Odd Thomas Odd Blog

Go Go Gadget Wallet

2012-01-16T19:39:00.001Z

Buying new gadgets is easy ... at least, that's the rumour going around and we all know to take rumours with a pinch of salt, don't we?

When the iPad was first released, I was quite anti the idea as I couldn't see what use it could possibly be beyond being another glossy toy for Apple geeks to spray over. Don't get me wrong, I admire Apple and their incredible success at taking an existing idea and making it their own; they believed in the product and their customers believed in their marketing.

Personally, I was not sold on the idea so have spent all this time refusing to buy into the idea. Then I started Uni where a large proportion of students have tablets of one description or another ... okay, of one description; I now look like one of the old stalwarts I used to work with who preferred to work with pen and paper rather than one of those new-fangled computer thingies!

Damn, I'm getting old!!!

Needless to say, for the past 18 months, I've been coming around to the idea of a tablet, if only so I can travel a bit lighter and stop carrying the equivalent of a filing cabinet on my back every day, which probably won't work as I will just end up with more books in the space where the computer was.

So, filled with the idea of buying into the latest tech fad, I headed down to what passes for 'tech' stores around here to go make my purchase...

The astute amongst you will already have picked up from the above comments that it wasn't an iPad I was after, which correctly leads you to the conclusion that I am an Android fan.

*Pauses to soak up iGeek confusion*

Sorry guys and gals, I like choice.

Originally, it was the Motorola Xoom that was at the top of my list, especially after playing with it in-store and comparing it to what is allegedly the best Android tablet, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. Then Asus announced the release of their Transformer Prime and my mind was made up ... until they announced the TF700T HD version to be released in either Q2 or Q3, when my mind was made up again!

The trouble is, I was in a 'must have tech' mood and figured that there really wasn't any need to get the latest and greatest for what I was going to use it for, so the Xoom was back at the top of the list, but could I get my hands on one? Could I buggery!

Nobody had them in stock with only Comet offering their display device, which I politely turned down: if I'm buying something, I want it new. So after several hours of traipsing between stores and, I dare say, being eyeballed by security because of it, I made my miserable way into the town centre and set my sights on a new target: a phone upgrade. I was going to have some new tech to play with!

Since my contract has just come to an end, I figured I could upgrade and decided some time ago that I was going to get the HTC Sensation. Having checked with the Orange store online and finding I could upgrade for £9.99 with a better tariff and that the Carphone Warehouse could offer me the same package for free, I headed into the Orange store where I told the sales guy exactly what I was after.

Even after telling him I wanted the Sensation, he tried to sell me the Sensation XE and it seemed to go straight over his head when I told him again what I actually wanted. Then he looked at the upgrade tariffs. Best offer? £99.99 or I could get the phone for free if I upped my tariff to £36 a month. Only two words were exchanged:

Me: No.
Him: Okay.

At which point I left, met up with Foshie and headed to the Carphone Warehouse to do business. After talking to the sales guy, he offered exactly the deal they were offering online and, after some deliberation (when have I not deliberated?!), I said yes to upgrading on Orange, despite being on the verge of offering them a few choice words.

It all seemed to be going well until the sales guy couldn't set the new phone up properly. It turned out they had no more 3G SIMs left so would have to order one in for Tuesday, which would mean returning later in the week and continuing the transaction.

So I cancelled it.

As impulse buying goes, this is most definitely a fail. I never realised spending money could be so difficult!

Ludicrous

2012-01-13T18:29:00.000Z

I'm not usually one to make a fuss in a public forum, but reading today's story about Richard O'Dwyer's extradition has gotten me a bit keyed up.

Okay, as per usual this is a bit of an emotional reaction and I am perhaps not aware of all the facts, only able to go by the news stories being posted (BBC, Orange, Telegraph and other such sites), but it seems to me that this is the usual UK roll-over to US dominance that is in serious need of being addressed ASAP.

Anyhow, being in a bit of a growly mood at the moment, I figured that it would be a good time to write to my local MP to voice my opinion of this ludicrous situation:

Dear Richard Harrington,

I am writing with regards today's news about the Sheffield Hallam student, Richard O'Dwyer, who is to be extradited to the US on the basis of a breach to US copyright law.

My understanding is that the site was hosted in the UK and consisted purely of links to other sites providing the copyrighted content. As such, there was certainly no breach of UK law as his site, TV Shack, was not providing a file-sharing or streaming service to deliver the copyright content and, with the site being hosted from the UK, is not subject to US law.

Although most sites carry waivers that content provided by external websites is not the responsibility of the originating site, I do not know if this was the case with the TV Shack service. However, this is immaterial, as no one site can possibly be responsible for the content of a third party website; if this were the case, then the providers of every site on the internet is responsible for the content on every other site, a ludicrous situation at best.

If Richard O'Dwyer is guilty of US copyright infringement through the provision of links, then so are Google with their search engine, Microsoft with their Bing service, plus many, many other sites, yet these organisations do not appear to be under scrutiny; I can only assume that this is because they carry the financial weight to counter such targeting.

Authorities should be targeting the providers of the service, not those peripheral individuals and sites that just provide a link. If the US were to take down the service providers, then peripheral sites like TV Shack would find it very hard to exist as there would be no content to link to: take out the heart and the organism dies; take off a limb and the organism finds another way to survive.

Allowing Richard O'Dwyer's extradition to go ahead would, in my humble opinion, be a gross miscarriage of justice. If the extradition cannot be stopped then, at the very least, it should be postponed until the US can provide sufficient technical and legal evidence of their claims.

I hope that you take this matter seriously and look forward to hearing your response.

I expect that I will get the usual political, carefully-phrased brush-off and be left feeling ineffective and frustrated, but isn't it at least worth a shot?

If you feel as strongly as I do about this, then feel free to make a comment below. However, if you want to try to make a difference, why not write your own letter to your local MP and get this matter discussed in Westminster. There is a very useful service called Write to Them that makes it nice and easy to communicate with your elected constituency MP, so why not go there now and make a point?

Feel free to copy and paste my letter above, if it makes it easier!!

Update: A petition has been set up at GoPetition to address the wider issue of implementing the Forum Amendment within the Police and Justice Act. I'm not sure how much weight it carries with the government but it would be worth signing it.

Surprise Me

2011-12-16T01:11:00.000Z

Over the years, my Sis has proven that she has inherited my Mother's ability to say or do just the right thing to put a smile on my face when I'm having a bit of a naff day.

For example, when we were teenagers, she went on a chocolate hunt but was unable to find anything, so I suggested she try eating the cooking chocolate from Mum's baking cupboard. "I can't eat that," she replied, "it's still raw so you have to cook it first!"

I may have laughed a little too hard at that one.

Or the time she decided to show off how high she could kick her leg, forgetting she was wearing a straight skirt and succeeded in taking out her other leg in the process.

I laughed hard at that one, too.

Or the time when we were walking a neighbour's black labradors in the local parkland and one of them spotted something worth chasing, so took off across the park dragging my sis behind him like a squealing human sled.

Shame I didn't have a camera for that one.

In all fairness though, these were all a looooooong time ago and as she matured, well, nothing changed really. She still succeeds in doing and saying daft things, but because we now live so far apart, I only get to hear of them third-hand, so they're not as memorable. All the more reason why I should write down today's little conversation.

As Christmas approaches, the usual nagging over present lists kicks off, invariably with me not having any ideas until a few days before the shops close. So this year, I thought I would be a little more pre-emptive and started to store a wish list on Elfster, which has been both a win and a fail: a win because people have looked at it to see what I would like; a fail because none of them could work out how to use it and have now resorted to e-mail, text and telephone.

*Sigh*

Anyway, today, I got the following message from my sister:

"Hey you! You have a space rug on your wish list, what colour?

They only have white on iwoot x"

Before I point out the obvious in that message, I should probably answer the question currently bouncing around in your head: "WTF is a space rug?!"

Well, wonder no more!

How awesome is that?! Other than appealing to the Sci-fi geek in me, it looks like the perfect winter warmer, especially as I am trying to keep my bills down by not putting the heating on. All I would need to go with it is a decent light-saber and to grow my Alec Guinness beard (though thankfully somewhat darker at the moment), and I'd be able to stand in the doorway of my flat and announce to the annoying leaflet posters: "This is not the flat you're looking for".

Might not work, but it's worth a shot. And it's a damn site better than owning a onesie!!

Anyhoo, I digress ... back to my sister and the Xmas list conversation...

Hey you! You have a space rug on your wish list, what colour? They only have white on iwoot x

Surprise me :)

Not much of a surprise if there is only one colour!

Not much if I pick a colour either :)

Needless to say, I'm pretty sure what I'm getting for Xmas :-)

Huh?!

2011-11-23T12:37:00.001Z

Either my blog has suddenly become interesting or there is something wrong with Blogger stats...

My posting has been sketchy at best but according to the stats that doesn't really matter as I've had nearly a 2500% increase in pageviews yesterday alone, presumably by people panicking about the title of my August 2010 post title Facebook RIP!

However, according to Google Analytics, nobody has set foot here since 15 November - about the time of my last post - and even then, it was fewer people than were interested in the Snap Your Chap exhibition, though I'm not sure that's entirely surprising.

However, never fear, people, FarceBook is still alive and kicking ... though I have a challenge for each of you:

For a period of 30 days, deactivate your Facebook account

and do something interesting

I dare you...

I've been doing what???

2011-11-14T00:18:00.000Z

It seems every time I write a post now, I'm amazed at how long it's been since I rambled on at you poor souls, so, here I go again...

OMG, HAS IT REALLY BEEN THAT LONG?!

Okay, a wee bit on the dramatic side, but I might as well make an entrance :-)

Well, I'm a good couple of months into my second year at Uni now with some pretty good grades from the first year under my belt and, as expected, the second year is proving so much harder to keep up with. That said, I am still enjoying it, especially now we're starting to get into the interesting stuff I signed up for.

In the first year, the Principles of AI and A-Life module was just a bit of a primer where we got to play with the NetLogo simulator, but that was about it from the technical aspect. This year, the module is called Artificial Intelligence and Robotics and we actually get the chance to build robots!

Now, before you start getting all excited like a geek in a gadget shop, I'm going to put a dampener on things ... we're not talking Terminator, Asimo, Nao or even Aibo here. No, we're talking Lego.

Yes, you did read that right. Lego. I quit my job to play with Lego. I guess I could have saved a lot of money if I'd just had kids instead...

Anyhoo, despite the low budget equipment being used, it is pretty good for teaching the principles of robotics, and you can have a bit of a laugh at the results of whatever control algorithm you've dreamed up. In the case of the video below, we were tasked with programming the robot to use proportional control to maintain a certain distance away from an object, which worked until I put my foot in the way :S

Today, Lego, tomorrow ... mechano????

Too close a call...

2011-04-05T16:52:00.000+01:00

There are times when I get to appreciate just how lucky I am. Forget winning the lottery, that'll never happen (not that it stops me trying), but when it comes to the day-to-day stuff, that's where favourable circumstances really make a difference.

Take today, for example....

I have never been a morning person; trying to get out of bed in the morning is significantly harder than getting a woman to admit she's wrong. As such, I am on the road towards becoming Doc Emmet Brown, with my slowly increasing number of clocks and alarms (if not by hairline alone).

At this point time, I have roughly nine alarms set to go off:

A Pure DAB unit that has four alarms set - two to beep and two to turn the radio on
A battery operated unit that likes to shout at me to "Get up, now!" and which has had more than it's fair share of early morning beatings
My HTC Hero which has four alarms currently set, but which I can add a bundle more to if I so choose (might have to consider this)

Now, you would think that with all this noise going off around the flat, I would have no reason to oversleep as you probably think that this number of alarms is a little on the excessive side. Haha, if only!

On a normal day, this is just about enough to get me out of my groggy slumber. However, this turned out to not be a normal day!

After a very late night trying to write a reflective essay for my first year's portfolio - and which still needs finishing - I decided to go to bed so that I wasn't too tired for the rest of the day; this was at around 02:00 this morning, a time which seems to have become quite common lately. What I had not counted on was that I'd already reached the point where my body had had enough and my brain decided to put on it's traffic cop hat and take me out of the driving seat for a while.

All I vaguely remember is dismissing one of the alarms on my Hero ... and that's it. No radio. No beeping. No shouting alarm clock to thump. Nothing. Just pure, blissful, undisturbed sleep.

Really not good on the day of an important programming test. At 12pm.

I woke at 11:30am.

Groggy, bleary-eyed and wondering what day it was, I picked up my phone and found two messages wondering where I was. Seeing as they were from the guys at Uni, it couldn't be a weekend...

@$#&!!!!!!!!

I had 30 minutes to get dressed, drive ten miles to Uni and get to the lab in time for the test. I was screwed. Hoping for things to go in my favour, I started...

Underwear, jeans, t-shirt, ON; wallet, license, ID, keys, change for parking, POCKETED; window closed, door closed, flat locked, RUN; in the car, try to leave car park, someone enters car park, blocked in, EXPLETIVES; released from car park, onto road, tree surgeons in road, stopped, EXPLETIVES; moving again, more tree surgeons, stopped, EXPLETIVES; moving again, lights turn green before reaching them, YES, keep moving, round corner, police filming, FFS; passed the cops, moving freely, lights green, hit the motorway, foot down, leave the motorway, A405, A414, clear traffic, Hatfield lights green, next lights green, following lights green, into the Forum, space available, ticket bought, pen from glovebox, drink from side pocket, car locked, RUN; across campus, into corridor, turn left, wrong way, turn back, head for lab, arrive, 12:00 ... immediately behind tutor ... BREATHE!!!

By some miracle, every set of traffic lights either turned green before I reached them or stayed green just long enough for me to get through them, though I paid for this when it came to running across the campus; as I had not thought about putting a belt on, I kept losing my jeans and showing off more boxers than the underwear section at Next.

Unfortunately, because I was still hyper from racing to get to the test, I didn't pay much attention to the side of the paper where the marks were recorded, thinking that the text above was instructions. It wasn't. It was tasks 2 to 5. I had spent ten minutes doing the first task and a further ten trying to tidy it up and document it, leaving twenty minutes left to do the remaining tasks.

What a numpty.

This is the first programming test where I have had to use all the time available and I'm pretty sure I messed things up as I did not give myself enough time to test what I had written. I just hope that I haven't gotten a ridiculously stupid mark, or I will definitely not be happy...

Geek Heaven

2010-11-22T20:57:00.000Z

I didn't appreciate just how geeky I was until last Wednesday - now I know what everyone else knows!

There is an extra-curricular project, called EPiCS, being run by one of the lecturers at the Uni. Unfortunately, despite wanting to sign up for it, I was worried about the time it would take up when there is so much to do study-wise.

However, a few weeks ago, the tutor announced a trip to The National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park, the same place where the Enigma machine was decoded in the Second World War. For the discount price of £5, forty students had the opportunity to see Colossus, the Harwell Decatron Computer (also known as WITCH) and a range of machines from history that made me realise just how much I have seen things change: I am not old ... I've just seen a lot! :-)

The trip was originally to be booked for the second year students but they wanted to see if some of us first years wanted to go: needless to say, the little group I'm part of were amongst the first to book their tickets!!!

Last Wednesday was the day of the trip and I don't mind admitting I was rather excited, which is something of a rarity lately.

After a little intro, the first visit was to the Colossus, a machine that was still picking up real signals from Germany, albeit containing weather data as opposed to military commands!

Tony Sale was our guide for this part of the visit, and he really kicked it off with his passion and good humour: if I could choose another grandfather, Tony would be the man. The one thing I remember him saying was as he handed out little strips of paper with a coded message punched into it using the 5-bit Baudot code, suggesting that we go away and use his website to decode the message ... oh, and it doesn't say "p*** off"!

This was followed by a guided tour of the museum, seeing everything from early machines that used punch-cards for instructions, through the first electronic computers and up to a more recent history, which is already looking out-of-date. I was like a kid in a toy shop and didn't know where to go next, though that was quickly sorted after lunch when one of the volunteers offered to take us to the National Codes Centre where we could see the Enigma and the Turing Bombe.

Although I only had my almost trusty phone with me, I managed to take a few photos :-)

The Enigma!

Turing Bombe

Excellent statue of Alan Turing with the Enigma machine

Another view of the Alan Turing statue

Although I didn't get to see everything that was available at Bletchley Park, I can wholeheartedly recommend it as a day out - and you don't have to be a techie or a geek to enjoy it, either. As part of our history it is both an eye-opener and - I hate to admit this - the start of a walk down memory lane!!!

Settling In...

2010-11-12T20:20:00.001Z

If you're not into boring, reflective posts, navigate away from here now!!!

Hello? You all gone? Thought as much! Well, here I go anyway...

I have spent the last twelve years working in IT, slowly building up my skills but totally lacking any kind of formal structure; a case of learning what was needed to get the job done (thank you, Google!). This has meant that on paper I look good, but when I have the interviews and get asked techie questions, I fail miserably because I can't use the words or demonstrate the techniques that employers want to hear. The end result is that you become so dejected about your skills that you stay in the same place and stagnate ... both in skills and in attitude!!!

When I first seriously considered coming to University, it is totally fair to say that I didn't really think things through as much as I should have done; if anything, it was more of a reaction to the situations I found myself getting into at work, but I felt that if I didn't escape I would go insane ... assuming I haven't already...

It has been roughly six weeks since I officially became a student and it is only in this past week that I have started to feel that I have done the right thing by coming here. Some of this is probably because of the decent scores I have been getting from the first batch of tests - yes, we have already been tested and there are a whole load more tests to come!!!

As far as the programming is concerned, I will be absolutely gutted if I don't get 100% at this level as it is very basic stuff; if I lose any marks here it will be through complacency, so I need to be sure I read things properly. For the rest of the modules, much of it is totally new to me so it feels good to know that I am understanding it ... though I am dreading it getting harder. There are plenty of younger minds here that, once geared up to this, will overtake me in no time and it will be me struggling to keep up!!!

Anyway, the sharp folk amongst you have probably spotted the word 'programming' and put two and two together to ask the question: but if I worked in IT, why am I now doing an IT-related degree?!

It's a fair question, so here are a small handful of my ~~excuses for running away~~ arguments:

To re-develop confidence in my skills
To provide a formal structure to my knowledge
To advance my skills to something more than ad hoc knowledge
To improve employability
To increase my changes of emmigrating
To escape the standard business systems IT development work so that I can work on far more interesting projects
To re-kindle the passion for technology that has been sucked out of me over the past ten years

The course I have enrolled on follows the computer science route, with the intention of learning more about artificial intelligence and artificial life. Ironically, it looks like I may have to go self-employed to develop websites and business systems in order to pay for this course...

Mastercard Moments

2010-10-06T02:20:00.001+01:00

Moment 1:

My family are sitting round the garden table and my Mum decides it's time to have a smoke. With barely a break in what he is doing, my five-year-old nephew pipes up: "Grandma, how many cigarettes do you have to smoke before you die?"

Priceless. Shame it hasn't stopped her...

Moment 2:

My Dad is browsing the web for anniversary ideas and gets distracted by a video of large women having a makeover. Cue my Mum walking in to see what he is doing...

Mum: "Why are you looking at fat birds having a make-over?"
Dad: "I'm looking for something for you"

Even after 40 years of marriage, he still hasn't learned!!!!

Moment 3:

Actually, this is still pretty fresh as it is the reason I am currently writing blog posts at 2am!

After deciding to study late in order to try and get a little ahead, I finally left the Uni buildings at some point after 11pm. As expected, the park and ride buses were no longer running, so I decided to walk to the car park only to find it all locked up, with my little car sitting slap bang in the middle and no means to get in or out!

Unfortunately, the Uni is over 15 miles away from where I live, so returning home is out of the question, taxis are too expensive for that distance, the local hotel has no rooms available and the final bus was just before 11pm.

Thankfully, the Learning Resource Centre is open 24 hours. Unfortunately, I have 21 pence in change, which won't get me anything to eat or drink all night until the shop opens, so I am anticipating being the unfreshest Fresher on campus first thing tomorrow!!

Moment 4:

This one is better to see - makes me grin every time I watch it!

What happened???

2010-10-06T01:43:00.003+01:00

Whoa, has it really been 7 weeks since I last posted? I know I don't have that many readers, but sorry for the silence, things have been a bit hectic here!

In fact, so much has been happening, that it's probably easier to give a quick bullet point of the main events, otherwise, this would be something of an epic posting which I guarantee you won't reach the end of!

Firstly, I should say congratulations to my parents who celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary at the beginning of September. They were intending to go away to celebrate together, but decided they would rather have a nice meal with family.

Unfortunately, The Woolpack, where the meal was booked didn't do a very good job of the booking, so the meal wasn't as nice as it could have been.
After the rather unfortunate and ironic drowning of my little iPod Nano I wrote about in my last post, I ended up ordering a replacement directly from the Apple site: a nice little fifth generation orange one, complete with an engraving of this site's URL (I just wanted the free engraving and couldn't think of anything else to put). As I bought it, I had this nagging feeling that it must be due for an upgrade by now. Low and behold, a few days after it arrived, the 6th generation version was announced. Bastards.
It seems my parents get as much enjoyment out of fancy dress parties as I do, with a neighbour's 60s night prompting my Mum to cut up some curtains to make an outfit (Julie Andrews would be proud), and prompting my Dad to grow a Hulk Hogan moustache (which wouldn't have been so bad if he wasn't currently sporting the Kojak look).

Unfortunately, not being used to my Dad with any form of facial hair, my response upon seeing him was comparable to the response you might have when meeting someone with a severely lazy eye: where do you look without a) staring at it, or b) looking like you're avoiding it?

I opted to disappear so that I didn't have to worry.
Either I am completely unobservant or I have succeeded in sliding to a parallel world.

As I was leaving my parent's place after their anniversary weekend, I noticed they had a rather tall Yucca palm at the edge of their garden. As far as I can remember, they have never had a Yucca palm in their garden! I used to walk over that part of the garden when I parked at the side of the house and really, really do not ever remember there being a Yucca there. But there it was, larger than life.

I'm going with the Slider theory on this one...
After 12.5 years, the 6 sets of IKEA Billy shelves that lined the living room have now found their way to my little nephew's bedroom. Shame I can't say the same about the content which is now all stacked up in boxes against one wall.

Anybody want any DVDs or Star Trek Collectibles????
Tied in to getting rid of the Billy bookshelves, I have also ordered a brand new sofa to replace my current sleep-inducing arse-hugger. I'm surprised at how long this sofa has lasted and there are still plenty of years left in her.

Anybody want any DVDs, Star Trek Collectibles or a sofa???
Back on the 19 September, I succeeded in completing the Great North Run for the fourth time and in roughly the same time as every other time I have run it, at 2:18:25 - you can check the results out here and search on race number 29486, if you are a doubting Thomas. Better still, they linked it up to Nike+, so you can check out my incredibly steady run graph!

Thank you to everyone that donated sponsorship for this run, which currently stands at £405, a fantastic amount, thank you. If you didn't get the chance to sponsor me and would still like to, the JustGiving page will be open for a few more weeks yet, so you can still add to the pot if you wish :-)
Rehearsals for the latest Centralians production, are well under way, our very first home-grown production, which is due to launch in just a couple of weeks on 21 October 2010. It is fair to say that every single one of us is dreading this play in one way or another. From my perspective, the main thing I'm dreading is walking on in the opening scene, sans-shirt; it's not a pretty sight, and you'd be forgiven for thinking that Chewbacca had just walked onto the set!
Perhaps the biggest thing to take place in these past few weeks is ditching my rather well paid job in order to go to university, where I am now well into my second week and I have to confess it has been something of a culture shock. I guess we still have to settle down into a routine yet, but it does feel like things are a bit all over the place at the moment.

Hmmm, okay, it turned into a bit of an epic posting in the end anyway - just be grateful I didn't write down absolutely everything!!

Technology Loves Irony

2010-08-18T00:34:00.000+01:00

After a week of not running, it was well past time to head back out and get some more training in now that the Great North Run is looming almost overhead.

With the incredible deluge of rain passed (and my flat still dry ... for now), I decided to risk a run, knowing it would be hard and that I would quite possibly get wet. I didn't realise just how wet I would get so was a little unprepared for the second deluge that fell, my shirt proving that it could wick moisture in both directions.

Unfortunately, I also discovered that the amount of rain was a tad too much for my little iPod Nano, which couldn't keep going and finally drowned ... right in the middle of Queen's Don't Stop Me Now.

Hmmmm.

Musical Itch

2010-08-09T19:22:00.005+01:00

I've never been particularly clued up when it comes to music, it's more a case of if I happen to hear something I like, I usually end up buying the album. The end result is a music collection that is more eclectic than the spirit collection on top of my fridge - though far less potent!

The latest addition to the collection is a bit of a departure to the more upbeat tones of Train's Hey, Soul Sister or V V Brown's Shark in the Water. After hearing just a clip of Islands, I've ended up with The xx being played to death on the way to and from work:

Okay it's a bit on the dark side, but this one has managed to get into my head and won't shift, like an itch that can't be scratched ... which is fine at the moment, but if I start wearing black clothes, looking moody and dying my hair black, someone come and slap some common sense into me!

Facebook RIP

2010-08-03T00:57:00.001+01:00

At what point do you draw the line when you advertise your every thought and feeling on the social web? Before or after you realise that it impacts on others?

Like it or not, the social web has obviously caught on in a major way: Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, Bebo, Twitter and many, many more like them waiting in the wings, hoping to be the next big thing. People are sharing everything from the most mundane aspects of their lives to their most personal thoughts and feelings; as a means of self-expression and narcissism, there is nothing else like it.

Combine this with an 'always-on' culture and the ease and speed of information spread is quite phenomenal.

However, this freedom of expression and near-instant feedback comes at a price: we are now so eager to tell everyone our current thoughts and feelings that we forget, or do not consider, that what we say may have an impact on others.

Perhaps I am being old-fashioned, but there are some things that should not be expressed so casually. For example, finding out an important piece of news via a Facebook status is not something that anybody wants to happen.

I am not suggesting that people should stop what they are doing as, for some, it may be the only way that they feel they can truly express themselves. People should be allowed to express themselves in a manner to which they are most comfortable, but perhaps with that self-expression, there should also be a little temperance.

For the very small handful of you that I know on Facebook, this is why you will no longer find me on there.

[Update]
Well, the Facebook hiatus lasted a mere 4 days...

Little John's House

2010-07-31T15:51:00.001+01:00

For the past couple of weeks, I've had a tough time keeping my lips sealed about a bit of very good news regarding BikerBetty, my friend with the Dirk Benedict ~~obsession~~ crush.

BB is a big supporter of Little John's House, a Romanian orphanage that was set up in 1993 for Ionut Balan and which now cares for six children, as well as providing outreach support and a summer school for other disadvantaged children in the area.

A few weeks ago, with Little John's House in mind, she took a late night visit to the Vodaphone World of Difference website after seeing one of their posters on the tube and decided to apply for this year's programme, not particularly expecting to get anywhere but at least it was worth a shot.

Within a few weeks of applying, BB found herself in the final group of eight individuals that have been given the opportunity to implement a project for their chosen charity, due to start at the end of September!

This is an amazing opportunity for all of the candidates but I know that BB is ecstatic about the opportunity to spend a whole year helping to change things for the better. At some point, she is expecting to write a blog to keep people informed and you can count on it being added to the Blog Roll box to the right here.

In the meantime, keep an eye out on the facebook pages for World of Difference and Little John's House to see how things are going.

Good luck to you all - you are an inspiration!!

Huh??

2010-07-30T19:41:00.002+01:00

Techies enjoy having a chuckle over some of the support stuff we have to handle from time to time but there are times that even we do things that would make any normal person think "Huh??".

Take, for example, the office I currently work in; an open plan area with a fair few people, all lined up in little rows which are generally grouped in the various teams. Why, then, would someone instant message a person at the very next desk instead of just talking to them???

Huh??

Okay, I could understand if it was meant to be reasonably private, but when the person sitting next to you messages you to ask if you can send them some files, it's a tad on the crazy side. Thankfully, there are only a small handful of people that do this ... though they're all on my row!

On Monday, however, they took things a stage further when one of them picked up the phone and actually rang someone sitting two desks away. That's about 8 feet.

He could have psssssst in his ear at that range!

Fad Attack

2010-07-24T00:27:00.005+01:00

I've never been one for jumping on the latest fad: the more people hype something up, the less I want to do with it, especially if it's all gloss and no substance. Like the iPhone or iPad. Or Dan Brown.

Instead, I've always had my own little ~~obsessions~~ fads.

In much the same way that women have a thing for shoes, handbags and anything that glitters, my thing is for jackets. Not including suits, I currently have eleven jackets. Yup, you read that right, eleven jackets, and at least two of these have yet to be worn beyond the occasional check to see if they still fit. Believe it or not, I did have more at one point, but there are only so many clothes I can fit in my wardrobe ... and on the sofa ... and the computer chair...

However, my obsession has been changing lately and my attention has now turned to hats. Other than my black Bench cap, I do not suit hats. At all. My head is an odd shape; in fact, think Phil Spencer and you won't be far off. And yet I have this compulsion to buy strange hats that I know will neither fit nor suit me, all starting with a cap and a hat I bought at the weekend from American Retro (neither of which are on their site): a black stingy spacecap and a black trilby!

The spacecap is fine and fits quite nicely, but a trilby?! What on earth possessed me?! I think I must have had a previous life in the early 20th century when all men wore hats, because I do think that they actually look smart, it's just a shame I can't carry them off.

Of course, with this being a new obsession, it hasn't stopped me from looking for more variations to wear on different occasions, which led me to the Urban Excess website and an order for another hat with some nice skate shoes. Okay, I'm no skater as I have all the balance and coordination of a drunk on a bull ride, but they will go quite nicely with my Crafted jeans, especially the red Vans.

[Update]
It seems I am more of a hourder than I thought: make that 15 jackets!!

It's All About The Face-Man

2010-07-16T22:21:00.001+01:00

I would be the first to admit that I don't get out much at weekends beyond a relaxing visit to the local coffee shop; not because I don't want to, but because I don't even think about it until I reach the weekend, by which time it's too late to get up to anything interesting.

Last weekend, however, was something of an altogether different beast.

A couple of weeks ago, I went to visit BikerBetty as I couldn't make it to her BBQ, and enjoyed the usual sociable visit with good food and curious chickens. Being quite an outgoing person, BB knows how to have fun and is responsible for opening my eyes to the world of studio audiences: we've had a few experiences there!

Invariably when we meet up - which isn't as often as it should be - one question has a tendency to crop up: "How would you like to...?"

On this occasion, the question was: "How would you like to see Dirk Benedict playing Columbo on stage?"

"Where and when?" I ask.

"Truro!" comes the reply.

That's not all that far, I thought, just a few miles down the road from my parent's place ... and when would I have the opportunity to see Starbuck / Templeton 'Faceman' Peck in person again? It will probably never happen, so how could I possibly say no?!?!

Except, of course, that I don't know my Truro from my Taunton and what I thought was just a few miles down the road was actually a fair bit further ... about 150 miles further!

View Larger Map

Still, there was something attractive in the utter randomness of heading to Cornwall to enjoy some theatre culture; that and there's a reputation for being a bit odd to uphold!!

So, with a brief stop-over at my parent's on the Friday night, we arrived in Truro with about three hours to spare, more than enough time to have a little trundle around. In fact, if we'd only had an hour to spare, there would still have been more than enough time: Truro didn't exactly have a lot going on beyond the obligatory Weatherspoons pub and a number of odd locals, so we holed up in a bar until it was time to head into the theatre.

Whilst I have known for a while that BB is a huuuuuge 80s fan, especially for the first Back to the Future film, it wasn't until the journey down that I discovered just how much of a geek fan she is for The A-Team: at the very least, it matched my geekiness at the peak of my Trekkie phase. That said, I don't remember playing Star Trek in the school playground...

By the time we went into the theatre, BB was hyped up at just being in the same building as 'Faceman' and had a grin plastered across her face like the Cheshire Cat from Alice; I half expected her to disappear and leave a giant grin floating over the chair next to me, whisper-squealing that her childhood heart-throb was right here in front of her.

As plays go, it was very enjoyable and, as you might expect, Dirk was most definitely the star; not just because of who he was but because he put on a very admirable performance as Columbo, as played by Peter Faulk. For me, the only thing that let it down were the scene changes, as they were far too long in order to shuffle the scenery around for the different locations. Unavoidable, I guess, as the set was very good, but it kept breaking up the rhythm of the production so it was a bit frustrating.

Once the play was finished, we quickly exited and made a beeline for ~~stalker's corner~~ the stage door, along with all the other number one fans, ready to meet the man himself.

I think they must plan what order they're going to come out in, as all of the other performers left the building first, leaving Dirk to meander out several minutes later to take all the attention. That must be really annoying for the other actors when they're performing with a cult figure, as they got pretty much no attention when they came out!

I must admit, I'm guilty of not approaching any of them ... but I didn't approach Dirk either, so I don't feel so bad. So, in a nod to everyone that was performing that night, here's a quick cast list:

Lieutenant Columbo : Dirk Benedict
Dr Roy Flemming : Patrick Ryecart
Claire Femming : Karen Drury
Susan Hudson : Elizabeth Lowe
Dave Gordon : Michael Shane
Miss Petrie : Karen Winchester
Delivery Man : Michael Lunney (also directed)

In case you are wondering, you did read that right: I did not approach Dirk Benedict. I drove 300 miles to see him on stage and here was an opportunity to actually speak to the man, and all I could do was stare at him like a rabbit caught in the headlights. However, seeing BB finally getting the chance to meet her heart-throb, have him sign her A-Team storybook and convince him that he really did want to have a photo taken with her (it took playing the London card to convince him!), I finally got a move on and took a pic with my own camera:

All I can say is, thank you, Dirk. You made BikerBetty's night and made sure I stayed awake for the drive home, as she chatted about it the whole journey!

We like happy friends :-)

I don't like Pussy

2010-07-08T00:20:00.000+01:00

It's not often that I head out anywhere during the week, but when Wazpot (don't ask!), wanted to get out of the house while her hubby watched the Germany - Spain match, I figured it would be good to head out for a wander.

Stopping off at the local off license for a few cans, we headed down to the river by the playing fields, as there were some horses down there that she wanted to go see. Unfortunately, we couldn't even get close to them as there was no way across the river, so we sat in the playing fields, which is where we cracked open our drinks.

Wazpot had tried to convince me to get a couple of cans of JD and coke but, as much as I like the drink normally, I'm not keen on the idea of having it from a can. So I decided to go for a soft drink...

Yes, you are reading that right, it really is called Pussy!

As a marketing ploy, the name definitely works. As a drink ... bleurgh!! I'd sooner suck the sweat from my socks after a run!!

Don't Panic!

2010-07-05T21:59:00.000+01:00

I could really do with my own Hitchhiker's Guide right now, to provide some useful tidbits of guidance as I move from work-life to student-life ... though the nearest thing to that at the moment would probably be an iPad with Wikipedia Mobile installed on it: just as informative but with all the presentation and flair of an MP.

Perhaps a Stephen Fry voice-over would go some way to perking it up a bit. Or an MP dosed up to the hilt on Pimms.

Since last Tuesday, when I actually succeeded in handing in my notice after weeks of dithering, I've had these little nagging thoughts at the back of my head as to how I'm going to survive. All those thoughts of not being able to get another job and how the bills are going to be paid, all jostling around in the background where I could ignore them until finally, during Friday night, they snuck into my dreams.

I don't know how many dreams I had, but the last one I remember was going back to a company I used to work for fifteen years ago and finding that it was still trundling along with the same old faces and a few new ones, but there were no positions for me to fill. They didn't even want a tea-boy and I make a mean cuppa ... and even better cakes!

Needless to say, I woke up Saturday in a bit of a panic.

In reality, it's not going to be a problem as the mortgage is low, all the loans can be paid off before Uni starts and goodness knows I can turn my hand to anything when the need arises ... assuming I can summon up some level of interest in it!

No, all things considered, it's not going to be a problem. Besides, I'd have far more to worry about if I were a sleep-walker...

Back in June, I went up to Scotland with a few of the family, to a place called Kinchellie Croft in Roy Bridge: a stunning area in the Highlands, north of Ben Nevis, where I developed the beginnings of my current strawberry-and-cream tan. Yes, a tan. In Scotland.

After a thirteen hour drive and not a lot of sleep, the first night there was guaranteed to be a good one. However, one thing I have found after having very little sleep (we're talking just a couple of hours in this case), is that I have an incredibly deep sleep accompanied by incredibly surreal dreams. And I do mean, surreal.

The dream was based around a production by the Centralian Players in which I had quite a big part to play. However, either there had been absolutely no time to rehearse or my mind had gone on a world cruise for the duration, as I had the script in front of me on opening night and it was like I was reading it for the first time. Panic stations!

All pretty straightforward, so far, but then this was when things started to get weird.

I don't know why I thought it, but I came to the conclusion that the 'family jewels' would bring me luck and, what the hell, they'll grow back ... at which point, I took a pair of scissors to them.

WTF?!?!?!

In one clean snip, I removed my precious bits from my body. No pain. No blood. Just a nicely sealed up wound as if I had always been gonad-less instead of mauled with a pair of kitchen scissors. I then proceeded to wander around, family jewels clutched in my hand as though they were the ultimate stress ball ... and other bits!

Admittedly, even in the dream, I was getting odd looks from everyone. Despite all this, I didn't have a problem because I was convinced they would grow back.

That is, until I looked in the mirror and saw the scar - a line that went from top-to-bottom of the groin area - and that's when real panic set in, not dream panic where you're stressing in the dream, but real panic that makes you wake up instantly in the absolute belief that everything you have just experienced was real.

Oooooooooh, the relief to find everything still intact!!!!

Grinny Pig

2010-07-02T19:03:00.000+01:00

In the immortal words of the legends that are The Pointer Sisters ... I'm so excited and I just can't hide it, I'm about to lose control and I think I like it!!!

As some of you may know from my previous post, a week last Thursday I submitted my application to UCAS for a place at the University of Hertfordshire. The course I have applied for is Computer Science (Artificial Intelligence) (BSc Honours) with the idea that it will provide me with an opportunity to move away from the development of dull business systems and into something far more interesting ... at least, that's the hope!

Yesterday, at 4pm, I had the offer letter of a position! I'm going to be a student!!

Of course, those of you that know me will notice that I left one teeny-weeny little word out of that sentence: "mature".

Whilst I can hope that this means the likes of "cultivated", "prime" and "seasoned", I think it's more likely to be interpreted as "old", "ripe" and "past it"!

As a generally nervous person anyway, this is by far the scariest thing I have ever done ... but at the same time, it's one of the most exciting and I can barely wipe the smile from my face :-)

Am I the rock that starts the avalanche...

2010-06-30T00:45:00.006+01:00

...or the spark that ignites the rocket?

Okay, a tad cryptic there but I'm sure you can work out that what is to follow on from today is either the start of everything going wrong or the start of a very exciting adventure ... I am REALLY hoping for the latter here!!!

For a few years now, I've been getting a bit antsy about working in IT, whether because of frustrating colleagues, irritating customers or incompatible tech, amongst other things. When we went through the TUPE transfer last September/October, I was offered what sounded like an amazing opportunity when compared to the cuts I would have to make if I stayed with my previous employer. Who would turn down such an opportunity???

For the cynics amongst you: congratulations, you are right. The amazing opportunity had all the substance of an air guitar and I have ended up essentially just doing support work on applications that are so badly coded they should be sent to bootcamp: the 'big project' I accepted the offer to do is so far out of my reach it would be sucked into a black hole before I got anywhere near it.

Up until now, I have been resigned to just ploughing on and seeing where things take me. However, as of last month I have decided to take a more active role in my own life* ... and last week, completed my UCAS application for University!

I haven't the foggiest idea when I will hear anything about a successful application or not but I would think that I could be looking to hear something by mid-August at the latest, which means only one thing: the three months notice I am contractually obliged to give has had to come into force...

HOE LEAF U-KINK RAP!!!

Oh and "Shhhhhhhhh!" - I haven't told the folks yet cos I know they'll worry and I'll just get nagged!!

* I've been more of a passenger so far, wondering where I will end up!

Down Time

2010-05-15T01:33:00.000+01:00

Going home at the end of the working day seems to be something that other people do.

It is rapidly approaching 8pm on a Friday night, by which time you guys will either be propping up bars or cuddling up on the sofa with something other than a hot cuppa ... and I'm still sitting in the office. Waiting. With a semi-hot cuppa. In a plastic cup.

So much for going on a training run tonight.

*sigh*

Ah well, since I have some down time, it's probably a good opportunity to ramble aimlessly through another post. If anything, I can at least take some joy in the fact that it will make my colleague have to stay longer than he wanted to, after just telling someone that I'm giving him a lift home ... and he hasn't even asked me if it's okay. Cheeky fecker.

Anyhoo, speaking of down time, last Sunday saw Pygmie and I back down at the bottom of Vobster Quay quarry, in water cold enough to instantly chill a six-pack ... and certainly a darn sight more than that if it hadn't been for the dry suits and insulation we were wearing!

After originally learning to dive in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt with Emperor Divers and being thoroughly impressed, the Sheffield company we used to get our Advanced Open Water was something of a disappointment, so I was wary of going to another UK establishment. I need not have worried!

It's been a long year since I last went diving and I have to confess that after the bad experience with the dive company based in Sheffield, my confidence took something of a knocking and I wasn't overly keen on going again. However, with Pygmie providing the much-needed boot in the derriere, we decided to add another speciality dive to our repertoire, the Dry Suit Diver Speciality.

The day started early with several rather rude awakenings from my phone, pre-7am - which is just not right for a Sunday - followed by a steaming shower to try and get the circulation going. We managed to get down to the quarry for around 8:15 am, despite Pygmie taking it easy round the lanes, so registered on the course and sorted out the kit I was hiring: an Oceanic neoprene dry suit, some expensive Fourth Element polar undergarmets, a ScubaPro BCD and a set of regs.

After going through the knowledge reviews, which I only managed to complete about 1am that morning, we went through the process of how to put on a dry suit and was introduced to an excellent addition to a diver's arsenal: Jollop.

The purpose of this product? Well, that all depends on your profession. Divers use it to lube their dry suit seals to make putting a suit on a lot easier. Apparently however, prior to this, it was more commonly used by Vets when artificially inseminating cows.

Yes, we prepared for the day's diving by spreading cow lube over us. Niiiiiice!

Then it was off to do the confined water dive to ensure we were properly weighted and to perform the required skills, all of which we'd done before but, as the first dive in a long time, I must admit I was rather tense and struggled a bit while it all came back to me: I had forgotten just how much energy was required for diving!!

With the confined dive and another briefing out of the way, it was time for the open water dives where we had to repeat the skills performed in the confined water dive and go for a general swim about. Despite a few little hiccups which I had but managed to sort out, we got through the dives with a minimum of fuss and dragged our collectively exhausted asses back to the classroom to finish off the paperwork, and make sure our logs were up-to-date.

Both Alex and Josh were friendly, knowledgeable, relaxed and supportive all the way through the course. The course itself was perfectly paced and nobody was rushed, instead progressing only when everyone in the group was ready. By the end of the course, I was feeling like I had at the end of the Open Water course in Egypt: relaxed and eager for more.

November's trip back to Sharm can't come soon enough :-)

B Right On

2010-04-29T23:53:00.002+01:00

After the events of last week and the rather late night at work on Friday*, I figured on pretty much sleeping the whole of last weekend. My body, on the other hand, had other ideas and decided to wake me at the unhealthy hour of 9:30am, my bladder nagging at me to shift my backside in the same way women nag their men: incessantly.

With my body still not quite in gear, I headed back to bed, scooping up my not-so-white-any-more MacBook on the way so I could log on to see who was online. Since it looked like the weather was going to be the best so far this year, it was time to make an effort to get out somewhere, even if I was supposed to be on call**. Luckily, my mate Foshie was online, in the middle of getting ready for heading down to Brighton and invited me along. Bingo!

Despite this being a great photo opportunity, I was really keen on just chilling out, so pocketed my funky little camcorder, the Sanyo Xacti VPC-CA9:

Photo from the VPC-CA9 product page on the Sanyo site.

I've had this for about a year now and have to confess that I haven't used it all that much, which is daft as it's a pretty good little camera; and yes, it is that wicked green colour!!

However, it remained in my pocket for the first few hours as we took in the seaside atmosphere with the variety of stalls, shops, live bands and activities all adding to the Brighton Buzz. By the time we'd reached the pier, I'd lost a few pounds (unfortunately, not in weight) and Foshie had sharpened his tongue on a few witticisms***, so it was time to head inland and look for a bite to eat.

Our trek through the town led us to The Lanes which had a great collection of shops, cafes and restaurants with some very original names, such as the fantastically-named, Wai Kika Moo Kau: that name still makes me smile :-)

My favourite though, had to be the Angel Food Bakery, the source of some pretty good appetite-filling, waist-expanding, button-popping, sugary goodness you've ever slipped your tongue across. Yum!!

Now, I seem to have built up a bit of a reputation in my little circle of friends as something of a master baker (at least, I think that's what they meant), having now made a bundle of cakes for people including a wedding cake, a 30th anniversary cake and my nephew's christening cake, so it's hard to go into a place like this and not be inspired. Needless to say, my fridge is now stocked up and ready for a bank holiday bake-off - which should give me something to do while we're all waiting for the sun to show itself :-)

Even though the cakes were not of the large muffin variety, just one was enough to fill the hunger hole ... so we had one more between us, just to be sure, and made our way back to the sea front to walk it all off.

After wandering the pier for the umpteenth time, the sun started heading towards the horizon so it was time to whip out my digital doobry and see what pics I could get...

I must admit, I was suitably surprised at what I was able to get out of the little cam and even more surprised that people have asked for larger versions so they can print them - a bit of an ego boost, that!!

Last weekend, life was good :-)

* Midnight finish, home by 1am. Not my choice. Not good.

** Thankfully, I wasn't called upon: I made the excuse to myself that the all-clear e-mail at 10:30 meant I didn't have to be available. Not sure how that would have gone down if it had come to it...

*** By far the best of which was "That's not a muffin top, that's a whole wedding cake!" I'll leave the imagery to you imagination!

Back to the Neoprene

2010-04-17T15:45:00.002+01:00

After the frustrations of work this week - and every other week since the beginning of March, if I were to be completely honest - taking Friday off for a day trip to London was a very much needed break.

This wasn't a spur-of-the-moment trip as I can do that any weekend. This was a trip with my cousin to the London Diving Chamber down at the Hospital of St John and St Elizabeth, St John's Wood, in order to undergo our Fit to Dive medicals as we both suffer with asthma, and ready for returning to diving this year along with an intended trip back to Sharm El Sheikh with Emperor Divers in October - Icelandic volcanic ash permitting! *

As per the medical back in 2008, it was a general discussion about our asthma and a few tests, such as spirometry tests, pee tests and nervous tests, the last of these being to ensure I have no problems with musculature control, not to see how I react to the doc shouting "Boo!" at me from various angles. In case you were wondering.

With the both of us being certified within an hour (certified Fit to Dive, I might add), and each wallet lighter by £60, we decided to head back to Embankment to try and locate Cameras Underwater, which was supposed to be in the Ocean Leisure store. Not being particularly familiar with London, despite the fact that I live on the outskirts and have travelled in on numerous occasions, my cousin had to whip out his funky-rubber-clad iPhone to try and find some directions for the place.

Whilst he fiddled with his tech, my instinct kicked in and I suggested we walk under the bridge and turn right, but he was still looking at his phone - so I wandered under the bridge and what do you know, Ocean Leisure!

iPhone 0 - OddThomas 1, me thinks :-)

Having not been diving for a year now, entering the store was like finding an old friend in a favourite toy shop and as the smell of neoprene hit me, I realised just how much I liked it: and anybody attaching sexual references to that comment needs their head checked ... I'm odd, but not that odd, thank you very much!!

After wandering the store, I found the one thing that I would love to get my hands on, the Ikelite underwater housing for the Canon 30D, but at £1200 the most I could do was stare at it longingly in it's glass case ... and then walking out before I found my bank account overdrawn. It's dangerous, this shopping lark.

Since we'd both taken the day off for the medical, we figured we might as well spend the day in London, so decided to make the most of it and pre-booked tickets at the IMAX to see the rather enjoyable How To Train Your Dragon. Okay, it's a kids film, but I'm definitely a kid at heart and love computer animated films so I was really looking forward to this.

For me, the only thing that let it down was that we were perhaps sat a little too low (row F), so if you didn't look at things immediately in front of you, you could see the stereoscopic image itself which sent my eyes funny and gave me a bit of a headache by the end of the film.

As for the film itself, it's one I'll definitely be getting on DVD when it is released :-)

* I've heard that this could impact flights intermittently for the next six months!

Run, Rabbit, Run

2010-04-12T00:51:00.002+01:00

When I first announced back in February that I had gotten through the general ballot for this year's Great North Run, the first question I was asked - with distinct undertones of irony - was when I would start training. Still bouyed by getting through the ballot and raring to go, my immediate response was, "Next month!"

Hmmmm. I guess the person who asked the question knows me better than I thought as the next month came and went in a bit of a blur and the most I was able to do was repeat, "Next month" to myself whenever I thought about starting.

Well, April is the next month and I finally took the opportunity provided by the Easter break to crack open the new Nike+ kit and don my rather grubby trainers* for the calibration run. I figured a nice one mile run followed by a 500 metre walk would sort the new kit out. Well, it did, but it nearly sorted me into the back of an ambulance at the same time.

It's been two years since I last ran anything more than a flight of stairs, so why I thought I could run a mile with any ease is beyond me. Whilst my legs seemed not to worry too much about the exercise, my chest and lungs were screaming to be set free from my chest: now I know how John Hurt would have felt had the chest-burster Alien been for real ... and I don't think the Ventolin would have been any help, either!

It didn't really bode well for getting off to a good start with the running, but at some point between the test run and my first proper run on Thursday, my body seemed to realise what I was trying to do - much like Paris Hilton finally catching on to a joke - and let me run nearly 3 miles in 26 minutes: I was well chuffed :-)

However, I'm now only a couple of runs into training and already the youth abuse has started with some young female thing shouting "Minger!" out of a car at me as she went past. Well, yes, and your point would be?

Then again, I was jogging along minding my own business and you were shouting abuse at a stranger, so who's the real minger here?

* * * * *

Something I have been meaning to do since the beginning of the year is step up the photography practice. To help me out, I agreed with TinkerbellTinks to take pics of her and her daughter, to try and build up my confidence and experience taking portrait photos.

As you might expect, it took a little while to get things off the ground but this weekend, we finally got together for a photo trip and popped up to Whipsnade Wildlife Park where we got a little more excitement than we bargained for:

Yup, the Wild Bite Cafe BBQ got a little on the hot side as something went wrong with one of the gas canisters and the whole thing caught light. The first we knew about it was one of the other mother's shouting to us to get back as the canister was alight and was going to explode. It didn't, thankfully. Of course, the only thing TT could think of was whether or not the firemen were cute. Typical woman!

* They still have South Shields mud stuck to them from the 2008 GNR!