Category: Weekend

something for the weekend – interesting non work related posts

James May Meccano Bike

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Saturday, 12 July, 2014

James May Meccano bike in the back of a van in Skegness – surreal!

The Meccano bike as constructed by James May was of particular interest to me. I grew up on the Isle of Man and May rode his Meccano Bike around the TT Course.

We sat as a family watching the TV programme. We always do when there is a prog about the Isle of Man. Early on James May was stood over the road from the house of an old school chum of mine Paul Shimmin, near the bottom of Bray Hill. You could see Paul’s motorbike in his front drive.

Almost every kid in our class had a bike, except for me. I thought it was far too dangerous. In the IoM you can start driving at 16 and in the sixth form we would shoot off along the TT course on Fridays for lunch in the Creg Ny Baa pub. There was no such thing as asking for ID in those days.

Anyway there i was walking along the prom in Skegness, past the Embassy Theatre and there was this white van with the back doors open. I glanced inside and knock me down with a thirty pound sledge hammer if inside the van wasn’t James May’s meccano bike.

It was one of those surreal moments. Totally unexpected. Of course apart from taking a couple of pics what is there to do? I exchanged a couple of words with the guys loading it into the van. The meccano bike had been on display at the theatre and was now being taken back to the Beaulieu Motor Museum.

I was in Skegness to watch The Pylons. They are a terrific band made up of five teenage kids and were playing the first of four Festivals this summer. Check out and “like” their Facebook page here. On Sunday it was the SO Festival with the BBC. The five kids in this band all play multiple instruments and show amazing promise. Buy their first EP “The Sun” available at all major online music platforms.

I’ll leave you with few more sights from Skegness on Sunday.

The Pylons at SO Festival Skegness — The Pylons

empty prom shelter Skegness — empty shelter on Skegness Prom

ten pin bowling Skegness — Skegness Ten Pin Bowling

jolly fisherman Skegness — Skegness Jolly Fisherman

stack of deck chairs Skegness — deck chairs in front of the SO Festival stage

wild river log flume skegness — Wild River log flume

clock tower & chippy Skegness — Clock Tower and chippy

Geo Restriction Means a Pirate’s Life for Me…

Post author By James Blessing
Post date Friday, 11 July, 2014
No Comments on Geo Restriction Means a Pirate’s Life for Me…

Accessing the whole of creation…what is available in my “region” of it, that is.

A regular contributor to trefor.net, we are as always pleased to present insight from James Blessing, the current Chair of the Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) UK.

Once upon a time in the west, a man sat and contemplated the state of the world and the marvels that now existed upon his doorstep. With a simple gesture he could now access the whole of creation, every song that’s ever been sung, every work of art painted or love poem written in a moment of teenage angst. And the cats, don’t forget the cats…

Maybe that’s the future, it’s almost the now, but there is a problem that means that “every” gets dropped on the floor and is replaced with the slightly less poetic “everything that we could managed to get the licensing conditions approved for in your country right now, but maybe not next week” and that problems is lawyers.

When I started to think about this article I was going to focus on the benefits of the Internet and broadband, and then I tried to watch a clip from the late show…and then I changed tack. This isn’t the first time — and it won’t be the last — when content isn’t available in my “region”, where geo restriction has reared its head and made it so that if I want to watch content I have to either fire up a VPN to the “right region” and watch the content from there, or I will have to head over to a friendly Pirate resource and unleash a p2p application. Do you want to know the worst bit about this? The content was being pushed to me by the DailyShow itself.

And it gets worse. Wil Wheaton has written a blog about this very topic, in fact, as he’s seeing an ever increasing number of people using bittorrent to download his new show, and he is worried that if it continues the show won’t be renewed. It even pushed me into writing a quick email to Syfy UK (the network that produces the show in the US), but even they can’t get the show:

“We instigated proceedings to acquire the UK rights, but a number of legal complications surrounding differences in UK and US clip clearance legislation, have unfortunately prevented us from doing so.“

Now here is something that needs fixing. I have no “magic bullet” solution, as there are too many vested interests that won’t have a sensible conversation unless someone waves a stick at them and the politicians seem to be too scared of big media to unleash their sticks. There is an election next year, though, and it sure would be nice if one (or all) of the parties could commit to making an effort to resolve this issue…your local MP could be an excellent place to start!

Editorial note – check out our new site – BroadbandRating.

broadband End User fun stuff

Isaac Newton woz ere but no superfast broadband in Grantham

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Thursday, 10 July, 2014

isaac newton and superfast broadband in grantham

Isaac Newton woz ere, according to the plaque on the wall but no superfast broadband in Granthan

I was picking up Kid3 from a gig in Grantham’s St Wulfram’s Church last weekend. Nice enough gaff as churches go, if you like that sort of thing. Kid3 plays in the Lincolnshire County Orchestra – it has a name but that eludes me as I write as it has changed over the years. Before picking him up I hung around the graveyard for a bit, as you do and couldn’t fail to notice a plaque on the wall opposite.

It read “In this hall of the King’s School Isaac Newton was taught 1654 – 1660. This plaque was set up to mark the tercentenary of the visit of the Royal Society 1960”.

Another of those, “gosh was he really” moments, somewhat akin to me seeing the Meccano bike but different. Now I’m not really comparing Isaac Newton to a Meccano bike. He was a superstar of literally earth moving magnitude, having “discovered” gravity or at least being the first person to notice what it was he was looking at.

Interesting to muse that Newton lived in the 17th Century and thus would have had little conception of technologies that exist today. They probably didn’t even know what a virus was in those days let alone a computer virus. In the interest of fitting with this week’s broadband theme I did a broadband availability check on Newton’s Alma Mater, or at least of the church over the road. The results are given below:

BT BROADBAND AVAILABILITY CHECKER

For Postcode NG31 6RR

Featured Products	Downstream Line Rate(Mbps)	Upstream Line Rate(Mbps)	Downstream Range(Mbps)	Availability Date
WBC ADSL 2+	Up to 17	—	10 to 19.5	Available
ADSL Max	Up to 7.5	—	6.5 to 8	Available
WBC Fixed Rate	2	—	—	Available
Fixed Rate	2	—	—	Available
Other Offerings
Copper Multicast	—	—	—	Available

For all ADSL and WBC Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) services, the stable line rate will be determined during the first 10 days of service usage.Throughput/download speeds will be less than line rates and can be affected by a number of factors within and external to BT’s network, Communication Providers’ networks and within customer premises.The Stop Sale date for Datastream is from 30-Jun-2012; the Formal Retirement date for Datastream is from 30-Jun-2014. The Stop Sale date for IPstream is from 31-Dec-2012; the Formal Retirement date for IPstream is from 30-Jun-2014.Note: Please note that postcode and address check results are indicative only. Most accurate results can be obtained from a telephone number check.Thank you for your interest.

I wonder if they knew it was Isaac Newton asking for superfast broadband in Grantham whether they would have accelerated the roll out in the area. After all with such a great mind what discoveries might be hindered by the lack of uplink speed. Hanging out with his scientific cronies would certainly not have been a great experience. Better maybe than the several months round trip time for a letter in those days.

Note the formal retirement date of 30th June 2014 for IPstream. This was the old ADSL backhaul network. BT moved ISPs on from this to it’s 21CN version years ago by making cost of bandwidth on the newer service far more attractive than IPstream.

broadband travel Weekend

Cygnets seen during today’s walk to work

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Wednesday, 9 July, 2014

Cygnets at Lincoln’s Brayford Pool

My walk to work always bring new sights. You see a lot more at my gentle strolling pace than when you are stuck in a car waiting at traffic lights, queuing at junctions and generally polluting the atmosphere.

This morning I came across this swan and her three cygnets. I can’t imagine the cygnets are more than a couple of weeks old although I’m no expert on this subject. The photograph was taken from behind railings only a few feet away. The swan remained calm but I’d like to bet that if I’d tried to get closer to the cygnets she would have let me know it didn’t make a lot of sense. I assume it was a she but I’m not sure how you tell the difference.

At lunchtime on my way to the gym I spotted some blokes with a white van laying some fibre. I wanted to take a photo but felt this would have been a little conspicuous. Odd even (hey 🙂 ). Apparently we have a new building on campus that is being lit.

Around 5ish I set off for home. Didn’t notice if the cygnets were still there. I have a very steep hill to walk up, called Steep Hill funnily enough. We are simple folk in Lincoln. Like to tell it like it is. Walking up Steep Hill is a challenge at the best of times but when you’ve been to the gym it is especially hard going. Must be doing me good, I’d imagine.

This is broadband week on trefor.net. So far this week we have had 12 posts, including this one which is nothing to do with broadband unless you count the fibre laying. It’s been noticeable that whilst on a typical day we get 15% return visits this week it’s been more like 20% per day. That’s more of our “regulars” coming back for the broadband themed week. As time goes by (You must remember this…) we will be having more themed weeks, now that we have the new site theme and hopefully will build up the visitor numbers.

There is still a fair bit to do before the site is finished. We are currently working on improving the sharing buttons – the plug in being used is a bit hit and miss with the shares. The comments system is also not as seamless as I would like. The previous design used the built in comment facility. This has been moved to Disqus on the basis that it is one of the leading systems in the game. However I’m not too impressed with it. Disqus adds more steps to the commenting process and whilst some of this week’s posts have attracted a reasonable level of comment I’d like to bet that some of you have abandoned the process due to the number of clicks you have had to make.

Anyway, more anon. Got a football match to watch. Ciao bebe.

Tags Lincoln

food and drink Weekend

Tandoori marinade – lamb tikka massala part 1

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Tuesday, 8 July, 2014

tandoori marinade lamb marinating in a jug

Tandoori marinade mixed with cubes of lamb fillet in a bowl and left overnight.

All broadband and no curry makes for a dull life. This post describes how to make a tandoori marinade which, mixed with lamb cubes, is left in the fridge over night before proceeding to part two of the process which involves cooking the meat.

In our house the boss, the lovely Mrs Davies has been away for a few days and us lads, me and kids 3 and 4 have been left to fend for ourselves. In times gone by we will have survived on takeaways and miscellaneous home cooked ~~junk food~~ protein and carbs. However Anne has been making numerous trips away and the takeaway existence has proved to be unsustainable. We have been yearning for proper cooked meals.

This trip/absence, in all fairness to me, we have done reasonably well. Yes we have had our fair share of bacon, sausages, beans and baked potatoes or toast. We are blokes after all. However I have been attempting to have the lads in a reasonably healthy condition for when their mum comes home, which is tomorrow.

Last night I cooked fresh tagliatelle pasta with a tomato and vegetable sauce. Tonight we have fended for ourselves from the fridge due to the intervention of a school cricket match (we won yay). Tomorrow however Anne comes home and it felt only reasonable that I have something decent waiting for her tea.

Tomorrow night we have escalopes of pork marinated for 24 hours in Levi Roots Reggae Reggae sauce. This will be served with Brazilian rice (whatever that is – it sounded alright) and green beans and broccoli on the side (not for me – I’m a grown up – I don’t understand the point of broccoli).

At the same time I have decided that on Thursday we will be eating lamb tikka massala. Nome of this pre-made sauce rubbish though. This one is going to be cooked from first principles, prompted largely by the fact that whilst wandering through Lincoln Cornhill Market a few weeks ago I came across a stall selling Indian spices. Impressed with the range of ingredients available I bought an armful including a huge industrial bag of garam massala.

All this fine foodstuff has been sat in the cupboard. Until now. Waitrose this afternoon offered up some lamb fillet together with a miscellany of other ingredients. Back at home I dioscovered that I also needed root ginger, natural yoghurt and some fresh coriander so another trip, this time to Tesco, was initiated.

The intent here is to marinate the lamb overnight in a tandoori marinade and tomorrow I will cook the meat in a tandoor. I have a clay tandoori pot which you stick in the oven and which simulates a real tandoor. The tandoori marinade is simple to make. Dry fry some cardamon pods, coriander seeds and cumin, grind together with a couple of red chillies, garlic and the root ginger. I’m not going to bother you with quantities – look it up – this is not a cookery blog. Chuck in some lemon juice, turmeric, mix into some natural yoghurt and then add the meat.

This concoction, which btw smells wonderful, is covered with cling film and left in the fridge overnight. Look out for parts two and three tomorrow. I want to get the lamb tikka massala finished tomorrow night so that it can benefit from another night of spice infusion.

If you like your food you should check out The Burton Road Strip, a series of poems about food emporia on Burton Road in Lincoln.

Yowser…

Tags curry

travel Weekend

Union of South Africa at Newark Northgate

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Sunday, 6 July, 2014

Union of South Africa A4 Pacific steam engine seen at Newark Northgate train station

Was heading to London for a meeting with Telehouse in Docklands and had to change trains at Newark Northgate. The jackpot came up. These in the siding stood the Union of South Africa steam train in tandem with the LNER class K4 Great Marquess. Magnificent.

The train had apparently stopped to take on water. Amazing how people know about these things because there were a number of trainspotting enthusiasts on the platform. When I arrived it had apparently already been there an hour having pulled in to take on water – there was a tender in attendance a little further on down the track. They obviously don’t have the trackside water towers any more.

It’s amazing how people find out these things. The enthusiasts were still clicking away after the hour. Presumably had big memory cards in their cameras. There was also a bloke in a suit taking photos with his iPad. Presumably was an actual rail traveller like me (though unlike me not dressed in tshirt and shorts).

Always bemused when I see fold taking pictures with iPads. Usually Chinese tourists outside the British Museum. Not the most convenient form factor.

For those of you who don’t know the Union of South Africa was the last steam engine to leave Kings Cross Station on a scheduled commercial passenger run. The A4 Pacifics, designed by Sir Nigel Gresley were the fastest steam engines ever built and include the world steam speed record holder the Mallard.

I don’t mind admitting I like steam trains and have a layout, now rarely used, in the attic which includes a Hornby 00 gauge model of the Union of South Africa, a train that I have also had the privilege to ride on on a day excursion to Scarborough (fair play).

Note the overhead electric cables in the photos – seem somehow out of place.

travel Weekend

Alex Murphy’s Life in India: Sacrifices

Post author By Alex Murphy
Post date Saturday, 5 July, 2014

My daughter’s 18th Birthday party was not a sacrifice I was willing to make.

One of the really tough things about living out of Country and away from home is that when you should be around to support family and friends at times of births, marriages, deaths, and birthdays; the best you can do is text. Over the last year I’ve missed all of these, and felt pretty inadequate at times when I can do nothing to support those who need a shoulder to cry on.

Of course, I know there are plenty of people in my same position, including troops on overseas duty.

I lost the closest thing I had to a dad just before I embarked on my wonderful trip to India. I was able to lay him to rest the very day I left for India, but I was there. I learned this week that a wonderful lady, a great teacher, who had taught all my four children, had died. Her husband had been a rugby player with me and from 4000 miles away I could do nothing to show my sadness for his loss and my sorrow at her passing.

Today is my daughter Francesca’s 18th Birthday party, the last of my four fabulous kids to reach adult-hood. For the other three I’d been there to celebrate and smile as I watched them become “grown ups.” Faced with missing an enormous milestone in my own and my family’s life, I jumped on a flight to London at 2.20am Delhi time this morning, and by the time Francesca came down for breakfast I was sat at home. She didn’t know I was on my way. A perfect moment, priceless, never to be repeated. I’ve got just about enough time to catch, my breath, party tonight, then head back to Delhi.

So Hurricanes, forgive me for missing training this morning. I was on a mission, but I’m sure you understand. I’m having a fabulous experience in India, I’m at real peace, but days like today remind you just how much of a sacrifice those you love have to make for you to pursue your own dreams.

Business travel

TaxiCab App to Replace Hailo

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Friday, 4 July, 2014

TaxiCab, an app developed by cabbies for cabbies is to replace Hailo

Riding in a black cab today I noticed that there was a big X in gaffer tape across the Hailo advert. Remembering my recent gushes about Uber (ici et ici ¹) I got into conversation with the driver.

According to the driver Hailo has been around for 3 years or so and was bringing in a lot of business to London Taxi drivers. However 6 weeks ago cab hailing company apparently announced that they would also be including Minicabs (Hailo says Exec cars, taxi driver said they were effectively Minicabs). The Taxi drivers don’t like this and my driver said they had started to drop the service – hence the X over the ad.

Apparently the app isn’t yet available but in the interest of research I Googled it. Apart from Hailo I could only find cab:app which sounds similar because it has been developed by taxi drivers but doesn’t look anything like the app I was shown.

The Hailo move can only be in response to Uber hitting town. Maybe finding an image of the new TaxiCab app is a scoop. Exciting eh! One imagines that competition is good thing.

It must surely be unusual to find a taxi driver who can code although I do recall years ago that a cabbie won the TV quiz programme Mastermind. Today I was in London to visit Telehouse in greenwich – just next to the O2. I did ponder using Uber but the Jubilee line gets you straight there and it just didn’t make sense – transport modes for courses as they say:)

You may well have heard it first on trefor.net – especially if you have been manning the Antartic Survey and have only recently returned because you won tickets for Wimbledon in the ballot – but that is another story.

TaxiCab, by taxi drivers for taxi drivers…

¹ Oui, ohohiho

Bad Stuff Business datacentre gadgets H/W mobile apps mobile connectivity travel

Eurostars Upon Thars

Post author By Kory Kessel
Post date Thursday, 3 July, 2014

Being a somewhat regular visitor to London over the past 15 years, and having spent more than a year commuting weekly from Paris to a start-up gig there way back in ‘00-’01, I have Eurostar stories to burn. Nothing I could recount, though, compares to the head-shaking cock-up I was a party to this past Friday.

I arrived at the Eurostar departure area at St. Pancras at 15h00 on the nose, ready to flash my ticket’s QR code at the gate. A gentleman in front of me had a problem getting the gate to take his QR, and he waved me ahead. At that moment the gate opened, and with it all happening so fast I rushed right through. A no-no, to be sure, and I knew it (gotta flash your code, otherwise the databases aren’t fat and happy), so I immediately turned around to hand my ticket to the guy who waved me ahead so all could be reconciled. And if that had been all that happened, it all would’ve worked out fine. No harm, no foul.

Alas, as I was handing my ticket to the guy whose entry I had assumed, a Eurostar person jumped in the middle of it all. This woman took my ticket into her hand already full of tickets, working diligently to get not only the guy I mentioned through but others with him as well. That accomplished, she handed me back what should’ve been my ticket, but which I was soon to learn was not in fact my ticket but the ticket of one of the others in the group. Soon to learn, but not quite soon enough as it turned out. Keep reading.

Security, Passport Control, a Cadbury Flake purchased, 15h31 train to Paris boarding, up the escalator, down the platform, onto Car 18 and (almost) into Seat 72…which was inhabited by another person with a valid ticket for the seat. My ticket? Valid for the same seat on the train leaving at 16h02. Oh, and the name on the ticket was not anything remotely akin to my own.

Realizing quickly what had happened, I sought out someone in Eurostar-logo-emblazoned clothing to explain my situation to, thinking there would be high-techy solution to it all. Instead I got “Well, all the trains are overbooked today, so we’ll put you on the 16h02 and just hope things work out. Maybe the person with your ticket got on the 15h31. If not, we’ll handle it then.” Thus, Eurostar’s idea of fixing the situation boiled down to this: Perhaps the person traveling with those other people realized he had been handed back your ticket for the 15h31 and instead of staying with his group on the 16h02 he instead bid them a quick “Ta ta! See you in Paris!” and ran to take the 15h31. Oh, and he opted for a different seat than the one on my ticket — although there weren’t any free seats on the train — because he was not the guy I encountered when I tried to take the seat on the 15h31. So just take the seat on the 16h02 with the ticket you are holding and hope.

Whew!

So I boarded the 16h02, took Seat 72 in Car 18, and waited. Not long. Soon enough, the guy who I originally encountered at the entry gate boarded the train with his group. He saw me, immediately knew why I was there, and together we set off in search of a logo-ed person who could offer much-needed resolution. And this is where things get anti-climatic, because we quickly found a train manager who found me an empty seat in Car 17 using a handy-dandy tablet with some proprietary app connected to some up-to-date database in some datacenter somewhere nearby, and that was that. I would make it home for the weekend, I wouldn’t have to stand between cars or sit on someone’s lap to do so, and I could spend the two hours pondering why some Eurostar trains are 2014-tech-ready while others seemingly are not.

fun stuff Weekend

Lego Birthday Cake – For a 60-Year-Old

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Thursday, 3 July, 2014

There is something poignant about a 60 year old getting a lego birthday cake.

Kid3 plays the trumpet and each year since he was around 13 he has been asked to blow the last post at Remembrance Day services. There is something hugely poignant about a boy playing the Last Post. The new generation paying their respects to the people who died to make his life possible.

At the other end of the spectrum it seems quite appropriate that a bloke celebrating his 60th birthday does so with a lego birthday cake. As you can see from the featured picture the candles were made of lego.

The lego candles were very artistic. When lit the candle wax ran down the side of white icing on the cake, as if the cake was bleeding bringing further poignancy to the evening.

Didn’t last long. Soon the cake was destroyed, consumed, rendered into oblivion with only the fleetest of memories lingering after what was an entirely adult evening in the West Wend Tap. Quite fortunately, pixel technology has allowed us to hold on to the vision.

I personally rarely get a birthday cake let alone a lego birthday cake. Mrs Davies is trying to get me slimmer. I have to satisfy myself with slices of others’. It would be churlish to turn down a slice of lego birthday cake. Innit? Fortunately as we have four offspring this is a reasonably regular occurrence and as the kids like to do home baking, often making cakes at the spur of a free moment I don’t do too badly. My personal favourite is chocolate with a cream filling but the most important thing is that the cake is light and fluffy.

Pictures below – sign at West End Tap and another sign at a bar at the Students Union at Newcastle University (fwiw). Oh and the birthday boy? Terry Mackown.

Apps Business google travel

Uber London Integrated with Google Maps

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Wednesday, 2 July, 2014

Uber is now very cleverly integrated with Google Maps and appears in the list of options of directions for public transport – Uber London

On a visit to Telehouse in London Docklands I checked out the optimum directions to get there using Google Maps. To my surprise Uber came up as an option. This is very impressive.

It made me think of Uber London as the taxiing equivalent to Tesco: a large organisation with the clout to develop tools that help it sell and make money. Uber is the Tesco, black cabs are the small retail outlets being affected by the new out of town superstore.

What’s more Uber appeared on the list uber-discreetly. I didn’t feel it was being shoved in my face. Indeed I was surprised and delighted to see it there. Google must in anycase have rules about that sort of thing. Can’t have a third party muscling in too robustlyon its act.

Presumably one has to have the Uber App installed which I do. Selecting the Uber option in “directions” takes you to the app. You will recall that I only recently installed Uber whilst in London for the Pissup In A Brewery which helped me out in getting a car from South Bermondsey to Kings Cross Station.

On this latest trip I needed to get from Crawford Street in W1 to Mitre Passage in Greenwich S10. As it happens on this occasion it is just as easy, and certainly a lot cheaper, to get the Jubilee line on the Underground. It involves only a short walk either side although summer on the tube ain’t great.

The Uber option didn’t appear when I used Maps on my Chromebook. This is something that Google might want to consider in their roadmap – the convergence of Android and Chromebook ecosystems.

Uber London – you know it makes sense, or Uber all I’d say Uber London was a winner:)

chromebook End User gadgets google H/W internet Mobile phones Weekend

The Hump Day Five (2-July-2014)

Post author By Kory Kessel
Post date Wednesday, 2 July, 2014

Friday afternoon found me riding the Eurostar rails, on KoryChrome (new Samsung Chromebook 2^*), pounding out on a “First Impressions” piece…on KoryChrome. Using Writebox, one of those sometimes-useful writing applications that are intended to take the distraction out of the process, I was about 700 words into it when for reasons unknown I decided to go exploring. A sparse environment — which, of course, is the point — there were only six (6) icons to check out in the upper right-hand corner (which conveniently hide when you aren’t hovering your cursor over the spot), and as I was enjoying my new application and curious about it I thought I’d see what I could do with it.

I won’t get into the nitty-gritty about what the Writebox icons are for (syncing, settings, preview…the usual), except suffice it to say for the one that has me typing here now, a + symbol in the farmost left position on the very short toolbar. That particular icon opens a new Writebox file that effectively dumped my nearly-finished “Hello (again) KoryChrome” post into the ether of lost-forever 1s and 0s.

Infuriation and frustrating, yes, and the prospect of starting the post from scratch makes me shudder (still haven’t gotten around to that, but keep reading)…but from the I-can-rationalize-anything perspective, I am truly glad that as I make my approach on 50 I am still able to touch the hot part of the stove.

^*Handed off to me by good ol’ globehopping Tref at our Pissup in a Brewery event this past Thursday at Fourpure Brewery in Bermondsey…if you missed it you are the lesser for having done so, but there will certainly be others so watch this space.

As long as I have the date here pinned to my short trip to London last week, I will burn a line or two on my latest experience with airbnb. Finding a reasonably-priced non-lethal-seeming accommodation for said trip that was within the Underground’s boundaries proved to be quite the challenge (only later did I realize this was due in no small part to Wimbledon being among the other usual goings-on in London), but eventually I did manage to wrangle a roof and bed in the tiny Bermondsey flat of a young couple (complete with an adorable 3-month-old kitten named Binxy). This being my third airbnb experience I was hoping it would be the charm, and I am glad to report that it was just that. If you consider yourself something of a brave traveler and have not yet taken a chance on airbnb or one of the other Internet home-invite services that are shaking up the hospitality industry, well this is me adding to the white noise urging you to do so.

The trefor.net “Broadband Week” is coming up fast and I am furiously editing away on received submissions. That said, if you have an idea for a Contributor post that aligns with our theme there is still a sliver of time remaining to pitch it and get it in for publication next week. So if you want to see your name up on our marquee, please feel free to contact me directly at [email protected]. I will be glad to help you bring your epiphany to the page.

Last week in London I finally got my hands on a Samsung Galaxy K Zoom, the little-bit-country-little-bit-rock-and-roll smartphone I have been kvelling over quite a bit here since its announcement two months ago, and I was far from disappointed. With new gadgets I wait for that special tingle (usually it comes from putting fingers on the device, but there are no hard-and-fast rules about that), and once I feel that it is just a matter of determining whether its strength is enough to kick me into “Want”. Consider me kicked well and good. Just need to find a way to get my provider to subsidize the pocket beast…

My lead-in KoryChrome tidbit illustrated for the umpteenthsomething time that I could do with a few more smarts, and I expect that my Hump Day Five wrap-up for the week is sure to remove any lingering doubt.

Hot off the Eurostar back to Paris on Friday I found myself in a rented Škoda barreling towards our tiny family hovel in Pays d’Auge’s Blangy-le-Château. Over the 8 years La Famille Kessel has so often made the jaunt that certain routines have formed, including for me the ritual of connecting AppleKory up — power source, monitor converter, USB peripherals, etc — and at visit’s end, disconnecting it all. Sounds simple and is simple, though early on I did once make the gross error of leaving my MacBook Pro power adapter behind. This resulted in a frantic run to the Apple Store Carrousel du Louvre upon arriving back in Paris that Sunday evening to buy a new one. As with all things Apple, the new power adapter wasn’t cheap, but the impossible alternative was to go a few weeks with a single battery charge. And in the end, the €69 I pushed across for it has turned out to be quite a good investment, both for peace-of-mind (it lives in my computer bag, making it possible to always leave the original at home) and from a value standpoint (darn thing has put in 7+ years of service and counting).

So. Routine. Routine is good. And as so often happens when a routine undergoes any kind of change, things go pear-shaped. Last night, just as France was putting the spank to Nigeria to reach the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil quarter finals, the new KoryChrome’s battery slid down to 2% and I realized I had left her charger back in Blangy. Not too long after she became just a sleek good-looking techy brick, and will remain so until the Friday following the next (or until I can suss out a replacement, of course…for a new product that is not yet for sale on the right side of the Atlantic).

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Pissup in a Brewery – Photographic Proof of a Great LONAP-Sponsored Evening

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Wednesday, 2 July, 2014

Pictures from the trefor.net Pissup In A Brewery held at the Fourpure brewery in London on Thursday 26th June

The Pissup In A Brewery, twas a good night. Sponsored by LONAP it was mostly LONAP members and guests. The rain held off, the food was universally acclaimed as fantastic, the beer was pure, copious and appreciated by all.

I’ve been to two other Pissup In A Brewery events, or Pissups In A Brewery. The first was with Bethesda RFC to a brewery in Liverpool, Castle Eden I think it may have been although time plays tricks with the memory, especially where a brewery is involved. We declined a tour of the brewery in order to maximise the efficiency of our two hours’ free bar. You can imagine the carnage of a coach load of rugby players let loose in the bar. We stopped in Rhyl for fish and chips on the way home. That’s all I can remember.

The other Pissup In A Brewery was at Batemans’ in AWainfleet. Wainfleet was once a port but the river has long since silted up and it is now a cosy village a few skims of a flat stone from the coast. It was a friend’s birthday and we didn’t find out until the end of the trip that he had paid for the lot of us.After the tour we retired to a pie and a pint on one of the local Batemans pubs. V civilised.

Last Thursday’s Pissup In A Brewery was held at Dan Lowe’s Fourpure brewery in South Bermondsey a stone’s throw from Millwall FC. Nuff said. You will note that the phrase Pissup In A Brewery gets repeated a number of times in the post. This is simply because the phrase to me seems to have become a brand in its own right. I can envisage having lots of pissups in lots of breweries. Reality is we might just repeat it next year, Dan Lowe and sponsorship willing. Like I said, twas a great night.

Thanks to LONAP for the sponsorship, thanks to Fourpure Brewery for having us, thanks to Richard Gibbs Catering for a great barbecue and thanks to all who came and enjoyed themselves and helped makeit such an enjoyable night.

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trefor.net website launch party – 4pm Friday 4th July

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Sunday, 29 June, 2014
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You are all invited to a free beer on Friday afternoon to celebrate the launch of the new trefor.net website – free beer.

Went to my mate Terry’s 60th birthday surprise bash at the West End Tap last night. It was a genuine surprise and nice to see the look of humility on the lad’s face when he saw how many people had turned out. Left at around 11.30pm – I’m somewhat of a lightweight these days although the fact that it was my fourth night out on the trot didn’t help. Looking forward to a quiet few days before being back in the Smoke on Wednesday.

When we got home there was a party still in full flow in our back garden. Kid3 celebrating his penultimate teen birthday. The noise had died down by the time we got in, fortunately for our relations with the neighbours and especially since I invested in a PA system. I don’t have what was traditionally called a stereo but I do have a PA system.

This morning the damage in the back garden wasn’t too bad. Nothing that a bit of hosing down didn’t sort out.

Life seems to be one long string of parties and bashes (is there a difference?). It’s good job I’ve started to go to the University of Lincoln gym which is only a 5 minute walk from the office. Need the counter effect of the 70 minute workout to offset the damages from the bashes (deliberate choice of words:). Free beer for all…

This coming Wednesday we have the 10th Anniversary of ITSPA party in the big Smoke. A big part of me says we are only here the once so we might as well enjoy ourselves whilst we are at it.

On Friday we are having an impromptu trefor.net drinks and nibbles out on the balcony at the office in Sparkhouse in Lincoln. The weather is going to be great and we will be filling the fridge the day before to make sure that the refreshments are appropriately cooled for our guests.

Everyone is welcome but we will need to know if you plan on coming so call me, message me, send a carrier pigeon, leave a comment etc. The doors will be locked so when you arrive ring my mobile and I’ll send someone from “Security” down to bring you up to the balcony. Alternatively shout up to the balcony at Sparkhouse – we will see you.

The party must finish around 7pm for no other reason that I am then heading over to the Lincoln Performing Arts Centre (LPAC) to watch a Zoe Rahman gig in which Kid3 who plays the jazz trumpet, amongst other instruments, is featuring.

Party is at Room 18, Sparkhouse, Enterprise Lincoln Building, Rope Walk, Lincoln LN6 7DQ. C ya there.

The Tesco Baked Bean expose part II – 44% increase in baked beans pricing

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Saturday, 28 June, 2014
1 Comment on The Tesco Baked Bean expose part II – 44% increase in baked beans pricing

Hot on the heels my first Tesco baked beans pricing expose (6 tins or 4 – best buys) I have more news. Further investigative journalism reveals that the buggers have now dropped the price of a fourpack to two quid whilst upping the six pack from two fifty to three sixty. wossatallaboutwtf?

Having lulled us into thinking that two fifty was the standard pricing for the sixpack they have now stuck it with a whopping forty four percent increase. So you can now either pay fifty pence for a can of beans or sixty! They must think their customers are total morons. It is also intuitive to assume that a bigger pack will be cheaper than the smaller pack. They are taking advantage of that type of thinking.

It must come as no surprise that Tesco profits are in decline if they are messing about with prices like this. It leads to loss of faith and trust in the brand.

That’s all.

Uber duber

Uber duber impressive taxi service in London.

Thursday night in London was the venue of the LONAP sponsored trefor.net Pissup In A Brewery. It was a terrific event and we have a ton of photos but there was nobody in the office on Friday so you’re gonna have to wait till the week to see them. Video also on the way.

The evening drew to a close at around 8.45 (it was an early doors bash) and our train was at 10 pm. Plenty of time to get from South Bermondsey to King’s X. Don’t know if you’ve ever been to South Bermondsey – home of Millwall FC? It’s not exactly on the beaten track. Black cabs struggle with it. In fact if you think you will find a black cab cruising the area on the off chance of picking up a fare you should think again.

Enter uber stage left. On Thursday night the weather had been just right. The barbecue was outside and people were able to comfortably spill out of the brewery to enjoy the midsummer evening. Towards the end of the Pissup it started to drizzle. That was ok. The evening had been a terrific success and a bit of gentle summer rain did not detract from this. The rain did however dampen our enthusiasm about walking to the train station and certainly made the notion of trying to find a taxi quite unattractive.

Fret not dear reader. I had earlier downloaded the Uber app. It was the work of seconds. I whipped out my trusty droid and summoned a car, opting for an executive job seeing as there were three of us and we had paraphenalia in the shape of banners and signs to cart back. Within fifteen minutes a Mercedes had turned up.

I could tell beforehand exactly when the car was going to arrive as the app tracked its progress, I knew the name of the driver and the make and colour of the vehicle. Just before it got to our location I also received a text message letting me know of its imminent arrival. The whole experience was extremely impressive.

The fare, which was automatically covered by the credit card I had preregistered with the Uber system was £25 for the 31 minute journey. On the way out to the Pissup, one of the team, Rob, had hopped in a black cab as he had all the promo stuff to carry. The taxi not only struggled to find the brewery but also cost him £40.

The Black Cabs are currently up in arms about Uber claiming that the service operates illegally. I had no views before Thursday night. However my experience was so good that I have become an instant fan of Uber. Black Cabs have their place in the service mix. They have all indeed undergone a lengthy period of training to pass the “knowledge” so I might be able to live with the higher prices where it suits me – walking out of a pub on a busy central London street or arriving at the rank at a station.

Whether the London Taxi driver community like it or not my experience with Uber was so good, their product is so good, that they are clearly here to stay. If cabbies don’t like it that’s tough I’m afraid. Technology moves on and the world changes, in this case definitely for the better.

PS was chatting with Jahed the driver who said he was happy with the money he got from Uber. His biggest fare was £292 when some kids signed up for an account with a stolen card. He picked them up at 9pm and drove them around central London until 1.30 am. He got paid by Uber but they never got the cash off the card company. Inneresting innit!

Other unbelievably good reads mentioning the word taxi:

Dad’s taxi

Level crossings and the quirks of the taxi fare system

What price a taxi?

Virgin taxi grinds to a halt

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The Hump Day Five (25-June-2014)

Post author By Kory Kessel
Post date Wednesday, 25 June, 2014
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On Wednesday Trefor.net’s Editor-in-Chief serves up The Hump Day Five, a weekly collection of short (and not so short) glimpses of the life in progress.

Bolting to meet My Missus for a Pay-For-Weekend-Well-Spent swim (the value of which we will immediately negate with a hearty follow-up Mexican lunch), and just realized that my mobile phone charge is at 9%. And being that this is my still-hanging-on iPhone 4 that ‘9’ might as we’ll be a ‘2’ as over the three-something years iPhoneKory has occupied my key right-pocket space I have seen it go from 7% to black so many times…

Is seven the new zero?

Despite promising myself I wouldn’t do so, I hung until 02h00 on Sunday/Monday watching the USA-Portugal World Cup match on ESPN via SlingBox, all the way to its bittersweet 95th minute. And in spite of a poor connection and a wildly unbalanced announcer team (Ian Darke = terrific, Taylor Twellman = dead awful), and although France has been my one-and-only International association football team since I moved to Paris in 1999^*, I could not help but get caught up in it all. This was helped along in no small measure by social media, as both my Facebook and Twitter feeds were crackling with excitement and the wonderful over-the-top enthusiasm borne of sports spectatorship. Every breakaway, clearance, crossover, save (Tim Howards’s remarkable double-save!), and goal, by the USA or Portugal, had my feeds flying fast. But with that insane last play, with less than 25 ticks left in Injury Time…silence.

Yes, silence. The stunned heartbreak of that gorgeous equalizer — its sheer beauty cannot be denied — led to what may very well be the loudest imaginable Internet silence I’ve ever (not) heard. I have no doubt that goal was replaying on constant loop through the minds of a great many Americans on Monday, I am just as certain it was doing so in a soundproof vacuum.

^*No true lover of the “Beautiful Game” will ever forget France’s unbelievablyf*ckingamazing come-from-behind last-gasp victory against Italy in the Euro2000 final, a game…no, an experience that galvanized this transplanted American’s association football fandom.

Readers going back three months — my long-term dyed-in-the-wool fans — will remember my enthusiasm for the latest Marvel Studios film, “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”, and perhaps even the near-pathological (pathetic) need I had to see the film after having to wait 10 days following its release to find my way to the cinema. (And no matter if you aren’t one of those readers, because my preface sentence sets the table for where I am heading, regardless.)

With all of the build-up, all of the hype, the fact that I so thoroughly enjoyed “Captain America: First Avenger” (I expected to hate that first film as the character is an all-time favorite of mine — since I started reading super hero comic books at the age of eight — and just figured there was no way Hollywood could get it right), the scads of terrific reviews I was so careful to scan-without-spoiling, you would think that disappointment was inevitable. Not only was this not the case, though, but the film so deeply captured my imagination that I soon after found myself pondering a newed look in on the comic book itself, figuring the source material for such a great flick might be worth my time.

In days of yore (and up until actually not all that long ago), it was a lot more difficult to find and read back issues of comic books than it is today. In fact, without admitting to anything here or anywhere, I will say that despite my predilection for riding near the cusp of the Internet for lo on 20+ years now, I still find myself utterly floored by the ready digital availability of comic books new and old (and extremely old). A minimal amount of surfing revealed that “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” was based on Ed Brubaker’s run on the “Captain America” title from 2004-2012, and a single google-bing turned up the following torrent:

WTF?

In less than a year I will turn 50, a number on the age scale that I know is supposed to mean…something. A greater sense of dignity? Less prone to silly excitements? Better perspective on what was and is and will be? Conversations turning ever more towards health issues? Yadda yadda yadda. To all of that, I have to call “Bunk!”, because (1) in my mind’s eye I am not balding, overly thick in the middle, saddled with mild hearing loss, or in need of glasses to read, (2) I feel no less a thirst for life than I did 10 years ago…or 20, and (3) I still get all kinds of giddy in the lead up to putting my mitts on new techy toys…such as the new KoryChrome (Samsung Chromebook 2), which I look forward to running my fingers over for the first time at some point tomorrow!

Today is the first day of summer vacation for The Boy, and he is marking it in style, sitting on the couch in front of the TV while simultaneously playing both “Minecraft” and “SimCity 4” with friends on his MacBook, and also looking in on “Clash of Clans” via the family iPad. Now if only he could get his toes engaged in some kind of input manipulation My Missus and I would have one reasonably efficient and well-entertained child! The drums, perhaps?

Related posts:

Flying Away On a Wing and a Prayer
Saturday Snapshot (12-April-2014)
Fruity Simulation

Tags digital comic books, gaming, streaming, tech toys

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World cup football – the movie

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Wednesday, 25 June, 2014
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The football world cup reminds me of the movie “Those magnificent men in their flying machines”. For those far too young to remember the movie was a comedy where pilots of many different nationalities converged on the UK to participate in a flying race to Paris. There were joke teams, dastardly skulduggery that went wrong, love interest and all the typical sterotypes of the British psyche. The good guys won. of course.

Now many nationalities from around the world have flown in to Rio for a competition. There is heroism, pathetic failure and skulduggery, excitement, high tension and disappointment – the English team is going home early. No sign of a love interest sub plot though – the WAGs were banned from convening. That was a waste of time wasn’t it? Perhaps had the wives and girlfriends been allowed to travel the team might have done better.

I happened last night to be watching Uruguay v Italy in a fairly disinterested way until the “alleged”¹ biting incident made me want Italy to win. That was the skulduggery. Oh and there are match fixing allegations.

And all this under the umbrella of an organisation that is itself under suspicion for lack of transparency and dodgy dealings. One has to ask why anyone bothers when you can watch a cricket test match that lasts the full five days and goes down to the penultimate ball for a result. At least with the world cup we haven’t had news of brand police spoiling the party as was the case with the London 2012 Olympics. It must surely cost the sponsors just as much and doesn’t leave people with a bad taste regarding the organising committee.

Playing now on a TV screen near you – Football World Cup – The Movie.

Essential office furniture – the drinks fridge

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Tuesday, 24 June, 2014
1 Comment on Essential office furniture – the drinks fridge

We have a new item of essential furniture in our office: the Husky Stella Artois Refrigerator otherwise known as the drinks fridge.

A drinks fridge is something I have wanted for years. It began when I once visited Sir Terry Matthews’ office in Canada. This multi-billionnaire owner of Mitel had his own drinks fridge in his office. I thought to myself if Terry can have one then it must be right.

Unfortunately I’ve always worked for a business with a professional outlook on life and that being so felt that a fridge in the office would look somewhat out of kilter.

This is no longer the case. trefor,net has attitude, no constraints, no concerns over corporate image to hold back free thinking and initiative creation. trefor.net now has a fridge. All it currently contains is a jug of filtered water and what’s left of a pint of milk. However the plan is to fill it with suitable other liquids for the ongoing and ad hoc refreshment of the staff.

Once when I visited a Cisco facility at Research Triangle Park in North Carolina I noticed that their kitchen had floor to ceiling fridges filled with drinks. Well our needs aren’t quite that extensive but I will show a picture of a suitably filled fridge at the nearest opportunity. Not this week mind you as I am out of the office after today.

For future reference though if anyone is in Lincoln on Friday afternoon from say 4pm onwards they should feel free to swing by Room 18 at Sparkhouse and join us in some cool refreshment. Ease into the weekend. Feel the lurve…

Only in India: Some Thoughts on Labour

Post author By Alex Murphy
Post date Tuesday, 24 June, 2014
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Treflor.net contributor Alex Murphy is President at DCM Shriram and a Privilege Member at Rugby Football Union. From time to time he will share his thoughts and observations from his life in Gurgaon, Haryana, India.

A part of living in India is that typically you have staff to help in the home and a driver. Me, I have both a housekeeper and a full-time driver (who doesn’t often get the chance to drive as I love driving). You also notice that there are thousands and thousands of security guards, everywhere. At every shop, every house, every gate, you will find a uniformed security guard acting as some kind of protection, and — to be honest — they are 99.99% ineffective. At the homes of the people I work for these security guards are occasionally armed, but they are still pretty much ineffective.

The whole layer of domestic staff and security I describe provides enormous levels of employment in a country where employment remains hard to find. It is said that the poverty line in India is about 59p per day, and making more that is considered to be of independent means. A member of domestic staff or a security guard will earn about £170 per month, money that is generally paid in cash, an amount that at £5 a day is considered a good living wage. And even though by UK and US terms this seems a pittance, in India it’s considered a good wage and the staff work hard for their money.

I elect not to have live-in staff, even though the house comes with a staff flat. The thought of poor staff members regularly finding a naked, hairy, European sitting eating his cornflakes is more than I want to bestow upon any individual. And this is where one of the huge dilemmas of working in India occurs. No, not a hairy European, but labour.

The workforce in my business is very well educated, with over 60% of my Head Office support staff of 148 having at least an MBA. The level of competency is incredible high in areas such as computing and accounting, but at under £5,000 per annum you find yourself having to make bizarre calculations. For instance, new computer software that will speed up process will cost you £200,000, have a shelf life of about three years, and will require annual service contracts to the value of £35,000. That’s about £300,000 over the life of the software, or £100,000 per annum. It will take some write time and is subject to technical failure. On the other hand, for that same amount I could employ no less than 20 MBAs, assets who would actually deliver me far greater capacity, not be subject to power failure or viruses (save for malaria, perhaps), and who would be mobile as required. So what do you do?

A good example of how all of this works in practice is our central costing cell. The software to run our commercial, technical and drawing capabilities again would be enormous. If the system rejected any of the data then this would require third-party intervention to access the rejection information, go back to source, and resolve. We have 28 bodies processing the info, and if something goes wrong they pick up a phone and say “What did you mean by…….?” and the situation is resolved in under a minute. Now, yes, I’m sure all you computer types will scream about efficiency and process, but it’s a hard and true fact of life that in the more developed economies — those in which you have to pay £50-100,000 per annum to computer and data geeks — that computerisation is a huge cost saver. In India, though, where we are still finding our business feet, there is still have incredible value for money in labour. And it isn’t slavery as it’s all relative to what your rupee buys you. My people are my greatest asset.

My morning today started with me wishing my driver Ravi well before he took my daughter and two friends to Agra and the Taj Mahal for the day. The 6.30 collect became 6.45, as three teenagers did what teenagers do and took their time. For the first time ever the look on Ravi’s face was one of “We are going to the Taj, is there really any need for this fashion statement!”

Only in India…..

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The Mexican mask & a pith helmet from San Diego Zoo

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Tuesday, 24 June, 2014
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You don’t need a great idea to stick a blog post up. A picture is prompt enough. This mask was on the wall of a Mexican restaurant near our hotel in Orlando for the Genband Perspectivres14 conference.

I have been to Mehico, just the once. In a previous life I used to go each July to the Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conference in the US of A. It was a brilliant annual event although not particularly publicised for obvious reasons. NSREC used to travel around the country to popular holiday spots, often because some places in the USA were cheap in July due to it being low season.

One year we went to San Diego, which never has a low season. Lots of stories including our Chief Scientist at the time missing his flight connection in Chicago because he had been sat at the wrong gate. Arrived hours after us, tired and needing a drink. The rest of us were about ready to hit the hay. There was a piano bar at the hotel called Kelly’s Irish Bar where every night towards the end of the evening we would finish up. The Chief Scientist, John Kerr was a dab hand at the jazz piano¹ and he would sit in during the pianist’s breaks.

We always had Wednesday afternoons off as I recall and we decided to hire a car and nip over the border to Tijuana. It was only afterwards we found out that the perceived wisdom was to not take a hire car over the border. Arriving at Tijuana we drove around trying to find the centre of town. Turns out there wasn’t one.

All we got was a bit of a car park and a few shops. I bought about $40 worth of local currency “just in case”. We had no reason to hang around the centre of Tijuana as there was absolutely nothing there. Driving to the coast we passed large shanty town on the hillsides. A real eye opener to a small town boy from Lincoln.

The Pacific coast, when we got there was quite picturesque and had a large number of bars sticking out on stilts over the the clifftop. We had decided before hand not to trust any food in Mehico but beer was ok and in we trooped to one of the bars. Unfortunately the bar tender whipped out some of the hottest salsa any of us had ever tasted together with some very authentic corn tortilla chips fresh out of the fryer. Didn’t manage to spend half the currency and was saddled with it for years afterwards. May still have it in a drawer upstairs.

The after effects of the chips and salsa were felt for days afterwards:)

On our last day we visited the world famous San Diego Zoo. It’s fame was well deserved. The gorrila enclosure was particularly impressive and prompted me to mention that all we lacked were pith helmets. Well knock me down with a thirty pound sledge hammer if we didn’t turn a corner to find a stand selling pith helmets. I had to buy one of course. Still have it. Must have worn it, oo at least twice in the intervening 20 years. Fancy dress parties.

Pictures below for you delight and delectation.

Other fabulastic travel reads include:

Hawaiian shirts and alligators
Kennedy Space Centre
Ronnie Scotts & The Haywood Sisters

¹ He was also a Jehova’s Witness, a poker player and drank like a fish which is a somewhat unusual combination I’d say.

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Nautical themed fountain at Lincoln Brayford Pool

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Monday, 23 June, 2014
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Don’t ask me why I think this fountain has a nautical theme. Just feels as if it does. Not sure I’ve even seen water flowing in it but hey… Council cutbacks perhaps. It’s on the waterfront at Lincoln’s Brayford Pool. Next to Wagamama.

travel Weekend

Dad’s taxi

All those years ago when I went to university I had to be able to carry everything myself. I caught the ferry to Liverpool from Douglas in the Isle of Man, walked to James Street underground station, tube to Rock Ferry, change to catch train to Chester and change again for the Holyhead train stopping at Bangor. I remember that on the first occasion I also had to change at Llandudno Junction. It was a bit of a trek and that first time I did it I had a rucksack filled with LPs on my back,a guitar, a record player and a suitcase.

Arriving at Bangor train station it was fortunate that there was a minibus taking people to their halls of residences. Phew. At Neuadd John Morris Jones I seemed to be the only person who had made his own way there. Everyone else had turned up in a Volvo estate with ma and pa. I can tell you it made me feel quite superior.

Nowadays it is a different generation of Davies’ going to University. Kid2 has just finished her second year at Durham. I went to pick her up in the Jeep. It’s a good job the car is a big one. With five seats flat in the back two rows we still filled the boot. Took us an hour the two of us to load up. I’m not complaining. It’s what dads are there for. Girls have different needs to boys don’t they? Eh?

Just thought you’d appreciate the pics of all the stuff. I thought I’ve leave enough room to just see out through the rear view mirror but it didn’t work out like that. The last photo is of the pile of rubbish in the back alley outside the house. Most of the properties in the street will have been rented out to students. Nothing changes.

The contents of the Jeep filling up our front room.

Note the token carton of milk.

Kid2 is off abroad now for her year out. In one sense it makes no difference whether she is in Durham or anywhere else in the world. Facebook and Google Hangouts keeps us in touch. I dropped her off at East Midlands Airport this morning. No hanging about! She will be back in three weeks for a flying visit and then off again to start work proper in Toledo. Don’t mind telling you I’m proud of her.

One other final note. During the week she accidentally spilt water on her Chromebook. It is now kaput. £200 later the new one was up and running in seconds. You know it makes sense…

fun stuff Weekend

Carholme Golf Club 36 Hole Comp honours board.

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Sunday, 22 June, 2014
No Comments on Carholme Golf Club 36 Hole Comp honours board.

36 hole competition honours board ay carholme golf club in lincoln

Played Carholme Golf Club yesterday. Used to be a member but not been back for perhaps 25 years or more. Check out 1985 on the honours board for the 36 hole medal comp. Ahem.

Beautiful sunny day. Played crap but a good time was had with good company with a very refreshing lager shandy in the clubhouse after the game.

When I first moved to Lincoln I lived near Carholme Golf Club. Didn’t have a car in those days so I kept my clubs in a locker and used to walk there.

fun stuff travel Weekend

Alex Murphy’s Life in India: Driving

Post author By Alex Murphy
Post date Saturday, 21 June, 2014
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Guest contributor Alex Murphy is President at DCM Shriram and a Privilege Member at Rugby Football Union. From time to time will be sharing his thoughts and observations from his life in Gurgaon, Haryana, India. Today marks his first time writing for trefor.net.

The drive to work throws up the usual list of crazy antics this morning. However the bodies of four dogs lay by the side of the road, victims of late night speeding drivers who don’t even slow up at the point of impact. Their bodies will be gathered up later, taken away and boiled to make patent glue. I also got overtaken by a cop bike with flashing lights, with three cops on it, two with machine guns!

Every morning you see cars and auto-ricks full to the top with people. 10 in a fiesta sized car is nothing unusual and 16 in an auto-rick, about the size of an escort van, is my record. No seat belts, unrestrained children and 180,000 deaths a year. But there is no choice. 1.2 billion people have to move around. They have little money and they must share whatever mode of transport is available. If that means over loading cars, sitting on the roof of buses, hanging precariously onto trains, then that’s what they have to do to reach their destination. The goody goody mob from Europe, the anally challenged safety crazed serial jobs worth would explode if they looked at what goes on here. But there really is no alternative. The transport infrastructure simply does not exist to move the volumes who need moving daily in a controlled, safe way. Yes they take a risk every day getting on sub standard buses, auto-ricks held together with Sellotape and cars that would not be out of place in a destruction derby in UK. But the name of the game here is survival, and for that they are prepared to take the ultimate risk and tragically all too often pay the ultimate price.

I’ve also learned another important lesson this week, Indian drivers only look forward. Not left, right or backwards. They have no peripheral vision. They have mirrors, but mostly they are folded against the vehicle to stop two wheelers ripping them off. But as everyone only looks forward then it’s accepted that you only have responsibility for what’s in front of you. Thus when you join a main road from a slip road, it’s not your problem what’s coming from behind, they are responsible for varying their path to avoid collision. And it’s the same everywhere, if you are behind, you must find the solution. Funnily enough in a wired kind of way it works. The high levels of road deaths are not due to the quirky driving. They are usually speed, alcohol and truck related, with many being pedestrians who wander into the roads on the assumption traffic will stop, it doesn’t. Can it be changed? No I don’t think it can. I saw a guy on a mobile phone this morning so totally engrossed in his conversation he ran into a parked car. He drove on, without a second thought. Now, I still try and drive like a Brit, but truth be told if you give way, merge in turn, stop at red lights, drive the correct way down a dual carriageway, graciously let traffic in, then you will get nowhere very very slowly.

I love India, the most challenging place on earth, the most delightful people on earth, the most vibrant economy on earth…..did I mention the challenge? Oh and of course the traffic!

Owed to the Laundromat

Friday afternoon finds me well-lunched (New Mexican-ish place that opened nearby about a month ago) and passing roughly 45 minutes at a laundromat that is about 100 steps from the door to our building in Paris’s 18th Arrondissement.

Decidedly not Web 2.0 — no wifi, no URL on the door or windows, no comment field anywhere upon which to register user opinion — the local laverie (that’s French for…well, I trust you can work that out, cherished reader) is actually proving to be somewhat comforting in the mere fact that it has seemingly not changed a lick since my first and only previous visit almost 13 years ago (that being right after My Missus and I moved into our flat at 57 Boulevard Barbes and before the delivery and hookup of our washer and dryer, natch). Of course, the pricing is different now with regard to both the amount and the currency, but everything else is the same or similar enough to register as such…the basic floor plan, types of machines in service, signage, the definitive lack of furniture upon which to wait for the various cycles to complete, the character stereotypes aiding me in occupying the place (and we aren’t talking butcher, baker, or candlestick maker)…

==> To answer the hanging question for the one person out there who might crave the answer, my lavage moment is brought to you today by frugality and a need to clean a winter duvet that is simply too bulky to launder at home (and which the La Famille Kessel decision-makers are good and sick of paying the teinturier — dry cleaner — upwards of €50 to clean every spring). <==

I must admit that a broad idiot’s smile broke across my face when I realized a few moments ago that this is only my 2nd time in a laundromat in a great many years. The reason for said smile being that before that September 2001 visit to my current perch — with the exception of 1993, a year I spent living in a big house with three other people (and a washer and dryer) — I could always count on spending two hours every couple of weeks passing the time exactly as I am now, reading and writing amongst giant industrial behemoths chewing on my washable wearables and slucking down my hoarded dimes and quarters for the privilege.

Through the dormitory years, frathouse life, this apartment, that apartment, another apartment, apartment-apartment-apartment, and on through a house that while cute and cuddly was simply not able to harbor a washing machine (let alone a dryer), it was a steady diet of laundromat boredom for me. Regular as phone bills and cheap thrills, lest I be a dirty boy.

In the early 1990s a wave of innovation washed over the public laundering industry in urban America, and before long laundering types had some options. You could have a drink and try your luck at picking up a fellow launderer while your clothes getting sudsed up, or you could bowl a game during the rinse cycle. Of course, the good old-fashioned laundromats that I tended to inhabit soldiered on — those offering a rundown pinball game or an ancient Pac-Man machine for entertainment…if that — but now instead of the dull sense of tedious contentment with which we old-fashioned launderers were familiar, we were instead subject to a new and strange sense of unease, knowing that somewhere out there on that mundane Laundry Night there were those who were dancing or enjoying karaoke while their unmentionables were tumbling.

Did I bite, you are no doubt wondering? Did I turn my back on the underprivileged and overworked, the single old-timers, the vagabonds and homeless folks with enough esteem to occasionally freshen and soften their garments, the students squeaking by on budgets too small to be seen with the naked eye? I did not! But then, none of the new-age laundromats were offering free Internet access.

Nearly a decade and a half of years pass. Have passed. Past. A quick google-bing today reveals that clean-your-clothes multi-tasking has continued to expand and evolve, with Laundromat-Cafés (yes, offering free wifi) and even Laundromat-Restaurants now heavy in the mix. All we need now is Laundromat-equipped office cubicle farms and the evolution of the public laundry arts will be complete.

Duvet spinning fast now. Yes, I do think there is a song in there somewhere, but it is just past the reach of my tongue at the moment. Two minutes to go and I am outtahere.

Related posts:

End User google mobile apps travel

Travel times to Oxford and mobile phone car kits

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Friday, 20 June, 2014
3 Comments on Travel times to Oxford and mobile phone car kits

As previously mentioned am picking up kid1 from Oxford today and transplanting him to Laandan, innit. Just checked on travel times with google maps to see when I need to set off. Intended to go to the gym before hitting the road. Unfortunately I haven’t got time to go to the gym. Google tells me the trip will take 2 hours 37 minutes to do the 132 miles and I will also want to stop for a spot of lunch, a cheeky KFC maybe (only for convenience when travelling of course).

That means I should have headed to the gym a good half an hour ago. Ah well.

In looking at google maps I wondered how long it would take to walk. That would make up for not going to the gym. 40 hours but only 121 miles. It’s a more direct route and avoids motorways obvs. Not practical as I need to be in Oxford by 2pm and the whole point of the journey is that I need the car to carry all kid1’s stuff. Taking public transport is also not an option as it would take 3 hours 42 mins and as per the walking option we wouldn’t have the car to carry his stuff in our onward direction.

For completeness I thought you’d like to know that were I to cycle it should take 12 hours 3 minutes to do the 141 miles. Don’t ask why they tell cyclists to take a longer route than the pedestrians. Maybe the latter uses pedestrian precincts for part of the trip. Would make sense as one could probably buy a sandwich and a bottle of water from a shop from the pedestrian precinct. The getting there by plane option is greyed out, presumably because google realises that Lincoln only has RAF airfields and no commercial airport.

It does somewhat come as a surprise that google hasn’t recommended any hotels for an overnight stay on both the pedestrian and cycling maps. Surely they don’t think I’d be able to walk for 40 hours without an overnight stay. It would be a miracle if I could walk that distance full stop, without getting into training for it. Same applies for the cycling – one’s bum would get particularly sore I’d imagine.

So the car is it and it is nearly time for me to hit the road. Before I go I’d like to relate a telephone conversation with Kevin Murphy of BT (he of running the Olympics project for BT fame and who now runs voice for that company). I was at the garage getting my car boot hydraulics fixed so that the boot would stay up without my having to use a broom handle to prop it up – v handy when moving a kid from Oxford to Laandan. I was on my mobile in the garage ~~canteen~~ room with table and chair and the darn phone got cut off three times. It as only after the third time and I was looking out of the window when I saw Dave the mechanic gesturing. Whenever he moved the car the bloomin hands free system took over the phone audio and I lost the conversation.

I switched off bluetooth, rang Kevin back again and finished the discussion. Kevin is coming to do the Keynote speech at ITSPA’s forthcoming 10th Anniversary celebrations on July 3rd. Check it out here. If you are in the VoIP game you should be there.

That’s it. Gotta go to Oxford. Ciao.

Other fairly interesting google maps posts:

Jet tries to land in Russell Square
Google location incorrect since moving home

End User fun stuff

Testing testing 1 2 1 2 – pixels from around a University @unilincoln

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Thursday, 19 June, 2014
No Comments on Testing testing 1 2 1 2 – pixels from around a University @unilincoln

Ya get out of the office and what do you see? Well out front there are swans swimming lazily along on the water. The red brick building is the library. My office is to the left where that sticky out yellow bit is but on the other side.

The library as seen from the back and just outside my office looks like this. Nice reflection in the glass. The site was a part of the old railway sidings near the now defunct St Marks Station in Lincoln. Not many students in there now that term is coming to an end (yay, school’s out, for summer).

So this afternoon I walked to the gym. The route takes me past a pond of some sort. Watery stuff anyway. I saw this lifebuoy and was prompted to take a pic. I do that kind of thing.

Going or some reason I cast my pixels on the other side and found no lifebuoy. Hope the students haven’t nicked it. That would be irresponsible. In my day it was estate agents signs. I make no judgement. I merely observe.

Next to the non lifebuoy I found a post that I found interesting enough to photograph. Andy Davidson would approve I’m sure although he would have done a better job of it. Note the football floating in the water behind the post. Oops or oh dear. You choose.

Next up is a view of the water. The floating football can be clearly seen, fwiw. Lots of algal growth on said water. No idea if there are any fish in there. Doubt it.

And finally, my Lords, Laidees and gennelmun a view of a cherry picker outside the Gym. Looks like they are changing a light bulb. That’s the downside of having lots of street lights (Street Lights, there ain’t no place I can’t see – Crusaders Lincoln Uni remix version).

This has been a test post to check out the photo sizing feature in WordPress. It works. Thanks Rob. More on photos in a couple of weeks time.

Other pixel filled university related posts worth a skeet:

A view of Lincoln University from the office

That’s all I could find.

food and drink Weekend

Spot the difference – a bowl of breakfast cereal with fruit @jeffpulver might approve, maybe

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Thursday, 19 June, 2014
No Comments on Spot the difference – a bowl of breakfast cereal with fruit @jeffpulver might approve, maybe

Sometimes the simple things in life are the best. A couple of Weetabix, fresh raspberries, chuck in a handful of blueberries and chop up a banana and off you go.

But hey, wait a minute. There is no milk. You can’t have Weetabix without milk. I realise some do but they are not the norm (and I refrain from further exploring that thread). No problemo. You want milk? Here is milk. Semi skimmed. Yum.

This post has been brought to you by a slightly annoyed Trefor Davies who today went swimming, came home and ate the breakfast as illustrated, walked to work and has just come back from the gym having forgotten to bring his shorts! Last weekend I went to the gym and forgot to take my trainers! Where will it all end. What will Anthony say?!

Other truly scrumptious food related posts:

How to cook the perfect baked bean
Best pancake toppings
Important announcement on a Sunday morning