A Rainy Day

Bar Room Bar new uniform

2011-04-05T19:24:00.001+01:00

Rather them than me

2011-02-22T11:00:00.002Z

Getting paid to do what others spend their weekends doing

After work

2011-02-10T18:50:00.001Z

What better than a cocktail and some food at Bar Room Bar

British Drivers

2011-02-10T17:37:00.000Z

I've come to the conclusion that not only have most british drivers not taken a driving test, they haven't a clue as to what a test is. They sit in a car with various buttons and levers which are beyond them and just 'push the pedal to the metal'.
The concept of informing other drivers what they are doing is totally alien, as is that of following simple instructions from roadside signals.

Leading in and out of Birmingham (UK) there is a short stretch of rad at motorway standard which has a 'tdal flow'. The idea is simple. Sometimes there are 3 lanes in each direction, sometimes 2 in and 4 out or vice-versa, all controlled by overhead lights. There is always a dead lane in-between to separate traffic approaching each other at up to 100 mph (or more if speed limits are ignored0. Regularly in this 'BMW lane' (think about it) drivers enter and just drive. How it that we haven't had a major Incident I don't know - but it will make one HELL of a mess!!

Train announcements really wind me up

2011-02-09T13:35:00.000Z

I use the local UK train service every day to get to and from work. One thing that gets under my skin more and more is the on-train announcement:
"The next station stop will be the xxxxxx station......."
This is nearly always after the front of the train is well in to the platform of the station being announced.
Should it not be "The train is just arriving at xxxxx station ......" or even "... has just arrived at ...."

Test

2011-02-09T03:43:00.001Z

Lights on the canal

2011-02-09T03:27:00.000Z

After Earth: Introduction

2009-01-07T14:34:00.000Z

After Earth: Introduction

The 10th Kingdom

2006-12-30T04:39:00.000Z

Some time ago, whilst I was at work, my wife and son discovered a miniseries on TV. They told me about it and it sounded interesting.

It brought all the elements of fairy stories together and bound it up with the modern world. A waitress and her father get taken into a world where fairy tales are true history when three trolls come through into our world through a mirror whilst chasing a prince who had been turned into a golden retriever.

The story follows the adventures of the waitress and her father as they try to find the way back to their own world.

This Christmas Sky 3 repeated the showing of The 10th. Kingdom in 10 episodes. I found it to be the best TV over the whole Chistmas 2006 season.

If anyone hasn't seen it yet then get hold of a copy it is definitely worth it! The characters are believable even in a fantasy setting and they are both written and played such that you care what happens to them - I love the Wolfs characterisation, Scott Cohen should have had an award for his performance. Whilst the many top names shine bright, he easily outshines them all.

Seasonal Message

2006-12-30T03:22:00.000Z

A quick note to all visitors: It's a bit late to say Merry Christmas, but a Happy New Year to all who come!

Fireworks

2006-12-18T09:29:00.000Z

When I was young, I used to look forward each year to the one short time during which my dad had fireworks in the back garden.
Since the year 2000 fireworks are spread all through the year and there's nothing special anymore. The fireworks aren’t so 'pretty' to look at, merely noisy - the bigger the bang the better seems the concept of the day.
The trouble is now it seems we are living in a war zone. With the increasing size of the fireworks I fear for all our safety the small gardens in modern houses are not suited to such large explosions
We have already this year had a firework warehouse go up in flames - it was in the middle of a residential area and burning for days and firemen were hurt trying to put it out
Each year bonfires have been places in such a position as to endanger the overhead power lines [I used to work for the local power company].
Where is it going to end? How many people does it take to die before something is done?

Post & Mail

2006-12-12T11:04:00.000Z

I don't know what the rest of the world is like, but we seem to be suffering an affliction here in the UK. getting a letter or package transported from one part of the country to another is a chore.

In our street after the postman [mailman] has been, the neighbours are quite often seen going from house to house taking post to the correct recipient. Yesterday our postman was apparently seen walking up the road taling on his mobile phone [cellphone] grabbing letters out of his bag and just shoving them through a door - we had letters for 2 other houses, not unusual.

If a parcel is expected, the carriers seem totally incapable of declaring when a parcel will be delivered to a residential address. I'm sending packages and parcels at work as a document controller and I'm able to requst delivery at a certain time but the only thing I can guarentee at home is that it's 1 minute after my wife and I drive away that the parcel van arrives - I'm sure he'd been hiding around the corner for an hour and a half waiting for us to go!

My moans are down to my wife ordering some books which are being delivered one by one. We recieved two yesterday in two separate packages. One was jammed hard in the letterbox [book inside was bent and damaged] the other was left outside the door. The weather was very wet yesterday and my wife was inside the house waiting for the delivery! I don't think we'll ever win.

Anyone abroad [from UK] who has a few minutes drop us a line and tell us what your experiences are.

Wikidot

2006-12-07T10:25:00.000Z

Bouquet time.

Following various searches the other day I had cause to go to the Wikidot website. Try as I might, I cannot fault what I found. If you want a website for nothing - be it an 'ordinary website', a forum what ever you want, as long as you can follow how to edit a wiki - easy - then a website is there waiting for you.

I have nothing to gain here. I'm not involved nor is anyone I know - I'm totally independant. My son was asking a while ago where he could create a website, yesterday I pointed him to here. How you'd get on with search engines I don't know, but I don't see that there should be a problem.

The whole site appears configurable you just have to accept small amount of advertising at the bottom. I've not seen any advertising yet.[David's World]

Try it. If it doesn't come up to expectations, give me a call. If it does tell me all about the sebsite that you,ve created.

Paperless Office

2006-12-06T10:58:00.000Z

A few years ago the concept of a paperless office was proposed. Trees the world around breathed a sigh of relief.

It seems to me that the relief felt by the trees was more than a little misplaced. I work in such an office and the amount of paper not only being used but also wasted is getting to be phenominally mountainous. We send emails and both sender and recipient print off a copy 'just in case'. Documents are drafted and re-drafted etc. and prints taken at each stage.

I see litterally reams of paper being delivered each week and disappearing. There are recycling bins which are filled to overflowing on a regular basis but the general waste bins are also filled daily.

This is one office. Multiply this by the number of offices that there are especially those without recycling wheely-bins and add to that the amount of waste strewn around the streets not just I should imagine in the UK but other countries as well and it's a wonder that there any trees left in the world.

Morning Commute in UK

2006-12-04T10:13:00.000Z

So much for the great British 'Reserve'.

It's not just the young that we have to fear these days on the trains and buses in England. A typical commuting morning on the train near Birmingham this morning proved that. As a result of 1 train leaving early and the next train being cancelled at the last moment - no reason given (how surprising!), the train which eventually arrived was a short train ( 3 carriages instead of 6) and as a result was to say the least very crowded.

Most of the carriage I was in (and from later conversations with others so were the other two) were like cattle trucks - except that you wouldn't allow cattle to be put in such crowded conditions as they would be too traumatised. One woman deceided that she wanted plenty of elbow room to read her free Metro newspaper. She was asked to move down to make room for other passengers but refused. A shouting match ensued and I was a little concerned that a physical fight might start up. Thankfully all parties ended the journey glowering at each other and probably simmering the rest of the day. All three were middle-aged so its not just the kids who are trouble makers.

I love travelling by train these days - NOT!

Me moaning / Me happy

2006-11-20T15:57:00.000Z

I know that I originally set this up to issue bouquets and brickbats to various websites that I surf to, I'm starting the new blogger beta with both a moan and statement of joy.
As I've been so bury drowning in paper recently I've been unable to surf and had little time to log on to Blogger. So it was with some surprise to log on and to be invited to change over to blogger beta. Anyone out there reading this who want to start a Blog themselves could do a lot worse than to log on to 'http://beta.blogger.com/' and to register for themselves.
Moaning! well it's just a typical english reaction to our local Weather!. I was hot yesterday so deceided to open the kitchen window to cool down the house. Within seconds windstorms started and blew all our plants off the kitchen windowsill onto the floor - resulting in an hours work cleaning up soil off the work surface and floor and throwing away the coffee I'd just made for my wife and myself. Todat as my son and I walked through the front door to drive to the station to go to work and college the heavens opened and the heaviest rain for some time fell upon us. By the time I'd got to our city centre the sun was out and all I could see was glorious weather until now I'm about to go home and to say the least it's getting black in the sky again.
All you guys outside the UK might now see why we're obsessed with the stuff.
Anyway back to the surfing. A site found by accident by my wife yesterday. Entertainment 9/10 Navigation 9/10 Sheer joy value 10/10 - try it and you'll see what I mean. Great if you work in an office and you get a few minutes of boredom or you are waiting [typical executive toy type of site but fun for all. Click on http://pi.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/snow.html

New blog a new post a new day

2006-06-04T22:09:00.000+01:00

As it has been so long since I updated this blog, I've deceided that now I'm moving it to my own server, I'll reset all the postings and start again from scratch and try to be a bit more regular from now on!
Dave