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something for the weekend – interesting non work related posts
View of Lincoln Cathedral from the same spot on the same day. With and without mist. I pass the building every day one the way to and from work. The clear view was taken this evening and the misty one this morning. The photo doesn’t quite give you the right feel for how warm the evening is but I was wearing shorts which was somewhat of a gamble on my way in first thing.
Other travel features:
Picture of a rib joint of beef before it went into the oven. Today we are having the works: beef (medium to rare), roast spuds and parsnips, carrots & swede, cheesy leaks and I might pop out to get some French beans cos kid4 likes them. I also have some nice beef stock for gravy and a new jar of Dijon mustard. No horseradish sauce – I don’t do it. As a starter we are having smoked salmon then a lemon torte for pud though we might have that after the cheese as I’ve bought a nice cabernet sauvignon and I like to finish the bottle with some cheese, a la mode Francais.
I have of course rung my own mam for a chat. We had our Mother’s Day conversation last weekend. I sent her a card a week early – got the weekend wrong. It was ok. She also got the weekend wrong and had just opened the card before I called her. Now you know where I get it from:)
Nom nom…
Last week we reported the building of a terrific new woodstore as an amenity for the Davies household in Lincoln. Check out the amazing video here.
Well not all the wood is going to be allowed into the wood store. The smaller branches and rotting bits of old furniture ain’t gonna make it. Nosiree Bob1. Having bought a shiny new gas bbq last summer we no longer use our fire pit to cook food. In fact we haven’t used the gas job since last summer either but that is somewhat of a digression. What better use for a fire pit than to light fires? Eh?
This morning I rubbed two sticks together and got a blaze on the go. Been piling the condemned bits of wood on to the the point that the firepit is now full of ash and I’ll need to wait until another day to finish off the job. Will get some good potash for the plants out of it.
Just in case you ar wondering, and I know that statistically some of you will be woosses of a nervous disposition, it is all perfectly safe. I am on the committee of the local boys scout group and have watched how they light fires. At no point in time was the fire brigade likely to have been called for. After all it is Mother’s Day and firemen have mothers too you know. The last think they need is to be called out to a fire started by some idiot when they were supposed to be doing the roast potatoes.
That’s all for now. Got to take a shower to rid me of woodsmoke. Ciao amigos.
Other fire based posts:
Plough pub fires chef just before Christmas
Fireworks on bonfire night
Chromebooks, backups and crackling open fires
1Wossgoin on? Yesterday it was Franglais and today it’s Americun!
I’m not a lawyer. This is something of which I am proud. Nor am I a chartered accountant, this is something of which I am equally proud.
People that are in Regulatory Affairs (telecoms or otherwise) often individually present a real Heinz 57 of backgrounds, abilities and skills. As far as I am aware, no-one leaves school thinking “I want to be in Regulation!”. You sort of fall into it, from a carrier in the faculties of law, economics, accounting or the commercial arena – and have to be able to hold your own, at a high level, in all of them. In all cases, you need a desire and drive to get under the skin of the regulator and former incumbents alike; those that know me know I revel in this sort of protagonism.
Oh, and in case you’re wondering, I have an academic background in Finance and Management and a professional background in commercial affairs and compliance, hence my ultimate arrival in Regulatory Affairs. 18 year old Pete Farmer would’ve laughed if anyone suggested this is where I would end up.
So, this isn’t legal advice. It isn’t to be relied upon. It’s to be taken on an “as-is” basis as a way of stimulating debate and discussion around a subject of which I am as passionate about as annoying the Office of Communications; food.
Believe it or not, in my spare time I run a foodie
Yes folks it’s here. Le weekend. Don’t ask me why it is in French. I’m not aware of any particular French theme to this weekend. Not the 14th of July or anything like that and I don’t think this is one of the weekends the baggage handlers go on strike.
Nevertheless, French it is. Not the whole post. Some of you would have to refer to Google Translate to understand it (si ce n’est pas vous ignorez cette dernière phrase). Also my French is frozen in time in 1978 with a B at O’Level so I doubt I’d do the subject of le weekend any justice were it written in that language. Think of the problems Google Translate would have understanding it.
In fact the whole opening section of this post is misleading. Yes the post has been written
As I’ve written previously, I only ended up entering the Lincoln 10K as the route goes through one of the grids from The Lincoln A to Z map, which is due to the overly convoluted radio program I present. Each episode is constructed from what we find in a randomly selected grid square. The route of the Lincoln 10K goes through this grid three times, so I’ll be running through the grid describing the scenes and my feelings and Jonny, the programs producer, has elected that he will describe events from the spectators point of view.
So far we have completed 30 of the 52 grids, which the esteemed Trefor Davies also contributes his glorious verbal dexterity to. The program has given me a different way of viewing the city. As I ride on the cycle path, past the ‘only just out of town’ retail park, I remember the miserable, drizzly morning we spent trying not to moan too much about our consumer driven concrete surroundings.
Lincoln being the place I have spent most of my life has personal memories scattered all over its landscape. One grid stands out though, the grid where, with my family, we watched the Olympic flame being passed from one of the torch bearers to another. I’ll never forget the look on that mans face as he received the flame, its was a ‘lottery win plus your team beating your nearest rivals 5 – 0 multiplied by the birth of your children’ kind of look, one that illustrated joy, excitement and emotion. I’m please I wasn’t one of the many experiencing this moment by looking through a smartphone, its burnt onto my memory banks and from that moment on, the Olympics transformed from being the usual British pavement looking attitude to seeing just how high we could soar.
When we revisited that grid for the program, Jonny and I asked the question “Has the legacy of that incredible few weeks lived on?”
If the Olympics was like a euphoric time when you and your friends went on a bender and beat the night, the word ‘legacy’ had just about sounded out of the closing ceremony when the inevitable hangover over of the sports funding cuts hit. The highfalutin sports – sailing and equestrian faded back out of the grasps of the underclass and you could almost hear the water being drained out of swimming pools when British swimmers didn’t reap success at the following world championships. Just lately, The Royal Mail had a PR disaster when they didn’t reward our successful Winter Olympians and Paralympians with a gold post box. The legacy it seems isn’t worth the price of a pot of gold paint.
The good news is that 2 days before the Lincoln 10K we get to see the inspirational Winter Paralympic athlete Jade Etherington take part in an open top bus parade. The tour will also take in schools the day before the pupils take part in road races too. Huge congratulations to Jade and lets hope we can relive a little of that magic time and inspire the Lincoln 10k runners.
Paul Tyler presents Lincoln A to Z on Siren FM
@lincolnatoz
Le wood store est fini, as they say in Cannes. It’s the sort of thing they drop into dinner table conversation at A List get-togethers on the Riviera. It’s a while since I’ve been. What with not owning a villa in the South of France and all.
In Cannes they would be talking about the fact that Jean Claude1 has finished the job. He is a treasure. You didn’t think they did it themselves do you? Plays havoc with your hands. Anyway it’s about having the time to do it, and the inclination.
Here in Lincoln it’s a different game. We build wood stores ourselves in Lincoln. It’s a matter of pride. Mind you no point in rushing it. It’s a job that has been needing doing for years. These things need careful consideration. Planning is all important. My mate Terry has been doing his bathroom for the last 25 years. Rush a job and do it twice, as the old saying goes.
The wood store is now finished, though the wood has not all been moved into the protection of its confines. That could be
Spotted these speakers in Currys audio department yesterday. They had “do not count” written on a label on top of each one. I therefore counted them. Don’t think anyone spotted me. The moment was captured on video and is now on YouTube for all to see. I’m a rebel, me.
Other weekend reads:
I was sat one Friday night in the packed snug of the Victoria pub1 on Union Road and the conversation somehow came to the subject of allotments. Turned out pretty much everyone in the room had an allotment! It may be that real ale pubs attract a certain type. I doubt the same would have been true for Walkabout or any of the other trendy pubs in town.
We gave up our allotment a few years ago. It was handily placed just over our back fence but it at 60m x 10m it was too big and with four kids could never find the time to work it. The plot has now been spit in two and is properly tended to as it rightfully deserves.
This morning I was up early to set kid4 off on his travels to Sutton Bridge for a hockey tournament (90mins drive away) followed by a football match this pm in Burgh Le Marsh (also a long distance). At 7.30 am the scene outside the landing window was almost autumnal. There had been a lot of rain overnight but with the deciduous trees overhanging the garden not yet in leaf one sensed an absence of spring freshness that makes this the best of seasons.
Over in the allotments a couple of people were already up and at it. Wow. That is commitment. They will reap the benefit later in the year. All credit to them2. I took a photo. You can just about make out one of the men – clicking on the pic brings up the full size version.
This morning I’m finishing the building of my woodstore. A rudimentary construction but hopefully one that will do the job. Fotos will be phurnished.
Other agriculture related posts:
50 mighty quadtracs all in a row
Lincolnshire pea crop – feeding the nation
Tom Wood beer and wooden biros
1 Everyone moved from the Victoria to the Strugglers when one Friday evening they put the price of a pint of bitter up by 30 pence in between rounds!!!
2 I don’t like sprouts anyway!
This sign, on the pedestrian crossing near my house, is on red. Red means do not cross. It could be unsafe as there might be traffic coming that could hurt you. Badly.
When the sign turns green it is safe to proceed as any cars should have stopped to let you cross. Usually there is a beeping noise when the sign is green which makes you want to hurry across.
Sometimes if they think there are no cars coming people are tempted to cross when the sign is on red. This is a personal decision. No responsibility is accepted here if you are run over.
Occasionally people press the button and cross before the sign has changed to green. This tends to annoy drivers who may find themselves sat there waiting when there do not appear to be any pedestrians wanting to cross. Most of us will be guilty of this. Ah well.
Green shoots, hope, optimism, anticipation, certainty, confidence, elation, enthusiasm, expectation, happiness, idealism, trust, assurance, brightness, buoyancy, calmness, cheer, cheerfulness, easiness, encouragement, exhilaration, positivism, sureness, good cheer, looking on bright side
More good reads:
Lunberjack weekend special & trailer maintenance tips
Should badgers get the vote and other jolly wheezes
Latest photo in the series #plaques passed on the way to work. This one is to be found at the bottom of Steep Hill in Lincoln.
Photographed in train loo between Manchester Piccadilly and Sheffield en route home from 4G panel at Convergence Summit North. Not in perfect focus as train wouldn’t stop shaking:)
More bog tales:
The radio program I present, Lincoln A to Z, is formulated by 52 randomly selected grids from the Lincoln A to Z map. We have a basic structure, but the tone and timbre of each program is guided by the contents of the grid. Out of the 30 programs we’ve made so far, its fair to say that a couple have left my producer and I scratching our heads and wondering what went wrong. By no means are these programs terrible, they just didn’t flow or turn out how we planned.
OK, one was particularly terrible, but once the program was over we retired to the office (pub) to discuss how to improve and avoid making the same mistakes again.
During a period of training, at least one run will be atrocious. It can be the simplest thing that knocks you, a stitch, traffic lights or tripping over a dog. Its frustrating at the time, feelings of failure kick in, heightened by the fact that you are out of breath. But I know that like the occasional below par radio programs (you try making an hour and a half radio program about a bungalow heavy street in suburbia), I know that its not the end of the world and that rather than it be a failure, it is in fact these hiccups that make you better in the long run.
The internet, bless it, is full of annoyingly positive statements like this:
Tomova Yoshida from JPNAP is a globe trotting musician cum IXP engineer. He entertained us all in Helsinki with impromptu Beatles renditions on the grand piano at the 23rd Euro-IX Forum social night. At the 24th Forum he stepped up a gear.
OK he accompanied the Euro-IX drunks choir on the piano. But he did a lot more than that. Leeds Town Hall, the venue for this week’s social, has one humongous organ. “It is the most magnificent organ I’ve ever seen” one attendee was heard to say. Well I have to agree with her.
The images below are of the choir in action around Tomo, sat at the piano, the view of the hall and dinner from a seat in front of the organ pipes, the view of the organ itself from the back of the hall and of me in my standard issue Yorkshire flat cap with John Souter of LINX and Melanie Kempf of DE-CIX.
Finally at the end of this post is a short video of Tomo playing the organ so that you can appreciate the sound. Magnificent it was 🙂
Other peering week posts you might like to read include:
UK internet history – The Early Days of LONAP by Raza Rizvi
INEX’s IXP Manager – Tools to help manage an Internet Exchange by Barry O’Donovan
Regional Peering in the UK by James Blessing
Co-operation makes internet exchanges future proof by Pauline Hartsuiker
Experience of launching an IXP in North America by Ben Hedges
The evolution of an IXP network engineer by Rob Lister
Why does Scotland need an Internet Exchange? by Charlie Boisseau
Satellite image of a bald patch. This is an anonymous bald patch photographed by a passing spy satellite en route to a help search for flight MH370 missing in the Indian Ocean. GPS coordinates suggest the person in the photo was in the Leeds area at the time although no information is available about his identity.
Speculation abounds concerning whether the bald patch was at the 24th Euro-IX Forum at AQLs Salem datacentre though there is no hard evidence to support this. We shall probably never find out who’s bald patch this is.
Amazing what technology can do now innit?
Photo courtesy of Edward Snowden.
Other Peering Week posts on trefor.net include:
UK internet history – The Early Days of LONAP by Raza Rizvi
INEX’s IXP Manager – Tools to help manage an Internet Exchange by Barry O’Donovan
Regional Peering in the UK by James Blessing
You can tell when it’s time for a coffee break at a conference. My attention starts to wander and to wake meself up I take to posting unusual or unexpected things.
Because it is Peeing Peering Week on trefor.net I thought it highly appropriate to put up this picture of a very fine cistern in the gents toilet. If you click on the photo you also get to see some excellent copper pipework that delivers the contents of the cistern to the urinals below.
For the avoidance of doubt there was nobody else around in the toilet at the time. That would have been a little on the dodgy side.
The second pic is simply the plaque outside the AQL datacentre. It is self explanatory. And finally there is one of me in front of a green screen. No idea why the green screen was there. I could have gone to the effort of putting up an electronic backdrop but the only one I could find was of Leeds and I could have just gone outside and taken that photo.
Other Peering Week posts on trefor.net include:
UK internet history – The Early Days of LONAP by Raza Rizvi
INEX’s IXP Manager – Tools to help manage an Internet Exchange by Barry O’Donovan
Regional Peering in the UK by James Blessing
More toilet posts:
We at trefor.net are looking for our first member of editorial staff.
trefor.net has been going since May 2008 as a personal blog with opinion pieces covering emerging technologies and platforms. The site is now widely read by people working in the internet technology related industries both in the UK and overseas.
At the beginning of 2014 trefor.net became an independent business and we already have our first developer on board. The ambitions of the company are to grow to become the premier site for comment and information on tech matters in the UK and to extend its reach in other regions.
The site, whilst covering a range of tech areas such as Cloud, Unified Communications, Mobile and Networks also has threads that are of specific interest to Engineers, Business and End Users. The type of content we are looking to provide ranges from deep diving technology subjects, largely expected to come from expert guest authors to coverage of peoples experiences in using these technologies.
We are now looking for a journo to become our first editorial member of staff. You should have a minimum of two years experience of writing for the tech sector and will ideally be based in the London travel to work area although we will also consider candidates wishing to work out of the Lincoln office. The flexibility to write on any tech subject is important as is an understanding of how web publishing works and the general principles of SEO. This is not a 9 – 5 job and although as the business grows there will be deadlines related to specific “focus weeks” this is an ongoing online business. You have something to write? jfdi.
Initial salary on offer is £20k – £25k depending on experience plus an uncapped year end bonus related to company profitability. There is also a budget to cover the acquisition of additional content where it can help to boost visitor numbers for specific keywords.
Drop us a line with your pitch and links to your published work. The right candidate can start as soon as possible. trefor.net is a business that has attitude. The bland need not apply.
It’s traditional for me to start wearing shorts as soon as the clocks go forward in the spring. The British summer is not very long and you have to cram in as many summery activities as you can in a short space of time. The clocks don’t go back until next weekend but today is such a nice sunny one that I have donned said shorts.
I have a regular routine when I put a pair of shorts on for the first time in the year and that is the “now where did I put the shorts away for winter” routine. There’s also the “hmm do I actually have any shorts left from last year” thought that goes through my head. Summer does inflict wear and tear on a pair of shorts, especially when tightening waistbands are involved. The consequence of a barbeque culture.
Fortunately over the last couple of years I’ve been able to pull in 4 notches on the belt so I’m working my way back through some older pairs of shorts. Not quite at the lissome “take a look at my sixpack” stage yet which will be the point at which I treat myself to some new and cool gear. Don’t expect anything soon:)
If this weather continues into next week I’m also thinking of bringing the bbq out of deep hibernation. It’s a Weber 3 jet gas job. There are some purists who won’t touch gas but in my experience it’s far more reliable and the food tastes the same. Less likely to be burnt if anything. By havign a gas bbq we also have more meals cooked outside. Anne likes to know when the kids are going to be fed and the process of lighting a charcoal bbq is very hit and miss where timing is concerned.
Ciao Amigo!
Read a post with a picture of a fire pit in it here.
All week you’ve been sat in that office in your grey suit, stripy tie dangling from your white collar bound neck, shackled to your desk by the oppressive chains of conformity. Bowler hats may no longer be the mode but routine still binds. The 7.25 to Waterloo is still the 7.25 to Waterloo. There are leaves on the line and signal failures at Clapham Junction remain a blight on your ever lengthening commuter day.
The weekend is here. The suit now hangs safely out of sight in the wardrobe and the pair of jeans has made it out of the drawer for its weekly outing. It is spring in the Kingdom of Elizabeth II. The cherry blossom is out and it is time to add some colour to your drab and uneventful life1.
The time has come to break free.
I once had an idea for a radio program based on Top 10 Lists. I shared this idea with a very talented and occasionally furious radio producer, who informed me that “Lists are what people produce when they run out of ideas”.
So with that in mind here’s a list of my bad running habits.
On the way from Lincoln to Manchester yesterday for the Convergence Summit I changed trains at Sheffield. A man got on and sat opposite me.
The bloke looked a bit stressed. He was dark haired with a little beard and wore a shawl around his shoulders that gave away the fact that he was from somewhere in the Middle East.
He was continuously on the phone and regularly frowned at his iPhone when the signal kept disappearing. We are on a train I thought to myself! The signal is going to be crap!
The person at the other end kept ringing him back but then seemed to give up. We were through tunnels and out into the Pennines.
Turns out he wasn’t carrying a ticket. The conductor came along and charged him £25 to get to Manchester Airport. The return was about £34. He considered it but decided only to go for the single. Seemed like a good saving to me. He was clearly planning on coming back otherwise he wouldn’t have asked how much the return would be. Nowt as queer as folk.
As we approached Manchester his phone started to work again and I began to pick up snippets as he occasionally lapsed from Arabic into English. The conversation went like this:
“if …….. my life is finished. I will call you. I will call you. I will try and cross the border. Turkey… Syria.”
Wow. No wonder this guy looked stressed. He was on his way to Turkey and then trying to cross the border into Syria. There’s a big untold story behind those few words. Something we only ever see on the news played out in front of me on the train.
The train arrived at Manchester Piccadilly and I got off. I wish him luck…
More train posts:
Took me an hour and a half to walk to work yesterday whereas it normally takes around 30 mins. Only kidding. Forgot to switch off Runkeeper:) The app seems to be intelligent enough to realise that I’d arrived and was just making a cup of tea, writing blog posts etc.
The other by product of walking to and from work, apart from inducing amnesia, is that it makes your glasses steam up when you get home. Last night I walked in to a warm kitchen and was blinded by the heat. See the header photo. It must be so.
I’m used to it. When I’m in the pool of a morning I usually have to ask an attendant what time it is despite there being a big clock on the wall. There is no point asking any of the other swimmers. After 8am they are all of an age and suffer from the same problem.
That’s all. See you later.
Other good reads
Working Time
Internet routing pedestrian style
Trafalgar Square has a spare plinth. So has my phone, since I ditched the Facebook app.
They let different people exhibit on the spare plinth in Trafalgar Square.
I’m proposing to do the same. Of course not as many people will see whatever is exhibited in my spare spot, perhaps.
You will note that there is no email icon on the front screen. Dont bother suggesting it. Email is relegated to the second division as a means of communication. It’s on the next screen along.
I don’t regularly use all of the apps on the front screen. Mostly Chrome, Camera, Twitter, Phone, Calendar and LinkedIn.
The others are pretty much ad hoc. I only occasionally need the alarm clock. The idea for this post came to me in bed so I drafted a post, title only, using the WordPress app. Oh and I use Runkeeper every day I am in the office.
So there you go. I wonder which app I should display on my spare plinth!?
More good reads:
Facebook intrusion continues with App upgrade
51 years old and still single? Yes and no Facebook.
Choosing the stone for the new Eleanor Cross for Lincoln project at the CDS quarry in Metheringham Heath.
Last week we covered the launch event for the new Eleanor Cross project for Lincoln. It’s been quite a wait to get the right piece of rock to start carving the statue. The quarry is only digging out new rock on a few days a month and often the pieces that come out are not of a suitable size or shape.
Moreover whilst the giant digging equipment that is occasionally brought can handle them the larger “lumps” are difficult to move using the quarry’s onsite kit and have to be carefully drilled to facilitate cutting into manageable sizes.
This first candidate on the right had already been moved into the main quarry working area. It might
Our first ever program on Siren FM was called The Reading Room, it went against the grain in trying to make a radio program about books and creative writing that was accessible – no oxbridge language here, I worked in a factory and read popular fiction. Lots of my colleagues read popular fiction too. So we made a program to appeal to them. It achieved some success that I wont embarrass you with now.
In our current program, Lincoln A to Z, we’ve acknowledged one of the few rules that Siren FM insist on – that every live program should have some ‘What’s On’ listings. We’ve gone about this a little differently too. We call it ‘City / Suburbs’, Jonny the programs esteemed producer, who lives in and loves the city, reads out the events that he fancies going to himself, and I a recent resident of the suburbs gives a largely fictional account of my slow acclimatisation to that way of life. One act of rebellion I regularly take part in is
Was at the trefor.net Exec Dinner on Tuesday night. Great time, as usual. If you’ve never been you want to think about coming.
We had one female attendee, Sally Fuller who is Director of Products at KCOM and a top industry person. Now when I meet a woman for the first time I usually shake their hand but if I’ve met them a few times and am starting to get to know them it’s usually a peck on the cheek.
The problem is sometimes a girl will expect one peck but sometimes two – one on each cheek. Being from the shires I’m not totally sure of the etiquette here. It doesn’t seem to be based on how well you know them. It might be a north south thing1.
Readers of this blog would probably like to know the answer. It’s been quite some time since some engineers have even seen a girl. I’m not counting the one that works at the kebab shop. As they work their way up the technical ladder and perhaps one day even make it to an Exec Dinner the aspiring engineer will need to larn.
Help 🙂
1 actually in some parts of the north it’s just a full on smack on the lips – ya southern woossies :))