiful, lightweight solutions to problems that are currently overlooked because their remedies appear ‘essential’.

Foo Fighters and Led Zeppelin At Wembley & Then Silverstone

2008-06-08T20:03:00Z

The first thing I would like to do is thank Red Bull and Double Decker for their continued support this weekend. Had it not been for these two items, this post would most certainly not have been written tonight.

On Friday lunchtime I drove down to Banbury (my first ‘real’ outing in the new car - it’s like driving a eiderdown when compared to the old beast) and met Dan and Dave at Wembley in mid-afternoon. Rumour had it there would be some ‘special guests’ (I thought the support act, Supergrass, would be good enough) but most people were thinking Paul McCartney. Dave suggested he’d heard Led Zeppelin might appear, but it was hard to believe, although I did mention as we passed through Gate M that the Foos do specify on their rider that there are only three bands they would ever be prepared to share a dressing room with, one of those bands is the aforementioned Supergrass, secondly Oasis and finally Led Zep. I didn’t really expect it to happen.

Anyway, the gig was superb. Currin had never been to a proper rock gig before, and neither me or Dave had ever been to one in Wembley Stadium, so there was something new for all of us. It was insanely packed in front of the stage and as the two and a half hour set drew on, we all ended up closer and closer to the front. Eventually we all got separated. Dave told me after he got right on the barrier, whereas I was four rows back where the only way to keep upright was to jump as high as everyone else and the sweat was so thick it was like glue. Yes a lovely image, but it’s hard to express how god damn brilliant it was. And then they announced Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones were coming on and the crowd went even more wild. Of course, the presence of Robert Plant might have been nice too, but I’m not complaining; that’s two for the price of one as far as I’m concerned.

I caught a train back to Banbury, then drove the remainder of the way, arriving in Lower Brailes at about half one. A long day. I stayed with relatives, then woke at seven to get back on the road and over to Silverstone for the Renault World Series.

It took me a little while to figure out that the Renault World Series is not just one super race, it’s the name of the event, and all the various classes of Renault motorsport compete on the same day. Will managed to acquire the team buggy for long parts of the day and we spent a lot of time dishing out promotional material (well, our ‘pitbabes’ did, but it’s hard work watching, taking photos for the website and then restocking the girls with more flyers).

Being as Adam’s Formula Renault races were at opposite ends of the day, there was a lot of time to kill between 9am and 5pm, but after qualifying third in both rounds, he snatched second place in both the morning and afternoon session keeping him firmly at the top of the championship.

I managed to acquire my first sunburn of the year, and was quite relieved to make it home at 8pm - a long, long day. Not much relaxing at all this weekend, but really extra special for all of the above. All I need now is roughly 16 hours of sleep.

Macbook Hard Drive Dead. Again.

2008-06-05T09:14:00Z

I think I knew this day would return, but I had sort of hoped it would happen a bit more slower and obviously than last time, but it didn’t.

On Tuesday Will was using the Macbook for some notes when it suddenly froze up. I shut it down and left it after being unresponsive for over half an hour (really unusual) and when I started it back up the next morning I was faced by the flashing folder of doom.

So I knew it was curtains, but thought I’d better just check, and all the tricks I learnt from the last this happened (a faulty drive going in the first weeks of having the laptop two years ago) just confirmed it for me. Dead drive.

For those curious to know how you can tell whether you’ve got a pretty nasty situation:

Incredibly long start up wait then the flashing folder of doom (comes complete with question mark)
Rebooting takes no effect
Holding down T while booting and linking to another machine via Firewire: if it fails to show a big firewire symbol on the screen/it’s non-mounting as a disk-type device on the other machine
Booting from DVD setup disks and running Disk Utility demonstrates no reference to the hard disc, only the mounted DVD
Additional clicking noises are not a good sign (the stylus may have collapsed or similar - potentially scratching the disc face)

If you meet this criteria, you’re probably in for some fun and games.

Luckily, I’ve been using SugarSync for a month, which silently syncs everything up to a big S3 vault, so I’ve lost very little thankfully. That’s damn good timing though - there were some critical files still on there from the last time I remote worked; this time last month I’d have lost it all.

The only other thing affected was my calendar and address book, but luckily I also run a regular automated iSync (using Proximity and an AppleScript) which keeps a complete and up-to-date version of both of these on my phone. Still, it’s a hassle having to transfer it all back into the appropriate multiple calendars. I’m going to start using gCal I think.

Anyway, the new hard drive with five year warranty is in the post. All I’ve got to do now is wait for the fun of installing and configuring every single app again. Hurray.

Sheffield & Simon Amstell

2008-06-02T14:11:00Z

My weekend was very good, even by general birthday weekend standards. I spent it in Sheffield with Sean and Tongy, and I think it’s fair to say you’ve all lifted yourself out of studentdom when all three of you decide that the cheapest vodka just won’t do any more. Even at Waitrose.

I went up on Friday in order to spend the day working with Rattle, who kindly supplied me with cake (if only all clients supplied cake) before heading onto West Street for a quick drink with Sean. Tongy met us and we found a bar with a decent view, nicely positioned over the Indian where we had a really decent curry.

Saturday, my actual birthday day, was spent at Meadowhall and browsing the vintage clothing shops. We headed out after a vicious game of Mullets top trumps (yes, it really does exist) and spent some time exploring the bars and clubs. All good stuff.

Getting up early on a Sunday isn’t fair at the best of times, but I had to get a cab to the station for the train journey back. Sisters one and two had bought me tickets to see Buzzcocks host Simon Amstell do his stand-up show in Wolverhampton and it was very enjoyable. I don’t know exactly what I had expected, and was a bit concerned the audience didn’t seem to warm very quickly, but the second half picked up the momentum and it turned out well. The support act Arnab Chandra was also very good, although I did know some of the material already. Still; very good stuff.

I’m looking forward to next weekend already…

Hello Summer

2008-05-26T11:25:00Z

Maybe running my own business is one of those things I’ve taken for granted for a long time. Recently more and more people seem to have been asking me for advice about their own enterprises, talking about their wish to make a break, or just their intentions of one day being able to go it alone.

I really enjoy what I do, and it’s not just working with great clients, or on exciting projects (which are big factors) but also I think learning by doing is one of the most engaging processes and keeps the job fresh. It’s been just over five years since I first became self-employed, and after thinking I knew quite a lot about running your own affairs, I then decided to incorporate this year, and it’s brought along whole new basket of activities and concepts to learn.

Administration is not my favourite pastime, although I do like knowing how it all works and why you have to do it. Last week (with the aid of Stacey and Tim) I set up a payroll, and it struck me that this isn’t normal for a 22 year old - in fact most 22 year olds probably haven’t ever filed a tax return I would guess. I think sometimes I get too engrossed in what I’m doing to pay attention to the bigger picture, so over the past few days I’ve tried to do that. It’s only ever made me more excited about what the future holds. I can’t say I’ve really been planning anything, but just having a think about what might happen next.

This probably has all been triggered since I bought my car, although as anyone who has spoken to me about it knows, I can’t actually bloody drive it for another week and a half which is driving me insane. I’d been aiming to get this sorted for so long (my sole goal since January) that after I’d done it, a giant vacuum appeared and I’ve had to start reappraising my medium-term goals and targets.

Aside from all the business stuff, I’ve got a really good few weeks lined up. I’m spending next weekend in Sheffield over my birthday, then going to see Simon Amstell do stand up in Coventry. The following weekend I’ve got Foo Fighters in Wembley (my first visit there) and then over to Silverstone for the Formula Renault the next day. Good stuff.

The bank holiday has been pretty well spent already. Will and I spent the afternoon with some bevvies sat on the grass in Mary Steven’s Park on Saturday, then yesterday George, Tom and myself met up in Wollaston. Everyone should finally be coming back home in the next few weeks, and then the summer really can begin in earnest.

Oh, and one final thing - if you haven’t seen Mad Men it’s just finished showing series one on BBC4, but is definitely my hot recommendation, so if you get a chance, watch it.

Geek In The Park Returns In 2008

2008-05-17T19:10:00Z

Like Indiana Jones, yet potentially more action-packed, Multipack’s Geek In The Park 2008 makes a welcome return this year, and will be pitching camp in Royal Leamington Spa on Saturday 9th August.

The format will be the same as last time; an afternoon picnic in the wonderful Jepheson Park (friends and families welcome) will be followed later in the evening by a discussion based event, with some top-notch speakers. We’re not disclosing the line up yet, but rest assured, you won’t be disappointed.

And of course, there is one other reason why GITP is always worth a look in; once again it’s free of charge.

For those wondering how to get to Leamington Spa, it’s easily accessible from the motorway and regular, direct trains run from London Marylebone and Birmingham.

For more details and to sign up for a reminder, visit the Geek In The Park 2008 website, put together so masterfully by Trev and Lloydy.

Donington, Kitson, Multipack

2008-05-11T12:12:00Z

Last weekend I headed to my second motor sport event this season. I was mainly there for the Formula Renault, but of course the BTCC meet was also on, and some pretty spectacular collisions made a morning for good spectating. I went over with Will, Henry and Alan, but later in the afternoon, Dan, Psycho, Yaz, Chicken and Charlotte arrived to watch the final races, and an unexpected Spitfire fly past. The weather stayed pretty dry, so there was no soaked-to-the-bones repeat of Brands Hatch; just as well really.

On Wednesday I met up with George and Will again for what is becoming a semi-regular comedy fixture. After probably the most disappointing pub meal I’ve had, we went to see Perrier-nomintated Daniel Kitson in his new two-hour standup show at the Wolves Civic. I’ve seen some interesting comedy routines over the years, but Kitson’s was certainly the most intense I’ve ever witnessed. It was delivered with no interval and no bar-access once it started, plus the themes were mainly societal. When it was all finished and I felt like I’d just been to a lecture or talk - that’s not to say it wasn’t funny - Kitson mixes humour with poignancy brilliantly, but it was hard to keep up sometimes because of the speed and complexity, and it certainly wasn’t a relaxing experience. I think I’ll need some time to wind down before I’m ready see him again.

Saturday brought good weather and May’s Multipack meet. We ended up on the Waters Edge at Brindley Place enjoying the sunshine until impromptu rain forced us inside for food. Once again a good turnout and plenty to catch up on.

I still feel like I’m juggling finances, paperwork and car, but things are looking brighter, and the summer appears to have started (at least for the meantime) so roll on next week.

Drinks on Fleet Street

2008-05-02T16:51:00Z

Not much could have been worse after Monday, and as luck would have it, it wasn’t. Since then things have been going far more smoothly.

After work on Tuesday I headed down to London for a few drinks with Swan (probably a few more than a normal weekday). As he’s spending most of the coming month on the Costa del Holiday, and the folks are taking a few days in Venice I was pining to get out of Stourbridge so thought it was a good opportunity to catch up and relax, even if it was midweek.

The great thing about train travel between here and London are the sockets. Laptops just don’t die, and even without wireless I can get on with things, rather than waste two hours wondering why my iPod runs out of battery after half an hour, or skips tracks intermittently.

I’ve finally also had the opportunity to get some design work done this week. That might sound odd coming from a designer, but for some reason it seems like an age since I have been asked to do anything really creative (I mean from scratch - there has been plenty of tweaking and editing).

I also managed to catch up with Jon yesterday too, before he heads off on a three month polo-truck driving mission. It sounds too much like a lot of socialising with a little bit of commuting in between - potentially finishing up in Spain, so you won’t be surprised to hear that I’m even more itchy to get some travelling in. A year ago today I arrived in Pokhara to discover Sammi and myself had been featured on sitting on an elephant on the front page of a Nepali national newspaper. In contrast, today I enjoyed a delicious chicken and bacon pannini. I can’t help thinking the level of exotica in my life is currently at a low.