Musings Cafe

Trying out a new ICE

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 29 Jul 2018 15:35:00 +0000

ICE, ICE, baby!

So I thought I'd see what it's like living with one of those new Internal Combustion Engines for a couple of days.

This isn't a post about the actual car itself (a nice Honda Civic) but more about the actual day to day issues/benefits of living with an ICE car if you're used to an EV.

My intention was to go from my house in Basingstoke to my sister's house in Huddersfield. With an EV this would be no problem - straight up the M3, round the M25 and up the M1 with a couple of charging stops at the services (unless I'm in the Tesla) - and done.

My first problem was range anxiety. I didn't know how far I would be able to travel with the fuel in the Civic. When the car arrived the 'tank' was only half full. According to the manufacturers I could get about 38 MPG on a mixed cycle. The problem is I didn't know how many gallons I had left in the tank. That's right, there's no GOM on the majority of ICE cars so it's a bit hit and miss when it comes to working out how far you can go. How these ICE drivers don't go around in a state of permanent range anxiety is beyond me.

My next problem was when I got in the car to drive off. With our EV's, of course, we start the day fully charged. But with the ICE car only half full I had to head off and find a petrol station to fill up first.

Finding a petrol station wasn't a big problem as there are around 8000 of them dotted all over the country. They're reasonably convenient (although not as convenient as recharging at home, obviously!) But be warned, most of them close at night so if you run out after about 11pm you could find yourself stranded.

However, when I got to the petrol station I hit my first snag: a plethora of fuelling options. Apparently there are different types of fuel you can put into an ICE car and you have to make sure you get the right one. There's diesel, unleaded, premium unleaded and - for certain legacy vehicles there is also something called '4-star'. All very confusing for those of use who like to just grab a plug and start charging. Under no circumstances must you put the wrong fuel in your ICE vehicle or the world will end.

Also different station operators have different names for their fuel. Shell have one name for their top of the range unleaded and Esso have another. There's no indication if these are the same or different and my Civic owners manual was no help. Why can't they just use 'Electricty' like normal people, eh?

My next surprise was the actual fuelling itself. Rather then locking the fuelling connector into the vehicle and walking away I had to stand there and hold the lever to allow the fuel to flow. Very strange. Only when it was finished could I go and find a latté and sandwich. Oh and by the way while some refuelling stations allow card payment at the pump, most of them require you to actually go into a little office at the edge of the forecourt to pay after you have filled up. This can take several minutes if there's a queue.

The biggest surprise by far was the cost. Putting enough unleaded into my Civic to top up cost me around £28. At home this would have been free on my solar panels. But for comparison: for that amount of money I could have run my EV for almost 600 miles off grid electricity. But the £28 was only enough to fill half my tank (approximately 150 miles). Incidentally I checked all 8 pumps in the refuelling station and not a single one was on free vend! This was common across all the refuelling locations I visited.

Driving the car itself was interesting. Obviously there's the noise factor. ICE cars make a lot of it - more so if you're using diesel. But more disappointing was the performance. I put my foot down at the lights and the car engine engaged and started to pull forward as the engine decided to power up. There is a thing called a torque curve with all ICE engines which basically means that the power doesn't come all at once but is fed in gradually. Hardly useful if you're heading into a roundabout in the face of incoming traffic, right?

And don't even think about 1-pedal motoring. It doesn't exist in an ICE car. You have to keep your foot hovering over the brake or you will run into the car in front. I almost rear ended several vehicles at the traffic lights as I kept forgetting the car needs to be told when to stop.

Having sorted out these driving quirks I headed up the M3 and seemed to be making good progress. The charge meter - I mean 'fuel gauge' - stayed pretty much where it was for the first 40 or so miles, which was quite confusing. But then something weird happened. The fuel gauge needle dropped. It went from completely full to just over 3/4 full in about 35 miles. All my range calculations went out the window and I started to get worried. This was compounded by the fact that there was no regenerative braking to feed power back into the engine. It didn't matter how much I stood on the brake I couldn't seem to get the fuel gauge to stop moving down.

Then I hit some traffic on the M25. Found myself stationary for about 15 minutes. In my EV that's not an issue - no battery use, no loss of range. But with this ICE car I could see the fuel gauge moving even though I wasn't. It was almost as if the engine was draining the fuel without actually moving the car forward!

I crawled along to Toddington services. The fuel gauge was showing I had used a little less than a quarter of a tank of fuel. I calculated that I could get as far as Newport Pagnell and top up there. But given the erratic fuel gauge, the lack of regen and the drain while stationary I decided to fill up at Todd. No sense in getting range anxiety and worrying about being stranded on the side of the road, right?

I also needed a pee. So I parked, peed, paused for a second to check out the range of overpriced foods at the M&S, and grabbed a coffee. It was when I got back to my car that I had another realisation about this ICE car. I still had to go around to the fuel station and repeat the process of finding the right nozzle, standing holding the lever as the connector transferred the liquid, then queuing behind the other people waiting to pay before I could be in my way. No plugging in and leaving it while you do other things. There doesn't appear to be the ability to let the car refill itself while you do other things. Seems a bit of a waste of time if you ask me.

As I was putting the nozzle back on the 'pump' I accidentally spilled some unleaded. It went down the side of the Civic, on to the floor and over my hand. What awful smelling stuff it was. I spent a few minutes cleaning up before continuing. Someone from the office had to come out and put sand down on the floor to soak it up. I was disgusted at this but not as disgusted as I was when I found out the price. Apparently the people at the service stations have added a premium to the fuel there because you're a bit of a captive audience. I put in about £12 of fuel but my calculations indicate that at the place I topped up near my house the same volume would have cost me about £10.50. That £1.50 difference would have bought me about 10 KWh of electricity on an Ecotricity charger. Enough for a couple of days regular commuting! Shocking.

I got to Newport Pagnell and the fuel gauge had - again- been erratic and non linear. I had to decide whether to top up or take a chance that I could go further. A rudimentary calculation indicated that I should be able to do at least 300 miles on the current fuel level. This would be more than enough to get me to my final destination. But I had no app to locate fuel stations en route. Was it worth risking it?

Seizing my courage with both hands I decided to risk it. I mean range anxiety is a serious matter and not having a GOM was a bit of a handicap. But I would grasp that nettle and plough on.

But then we hit another snag. At the next service station my wife decided she needed to pee. I pulled in and stopped out front. With my EV I would have plugged in and topped up while she used the facilities. But this wasn't possible. There is a minimum amount of fuel by law that a petrol pump can dispense. As I didn't think I had used the minimum amount between the two service stations I couldn't use the pumps. I had to sit there with fuel pumps in sight and not use them while she peed. Very frustrating!

But then we were on the way. Almost 70 miles of trouble free ICE motoring.

Then..

Ahhh! - More jams. Some sort of accident outside Nottingham. We were in stop/start traffic and the temperature inside the car was climbing. I flicked the air con on and lowered the temperature of the interior. But this had an adverse affect on the fuel consumption. The little meter in the car showed that air con was sapping the fuel and the range. This was exactly what happened with my EV but - because the car lacked a GOM - I had no idea of the range impact. Speaking to other ICE car drivers it appears that this is totally normal and the cold winter weather can sap your range by up to 20%, too. I spent a nervous few minutes monitoring the gauge and doing mental calculations. I figured we should be all right.

Leaving the motorway at Jct 35a I headed over the Pennines to drop into the back of Huddersfield. The climb up the hill would - apparently - drain the fuel and sap the range but unlike an EV the drop down the other side wouldn't recharge it even if I freewheeled. Very disappointing and a real design flaw in these ICE vehicles, I think.

I'm pleased to say that I made it to Huddersfield without further mishap. The fuel gauge appeared to be at about 2/3's empty. A quick calculation showed I had about 100 miles left meaning a useful range of 300 miles from a full tank. Apparently various diesel versions of this vehicle can seriously extend this to 500 and 600 miles from a tank. But diesel is even more expensive then 'unleaded' and kicks out some very nasty things at the back end.

Also a reminder that the Civic had to pay a specific fee to the government every year for kicking out noxious exhaust gases ('Vehicle tax'), is not eligible for congestion charge relief and will cost you more every year to service as the complex internal combustion engine has many moving parts that need monitoring, servicing and lubricating.

So in summary I would say the ICE experience is somewhat different to the EV one. Obviously it's still pretty new and it will develop, but it's not there yet. Stick with your EV until they've ironed out the glitches. And start saving for your petrol!

Pros: Quick refuelling turnaround; took about 7 minutes overall.

Cons: Expensive. Smelly. Noisy. No ability to refill at home. Slow acceleration curve. Expensive. No regen. Multiple fuel 'types' cause confusion. No GOM makes range calculation difficult. Did I mention the expense?

(Just in case there's any doubt about this it is, of course, a parody article meant to show that a biased review of a new type of vehicle can very easily be made by selective inclusion and exclusion of facts. Articles of this type about EV's are rife in the traditional media and can be seized upon by anti-EV advocates to show how the technology isn't ready or won't work for some reason. But just by changing the point of view it's very easy to make the same case for ICE vehicles)

Photo Credit: wbaiv Flickr via Compfight cc

Are you listening to these podcasts?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 08 Feb 2016 12:26:00 +0000

I discovered podcasts a number of years ago but never really got into them until quite recently. With the iPhone (or Android equivalent) there are podcasting apps that will allow you to curate the best podcasts for your interests

Being a writer and actor I like to deal with things related to scriptwriting. This manifests itself as listening to two main podcasts and a number of smaller ones.

Scriptnotes:
A podcast about screenwriting and things that are interesting to screenwriters. Hosted by John August and Craig Mazin. This always has interesting topics which are well handled. Craig takes a bit of time getting used to. He is most certainly of the ‘I am absolutely write and you are absolutely wrong’ brigade. If you don’t like that (or umbrage) don’t listen.

Nerdists writers panel:
Hosted by Ben Blacker (a TV writer himself). He interviews writers in the TV industry. Usually people who have been staffed on, or are show runners for, current TV shows. Born froma desire to know more about how people got started, how they work and what advice they can give writers. nothing like this existed so he created it.

Children of Tendu:
Infrequently updated but always informative. Hosted by two very experienced TV writers: Javier Grillo-Marxuach and Jose Molina who have over 40 years of industry experience between them.

Wittertainment:
Film review podcast hosted by Simon Mayo and Mark Kermode. The podcast is from the BBC Radio 5 Live show which goes out every Friday (usually) for 2 hours. Prior to the show being broadcast the 2 hosts tend to record some podcast content which is then continued after the show has finished. The best bits of the show are usually at this point.

Wittertainment has its own Witterpedia where you can follow along with a lot of the in-jokes and references (Mr Flappy Hands, for example).

Film critique and banter that work well together. The podcast is the radio show from BBC Radio 5 live coupled with additional bits recorded before and after the show.

I also listen to certain esoteric items such as the Freakonomics podcast (The podcast that expires the hidden side of everything). This is a really interesting podcast which takes everyday items and looks at them from an economics point of view. For example did you know that Sweden is the largest purchaser of Tesla vehicles outside the US? Want to know any? Listen to the podcast.

Kevin Pollak has a chat show he records (and live streams) from the West Side comedy theatre in LA. He invites guests from the comedy scene (both stand up and film/tv) and they chat for an hour or two about their careers. Variable audio quality on the feed but very, very interesting and amusing. Hearing Dana Carvey do his Lennon/McCartney discussing Kanye West skit is priceless by itself.

In my life podcasts are brilliant for listening two under two circumstances:
1 When I’m trying to clean the house or do chores. A bit of Wittertainment will wile away an hour or two of vacuuming and dusting,
2 When I'm doing an early morning drive to work. Kevin Pollak is very useful for listening to in the car when I’m travelling on an early call (say, 4.30am) from the rural place where I live back into civilisation. I recently did a five day shoot on a production based on an old Len Deighton novel and this involved a 2 hour commute each way. I got through quite a lot of podcasts on that shoot, as you can imagine!

What podcasts do you tend to listen to? Any ones you would advise me to try?

I am writing ... a lot.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 02 Feb 2016 11:46:00 +0000

Photo Credit: hjconti via Compfight cc

I seem to be doing lot of writing these days.

I write for:

Two blogs,
Two Facebook pages,
A web site,
Four twitter accounts,
And a personal journal.

This is without looking at the screenplays, stage plays, novels and treatments I produce on a yearly basis. A lot of what I write comes from ideas I drop into my Spark File

With so much writing it becomes important to understand the process of writing.

I, basically, centralise all my writing in Scrivener. The is a brilliant tool which is a mix between a brainstorming tool and a word processor. It splits the writing process into a capture part and a formatting part. Each can be done separately. I don’t know how I would be so productive without it. I am writing this blog entry using the tool as we speak.

Using Scrivener

Scrivener is ideal for long form writing. Over the last couple of years I have written two novels in it. Between them they amount to over 200,000 words. But each one loads in a fraction of a second and is easily navigable thanks to Scrivener’s “binder” which makes creating, navigating and selecting items simple.

(Thanks to Become a Writer Today for the image)

Scrivener is also useful for Blog Posts. Other - more advanced writers than me have written about using Scrivener for blogging here, and here, and here [1].
But, by far the majority of the work I do on Scrivener is for script writing. I find that I can quite easily use the various pieces of functionality within Scrivener to assist me in the development of an idea, the creation of characters, the outlining of a story and - when all’s said and done - the actual creation of the script.

The thing I like about Scrivener (other than the ultimate flexibility it has) is the fact that I can do all my organising, formatting, research etc. in Scrivener, but at the end of the day I can write anywhere.

Let me explain:

Scrivener and Fountain

Scrivener is compatible with Fountain which is a markup language based in plain text. All this means is that by writing using a basic text editor (which comes with pretty much every computer tablet or phone), you can write anywhere. All you ned to know is a little bit of syntax relating to what you are trying to do. For example here’s a fountain text file extract:

INT./EXT. BLOOM HOUSE - (PRESENT) DAY

The front door opens to reveal Will and Josephine on the porch with their bags.
REVERSE to Will’s mother Sandra (53), surprised and a little annoyed.

SANDRA
How did you get here?

WILL
We swam. The Atlantic, it’s not that big really.

For those who know screenplay format you’ll see that there’s not a great deal of difference. What this does do, though, is allow you to just worry about the words on the page rather than the format of those pages. Fountain knows that when you put an ALL CAPS entry on its own line it is (usually) a character name. It knows that the next block of text must, therefore, be dialogue. By using these simple little markup tricks it is a very quick learning curve for Fountain.

But here’s the real icing on the cake. You can write in Fountain and have Scrivener automatically synch your data to a Scrivener file for continued working on your laptop or Mac.

Let me repeat that: You can start on your Mac in Scrivener, synch the screenplay you are working on down to, say, your iPad, then continue working on it in Fountain while you are enjoying your cup of joe at a Seattle-based coffee chain. When you’re fully caffeinated you can come back to your house and resynch the Fountain files back to Scrivener and continue working at home. All you need is something like Dropbox to act as the intermediary file location and you’re done. No further additional software needed.

Once you are happy with whatever you are writing it is then possible to tell Scrivener to export your writing in the appropriate format for the material you are producing.

For a blog it would be appropriate to export it in.html format so it can be dropped straight into your blogging software of choice.
For a novel it would be good to export it either as an ebook so it can be read using a Kindle or similar
For a script it would be good if it could be exported as a formatted PDF using the script settings recognised by the industry
For a novel it would also be good if it could be exported to Word for transfer to an editor.

Scrivener can deal with all of these. It can even take the lovely Garamond font you have been writing with and transfer it all to Courier or Times New Roman or Helvetica as you wish.

What is my writing process?

I’m like William Goldman (Screenwriter). I just write the damn thing! I sit down and I work my way through the first draft as quickly as I can. Sometimes I get something that is reasonably respectable. Sometimes I get something which is crap. But in each are I find it easier to do my best work when I have something in front of me that I can review. As an example, the posts on this blog (especially those dating from the beginning of this year ) have all been written in ‘vomit draft’ form to start with. This article, for example, was done in a bing session in January. After that I spent time refining them over the months and creating something with a higher quality. That’s how I work. Screenplays are similar. I write quickly - sometimes up to 30 pages per day. Sure, it’s not always good stuff, but it does allow me the pleasure of having something I can read and critique.

“Writing is re-writing” is a saying that I have heard (and you have probably read) on many occasions. Never has that been truer than with me. Once I have my vomit draft complete I like to let it sit for a short while. For a screenplay it could be a week or two. For a novel it could be month.

I come back and look at it with fresh eyes. These eyes can then see the piece for what it is. They can then review what’s written and see what works and what does. That’s the point when I realise the silly things I’ve done like named the character something different in the latter part of the script than the first part (I may have called him Colin at the start but moved to his last name Smith towards the end). That’s also when I can read through the script or novel with a critical eye checking for things like “Does it flow?” “Do the characters work?”, “Do they have a distinct voice?”.

None of these things can really be seen out when writing something. This has to happen via a suitable period of non-exposure to the material.

Summary

Get a software that support your process
Write as quickly as possible and get the vomit draft out there
Wait a while to let the initial knowledge of the piece die down
Go back and start the (re)writing

Do you have a Spark File? I do.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 02 Feb 2016 11:19:00 +0000

Photo Credit: EpicFireworks via Compfight cc

Do you have a Spark File? I do.

What is a spark file?

A spark file is a list of ideas or thoughts that are gathered together in one place. My spark file currently has almost 10,000 words and has been going for about two years. It, basically, contains everything that comes into my head that might be useful for an idea in future. A quick look at my Spark file brings up things such as “The transience of human endeavour”, and “Death is for other people. Not us. Of course death comes to everyone. But this quite is interesting” Also in and amongst there are a number of reasonably fully formed ideas about specific bits of writing. An example of this is the idea for A30 - a One Act play I wrote, directed and produced last year: ”A middle-aged couple decide to drive down the A30 to see Lands End which is where they had their honeymoon. On the way down there they find that their relationship isn’t as strong as they think it is when he admits to not being completely faithful to her.”

How do you use it?

The idea of Spark File has been around for ages. It has been mentioned on numerous writing forums that one of the best ways to get ideas it to always carry around a notebook and pencil with you. That way whenever something occurs to you it can be noted down and dealt with later. This is the ubiquitous capture method. Pencil and paper has been the standard for many years. In a recent documentary from Woody Allen he noted that eh does exactly the same thing. Only he doesn’t use a notepad he just has bits of paper. He jots down notes and gathers them together in a shoebox under his bed. Once he has completely a movie he pulls the shoebox out, consults the notes and find and idea for his next movie. My Spark File is pretty similar. I maintain it electronically (See below), but the concept is the same. If I am out walking - which I do quite a lot - I can be thinking about numerous things at once. Or I might see something that grabs my attention. Then I make a note of it in my Spark File and forget about it.

They key to creating a good Spark File is to make sure you input everything that comes into your mind. The beauty of gathering everything is that nothing gets missed. The problem of gathering everything is that nothing gets missed. There could be some shocking bits of thought captured in there (See my note above about ’The transience of human endeavour’).

So the second key thing to remember about a spark file is that you need to review it regularly. I already mentioned how Woody Allen reviews his once a year when he starts a new film. The thing that he does - and the thing I would recommend - is to take the ideas that you have in there and see if you can merge them together to create something that might be more useful as an idea for a script or a novel (or a comic book. Whatever).

As an example of this I had an idea once which involved dealing with lots of people in a confined space and what would happen if they were trapped together. A few months later I read an article about Full Saturation diving. This is where divers who spend a lot of time working at depth can live in a compression chamber during the work. They compress to the level they are going to work at (say 1000 feet), work there for two or three weeks breathing air that is fully saturated with gases other than oxygen (nitrogen is the big example). Then they take anything up to a week or 10 days to decompress back to surface level. For the whole of that time they are cooped up in a series of compression chambers on board a chip. These chambers are not in the least bit roomy. All it needs is one person to be in a bad mood and you have an issue. These two idea were mashed together to give me the basis for “Pressure’ - a screenplay about full sat divers who encounter a problem which stresses them to a point where they start to turn on each other.

How do I maintain my Spark File?

I mentioned earlier that spark files can be written in notebooks or on scraps of paper and dropped into a shoebox. Personally I want mine to be a little more high tech. I always have my phone with me - especially when I’m out on walks - so it would make sense that this is the thing I use to capture my Spark file idea. I use Drafts on the iPhone as my data capture tool of choice. With Drafts I open the app and I’m presented with a blank screen. I jot down the idea, thought, comment or saying that is running though my head. I simply click the button to send the entry to me Spark file. This is simply a plain text file on a Dropbox folder. Drafts integrates perfectly with Dropbox (along with many other apps). The entry is added to the top of my Spark file and a dividing line is added below it. That way I can separate it form other entries. I can add as many or as few of these as I like and they will all be waiting for me when I get back to my desk. I simply call up the Spark File and scan through it to see what jumps out at me. As part of my implementation of Scrivener I have also linked the Spark File into a Scrivener project so I can go straight from there to my writing.

Where do ideas come from?

I like to quote John Cleese when he talks about where do his ideas come from. He said something along he lines of

“I get my ideas from a woman called Mavis who lives in Chipping Norton. She gets them from a man called Eric who lives in Brighton. Eric gets his ideas from a man who sits in an alleyway behind the Wimpy in Swindon High Street. Where he gets them from I have no idea”

The short answer is that ideas come from anywhere and everywhere. I read a lot of on-line articles (I use Pocket to gather them all together and read them when I get a minute). I also read newspapers (mostly on-line) and long form articles which are sent to my Instapaper account. Between them they are many sources of inspiration for ideas.

As I mentioned earlier I also tend to go for walks every day. There are two reasons for this :

I get to leave the house, get some exercise, and see the countryside near where I live .
The act of taking exercise sparks the brain cells into working better then sitting (or standing) for long periods at a desk .

As I walk I can work through things in my head. Sometimes it’s how to solve a plotting issue in a script I am writing. Sometimes it’s how to get a couple of ideas to merge together to create an idea that isn’t totally pants.

Oftentimes I just go for a walk and ask myself ‘what if’ (“What if all the cars in the country were electric? What would happen to the people who work in petrol stations or oil refineries? What about the petrol tanker drivers? What if one of them saw what was coming and tried to sabotage it?”) With thoughts like this it isn’t difficult to come out with a list of possible ideas to drop into my Spark File. The other beauty of this process is that notes can range from an in-depth idea along with character thoughts and plot to a simple statement.

Nothing is out of bounds.

Does quality matter?

As I mentioned earlier on, there are a lot of entries in my Spark File that don’t make a great deal of sense in isolation. But they are gathered and captured regardless. The beauty comes when you can sit down with them and merge them together to create something that does work. This is certainly a case of the whole being more than the sum of the parts.

Do you have a Spark File (or similar?). How do you deal with it?

The New Look!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 13 Jan 2016 14:00:00 +0000

The more observant of you will have noticed that I have changed the theme and layout of this blog. The old style has served me well for several years, but with the number of posts I have written recently dropping down to zero I wanted to relaunch the blog with a new focus and a new look.

The theme I am using is ZenZero from Net Blogger Themes. It is simple, sparse and has a nice, clean layout suitable for reading. I am deliberately not putting ads on the site as I think you should be able to view the posts without being bombarded by pop-ups etc. all the time. It may look like there isn’t a lot happening with this layout but if you click the little icon in the bottom left hand corner: the one that looks like an equals sign with an extra horizontal line: Yes, that one. Down there. Can you see it? Click that and a whole magical world of other stuff will appear.

All right, maybe I’m exaggerating a little. But it will reveal the sidebar for the blog. There you will find whatever I decide to put there on any given day. As the muse strikes me (hence the name of the blog).

Keep an eye out for upcoming blogs related to my process, writing, and the odd musing her and there as we move forward through the year.

Welcome back to everyone!

It's water before milk - Making the perfect cup of tea.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 13 Jan 2016 11:58:00 +0000

Making the perfect cup of tea

[^cf1]
How many of you drink tea?
How many of you drink tea from teabags?
How many of you that drink tea from teabags, put the teabag in the cup, add milk, boil the water then add the water?
Well I am here to tell you you’re doing it all wrong. But first:

History

Back in the mists of time travellers used to bring back loose leaf tea from India and Ceylon. This was sold to households who would either put the tea bags in a teapot or they would use something which hung over the edge of the cup and allowed the water to wash over it. Milk was added to the cup either before or afterwards.
Somebody then decided that they would put these loose leaves into a bag. People could drop the bag directly into the cup and pour the water on it. Hey Presto! No more loose leaves in the tea disrupting peoples enjoyment of the beverage,

So what?

The problem with this is that the switch from loose leaves to teabags obscured the fundamental principle of making tea:

The flavour of the tea is caused by boiling water scalding the leaves.

If boiling (or almost boiling) water doesn’t come directly into contact with the leaves the flavour of the tea is not produced correctly.
Back in the day when teapots were used, hot water was dropped directly onto the leaves. They were allowed to percolate in the hot water (or ‘mash’) until strong enough. The resultant tea was poured into cups with (or without) milk in the bottom. The flavor of the tea was produced as it was intended
Back when china cups were more delicate than they are now, milk was used to ensure that the boiling water from the tea didn’t crack the delicate crockery.
Nowadays, if you are putting milk in your cup or mug and adding a tea bag you are not getting the full flavour of the tea and, therefore, you are doing it wrong. The milk is acting as a barrier between the leaves and tea. The water which is then playing over the leaves is no longer boiling and the tea cannot be produced in the correct manner.
There’s a reason the best tea companies in the world have their tea served with no milk and no sugar. Nothing should affect the flavour of the leaves.

The correct way

Whatever happens, the milk and the teabag should not come into contact. If you are using a teapot all is well. You can put your bag or your leaves into the teapot and add milk to the cup to your heart’s content
If you are using a mug or cup then always put the teabag in without the milk. Add the boiling water, stir, remove the bag then add the milk.

Remember this next time somebody asks you ‘milk first or tea first?”
[^cf1]: Photo Credit: Juavenita ♥ via Compfight cc

Winchfield Action Group

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 04 Jan 2016 18:00:00 +0000

I am the webmaster and committee member for on organisation called WAG - The Winchfield Action Group. We are fighting against the mass development of 500 houses right on top of a small, rural village of 200 dwellings called Winchfield in Hampshire. I would encourage all my readers to take a glance at the WAG web page or Facebook page and add their comments and thoughts. I am reproducing below a recent post which details why this new settlement is a bad idea not just for Winchfield but for all the nearby towns that believe they will benefit from having development centralised in Winchfield:

-----------------

There are groups which would accuse WAG of NIMBYism (“Not In My Back Yard”) and at a superficial level this is understandable.

But WAG’s opinion is not that we don’t think Hart should concrete over Winchfield with 5000 new homes. We believe that Hart should not add 5000 new homes ANYWHERE in Hart as a new settlement. There are a number of reasons for this. Primary amongst these is the fact that the new settlement is not needed, but a key point to remember is that the new settlement will have an adverse impact on large areas of Hart district.

I live in Dogmersfield/Church Crookham. Will this affect me?

Absolutely. Apart from the influx of contractor vehicles for the development as they try to gain access to the land where the new settlement will be built, there are additional transport impacts. 5000 new houses will result in an average of 10,000 new journeys per day. A large majority of these will travel to destinations outside the immediate area and go via either Hartley Wintney, Fleet, Farnham or J5 of the M3. Any journey from Winchfield to, say, Guildford, will travel through Dogmersfield and on to Church Crookham. The additional traffic will affect both quality of life and house prices in the area.

I live in Hartley Wintney. Will this affect me?

Hartley Wintney will suffer from the same problems as Dogmersfield and Church Crookham. Additional traffic will cause problems at places such as the exit from the Odiham Road to eh A30 at Phoenix Green, the A30 junction with Dilly Lane, the A30 roundabout at the bottom of Bracknell Lane and the A30 junction with the Fleet Road. Furthermore the additional people in the area will make parking on the high street more problematic and rapidly fill up the pay-and-display parking behind the One Stop. Veterinary services will be affected as pets from 5000 new houses need to gain access to St Kitts for operations, checkups and vaccines. The dentist and hair salons in the area will become busier making it more difficult to get appointments. All this is on top of the fact that the projected development will, effectively, link Winchfield to Hartley Wintney through coalescence of the St. Mary’s estate and the new settlement.

Commuters to London from both Hartley Wintney and Dogmersfield. Church Crookham will find that parking spaces at the Winchfield Railway Station will be impossible to find. Should they be dropped off there by spouses (thereby increasing the number of daily car journeys) finding a seat or even a standing space in the morning rush will be impossible. There are no plans to increase capacity on the line at the moment.

I live in Hook. Will this affect me.

Hook will suffer from all the problems that Hartley Wintney will suffer from. In additional to that there will be traffic problems at the M3, J5 as more traffic tries to gain access to the motorway heading to either Basingstoke or eastbound towards London. Once again the new settlement will encroach on Hook with 1800+ houses of the new development officially falling in to the Hook Parish. Coalesence is another issue to be wary of as the western edge of the proposed development will connect with the eastern edges of Hook at Murrell Green.

I live in Yateley. Will this affect me?

Yateley is already afflicted with traffic issue as a result of development in the area. Hart’s own figures indicate that most commuters in the area head towards Surrey Heath or Rushmoor. This will increase commuting traffic up the A30 at Blackbushe, Cricket Hill and Frogmore, as well as the Meadows roundabout at Camberley. This will add to the misery of commuters. People working in Reading will also be affected by additional traffic heading up the A327 towards Eversley and further North, which is already a car park on most mornings and evenings.

I live in Fleet. Will this affect me?

Apart from the cut-through traffic from Winchfield which will seek to rat run through Elvetham Heath to the M3 and along Elvetham Road to Fleet Station, the new car park in Fleet will rapidly fill up as people use Fleet car park to let them leave their cars at the station when they commute to London. Obviously finding a seat on the train will be even harder than it is at present.
Car parking in Fleet will become more and more difficult as the population of the area increases. With parking at a premium Hart could, quite easily, increase parking charges as an incentive to not drive into town. The cost of being a Fleet resident will increase.

Doctors and dentists appointments will become harder to get as new settlement residents seek to establish health care facilities for them and their children.

Furthermore the children will need somewhere to go to school. Even though four schools are in the plans for a new development, these will not be built as part of the first wave of development. As a result existing schools will be pushed to capacity and beyond. Even when a new school is opened, it will focus on the children from the new settlement and will not, necessarily, solve any current overcrowding issues at Calthorpe Park.

I live in Hart. Is this good for me?

Apart from increased traffic, increased pollution, decreasing school places and the strain on facilities, a new town in Winchfield will cause significant funding issues in the short term for Hart. They already have a considerable funding shortfall and adding the new settlement will only increase that. One way the council can seek to fill that funding gap is to increase the council tax for everyone in the district.

Hart has been voted as the most desirable place to live in the country for four years running. If a large settlement is built right in the rural heart of Hart it is unlikely that this accolade will be bestowed on us for much longer.

The short answer to the question “Should I worry about a new town if I don’t live in Winchfield” is “Absolutely!” There will be a financial, economic and quality-of-life impact to everyone in the district if this development goes ahead.

Bitter Politics - An interview with musician Alec Chapman

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 14 Aug 2013 12:40:00 +0000

As a way of reigniting this blog I wanted to give some publicity to a friend of mine who has followed his dreams and become a musician. Actually, that's not true. Alec Chapman was a musician from an early age when his father bought him a bass guitar and he played along with his other brothers as they learned their craft.

I first met Alec on a film set. We were filming a commercial for a crisp company where we had to spend the whole day at a football stadium doing crowd replication. Long, boring, tedious, but made more enjoyable by the company of Alec who has a dry wit and an almost encyclopaedic knowledge of films. Since then I have followed his progress with interest as he has turned his wit and expertise to film reviewing and - more recently - to producing a film-based podcast.

Earlier this year, though, he started to talk about another undertaking he was involved with: an album release. I followed this with interest as it was obvious this was something he was doing as a serious endeavour. The album was released recently and it’s is called ‘Bitter Politics’. It is available on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, and Google Play and it is marketed under the name ‘Oh Hi Mark’. If you want to know the source of that name you'll have to check out the story on Facebook. I spoke with Alec recently to ask him about the challenges of producing his own album.

We started talking about how Alec went from being a member of a “function band playing cover versions” to “singer/songwriter creating an album”

Alec told me “They're more concurrent than that. I've been writing songs forever, even before I learned any instruments. I pretty much had to learn instruments to be able to write songs properly. That start in purely mental writing means I am able to write wherever I am - without relying on an instrument to make the sounds for me. I can have the song in my head first.”

We moved on to talk about the mechanics of making the album. Presumably when Alec started writing it was a lot more difficult to physically make and release an album. Technology has moved on since then. At what point did he think "I could do this now", I wondered?

“Well, there wasn't that thought process exactly. I guess in the first place when I started on the project I was frustrated by the fact I was relying purely on other people's availability to move it forward at all. I struggle with motivation sometimes so it simply wasn't working at any speed - so it was really important that I learned to do digital recording and editing myself.

According to Alec there are a number of distinct steps in the album creation process:

Write
Demo
Guide Track
Record
Mix
Master
Release

“You can join together the demo and guide track, or, if you're working on your own you can go straight to recording. The recording itself is different depending on which instrument everything is hanging off in terms of time. It's trivial to play to a click track to keep tempo for you, but it doesn't help that much if you're playing in swing feel or you have conflicting syncopations.”

I asked Alec what software he uses : “Well, on the first album we ended up using lots of different things. Sonar, Cubase, Logic or even GarageBand in one case. Compatibility isn't really an issue as you can export each track as a .wav file or another form of lossless audio.” In terms of bringing it all together, modern DAW (digital audio workstation) software does this all in one. So as you are recording one you can hear everything else, actually watch the waveforms etc. “But if you're working in various locations, it's trivial to export one recording in, say South London, share it via Google Drive anywhere in the world and have them import it into their DAW. It's not ideal, but it works. I did a lot of bass parts that way.”

I asked Alec for his thoughts on mastering and distribution. “Mastering is a dark art. I have no idea! It was done by a professional. Digital Distribution was surprisingly easy. There's companies that will do it for you - I used tunecore, but others are available. This basically means that an independent artist can kiss goodbye to the questionable joy of needing a record company to get your material released. Marketing becomes the real issue.”

We talked about social media and how it plays more and more into the whole marketing ethos. My concern was how does he go about getting the word out about a first time album by an artist who goes under the alias Oh Hi Mark?

“Well, it's still in progress, but the important thing to realise is that it's going to be a lot of work. The days where an artist will get lucky and have a dramatically expanding fanbase within weeks are over. There's simply too much music out there to rely on luck. So for me it's about the long game - almost using the first album as a marketing tool for the live shows and then cycling that back around. Making it available on Spotify was motivated by the desire that not being willing to pay £7.99 up front shouldn't stop people being able to hear it, while still trying to maintain some sense of good business.

In a way there’s a catch-22 of music production nowadays. The tools are there relatively cheaply, it's the expertise that's expensive. That's also true for video production. For many years now musicians have used video as a way of promoting their songs. I asked Alec for his thoughts on this and also if he has any plans to use video to promote his album?

“True, but remember some of the greatest music ever recorded was laid onto four or even two track tape in tiny smoke filled rooms. The modern, super polished highly compressed shiny sound people used in records now, doesn't have to be the only aesthetic. Plus there's a temptation when surrounded by modern technology to feel it has to be all used, which can cause major delays. Video, now then, I am still learning that side of it, but to save people having to look at a static picture when listening to the single, I had a little go.... Apparently it causes motion sickness.

I asked Alec if he finds encouragement in the likes of The Arctic Monkeys and Justin Beiber, who were Internet phenomenons before they were ever signed by the big labels?

“Yes, but they are edge cases. Justin Bieber particularly. The Arctic Monkeys had a large live fanbase before they went viral after all. Plus they're actually really good. Bieber I simply don't understand - it seems crazy to me. But I'm not alone in that. Plus, MySpace (where the monkeys broke from) has pretty much died. I enjoy playing live and interacting with an audience, but as for emulating their level of success, I swing back and forth between wanting the recognition and hating the idea of fame. But who wouldn't want to headline Glastonbury? Seriously, I'll do any stage.”

Alec has had to make a fairly major life change to accommodate his ambition. “I made a major lifestyle change to work nights, but it's really a case of wanting the four on/four off pattern rather than the hours. It means that I'm not cramming the music into tiny slices of time and can really get into it. I'm extremely good at losing enthusiasm if it’s constantly stop/starting.”

On the topic of motivation. I was curious how Alec keeps himself motivated, and at what point does he bring in other collaborators? “It's a real challenge for me. The simple answer is that I have learned to be willing to accept that I am not in complete control of my emotions and accept that when it isn't working I need to do something else. Forcing it breeds disillusionment. I know - I've been there before.” So any routines? “Unfortunately I have a very difficult relationship with routines and their resulting pressure. What I've done instead is create a battery of creative outlets that have related skills so that even if I'm not working on one, I am informing it via another.I won't lie, some of my creative process is calculated. But the most satisfying and robust parts are usually products of inspiration.”

Alec told me that Bitter Politics is an album intended to be consumed en masse, rather than in single songs. I asked him if it was written that way or did it evolve? “It was arranged that way, out of ideas that came individually. And actually, the stated intent is that it works best en masse.”

We talked about what things he would do differently on his next album “Sooo many things! But chiefly to spend more time on the vocals in advance and less on fixing problems in the mix. Also to trust my instincts more - and try to have more fun with it.”

As we signed off our time together Alec had one final comment for me “The strongest marketing tool is a good review - if any of your readers listens and enjoys the album, a positive review on iTunes, Google Play or Amazon would be a great way of helping me get this to more ears. Thanks for inviting me to chat to you!”

To listen to Alec’s music try Spotify. To purchase, go to iTunes, Google Play or Amazon and - if you like what you hear - leave a good review..

Top Gear....?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 15:02:00 +0000

Sunday evenings caused me a bit of a problem earlier this year. It's all to do with the television, you see.

There are two programs which conflict in their viewing. One is a ten-part period drama about a shopkeeper from the US who opened a department store in London. The other is Top Gear.

The first programme - 'Mr Selfridge' is ITV's attempt at creating something akin to Downton Abbey that they can show in prime time, get good ratings for, and sell to the American channels. It should become popular there as well. They've even included an American actor in it, the excellent Jeremy Piven. Normally I would look at this programme with a 'Meh' in my voice and switch straight over to the other side. But I have something of a vested interest in it, you see. During several months of last year I spent considerable time wandering around with slicked-back hair, 1920's clothes and a hat brandishing an old fashioned magnesium flash and plate camera playing the part of a press photographer on the show. So I have some skin in the game. We shot in Central London, Chatham Dockyards (where they built the exterior of Selfridges on a quayside) and in a carpet warehouse in North London which had all the interior sets. I even got to shoot at the Albert Hall where an extraordinary number of people/tourists wanted their photograph taken with me, but nobody actually asked why I was dressed like a 1920's character.

But on the other side is Top Gear. Lemme explain.

Top Gear is a sort of English institution. It's been going for several years and it is (or at least was) a motoring programme. Back when it first started it reviewed cars and had sensible pieces about the speed limit, fuel consumption and similar items relevant to the average motorist. It has been run by a veritable cornucopia of motoring journalists over the years, but is now presented by three gentlemen:.

First there is Richard Hammond. Known as the Hamster for his diminutive size. He is 'The youngest'.

Next there is James May - "Captain Slow" - who was a respectable motoring journalist with Autocar magazine until he created an acrostic in one issue which led to his dismissal (read the letters in red on the article he wrote here). He is staid, traditional, and slow.

Finally, there is Jeremy Clarkson. He has been with Top Gear the longest - probably since it started. In fact I can't remember a time when Clarkson wasn't on the show. He has survived all manner of presenter reshuffles, program redesigns and media blunders. And he's still here. He is, of course, widely hated in various parts of British society - The Daily Mail, especially do not like him, and I can understand why. He is brash, opinionated, callous, loud and, sometimes, just plain wacky.

But he's the reason I, and many others, watch Top Gear.

Oh, don't get me wrong, I find him infuriating at times. His love of all things big, fast and gas-guzzling drives me up the wall. The Top Gear piece on electric cars was simply a hatchet job designed to ridicule anyone who owned one, and his christening of Porsche's "Caymen" as "A Cockster" has probably condemned that car to ignominy.

But he also has the ability to bring the show to life. He thinks nothing of diving head-first into the flights of excess that now form the show that is Top Gear. Whereas previously the show used to road test the new Ford Escort/Focus/ Sierra etc, the new Top Gear mentions them in passing and then moves on swiftly to the newest Ferrari, Lambourghini or (on occasion) Bugatti Veyron. Each of these cars is taken around the Top Gear test track (part of the new GTA 4 driving game) to determine which can lap quickest. And - in order to prove the superiority of the internal combustion engine - they regularly hold races where the presenters have to take different forms of public transport between two points and try and beat the car. Over the years they've done London to Paris, London to Verbieres and London to Gothenburg. Clarkson, invariably takes the car - pushing it to almost illegal speeds to win, and the other two guys are usually stuck sitting opposite each other on a train that is bound to get delayed at some stop out in the boondocks gifting Clarkson with the win. On the odd occasions that he doesn't win there's always a suitable explanation "It was the French" was the latest one.

But that doesn't matter. Because Top Gear isn't about winning or losing. It isn't even about cars. It's about wish fulfillment and entertainment. If you want road tests and MPG comparisons, and cars that you can buy in the showroom any day of the week you need to head over to a rival channel and watch Fifth Gear. Their show is excellent with quality presentation and great camera work.

But it isn't Top Gear.

Top Gear is about having fun in a way that may - tangentially - by related to cars. like the time Clarkson decided he could outrun a pack of hounds by playing the fox in a 4WD suzuki. Or the time they boys decided they could borrow some heavy duty mechanised equipment and destroy a house scheduled for demolition faster than a professional demolition crew. Or the time Clarkson decided that the best way to test a small car (at a viewers insistence) was to race an American muscle car round the inside of a shopping mall in Basingstoke.

The list goes one. None of these stunts has anything to do with real life. None of them is applicable to our day-to-day existence. They're flights of fancy. Whimsy, even.

But they don't half make exciting viewing.

And they make compelling, if infuriating, television.

They also make me wonder whether watching Top Gear and recording Mr Selfridge is sacrilege. Or whether doing the opposite is worse.
Photo Credit: Thomas Hawk via Compfight cc

Merry Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 10:01:00 +0000

I know I've been quiet this year and I hope to do better next year

In the meantime I want to wish all my readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year (or a Happy Holidays if that's how you roll).

Some thoughts on the nature of death.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 30 Sep 2012 15:00:00 +0000

Steve jobs died.

It came as a shock to a large number of people. It shouldn't really have done this. We all know that he had cancer. He was diagnosed in 2003. He had a liver transplant a few years after that. He took a leave of absence to help deal with his illness. He came back to public life and shortly after that, in August this year, he stepped down completely from Apple retaining only the role of chairman. So we knew he was ill. We knew he was going to die. So when he died why was everybody so surprised?

I find it quite ironic that when Apple tries to release a new product, writers, bloggers, and the Tech media all want to find out as much as possible in advance and nothing comes as big surprise. However when the leader - a man who has been diagnosed with cancer, left, returned, and left again knowing he was going to die - does finally pass, it is a huge surprise.

Was it the fact he was young (55) ?

Cricketer Graham Dilly passed away the day before. He was in his 50's too. Actor Charles Napier passed away the same day. He was older (in his 70's)

Neither of them received the sort of public approbation that Jobs did (although, arguable, neither had left as impressive a legacy as Apple's leader). Maybe if they had died on a different day - one which was dominated by the death of such a technology titan - they might have been afforded more column inches.

More recently Tony Scott died. The nature of his death caused a lot of column inches (Can you recall the last major Hollywood A-list suicide?). But would we have been as shocked if he had died of natural causes at the age of 70+? A few weeks before Scott died, Anne Rutherford who starred in 'Gone With The Wind' died aged 94 and her passing was marked with only the merest of reporting. Both were individuals who were famous in their fields and yet the difference in coverage was amazing.

What is it about dying young that makes it so much more shocking and unacceptable? The death of Princess Diana was an example. Millions of people who never met her, and knew her only from television news and tabloid stories, were moved to outpourings of grief. But when the Queen Mother - a venerable woman who lived well over 100 years - passed away a few years later, the grief was nowhere near as large. Presumably the grief is compounded by the age. A young (!) person passing unexpectedly from an accident or a disease is far more shocking than a centurion dying of old age. It's probably not even the age factor itself. After all writer Dennis Potter was only 59 when he died but he had been diagnosed with cancer (ironically pancreatic cancer - the same cancer that took Steve Jobs) and had made it clear to everyone that he was suffering from a terminal illness and that we should prepare for his passing

My favourite quote about Steve's death came from Robert Llewellyn, a British Actor who played Kryten in Red Dwarf and is now a committed environmentalist. He said:

"If your [sic] 18, 56 is truly ancient. If you [sic] 55 3/4 it's much much too young."

One more thing....

The final thought must - as always - go to Steve Jobs himself:

"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything - all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving what is truly important."

Tea-shop vs Coffee shop - What's the difference.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 15:00:00 +0000

Regular readers of this blog will remember a week or two back that I posted an entry proclaiming the reaction in the village when a branch of a well known UK coffee chain opened there.

In the intervening weeks I have had the opportunity to chat to a number of people about their feelings. They have ranged from "Love it!" to "I can't believe they've let them open that. It'll ruin the village" to a reaction I want to talk about in a little more detail today.

A good friend of mine has been chastised for visting this coffee chain given that there are already a number of 'tea-shops' in the village "You're taking business away from the local employers" she is being told.

What nonsense!

I see there being two distinct markets in the village for these shops.

In my mind a 'tea-shop' is a place you go when you want to enjoy a snack with a beverage. It is also the place where you can go for lunch. As a rule the drinks tend to be cheaper (hence smaller) and not particularly tasty.

A coffee shop is a place to go to relax, to chat and to enjoy stout caffeine-based beverages. The whole set-up is completely different. For a start they employee trained baristas rather than people who either own the tea-shop or are there to earn a bit of extra money after school or on the weekends. Secondly they provide a decent drink. They provide a beverage which is sturdy and prepared according to certain standards. In my experience tea-shop tea is usually weak, insipid and not worth writing home about.

Secondly coffee shops provide a certain ambience. They have easy chairs and sofas, wi-fi and places to sit and relax. In a tea-shop there are usually a few small tables (often with gingham or cheque tablecloths) and the main reason for you to be there is to eat and/or drink and leave.

Thirdly coffee shops provide a good selection of possible drinks. You can have your espresso's, your latte's, your cappuccinos, mochachinos, flat whites, a selection of cold coffee-based drinks as wall as a basic filter coffee. These come in caffeinated, decaffeinated and with various 'accessories' such as syrups, toppings and added shots. You can also have it to drink in or take away. In your tea-shop you can usually get a coffee or a tea. They might do a latte' or a cappucino. And you might get decaf.

Don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed many a drink in a tea-shop. I have a friend who seems to be compiling a definitive guide to tea-shops in the area and she has visited many of them, dragging me along with her. Who have consumed endless vats of tea and Victoria Sponge in garden centre tea-shops, high street tea-shops and tourist attraction tea-shops at the seaside and in far-flung places of interest. They have all had their own charm and appeal.

But none of them were coffee houses.

Remember, the origin of the coffee house dates back to the start of organised commerce when traders and merchants would congregate in a coffee house to transact business. They would almost use the coffee house as an office, arriving early in the morning and spending all day there. This is still something that can happen in today's coffee houses. I recently spent the best part of 7 hours in a local Seattle-based coffee chain establishment writing and having meetings about upcoming projects. Sure, I bought several drinks (both for myself and for the people I was meeting with) and I used their wifi for the whole time I was there, but I snuck myself into a corner seat and took up as little room as I could, thereby ensuring I didn't block several tables and chairs at busy times (and boy, did it get busy!).

I cannot imagine doing that in a tea-shop. The business model of the tea-shop appears to me to be "Get as many people in the door as possible. Provide food and drinks in an environment where people are encouraged to consume and then leave, and charge as much as possible for it". If you are on a long day out hiking in the hills of England and happen upon a tea-shop in a local village, it is an ideal place to rest, replenish your carbs and head out again. But it isn't a place to finish your day and spend hours dissecting the hike.

Don't think, either, that I'm only taking about the big coffee chains. In my experience there are a number of smaller shops who have embraced the ethos of the cafe society and produced excellent establishments which fulfil all of the criteria I expect from a coffee shop: Nice ambience, good drinks, comfy seats, wifi (optional) and a lack of hassle. Indeed, if my local village had one of these I'm sure I would have frequented that rather than having to get in my car and drive to the next nearest chain outlet.

So people who say that visiting a coffee shop is taking business away from tea-shops are like people who say visiting a high street clothes store is taking business away from local farmers.

It isn't.

Summer

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 15:00:00 +0000

Summer

The best time of the year. Or the worst. Depending on your point of view.

If you are a normal citizen of the world ( and by normal I mean someone who thrives in nice weather rather than freezing cold or rain) then summer is probably the time you really look forward to. There's a reason most of the al fresco social events of the year take place in the summer - weddings, BBQ's, cricket games, country fares, agricultural shows etc. They are very much dependant on the weather.
But lately this hasn't really been the case. In one summer we have seen some of the extremes of weather that really make us question the concept of summer vs winter. In the US there has been a sustained heat wave over most of the Midwest. Crops have failed and record temperatures have been recorded. In the UK the summer has ranked as one of the worst on record. Temperatures have been low, and rainfall has been much, much higher, than normal with record rainfalls of as much as one moths rain in a single day. This has extend pretty much across May, June and July.

More recently there has been a report of record rainfall in Manila which as turned the city into a disaster area. News reports of people swimming down the main streets have appeared on the nightly bulletins.
As I sit here in my garden, under a parasol watching the sun set at the end of a scorching hot August day, I can't help but feel that this kind of weather is much more preferable to the cooler, wet weather we have been subjected to for the last two or three months. But at the same time I also know that the concept of seasons as we know them is starting to change - particularly in England. This year, for example, we had a march which was memorable for being one of the warmest on record. Everyone was taking this to be a sign of warm weather to come and a great summer. This was dashed when April came round and brought with it torrential rain and floods. This was followed by a wet May and a June that the weather forecasters actually wrote off as a summer month. The Queen's Diamond Jubilee weekend was almost a washout. July was fractionally better.

But since the start of the Olympics we have had what can only be described as a good summer. The weather has been warm and sunny and the amount of rain has been light and sporadic.
Naturally everyone is euphoric that summer has finally come and - providing this warm weather lasts until the start of September - we will go around patting ourselves on the back about what a good summer it finally turned out to be.

But then we have the winter to look forward to.

Traditionally the winter should be mild. Snow may fall, but shouldn't be too bad and shouldn't last too long. This isn't Buffalo, New York where the Lake Effect causes heavy snowfalls across great periods of the winter months. Nor is it Green Bay where the temperature will drop off the bottom of the thermometer and stop everything growing for weeks on end. This is England where a particularly heavy snowfall can result in history books being rewritten and people reminiscing about "The big fall of '47".

So, naturally, when we had some particularly bad winter weather over the last couple of years people started to wonder what is happening. Our summers are shorter and wetter, our winters are longer and colder. Is it the end of days?

So what does this mean? Are we in the midst of climate change? Is the end of the world nigh? Well yes and no.

I think that even those who are the most climate sceptical would concede that what is happening is not following a normal pattern. They would have to admit that there are weather events which are not expected and which must point to something being different.

They may not agree that this is coming from man-made causes. They may believe that it is a result of a natural cycle of the planet. But science has proven time and time again that we are throwing things into the atmosphere that cannot be good for the planet. The amount of carbon dioxide in the air is rising and the amount of plants and trees that can use this and convert it back to oxygen is falling. This is simply unsustainable.

What are we to do about it? Well. The fact of the matter is that you, my reader, can't do a single thing about it. You are just one person. You are just an individual with little impact and influence on the fate of a planet.

But the fact also exists that everyone on the planet is an individual with little impact and influence on its fate. But if everyone did something, then these six billion inhabitants of planet earth must be able to make a minor difference. Maybe even a major difference.

That's why I encourage you all to look at what you do on a daily basis and try to be a little more ecologically minded about it. Here's a short lists of things you could do.

Walk to the shops rather than drive.
Ride your bike more (the exercise will be a benefit too)
If you must drive, practice hypermiling
Get a more economical car. Preferably get an electric car. (Sure, they need electricity which can come from burning fossil fuels, but it can also come from non fossil fuels and the electric engine is more efficient than the petrol engine at using that energy)
Turn your thermostat down a couple degrees in winter and stick a jumper on instead.
Recycle as much as you can. I throw out more in my recycle bin than in my regular bin. I also compost where possible.

There are many other things you can do to become more environmentally aware. Some of them are easy. Others are harder and require a mindset change that will not come easy to certain people. (Would you give up flying on airlines and start taking your vacation somewhere that you could get to by coach or train?), but these things were never meante to be easy.

It's the future of the planet and our children. If it were easy we would be doing it already.

Costa comes to town.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 15:00:00 +0000

There's been some consternation in the village.

Let me explain. I live in a village which was recently voted "Best Place to live in Britain". It's one of those places with a nice little village green, duck pond, and a main street that is packed with small shops all run by local people. We don't have any chains here (in fact when Tesco wanted to come in and open an 'express' outlet in a pub building, it was successfully knocked on the head).

Down the main street we have a top-end bed shop, an antique shop, a local estate agent, an art gallery, a vet, a butcher, an off license, a family-run jewellers, and a small cafe. The main shop is a 'One Stop' that incorporates the post office.

It's all very genteel. Cricket is played on the green every weekend during the summer and the first Saturday in June is always the village fete, which has lots of small stalls, food and a ring where we parade classic cars and the like through for the adulation of the crowd.

What I'm trying to get across is the fact that it isn't a conurbation, a suburb, a town or even - god forbid - a metropolis. It's a small village on the A30 which has tried to remain as much like a small village as possible. As I mentioned earlier it got noticed. The people who decide these things marked it is the nicest place to live in the country, we are proud of that - especially as we took the crown from the reigning champion of three years.

But recently there has appeared a blot on the landscape.

Let me explain. The nearest 'town' is about three miles away. It is quite a bit larger than our village. It has a long main street, shopping centre, lots of chains (Marks and Spencer, Sainsburys, MacDonalds, Starbucks etc.) and it has suffered during the recession having many empty shops and the subsequent invasion of the charity shop outlets along the main street. It has gone the way of many of the towns in the country.

Out village isn't like that. We don't have empty shops. We are thriving. There is a sense of community in the village. Just about everyone knows everyone else. We are all waiting in anticipation and fingers crossed on the outcome of a good friend's cancer treatment. We know where the young married couple are going on honeymoon and we wish them the best in their marriage. It's that kind of place.

Recently, however, a dark cloud has loured over our village. For a short while now there has been one empty shop along the main street. It used to be an off licence, but they just weren't getting the business from the community. It's probably because the established off license was so good and the guy who runs it knows everyone's name. It went out of business a couple of years ago. The shop has remained empty since then as we wondered who was going to take over it. With the breadth of shops that we already had, we didn't really think there was a business that could come in and fill a gap. We didn't need clothes shops, cafes, sweet shops or travel agents. What would fill the gap?

We recently got to find out. A planning application went in to the council for permission to put movable temporary seating outside the premises, and word got out that it was one of the chains.

It was.

Costa Coffee had moved into the village. There was outrage. "It's the thin end of the wedge" people shouted. "Let them in and soon we'll have KFC, MacDonalds and Pizza Hut. We will no longer be the best place in Britain to live.". The complaints were many. But nobody actually did anything other than complain. We couldn't actually stop anyone from moving in because we didn't have a legitimate complaint.

So Costa arrived.

And, do you know what? It's great. I'm sitting in here now, typing this. And it's busy. It was busy when I came in the other day to see what was happening. The seats are full and there's a queue waiting for their drinks. Despite the fact that people were complaining about them moving in, there doesn't seem to be a boycott of the place. Of course, the other cafe in the village will probably have a problem. But at the end of the day that's a cafe and this is a coffee shop. I see the clientele as being completely different.
Is this the thin end of the wedge? I don't think so. Despite what I said earlier about not having chains here, we have two of the four high street banks already. Nobody complained about them. On top of that there is no room for any of the other chains to come and take over - unless one of the shops on the main street goes out of business, that is. At the end of the day I don't see the village become a 'generic' high street like so many of the nearby towns have become.

I may be proven wrong, but we'll see.

The Olympics

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 15:00:00 +0000

The Olympics

Unless you've been living under a rock for the last couple of weeks, you're probably aware that there's a small sporting competition going on in London. The Olympics is - of course - one of the largest sporting events on the face of the planet, and London were successful in gaining the rights to stage it this year.
In preparation for the games the country has gone into overdrive and put together a project that is quite staggering in its complexity.

Amongst other things they have:

Identified a site in East London that can stage the majority of the sports
Gained the appropriate planning permissions and clearances to build a staggering number of sporting venues and supporting buildings on the site
Upgraded the associated infrastructure around the site to accommodate increased traffic and energy needs
Identified and upgraded a number of additional sporting venues outside the Olympic park to deal with the rigours of hosting an Olympic event.
Built a complete web system to manage both the public interaction with the games (identifying and displaying competitors, venues, sports, and medal information) whilst also creating a fully functional e-commerce site to deal with the sale and distribution of tickets for the games.
Dealt with accommodation and accreditation for all athletes, supporting personnel and local media.

All while organising a world-class sporting event that is being broadcast to every corner of the world.
Attached to that has been the ancillary tasks linked to this effort, such as creating a totally awe-inspiring opening ceremony using over seven thousand volunteers highlighting some of the best bits of British history and culture.
If you have some time I thoroughly recommend looking over the London2012 website. As well as giving live updates of the games, the competitors and the results, there is also a fascinating amount of information behind the scenes about actually building the venues and preparing for the games,

The Legacy

The one thing that is apparent reading the literature is that the organisers of the games had two main objectives in mind.

Creating an Olympic games that would be both well run and memorable
Creating a sporting legacy for sport in the country.

The issue of legacy itself is an interesting one because it manifests itself in two different ways. Primarily there is the legacy of inspiration. By that I mean the fact that Britain did so well in the medal tables has inspired a large number of people to take up sports and start to be a part of a sporting movement that had suffered in this country. The government is already talking about leveraging this goodwill - and taking flak over the fact that earlier government cuts have lead to a reduction in money available for sports in school.
Secondly there is the physical legacy of the Olympic venues themselves. The Olympic Park has always intended to be something that would remain after the games were over. It is meant to stand as a reminder of the greatness of the games and the achievements of the athletes. But the venues themselves are going to be used and available to the public long after the games have disappeared into the record books.
The velodrome - which is widely acknowledged as being one of the best in the country - will be open to the general public, as will the aquadrome and a number of other venues. The temporary venues - such as the beach volleyball stadium in Horse Guards Parade - are going to disappear leaving just archive footage and a couple of specially commissioned paintings as reminders of what was there, but several billion dollars have been spent on the Olympic Park itself, and it is hoped that the legacy will be more impressive than the decaying overgrown stadium that now exists in Athens after their Olympics.

The Sports

One of my favourite parts of the Olympics was watching some of those sports that have never, really, appeared on my radar before. Examples of this include the diving, synchronised swimming, water polo and mountain bike riding. Thanks to some great information on the BBC website about the sports themselves, the rules and what to watch, I've learned a lot about these sports.
For me the highlight - apart from the Super Saturday when Britain won 4 gold medals in 45 minutes - was watching the controlled chaos which is the BMX cycling competition.
Eight competitors in a single race flying round a course with jumps, dips, a tunnel (in the case of the ladies race) and speed sections which bring the riders to within millimetres of each other. This was the site of several spectacular collisions resulting in concussions, broken wrists and collar bones, and one unlucky competitor being stretchered off after a nasty crash which saw her head plant into one of the 'knuckles' on the course. But despite these crashes the short races (each averaging about 37 seconds) we're fascinating to watch and almost had me holding my breath throughout each one. The issue I had with BMX was that despite having to do a seeding run, three heats, and three semi final runs just to get to the final, the medals were decided on a single run. One mistake - as happened with the British hopefuls - and all the hard work was undone. It just doesn't seem fair.
On the topic of unfairness I have to say something about Usain Bolt. Here's a guy who has trained - like all the athletes - for his Olympic chance and yet to get his medal he had to run for a grand total of about 30 seconds (a heat, a semi-final, and a final). Sure he was running at maximum speed, but it was just three very short races. Compare this with, say, Mo Farah who had to run a heat, a semi-final and a final each lasting nearly half an hour. And at the end of it all he gets exactly the same medal as Usain “I'm a legend even though I only ran for 30 seconds” Bolt. Makes you wonder, doesn't it?
And don't get me started on the marathon runners....

You know it's an English hotel when...

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 18:19:00 +0000

... You have tea making facilities hidden away in a cupboard.

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The new Posterous spaces (Update)

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 08:13:00 +0000

I write recently with my impressions of the new Posterous spaces app. I said I hated it, didn't like the interface and couldn't post pictures from my iPhone.

Well they've just updated the app and I'm posting a nice HDR picture I took at the recent Pram Race on the village as a test.

Will it work....?

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The New Posterous Spaces

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 23:03:00 +0000

Lots has been said about the new Posterous Spaces. Here's my thoughts:

It sucks.

Hate the new interface. Hate the social aspect (who needs another network?). Hate the fact that I can't do a simple thing like post pictures like I used to be able to. I've tried four times to post a picture and the app just hangs (iPhone).

Change us good.

Screwing up something that worked is bad.

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Stratford

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 22:45:00 +0000

See the full gallery on Posterous

Spent a lot of today in a penthouse apartment in Stratford, East London. Took a photo or two on the old iPhone and processed the hell out of them. Which do you prefer?

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Stratford

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 22:45:00 +0000

See the full gallery on Posterous

Spent a lot of today in a penthouse apartment in Stratford, East London. Took a photo or two on the old iPhone and processed the hell out of them. Which do you prefer?

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The Zen of Gas prices (Or how a 23% price hike is a selling point!)

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 10:46:00 +0000

My gas provider has written to inform me that they are unilaterally increasing their gas supply prices by 18% in four weeks time. This should increase my yearly heating bill by another £200.

However in the same letter they have also written to let me know that

'You can fix your gas prices until 2013 by signing up to our new Price Promise March 2013 tariff'

Essentially they are allocating a set tariff which they guarantee will not be raised for another 18 months. However the Price Promise March 2013 tariff is actually a 5% increase over and above the 18% increase already announced. In other words they are wanting suckers to sign up for a 23% price increase guaranteed for 18 months regardless of what the market does.

By itself this is outrageous (and has caused the UK competition committe to sit up and take notice), but this is being executed by a company which has announced a 24% leap in profits last year and who's parent company, Centrica, are making profits of £2.3bn a year.

I wonder how many old age pensioners will either a) Sit in the cold this winter because they can't afford to heat the place, or b) Sign up for the fixed price tariff thinking they are saving money, because they've received this notice, while the fat cats at the energy company rake in the profits.

I'm hoping they're wearing a condom because I feel like I'm being screwed....

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Waiting for a train.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 16:05:00 +0000

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Make a film in an evening...?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 07:39:00 +0000

I've been asked to act in a 'film in a night' event which is where teams have about 4 hours to shoot, edit and score a short film in a single evening. The team I am in is rehearsing the shots and the action to make the actual shoot go as smooth as possible this is us in action

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On the subject of friendship

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 11:00:00 +0000

This week marked the advent of another birthday for me. I've said it before and I'll say it again : as you get older these things seem to come round quicker than ever before. When I was a kid it seemed like birthdays took forever to come round. Now I appear to have them three or four times a year.

It wasn't a landmark birthday. Not one that ends in an '0', nor even one that deserves a jewel-themed anniversary celebration, but it did end in a '5' so it drops me between two important birthday stools.

With the growing importance (and intrusion) of Facebook in people's life, the ability to send birthday wishes across the internet has become easier and easier. Back in the days when I was starting out in the world, cards had to be purchased, written, addressed and posted. If you got your timings wrong then you missed people's birthdays.

Nowadays it's just a case of checking Facebook, clicking 'Write on wall' and sending a few choice words to the recipient.

I'm very pleased to say that I received well over 30 such messages - which is far and above the number of cards I have ever received on any birthday since I was 8.

But what also struck me as interesting was the longevity of the relationship I have with a lot of these people. My best friend Jon took great pleasure in reminding me that he and I have been friends for over 30 years and I was his best man 21 years ago. My younger sister has been in my life for over 40 years (and she won't thank me for telling you that). I received an email from a non-facebook friend who was my best friend when I lived in Australia back in the late 70's. He reminded me that we've known each other for almost 35 years.

There are numerous other examples of people I've known and who have been in my life for decades:

Patricia, If you're reading this, I've known you for almost 20 years.
Justin you're heading up towards 27 years.
Suzie S. I met when I was in college - which is the late 80's
Tim G. - Another college friend of 25 years ago.
Phil E. I've known since arriving in London 20+ years ago.
Karen W and Dana L. I first met when I worked in the US over 10 years ago.

What does this say about me as a person? I'm not sure. I don't particularly pride myself on being someone who actively cultivates long relationships. Those of my friends who have waited for me to send them letters or e-mails have usually had to wait far too long. By my own admission I get easily distracted when it comes to keeping in touch. But the upside to this is that when someone does get back in contact after a while it is always a great pleasure.

I was recently gifted with renewed communication from my old Australian friend Michael whom I first met in 1977. We had dropped out of touch for well over a decade (and probably longer) due to... well, I don't know why, exactly, but we did. Then he discovered my blogs, worked out my email address and was able to reconnect with me. It was great to get a long letter from him bringing me up to date with what's happened in his life. We are now back in regular communication. As I mentioned above he was one of the first to send me birthday greetings outside the Facebook medium.

It's times like this that it is good to look back on ones life and cherish the friendships one has made over the years. Sure, there are friends who are no longer communicating with us - I often wonder what happened to old school friends and the like - but they are replaced by other friends who have come into your lives over the years.

Thanks to everyone who wished by a Happy Birthday in some way, shape or form. My apologies to anyone who's birthday I have missed and shouldn't have.

Here's to many more.

The Ghost Train - Coming soon

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 31 May 2011 08:15:00 +0000

via hartleyartsgroup.com

As Hartley Arts Group's current production "Kiss Me Kate" winds down (last three performances this week), thoughts turn to the next production "The Ghost Train"

This is a little known play which was written by Arnold Ridley (best known for being Private Godfrey in 'Dad's Army' back in the 70's).

As you can imagine with a name like that it has a spooky feel and we will be performing it around Halloween this year. The plot revolves around a party of passengers who find themselves stranded in the waiting room of an isolated station. The station master tries to get them to leave citing the local legend of a ghost train that dooms all who see it to death.

The director, Gary Wales, has some great ideas for the show leveraging multimedia and some phenomenal sound effects. It is guaranteed to be not just a show but a "Performance".

In a change from tradition this show will be running in a confined schedule. Usually HAG do shows that run over two weeks (Thursday, Friday and Saturday of one week followed by Thursday, Friday, Saturday of the following week). For 'The Ghost Train' we are looking to condense this down into a single week with five performances grouped into Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday (including a Saturday matinee).

Keep your eye out here and at http://hag.posterous.com for more information about the show and booking information.

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