Category: Weekend

something for the weekend – interesting non work related posts

Flying Away on a Wing and a Prayer

Post author By Kory Kessel
Post date Thursday, 19 June, 2014
No Comments on Flying Away on a Wing and a Prayer

I’ve been daydreaming about technology. Again.

Oftentimes you will see me, fingers unmoving on my keyboard, my mind skimming the clouds (not “the cloud”), blissfully imagining features that I want/need/must have in my next computer.

**Cue dreamy fantasy, Fender Rhodes-ish, 1970s-era TV comedy music. Cue LOUD thunder crack.**

…a monster SSD (I recently carved a Samsung M9T 2TB HHD from a sealed-and-not-meant-to-be-opened Backup Plus external hard drive to install in AppleKory, so you know that when I write “monster” I am not messing around…s’gotta be BIG), a good degree of voice command capability, a separate GPU, a battery that can reliably deliver 10+ hours of juice regardless of use intensity, integrated cellular Internet connectivity, and — naturally — MacBook-level build quality across the board…

**Fade out goofy cue-in music underlay.**

Integrated cellular connectivity. Something of a Holy Grail among a great many of us who drive MacBooks, this functionality has been on my “Features and Functions for AppleKory Upgrade” list (yes, I really do keep such a thing…don’t you?) for so long that I am not entirely sure I can reclaim the pixels. That said, my blue-sky tech whimsy is relegated not only to computers but also to smartphones, those marvelous wonders of technology that by their very nature connect to the Internet via cellular. Regular readers know, of course, that I am deeply ensconced (stuck?) in the the search for my next smartphone, which at this point still looks to be the Samsung Galaxy K Zoom. I have yet to actually put my hands on the GKZ, however, and as my near-decision to be among the Zoomed has me feeling as shaky as it does giddy, I am guessing there is a moment of reckoning waiting for me once the darn thing actually becomes available in France. Early reviews are all over the place, though they all seem to reflect less the smartphone’s build quality and feature set and more the usage values of the reviewers themselves. In aggregate, though, those reviews fall mostly in line with expectation, describing the not-so-little bugger as a “niche product”…a niche that, when described, sounds an awful lot like one into which I enjoy lanyard pass access. Still, it seems that every week there is yet another new player on the field that deserves consideration — just yesterday Amazon’s Jeff Bezos splashily announced his company’s entry to the Smartphone Wars, the Amazon Fire Phone, which has not one and not two but SIX cameras on-board — and until such time as I can try on the Galaxy K Zoom for size (and weight) my musings on the device will be blue-sky whimsy indeed.

**Cue dreamy fantasy, Fender Rhodes-ish, 1970s-era TV comedy music. Cue LOUD thunder crack.**

…ready to perform as smartphone and compact camera, and serving well as both while requiring the precious pocket space of of just one…sharp and responsive camera function, especially in low-light situations requiring tight optical zoom…well-designed apps serving essential and not-so-essential needs…easy and thoughtful interaction and synchronization with AppleKory…elevation of my walkabout effectiveness from the sludgy puddle into which my iPhone 4 currently has it imprisoned…ah, bliss…

**Fade out goofy music.**

Pie in the sky, baby!

So have you gotten the impression that for me it is all about the Internet? Nay, I say! Let’s have a little talk about tweedle beetles…er, cameras (and set aside the fact that many of them these days have some kind of Internet capability, because nobody buys a camera primarily for that). Up front, let me say that nearly four years in I continue to be utterly besotted with my Leica D-Lux 5 (the lovely Leyna). Despite this, however, nary a full day passes without me dropping into some camera review site or another (dpreview.com, I’m talkin’ ’bout you) and gorging myself on the latest this-and-that in the world of photo-taking apparatus goodness. My next camera…my next camera…

**Cue silly dream fantasy whatnot music for last time. LOUD thunder crack, too.**

…weather-resistant…compact size, but with interchangeable lenses…built-in wifi file transfer capability…insanely-high resolution EVF and rearview monitor…somewhat retro…finger-tingling build quality…

**Fade out. End the darn post already.**

Yes, yes, me likes me cameras.

Me also…I also (Bizarro voice only works in teeny tiny doses) thirst to soar with new-gadget-happy, like all qualifying tech geeks who have over the years read an embarrassing number of comic books and tuned into far too much sci-fi television. I am sorry to say, though, that the wearable-whatever getting most of the ink these days just isn’t getting me up to escape velocity. I haven’t worn a watch on my wrist since 1992, a streak that I cannot imagine coming to an end any time soon, iWatch or whichever Dick Tracy contraption notwithstanding (including this watch). And as for Google Glass, I have never been able to get my head around the idea of wearing glasses for reasons other than dire necessity (2-D cinema-going guy that I am), and more than halfway to my own personal Finish Line I have yet to encounter a pair of sunglasses that looked like anything other than a waste of money. iBelt? Amazon Fire Shoes? A power ring or magic lasso? No no no no no. I don’t daydream about wearing my gadget tech these days…I want it IMPLANTED!

Pissup In A Brewery free tickets competition No 3 – corny football sayings

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Thursday, 19 June, 2014
2 Comments on Pissup In A Brewery free tickets competition No 3 – corny football sayings

Yeehaw. Another day another competition to win tickets to the Pissup In A Brewery. Today is a big world cup football day for England so I thought that we’d keep it simple. Hit me with a corny or funny football related saying or quote. Best ones will get tix. eg it was a game of two halves, really pleased for Chalky, thought Nobby did well to get his head to that one etc. Can’t reuse these ones obvs – I’m sure you can do better. Read about other unbelievable but true competitions: What is my favourite beer? Win free VIP tickets to a Pissup

fun stuff

A game of two halves, a bit of extra time and the hopes of a nation – England v Uruguay

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Thursday, 19 June, 2014
2 Comments on A game of two halves, a bit of extra time and the hopes of a nation – England v Uruguay

England v Uruguay – trefor.net reports in the build up to the latest most important match for England.

England v Uruguay – a game of two halves, report on two halves for an audience of two halves – I suspect that a big chunk of the readership of this blog are not the least bit interested in football. I’m not particularly interested meself. Although you do occasionally get an exciting match this is quite rare and games are often quite tedious with very few goals to liven up the proceedings. This is usually the case when it comes to FA Cup Finals where both sides are more desperate to not lose than to win and also England games where the team rarely gels and offers a cardboard display of football.

Tonight then is the big one. It’s not big in the same way that the World Cup Final is big. It’s big in the sense that once more England need to win to have a hope of proceeding to the next stage of the tourney. The problem is that Uruguay are in the same boat so they aren’t going to just roll over and say “oh okay then”. If this was a run of the mill international you would probably bet on Uruguay to win. As it happens this game is a little akin to the FA Cup where there may well be a favourite but actually anything can happen.

Mind you I don’t feel the same sense of excitement in the air that existed during the last world cup where the whole country seemed implausibly optimistic about progression “at least through to the semis and then who knows…”. I will watch the game as the kids and my wife will be sat in front of the TV with the latter getting particularly emulsional.

I envisage several posts match interview texts being prepared:

The win: I was really pleased for the lads. It was a game of two halves and we went in to the dressing room at half time knowing we had a job to do. Some of the senior players had their say and we went out for the second half determined to do our best for the fans. I thought that Nobby was outstanding in defence and Jacko’s goal was superb. He could easily have had two or three more. Davo was his brilliant self and some of his passes really made the differences from the left wing. The real hero for me though was Bert in goal. How he managed to keep that Carlos/Louis/Juan/Miguel/Josef/Pablo/Emile/Rodgigo ¹ goal out in the last minute of added time I will never know. We now have go back to our hotel, relax a bit and prepare for the next match.

The loss: Gutted…disappointed…things just didn’t work for us out there tonight… nngggg … guurrrgghh … Dobbo …

The press is going to have a field day whatever the result. A win will mean lots of further excitement on the first 20 pages of the tabloids. Page 3 will have a girl wearing nothing but a pair of England football shorts and waving two flags of St George. A loss will have calls to sack the manager, demands for an independent high level investigation into why the team is so crap and never gets anywhere on the big stage together with loud mutterings that the Premier League might well be the best in the world but there aren’t enough English players playing in it.

Ah well. The game could go either way. The most important thing is to make sure that the fridge has enough beer in it to last the whole match.

Who loves ya baby?

¹ take yer pick

Tags fifa

food and drink

The Definitive Beetroot Sandwich

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Tuesday, 17 June, 2014
2 Comments on The Definitive Beetroot Sandwich

The definitive beetroot sandwich. This post was originally published on philosopherontap and is reproduced here by kind permission of my sister Sue, though I haven’t actually asked her (I’m sure it will be ok).

Ordinarily this kind of flagrant plagiarism is frowned upon by the SEO powers that be at Google but the original post is so good that to alter it would be an insult to the artistic integrity of its author. The post is therefore reproduced unaltered except for this preamble and for the featured image which didn’t appear in the original.

The subject of the image itself is a somewhat grubby jar of Waitrose pickled beetroot as opposed to an actual beetroot sandwich. That is because I don’t like beetroot sandwiches (soz) and therefore to make one just for the photograph would have been a waste of good food. I will eat beetroot as a side item in a salad, preferably a baby beet.

Not sure I approve of the salt btw but if that’s what the recipe calls for…

Read on:

Ingredients
1 Large, crusty, unsliced white loaf
Butter
1 Jar pickled baby beets
Salt to taste

Equipment
1 x side plate (or larger depending on the size of your bread) for presentation
1 x bread knife
1 x knife, fork, teaspoon

Using your bread knife, take your large unsliced loaf and cut two thick doorstop slices. If your bread is of the variety which tapers at each end (eg. a Bloomer), make sure you have two slices of the same size. Butter your bread liberally across the whole face of the slice.

Next, open your jar of Baby Pickled Beets. Note – it must be baby beetroot as the bigger variety can sometimes be too crunchy which detracts from the overall quality of the result. Using your teaspoon, select your baby beet, removing it from the jar to the plate. Take your knife and fork and cut the beetroot into generous, chunky slices. Arrange on the buttered bread. Apply seasoning as appropriate. Place finished sandwich on the same plate that you used to cut the beetroot as this will give you the opportunity to soak up all that extra vinegary, beetrooty, loveliness. Serve with large mug of steaming black filter coffee.

Variations
Some schools of thought state that the beetroot slicing should be on a separate plate. They are wrong. Others dictate that pre-sliced beetroot be used, and sometimes even the crinkle cut variety. I can understand this approach as it does take a step out of the process, and avoids dying ones fingers purple, but it does mean you cannot express your individuality in the chunkiness of your beetroot slices.

Warning
Loading your sandwich with too many beetroot chunks can result in mid-bite overflow. If you’re going to do this, make sure you’re wearing appropriate protective clothing.

Other eminently digestable sandwich reads include:

The fish finger sandwich
The perfect bacon sandwich
Rook’s off
Ice cream sandwich

food and drink

The fish finger sandwich

Before: a bed of Hovis sliced granary bread liberally spread with butter and with a moderate squeeze of Heinz tomato ketchup.

With: that same bed of Hovis but now with three Young’s haddock fish fingers grilled and laid from top to bottom across the right hand slice.

A gourmet sandwich. After hitting the gym at lunchtime you get home ravenous but need to head out quickly to watch Kid4 play cricket. Time is short. A fish finger sandwich is perfect for the job.

No instructions are needed. The construction of the sandwich is intuitive. Timeless. The choice of bread is personal but that bread should not be toasted. The fish fingers need to squash into the softness of the fresh bread. Tonight I had a glass of water to accompany the sandwich but milk would probably have been a better choice.

Note plain white plate on a black marbled effect worktop background. Either it is important or it isn’t. Your choice. You’re a big boy¹ now. The knife visible to the right of the photograph is leaning on the edge of the plate and had to be removed in between shots whilst the plate was taken to the grill for the application of the fish fingers.

Other truly historic sandwich reads include:

The perfect bacon sandwich
Rook’s off
Ice cream sandwich

¹ or girl, depending on which one you are (obvs)

competitions food and drink fun stuff peering

Win more Pissup In A Brewery tickets – competition # 2 – what is my favourite beer?

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Tuesday, 17 June, 2014
2 Comments on Win more Pissup In A Brewery tickets – competition # 2 – what is my favourite beer?

Okeydokey here goes competition number 2. Seeing as this is a Pissup In A Brewery we are talking about what is my favourite beer? There are clues to be found around trefor.net but I’m not going to help you any more than that.

Answers by noon tomorrow as after that I have to go to a speed reduction seminar that starts at 1pm – 36 in a 30. Fair cop guv. Slap the cuffs on.

If you missed competition number one here it is but it is now closed. Note 19 LinkedIn shares fair play. LinkedIn members have their priorities set right.

events food and drink fun stuff

Win free VIP tickets to Pissup In A Brewery

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Monday, 16 June, 2014
5 Comments on Win free VIP tickets to Pissup In A Brewery

Every day this week you can win a free VIP ticket worth £120 to the world famous trefor.net Pissup In A Brewery. trefor.net is known for its Christmas bash. Well now we have a summer bash and it is genuinely a Pissup In A Brewery.

The venue is the new Fourpure Brewery, one of the industry’s rising stars, where you can sample a wide range of real ales and lagers as brewed by one of London’s youngest and most exciting brewers, Dan Lowe.

Details of the event are here.

To win your free ticket you need to complete the following sentence “I like beer because…”. I might give out more than one prize if we get some good answers.

Deadline is sometime tomorrow morning at which point we will have a new competition.

Bad Stuff food and drink

6 tins or 4? – baked bean best buys

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Monday, 16 June, 2014
3 Comments on 6 tins or 4? – baked bean best buys

Roll up roll up get yer 4 pack of Heinz baked beans ‘ere. Only £2.50.

No wait. Roll up roll up get yer 6 pack of Heinz baked beans ‘ere. Only £2.50.

Really annoys me this. Supermarkets are full of sharp practice like this. I could be charitable and say that they might just be trying to shift some six packs of beans but it just doesn’t feel right. Why bother putting the 4 packs on sale at all when the 6 pack offer was running.You see similar examples all over the shop where they make it very difficult to decide what is a good deal or not.

Note also how they have labelled one as a price per Kg and one as per 100g. They have even got it wrong there. If I was paying £1.01 per 100g that would be an expensive tin of baked beans.

It’s beans on toast with bacon for supper tonight btw. I bought a sixpack.

End User events food and drink

A father’s day message

There are four ways of approaching father’s day: as a son, a father, as oneself and with the whole thing as a load of commercial cobblers.

As a son my thoughts naturally turn to my eighty year old dad in the Isle of Man. I’ll give him a bell later this morning. We’ll have a chat about nothing. Had I been at home we might have gone out for a few holes of golf except that at the ripe old age of eighty he now only plays during the week at an appropriately leisurely pace. I speak to him most days in any case.

At eighty he soldiers on. I am his IT support and was yesterday woefully lacking as I wasn’t able to replicate his Google+ scenario for troubleshooting on my own iPad. He has an iPad 2 and mine is an original. In fact I couldn’t get the Google+ App to work on my own iPad! It’s all a load of codswallop.

When I go and visit we normally pop around to the Whitehouse pub for a couple of pints before dinner. They have a lovely little snug there with a coal fire which is often on even in the summer. It’s only a hundred yards or so from our house. Not bad I say. When we get home dinner will be ready. Perfect.

As a father I don’t really expect much from the kids. It’s all a load of commercially invented tosh anyway (see point 4). No card, barely a half remembered acknowledgement that it is father’s day. In fact the kids and I only realised that it was father’s day when we saw something on a TV ad about it last night.

So no cup of tea in bed this morning from adoring and reverential smiling faces. They are all still snoring away having stayed up late to watch England lose to Italy in their World Cup opener. I won’t see them until mid morning. Will cook my own bacon.

There may be a phone call from the two older ones who are not at home. Tom will actually call with his mobile. Hannah will expect me to be on Facebook this evening at which point we will just arrange to move to a Google Hangout. We don’t start on Google. Shows that Google+ still has a way to go to become the social network of choice for that demographic.

When I think of it I rarely engage with anyone on Google+. Just use Hangouts via the gmail interface or the Hangouts app on my droid.

At least we will have a barbecue this evening with the two kids remaining at home. Just the three of us. Anne is away seeing her own dad. On this basis we get to choose what we do foodwise anyway. I bought some chicken to make a chicken salad last night. Ended up getting a Dominos pizza delivered before the England game. BBQ chicken it is tonight then. I have a nice bottle of red and we may just stroll to the cricket club before hand for a relaxing cold beer whilst watching a bit of leather on willow.

The approach to father’s day as an individual may be considered to be the equivalent to what one does on one’s birthday. In other words do what you like, within reason. Today I will be cooking a bit of breakfast – not too heavy as I want to go to the gym later. After breakfast I have some sorting out to do. The brick workshop which is now just used as a garden store needs tidying up to make room for some shelves from the garage. The shelves from the garage are being moved to allow the new bench to move in.

The bench is waiting for the space to become available before final assembly. It was built to order by a bloke in Suffolk and arrived a couple of weeks ago so needs sorting. Before I can do that I have to clear the garage out and paint the floor. I did consider ecotiles but green garage floor paint makes more sense in our case as sometimes the drain across the front of the garage door blocks with leaves and we get water in. Need to stay on top of that. The upshot is that a painted concrete floor will be more appropriate in our case as it is less likely to be spoiled. That is probably a job for next weekend.

The one other schedule item today is a practice of the musical threesome we have assembled for some friends silver wedding anniversary in August. That’s me on geetar an vocals, Steve on slide and Joe on horn plus any other of the multiple instruments he can play. We did our first gig for the Curle Avenue Diamond Jubilee street party and called ourselves Los Trios Paranoias. Disappointingly I note that there has already been a band of that name so we will have to come up with another unless we call ourselves a tribute band. I doubt we play any of their material – in fact I don’t even know what music they played.

Finally there is of course the approach that all this is total commercial rubbish with no basis of tradition (since 1987!?). This is in fact the view to which I subscribe. Having said that I will still ring my dad, still half expect a call from the kids, still do my own thing today and still expect a cooked breakfast to be served up. Oh no wait. They are still in bed…

Happy Father’s day to all dads out there. Get in that shed!

Another terrific father’s day read:

Like father like daughter

The header photo is of breakfast at Silva’s – finest greasy spoon in London on Shaftesbury Avenue.

Business ecommerce Weekend

It’s the weekend yay and I have lots of junk mail

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Saturday, 14 June, 2014
No Comments on It’s the weekend yay and I have lots of junk mail

It’s the weekend yay and I have lots of junk mail to catch up with. Normally this only takes 2 seconds. Virgin Media keep soliciting business and miscellaneous crappy insurance offers.

One letter sticks. It’s about the fact that I didn’t appear to have paid my mortgage for two months. Sigh. My mortgage goes out by standing order, automatically, I never have to look at it. Does anyone?

I call C&G bracing myself for a protracted time on the phone. Miraculously I get through to someone straight away. It turns out the bank cancelled the DD. Sigh. I only recently had an issue with them where they took too much out. Sigh.

The letter I received from C&G mentioned that if I continued with my arrears I’d be stung with a fairly hefty fee. Sigh. I paid the outstanding balance over the phone but in parting the guy at the other end mentioned that it wasn’t totally out of the question that I might get charged additional interest for the unpaid monies. Sigh.

This of course was out of the question and likely to lead to me having to waste an hour of someone’s time in visiting the bank to sort it out. He wasn’t able to say for sure and neither was he able to say how I would know it had happened. Would it appear as an extra payment or just added to the outstanding balance? Sigh. He did mention that with the interest rates at all time low it wasn’t likely to be much money. Even if it is only one pence it is too much and would engender aggravation for both me and the bank.

It all come down to outdated systems. Outdated systems mean lots of manual processing and especially manual processing of errors. I bet a bank could get rid of 30% of its staff, and therefore costs by improving its systems. Probably too big a task leaving us the punters to pick up the bill in terms of greying hair, loss of hair and increased waistlines caused by comfort eating to alleviate the stress of it all.

To alleviate some of this stress I’ve just gone through the pile of junk mail and where there was a freepost envelope stuck the junk into this to return to the sender. Barclaycard specifically. Unfortunately there wasn’t a freepost envelop in the Virgin Media mailer and they are the worst culprits. They must spend a fortune on Direct Mail. I thought people weren’t allowed to send junk DM. My name must be on a list somewhere. Sigh.

Other truly inspirational posts with titles that include the word “bank”

Nice picture of crocii near the Embankment
Lloyds bank – 2 out of 7 servers down
My first Banksy

And if you’re wondering about the picture of the flower. Something to raise a smile:) One has to you know.

competitions End User events fun stuff H/W internet media Mobile mobile connectivity Net obsolescence piracy

Watching the Football

Yesterday a friend of mine in the UK asked me if I was “going to watch the football”, stating his own excitement over the soon-upon-us 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil (the official label of the event, if the website is any indicator), and then asking “Have you converted a little? Soccer to you, I guess.”

Sigh.

I actually converted 20 years ago as a direct result of the excitement surrounding the 1994 FIFA World Cup. Of course, the football punditry out there will immediately assume that this American finally clued in that year due to the tournament being held in the U.S. for the first (and so far only) time, however that assumption would not only be disingenuous but wrong too. No, my sports imagination was finally captured by International football in 1994 not because I was swept up in host country hoopla, but because I was living/working/traveling Europe that year and found myself instead swept up in the remarkable national enthusiasm and spontaneous celebrations I encountered in England, Scotland, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany as the tournament played out. Walking around Namur, Belgium, for instance, on a Tuesday night in early July, seeking out a priced-right-for-a-backpacker dinner, I was left aghast and delighted by the string of cars going by with horns a-blarin’, people hanging out the windows hooting and hollering and waving the Italian flag. The people of one country so unabashedly showing their colors, whooping it up on the streets of another country…what is this International sporting thing, anyway? And then five days later, being fortuitous enough to be in Germany to witness first-hand the crashing out of the Germany team¹…I was hooked!

1994. The world turned its eyes and ears to the most commercial country in the world to watch “The Beautiful Game” on television and radio, and only on television and radio. And not a single URL in sight.

When my pal asked me whether I was going to tune into the 2014 FIFA World Cup my knee-jerk first thought was “Will it be available via the Internet?” to which my second thought instantly responded “Are you kidding? Of course.” Sure, I know the games will be broadcast on television, and I am relatively sure the one we have in the main room still works (The Boy watches it from time to time…I think), but it wasn’t until long after I answered my friend’s oh-so-rhetorical question that I even paid a thought to the idea of actually using the device to watch a match.

Naturally, the picture the Chez Kessel television delivers is plenty sharp (as so many are these days, we are Triple Play kitted), and something prompted me long ago to wire the sound to come through our stereo speakers (think it was the 2006 FIFA World Cup that prompted that…friggin’ Marco Materazzi, sister-and-mother-insulting classless b*stard), so it isn’t a poor viewing option that had me defaulting to the Internet as my top-of-mind football entertainment resource. It’s just…well…you see…c’mon, you know…it is so much easier to simultaneously Web-out with ⌘+Tab (Alt+Tab for the Windows-fettered readers out there, and whatever-equivalent for UNIX deities and whichever others) than it is via some lap-bound or hand-bound device supplementary to the television.

Addiction. Always lurking, eminently humanizing, and available in oh-so-many forms.

1994. When to the layman “Internet” meant email and bulletin boards and nothing more. The World Wide Web was just starting to poke its head up, and “streaming” was a word relegated to tape data backups.

Without admitting to anything (and there will be no Q&A), I will cagily say here that a long time has passed since I last watched a television program at the time of broadcast (other, that is, than hypnotized channel-surfing-and-staring borne of jetlag). This is not to say that I am accomplishing the impossible, foregoing television entertainment in what is unquestionably a golden age for the medium (too many programs to list, but suffice it to say that I can speak “The Wire”, “The Sopranos”, “Breaking Bad”, “Mad Men”, and this Millenium’s “Battlestar Galactica” reboot with anyone…buncha great UK-produced programs, too!). I do, though, manage to forego the starchy advertising that comes with all of the good TV meat on offer, and without littering my shelves and floorspace with DVD sets gathering dust.

Yes, packaged up nice-and-digital and stripped of its impurities, television for me has come to mean the Internet. And I find it a richer and far more satisfying experience for that, too. ==>Twenty-three minutes into the sixth episode of Season Two of “The Americans” a reference is made to an earlier plot point that I skied past. Pause. ⌘+Tab to Google Chrome. Type “The Americans episodes ” into the Address/Search field. A quick click and read. ⌘+Tab back to VLC. Un-Pause. Good to go.<== Of course, certain television events practically demand in-progress viewing — cannot-turn-away news events and, yes, some sporting events (though "condensed" recordings can now be acquired after the fact, such as three-plus hour American Football games boiled down to 58 minutes!) — but these have not kept that really big monitor in our flat's central room from looking more and more novel with each passing season. 1994. Televisions were definitively three-dimensional, whereas the scripted programming they delivered to the quivering and drooling masses was two-dimensional at its very best. Which inevitably brings me back to "watching the football". I imagine that as was the case the last time around, La Famille Kessel will ease slowly into 2014 FIFA World Cup action, eventually ramping up interest as the meaning of the games increases (and if France makes a move, as in '06, getting downright rabid about it all). And as that happens our somewhat dusty black Samsung-emblazoned flat-panel Living Room window into the Global Village (clichés flowing thick and furious here at the end) will no doubt once again find its purpose. ¹Is there anyone who isn’t German that likes to see Germany win at anything? 🙂

Related posts:

travel

The trefor.net #orlandoroadtrip #GBP14 Day 7 Cheap Trick gig at Hard Rock

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Wednesday, 11 June, 2014
No Comments on The trefor.net #orlandoroadtrip #GBP14 Day 7 Cheap Trick gig at Hard Rock

Went to Cheap Trick gig at the Hard Rock in Universal Studios last night. Impressive location. Band were loud and rocky. They were big in the 70s and I imagine that at that time they would have had wild gigs.

Hit the hay about midnight and was up bright and early at 6.30 to go to the gym. The header photo is of the pool en route to the gym at around 6.45 am.

WebRTC sessions at #GBP14. More on this in a post which may not appear until next week. It merits some consideration but I can tell you this conference has given me some food for thought in the WebRTC space.

Pics are mainly from last night at the Hard Rock

Complete set of unbelievably brilliant posts on the #orlandoroadtrip to date:

Day 6 – #GBP14 proper begins
Day 5 – golf
Day 4 – Kennedy Space Centre
Day 3 – Hawaiian Shirts, alligators and beer
Day 2 – BA2037
Day 1 – Ronnie Scotts & The Haywood Sisters

universal studios orlando

Engineer fun stuff

Announcing the trefor.net Pissup In A Brewery

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Wednesday, 11 June, 2014
3 Comments on Announcing the trefor.net Pissup In A Brewery

Ever been to a Pissup In A Brewery? Well we at trefor.net like to let our hair down and this summer are having a BBQ with a difference. It is indeed a “Pissup In A Brewery”, sponsored by LONAP and located at Dan Lowe’s Fourpure brewery in South Bermondsey, just 5 minutes from London Bridge.

Folk that have been to #trefbash events will not want to miss this. Get your tickets ere (Roll up, roll up roll up.) Scroll down for more information & lookout for some free ticket competitions over the next week or two.

We can start with a ticket for whoever can describe the best drinking game they have ever taken part in. My decision is final, I may award more than one prize and it may well be that the winner is drawn out of a proverbial hat (blessed are the cheesemakers or words to that effect).

Event registration for The trefor.net pissup in a brewery powered by Eventbrite

travel

The trefor.net #orlandoroadtrip day 5 #GBP14 golf

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Tuesday, 10 June, 2014
1 Comment on The trefor.net #orlandoroadtrip day 5 #GBP14 golf

Day 5 of the Genband Perspectives 14 road trip started at 6.30 am which is good. It means that my body clock is nearly in Fl time. Went to the gym for an hour’s workout – v high tech gym at the Hyatt, only downsides being all the American TV. Hey…

A simple breakfast of a croissant and a smoothie. Struggled a bit in ordering the croissant. I pronounced it in the British way – croassont. The girl behind the counter clearly had no idea what a croassont was. I quickly did a real time translation and called it a cross-aante which produced immediate results. Felt a bit daft calling it a cross-aante mind you. Got the last one. Bet they say that to all the boys.

Off to the golf in the absolutely sweltering humidity of the Florida swamps. Beautiful golf course with lots of wildlife to be seen. One of the photos below shows some make of bird of prey. There are lots and lots of them around – basically because there is lots of wildlife for them to eat.

Straight back to the hotel after the golf (we didn’t win) and into the pool to cool off. Great pool, fair play. The poolside cocktail reception was moved inside because of the threat of thunderstorms. It was a tired Tref that attended the cocktail reception and after a while some of us retired to the comfort of the Hurricane Bar next to Hemingway’s restaurant – see the cocktails. End of Monday. Stay tuned for the next exciting episode of #orlandoroadtrip.

Other super dooper #orlandoroadtrip reads include:

Day 4 Kennedy Space Centre
Day 3 – Hawaiian Shirts, alligators and beer
Day 2 – BA2037
Day 1 – Ronnie Scotts & The Haywood Sisters

the “jungle” came right to the edge of the course

me in my Tommy Bahama shirt – didn’t want to hold the gator but gave it a stroke!

travel

The trefor.net #orlandoroadtrip day 4 Kennedy Space Centre #GBP14

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Monday, 9 June, 2014
No Comments on The trefor.net #orlandoroadtrip day 4 Kennedy Space Centre #GBP14

Acclimatisation continues on day 4 in advance of the Genband Perspectives14 conference with a trip to the NASA Kennedy Space Centre in Cape Canaveral. Massively impressive place if you’ve never been. Also very hot. It hit 96 degrees centigrade on the car temperature gauge (ok thermometer).

We got there for opening time and started with a breakfast of bacon, egg, cheese on Texan toast. Then we hit the shuttle exhibit and were the only ones on launch simulator which was fun. It was very satisfying walking past signs that said “15 minutes queuing from this point”. The actual Atlantis shuttle was very impressive (a repeat of the word impressive but that is what it was).

Saw a bald eagle’s nest and a couple of alligators on the bus ride as well as the launch pads and the mobile launcher that carries the rockets to the launch pad at a fuel consumption of 1 feet per gallon. There is a launch on Thursday at 9pm but unfortunately we leave for blighty at 8pm.

The Vehicle Assembly Area, according to driver Linda, is the sixth largest building by volume in the world and can contain 250 billion ping pong balls. That would be a good Guinness World Record attempt though fraught with environmental issues if some of the balls escaped.

It was so hot driving back to Orlando we kept the car roof closed and used the aircon. Stopped off at a Dennys for lunch (Philadelphia steak sandwich) before dropping the hire car back at the rental place. Spent the rest of the afternoon in the pool before reading my book and watching the thunderstorms from my bedroom balcony. Cleared the pool.

Finished off with dinner in the hotel with some of the Genband guys and a few beers in the Hurricanes Bar. Now almost acclimatised.

British tourists coming over for their summer holidays don’t realise that it is low season here in Orlando at this time of year because of the heat. On Day 5, ie today, we have options. It’s either theme park visits or golf. I can’t imagine anything worse than visiting a theme park in this weather when I could be ~~strolling~~ riding around a Jack Nicklaus Signature golf course on a buggy.

Pics below. Stay tuned…

Other fantastic #orlandoroadtrip #GBP14 posts:

Day 3 – Hawaiian Shirts, alligators and beer
Day 2 – BA2037
Day 1 – Ronnie Scotts & The Haywood Sisters

me Matt & Dom in front of Space Shuttle Atlantis

road that mobile launcher takes to launch pad

travel

The trefor.net #orlandoroadtrip day 3 Hawaiian shirts, alligators and beer #GBP14

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Monday, 9 June, 2014
2 Comments on The trefor.net #orlandoroadtrip day 3 Hawaiian shirts, alligators and beer #GBP14

Up early, at the crack of dawn actually although dawn is later in Florida than it is at the moment in the UK. I’ve been half awake since 3.30 am because of the jet lag but feeling ok now. It’s 6.30 am in Orlando, 11.30 back home. My laptop time is still BST.

The view from my room, 869, is wonderful. Truly stunning. It evokes luxury. At this time of day there aren’t many people around. Just the occasional bod strolling around the pool area and down by the lake. The noises are tropical. Lots of water from fountains and waterfall in and around the pool together with periodic tweeting of birds.

I’m sat in shorts and tshirt with the balcony door open and can see the palm fronds below stirring gently in the breeze. It is cloudy, being the rainy season but it is warm. In theory I should go to the gym before breakfast but I’m not sure I will do so today. We are off out for the day at 11am in the rented convertible Mustang and feel a relaxing morning around the hotel will be in order.

Slight hitch with the convertible. Turns out there are two Hyatt Regency hotels in Orlando and our car is at the other one. Matt and Dom went along to pick it up whilst I hopped over to an outlet mall to buy some Levi 501s. Got two pairs for £25 each. A steal.

At the Mall I hit the jackpot. ATommy Bahama shop. They don’t have them in the UK. Tommy Bahama does the coolest shirts around. I bought two and a hat. The pics are in the gallery below.

Also in the gallery are photos of our day out. We hit a nature reserve called Black Hammock and had a ride in an airboat. The lake as 9,500 alligators in it!! We only saw two. It was too hot for them – approximately 95 degrees Farenheit.

Thence to Cape Canaveral and Grills bar where Rum Runners, scallops wrapped in bacon and lobster with Jamaican wild rice were the order of the day. Tropical perfection with a great band playing in the background. Loads of wildlife all over Florida and at Canaveral we watched Pelicans perch on wooden piles as huge cruise liners went by. I was also quite impressed to see an abundance of eagles around.

Coming home we hit a very heavy thunderstorm. Matt was driving and had to slow down almost to a crawl. One amusing incident on the way home was where Matt threw some quarters into the coin gathering machine at the toll plaza and missed. He had to try again and missed a second time at which point he was forced to get out of the car to pick one of the coins up off the floor. I had earlier told him that the cool thing to do was to not actually stop the car whilst driving through the toll area but to just toss the coins in as we drove by.

Pelicans line up on posts at Cape Canaveral

Some of the boats at Cape Canaveral go out 90 miles to try and catch the bigger fish. These are very fast craft. Enjoy the pics. look out for a post on our trip to Kennedy Space Centre tomorrow.

End User food and drink fun stuff Weekend

Saturday Snapshot (07-June-2014)

Post author By Kory Kessel
Post date Sunday, 8 June, 2014
1 Comment on Saturday Snapshot (07-June-2014)

Yesterday My Missus and I decided to cap off Saturday with “Skyfall” and a big bowl of pasta, figuring that at the ripe age of 12 The Boy and his visiting friend were both ready for a bit of Bond, made the all the more tasty accompanied by fussili drenched in freshly crushed-out pesto.

Being a well-raised soul I feel compelled to share the goods, however as 3-D food printers are still quite rare I will instead do the next best thing to help satisfy all of the hungry readers out there and share my pesto recipe, complete with not-very-good iPhone 4 photo illustration (still twiddling my thumbs waiting for Samsung’s imminent Galaxy K Zoom, but that is another story).

1. Get yourself some good walnuts.	2. Gotta crack a few walnuts.
3. Trim and clean plenty of basil. When you think you have enough, double it.	4. Place basil into your mortar, and add 1/2 teaspoon of coarse sea salt (for taste and to aid in grinding).
5. Grind the basil into pulp, add your crushed walnuts, and keep grinding.	6. Next, add your peeled and trimmed garlic…keep grinding.
7. Grind until you have a aromatic paste, heady and delicious.	8. Add a fine extra virgin (preferably unfiltered) olive oil.¹
9. Add freshly-grated parmesan to your oily paste and grind some more.	10. Taste your pesto, adjusting salt, pepper, and oil until it is just right.

Once you have your pesto ready to go, put that big pot of water on the boil. Cook pasta, drain, return pasta to pot, dump in pesto, mix it all up nice, add a tad more olive oil, mix one last time, and cue up “Skyfall” (or 2006’s “Casino Royal”, which works just as well). Serve with chopped tomatoes, chopped red onion, and extra grated parmesan on the side. Oh, you might want to make sure you have laid in a good supply of take-a-break-after-the-opening-credits ice cream, too.

¹If you cannot be bothered to use a fine extra virgin (preferably unfiltered) olive oil, toss the paste in the trash, buy a jar of ready-made, and wallow in shame.

Related posts:

fun stuff

Meet my new PA

Got a PA? Every Chief Exec has one. I figured that trefor.net needed one so I engaged a specialist agent to find the ideal PA. A PA is very handy especially for events. Often it’s the only way to get a message across, the way to get noticed in the crowd. Having a PA is the way to extend your reach – be heard in places that would otherwise not hear you.

travel

The trefor.net #orlandoroadtrip Day2 – BA2037 #GBP14

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Saturday, 7 June, 2014
4 Comments on The trefor.net #orlandoroadtrip Day2 – BA2037 #GBP14

Ensconced in seat 10A of BA2037 to Orlando working offline. There are three of us travelling together us on this flight, Matt and Dom from Illume/The Cavell Group being the other two. I say together. I’m in Club, Matt took up the offer for an upgrade to Premium Economy (at a price) which young Dom declined so we are in three different cabins.

Having spent years flying long haul on business I promised myself never to join the sardine community again and happily paid the extra for a business class ticket. I feel a lot better for it. It’s the first time I’ve been in a “modern” business class seat which is effectively its own little space. I haven’t yet familiarised myself with all the buttons that can be pressed but I have found the hidden storage compartment and been able to conveniently stash away my book, wallet and other bits and bobs for retrieval at an appropriate juncture during the flight.

I almost have to make a decision what to do with my time on this flight. It isn’t often I am without an internet connection which is generally all consuming. The seat, in which I am facing the next bloke (name of Paul), turns into a flat bed. My neighbour doesn’t appear to be the talkative type so I really do have 9 hours ahead of me totally to myself. Luxury.

The options are reading, writing or watching/listening interspersed with eating drinking and sleeping. Probably end up doing a bit of everything and it might be interesting to see how the writing changes with time – considering the effects of the champagne and other miscellaneous beverages. Once, on a flight from Istanbul to Heathrow I wrote my thoughts and observations through most of the flight. These can be found here.

travel

The trefor.net #orlandoroadtrip day1 – Ronnie Scott’s Bar & Haywood Sisters

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Saturday, 7 June, 2014
No Comments on The trefor.net #orlandoroadtrip day1 – Ronnie Scott’s Bar & Haywood Sisters

Avid followers of the blog will know I’m away in Florida for the Genband Perspectives14 conference from Tuesday 10th – Thursday 12th June, participating in a panel on UC on the last day. Being located in a foreign land with a high likelihood of severe jetlag it made sense to fly out early and get acclimatised.

My flight was therefore booked for Friday 6th and needing to get early to Gatwick it made sense to stay down in London the night before. Imagine my delight therefore when I received an invitation to go and see the Haywood Sisters at Ronnie Scotts Bar on the very Thursday night I was to be in town. Yay.

The Haywood Sisters are a lovely trio of professional singers who do vintage 20s, 30,s 50,s and 50s music with a great backing band. They came along to my Xmas bash last year and I went to their CD launch at the Phoenix Artist Club. Check em out here.

As we, my son Tom and I, were waiting for the doors to open we noticed a crowd of oriental girls hanging around backstage door opposite. Miss Saigon apparently. What really caught my eye was the blue plaque – Mozart lived there! V appropriate in an area full of theatres and music bars.

Must have been over on a road trip of his own. London, all life is here.

After the girls had been on Tom and I slipped out for a bite at nearby Indian Restaurant the Delhi Brasserie. I woke up the next day to find a Delhi Gold discount card in my pocket. Going to come in very handy I’m sure! As I recall the food was good enough or so Tom assures me. That second Margarita at Ronnie Scotts played havoc with my memory cells.

The last photo is of me with Kath (left) and Georgi before they did their set. Was privileged to be sat with their folks.

fun stuff

The back end of a fire engine

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Thursday, 5 June, 2014
1 Comment on The back end of a fire engine

Thing is what’s not to like about fire engines? This is a particularly old one but they built them to last in those days. Probably still do where fire engines are concerned. Same can’t be said about washing machines.

I was stopped behind this one at lights in Lincoln and was suitably impressed with the array of industrial strength hose connectors at the back. All sorts of questions began to bounce around the empty chambers of my mind. I need fire engine education. It’s a very long time since I visited the fire station in Caernarfon with the cub scouts.

How much water can this fire engine store? How long does it last when being used to put out fires – obviously related to the number of hoses being deployed. What are the different connectors for? Are some water in and some water out? Looks like it supports four hoses. Whatr sized crew is needed to man the engine? Average number of call outs a day/a week? Response times? How many old ladies have had to be rescued from being stuck up trees¹?

These are all extremely important questions. There are more. Mpg? Range? Engine size? Pump power (electrical and height they can squirt water)? I’m sure you can think of more. I don’t have the answers.

All I can tell you is that fire engines are in the same category as steam trains for coolness. Every small boy between the ages of one and one hundred and one likes fire engines. Me included or I wouldn’t have taken this photo. Wonder what the driver’s name was. Wonder when they are next repeating Fireman Sam? Station Officer Steele. Elvis, Bella Lasagne, Naughty Norman, all of em stars, A-listers.

Fire engines. What’s not to like?

Other posts of general interest to boys, young and old:

Rainfall measurement techniques – the bbq method
No socks – the bbq season is upon us

¹ I know I know they shouldn’t be climbing trees at their age but some people never grow up and why should they?

Business travel

Orlando bound

Headin saaf. On the train. London today. USA tomorrow. It’s been a long time. Haven’t missed the jet set life. Used to be almost permanently jet lagged. Looking forward to this trip though. Speaking at Genband Perspectives14 Conference in Orlando, Florida (is there one anywhere else?). Mentioned it before.

All packed. Bird feeder refilled. Doubt it’ll get done whilst I’m away – the little guys consume it at a rate of one feeder full every two days. Probably forgotten something. Was once flying to Canada and turned up at Heathrow T3 without my passport. Ahem. Spent 4 hours in the Air Canada arrivals lounge whilst a taxi brought the passport down from Lincoln. Must have been world record for amount of time spent in an arrivals lounge. Good job I wasn’t paying for taxi. This time have checked to make sure I have passport with me, about 8 times.

This trip should be a nice one. Have meetings in London this pm then off to Ronnie Scotts this evening with Kid1 to see the @Haywoodsisters. Leisurely breakfast tomorrow morning in Grosvenor Hotel in Victoria – convenient for the Gatwick Express.

Club World ticket. Meeting Matt Townend and Dom from Illume at the B lounge in LGW. Comfortable flight out, hopefully. Bit of a chillout & local tourist stuff near the Hyatt Regency Grand Cedar hotel Saturday. I’ve already told you about the rest of the trip.

I’ve checked in online, and checked my passport (9th time). BA app didn’t work for boarding pass download. Happened before – not good BA.

Catch ya later. Vid is of the railway crossing lights en route to the office. It’s travel related 🙂

Other terrific travel posts – try em out:

The hazards of walking to and from work #runkeeper
Working Time
Internet routing pedestrian style

End User fun stuff

I bought a Grill Cleaning T Brush from Tesco

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Wednesday, 4 June, 2014
2 Comments on I bought a Grill Cleaning T Brush from Tesco

What’s a grill cleaning t brush I hear you say? There are two possible answers. It’s either

three quid from Tesco or
a wire brush for cleaning barbecues

Or in this case both of the above.

There are a few observations to be made in respect of this particular grill cleaning t brush. One is that it is much cheaper than the grill cleaning t brushes from leading bbq manufacturer Weber whose highly similar looking product retails between eight and eleven pounds depending on where you get it from. No doubt there will be some superior design nuances in the Weber version.

Then there is the very sensible and correct warning on the Tesco product packaging “Product contains a functional sharp point, please take care. Please retain this information for future reference.” Thank you Tesco. Yes I will take care although I’m not sure about the practicalities of keeping the information label.

Next time I clean the bbq how quickly would I be able to retrieve this packaging for a reminding read from the drawer full of other similar bits of cardboard for the strimmer, lawnmower, various sets of knives, hedge trimmer and the wide variety of other previously purchased products with sharp bits to them. Perhaps Tesco should provide advice on this – a guide to warning label filing for beginners maybe.

Finally there are the guidelines further on down the packaging indicating that I should both dispose of it in a bin and recycle it. Oh and the recommendation is that this particular t brush should be hand washed rather than placed in the dishwasher – I assume that’s the sign with the big X on it.

No suggestions as to how I should hand wash the brush whilst taking care to avoid any functional sharp points. Perhaps they sell a complementary set of armoured gloves for use in the sink.

Well I dunno. I think I’m confused. Maybe I’ll just chuck the paperwork and not bother cleaning the brush which would in any case be a first in the Davies household.

Does anyone know what the 22 PAP symbol thingy is? Perhaps it is a trick symbol and doesn’t have a meaning.

I know nothing.

Other unbelievably good bbq related reads include:

Rainfall measurement techniques – the bbq method
No socks – the bbq season is upon us

Business travel

US immigration questions – ESTA

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Tuesday, 3 June, 2014
1 Comment on US immigration questions – ESTA

The US immigration visa waiver system may have moved into the electronic age but the questions they ask are timeless.

I spent most of my thirties globe trotting on behalf of my employer. The jet lag was knackering but hitting exotic bars and restaurants in cool places in the world was great. The US Visa Waver form was always handy – a piece of white paper (either white or green – you always had to fill in two forms). For some reason it made you feel as if you were being prioritised – don’t worry about a visa Tref, just fill in this form.

The one thing that always bemused was the list of questions you were asked. Basically “have you ever been a naughty boy and done something we wouldn’t approve of?” As if I was going to tell them if I was coming to spy on the country!

The imagination begins to take hold here. In a litigious country that is the US of A does the fact that you tell them that the purpose of your visit is to spy on them mean that when you are caught spying it is ok because you told them that was what you were there for. Or maybe the sentence is worse for those that falsely filled in the form on the basis that you lied on entry to the country.

This Friday I’m off to the USA for the first time in a decade. Speaking at the Genband Perspectives14 conference. Orlando. Course it’s not all going to be work. My panel session is on Thursday 12th but we need to get there for the previous Sunday for the welcoming cocktail reception around the pool followed by the networking golf match on the Monday (must remember to take my golf shoes). etc etc etc.

I’ve been around the block a few times and decided that to ensure I was on top form for the welcoming cocktail party I’d better get out there a couple of days beforehand to give my body a chance to adjust to the time zone. That way I can also take in Cape Canaveral and one or two other things I like to do when in the USA (as I recall) such as visiting a mall to take advantage of the lower prices. I haven’t missed the travel or the jet lag but am looking forward to this trip.

A few days ago I got an email from BA reminding me which flight I was on, fair play. It’s a good job I read it because the email told me I needed to apply online for an ESTA number – Electronic System for Travel Authorization. Hmm. This was a new one on me. I asked Twitter and Facebook whether I really needed to apply for a number and the crowd told me to go for it.

Didn’t take long although it did cost $14 for the privilege. Ah well. Another hidden cost of travel. What did amuse was the fact that the questions are exactly the same as they used to have on the visa waiver form – check out the screenshot above. One presumes that this is an efficiency measure. Better to reject me at the time of my application rather than have me go all the way to Orlando only to be told upon arrival that US authorities didn’t approve of people coming to spy on them and that I should turn right round and return whence I came. Dang! Y’all!

Now at this point, for the avoidance of doubt, I should reaffirm that I have no intention of performing an act of espionage when visiting the USA. If anyone tells me a state secret during the cocktail party the authorities can rest assured that I never remember anything when I’ve had a drink, especially jokes and when I play golf I remain focussed on getting the little white ball into the slightly bigger hole which isn’t as easy as it looks on the telly and demands my full concentration. The snow geese are arriving early in Orlando this summer…

How to grow your own grapes for making wine – food and drink at the weekend

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Sunday, 1 June, 2014
No Comments on How to grow your own grapes for making wine – food and drink at the weekend

For some time now the editorial team here at trefor.net has been considering becoming self sufficient when it comes to wine. It used to be that you could get a reasonable bottle of plonk for five or six quid. No more. You now have to spend at least eight to avoid that screwed up face look.

There is only one thing to be done and that is to make your own wine. ~~Obviously the key~~ The only ingredient required to make wine is grapes. Grapes and plenty of sunshine. Living in Lincoln we haven’t historically benefitted from a guaranteed supply of the latter. This is the midlands which is reasonably green and pleasant and totally unlike the sun-parched plains of the rich south where most British wine is grown.

This can’t always have been the case because there is a patch that was formerly a vineyard on a southish facing slope at the Medieval Bishop’s Palace in front of Lincoln Cathedral. They weren’t daft, those Medieval Bish’s. Must a liked their tipple, unless, in their defence it was purely used for communion wine.

It was a lot cheaper to grow your own in those days as transportation costs would have been typically a lot higher per bottle/cask than it is in the technological age of 2014. Also they would have used cheap peasant labour to tread the grapes, or at a push the monks could do it. Knowing you had trod your own grapes used to engender a lot of pride in ecclesiastical circles.

That was then and this is now. I’m not treading any grapes when technology can do the job for us. Even then we are getting ahead of ourselves. This story hasn’t got that far yet.

Having decided to make your own wine the next step is to plant a vineyard. We considered that instead of worrying about global warming we should just go with the flow and planted our own vineyard in the Davies household around 3 years or so ago. Initially it was in a planter but after the first year the estate management committee met and decided it would be better off in the soil and replanted it against the newly installed trellis where we keep the barbeque.

Each summer we would rush to see if there were any grapes coming along and up until now I have to admit to an element of disappointment. Nowt, niet, sod all. Yesterday however, having trimmed back the greenery coming through from next door’s side of the fence, I uncovered the bbq with a view to cooking some burgers, chicken drumsticks and pork escalopes¹. Then I saw them. A neat pre-pubescent strip of what will, in the fullness of time, and as spring inevitably moves into summer and thence on to autumn, be a bunch of our very own grapes.

This is big news which will trigger a rush of activity in our house. Winemaking equipment will need to be sourced, a bottle cleaned out and kept ready as a container etc etc etc.

The only thing is I suspect we have no idea what sort of grapes we are growing. The vine was a gift from the father in law who is a bit of a dab hand at this kind of thing and once had a photo of the apricot tree trained against their back wall published in the Daily Mail. Could ask him I suppose but I suspect he won’t be able to remember, fair play.

None of this matters. Here on trefor.net we are going to follow the progress of Lincoln’s latest vineyard, just as we have been able to do with the Lincoln Eleanor Cross project. Come back each weekend for a progress update.

Later this morning…

Just been out to check on my grapes only to be confronted with a crushing disappointment. The stalk of flowers was no longer there. What could possibly have happened? I searched in the undergrowth and found not one but two stalks on the floor. Oh no! Might we have had two bunches of grapes growing? Had I knocked them off the vine by carelessly throwing on the bbq cover when I was shutting it down for the night?

Nah. Looking up the tree above was covered in these flowery stalks. One must have fallen off and dangled over the vine making it look as if it was growing there naturally. This is the same tree that casts a shade over the vine for the first part of the day and could well be contributing to the absence of grapes. Hmm.

Never mind we will continue to watch that vine and look forward to the day when we no longer have to buy our wine in and can grow merry on the fruits of our own labours. Also not going to waste this post having taken the time to write it:)

Chocolate fudge

¹ Marinaded in Nandos Hot Peri Peri sauce and served up with a variety of salads, new potatoes and barbecued corn on the cob and asparagus

Other great agricultural/gardening posts include:

The yellow flower
7 a day in a box
Daffodils

eleanor cross

Lincoln Eleanor Cross main body almost complete

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Saturday, 31 May, 2014
2 Comments on Lincoln Eleanor Cross main body almost complete

We have been following the progress of the carving of the new Eleanor Cross for Lincoln by sculptor Alan Ward. The main body of this historic new monument is now almost complete and Alan will shortly be beginning work on the slate wing and seating area around the base..

You can see that Eleanor is emerging from the stone. In my mind this is analogous to her re-emerging from oblivion after being destroyed by the Roundheads approximately 370 years ago.

It seems strange to thing that we have been covering this project on the blog with images and video whilst there will be no record of it being broken up all those years ago let alone of it being built, hundreds of years before that. I can almost feel the spectres of those involved walking around inspecting the statue making observations, or just quietly raising a ghostly eyebrow.

The original site of the Cross is lost although it is thought that it could be at the top of Cross O’Cliff Hill which stacks up when you think about it. The Church of St Katherines is at the bottom of this hill. The population of Lincoln at the time would only have been a couple of thousand people – a far cry from the busy town of today. The erection of the Cross would have been big news in those days. Let’s hope we can make a similar impact in 2014.

We don’t yet have a date for an official unveiling of the Lincoln Eleanor Cross but I certainly feel a party coming on. Perhaps recreate the drink that was on offer when the Cross was originally installed (I’ll have to check on that one as it may be just stuff like mead which is orrible and won’t play a part in any party of mine:) ). We certainly won’t be dishing out any gruel.

Lincoln based readers may want to make a mental note to revisit trefor.net periodically to look out for any announcement or by all means leave a comment and I’ll take that as a request to be notified. If you don’t want to go on public record re this just say so in the comment and I’ll keep it private. If you have previously commented this won’t work as these comments are not moderated in advance.

Follow the progress of the Lincoln Eleanor Cross project in these posts:

Lincoln Eleanor Cross – the story continues
Eleanor Cross begins to emerge
Eleanor Cross – the carving starts
Eleanor Cross – choosing the stone
New Eleanor Cross for Lincoln – a project of national significance

fun stuff

Hammock days

Ah those crazy, hazy lazy days of summer, of wine and roses, the heavy scent of the flower filled border, a chilled bottle of rose, cream tea on the patio, the strains of Satchmo floating through the still air. Panama hat cocked at carefree angle.

The snooze on the hammock whilst listening to Test Match Special, waking up after an hour or so to find that not much has changed. The score has moved on a little. No more wickets. Chocolate cake in the commentary box. Thank you Mrs Abercrombie of Sevenoaks. Our Andy wins Wimbledon, again.

The stroll to the beer garden. Cold cold lager under the parasol. A dog flops its languid tail. The heat abates: barbecue time. Occasional burgers flipped, steaks sizzle, sticky sausages tanned brown, ketchup smeared faces wear satisfied smile, gather around the fire laughing, singing and playing the guitar until the light dies.

Leave the clearing up. Bed beckons but tomorrow never comes…

Summertime, and the living is easy. Get the gist?

#whensitgonnahappen

Engineer fun stuff

Gymnasium etiquette and staying in the zone

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Friday, 30 May, 2014
1 Comment on Gymnasium etiquette and staying in the zone

Last week I took the plunge and joined Lincoln University gym. Drastic measures are called for – the lifestyle in this networking game is too social networking oriented, and I’m not talking about online social networks.

Anthony took me through a 1 hour induction process measuring weight, Body Mass Index etc etc etc although they don’t pay much heed to BMI at the gym – too many muscular blokes there that render the measurement irrelevant. I can’t remember all the parameters they measured. All I know is that some improvement is called for. It’s been sometime.

So I’ve got a programme that lasts somewhere between 60 – and 90 minutes and I’ve now been through it 4 times in the past week including 3 consecutive days this week. We have had a bank holiday weekend in that time so there have been forces pushing back against the weightloss/fitness. By yesterday I’d lost 1.3Kg since the induction session which considering the bank holiday ain’t too bad.

Before anyone says anything Anthony tells me it’s ok to train every day as the weights programme exercises different muscles in a 3 day rotation.

Now the main thing about Lincoln University gym is that most of the people there, me apart, seem pretty fit. Course they are all about thirty years younger than me so no wonder. It is somewhat disconcerting seeing blokes not only doing chin-ups but pulling themselves right up so that their arms go straight down by their sides – aka gymnasts on the rings – I can’t explain it any better and didn’t think it would be appropriate to take photos. It’s a good job the gym has a high ceiling otherwise they’d be banging their heads on it.

The other reason for not taking photos is because of the extremely fit girls in the room. It’s hard enough not to appear to be staring without causing more of a stir by using the camera. This means you have to develop a survival technique. Be seen to be in your own zone. Not staring at others. It’s all about etiquette I suppose. Just sneaked in the selfie of me in the pic above.

This means plugging in earphones and generally staring straight ahead. In the gym nobody talks to each other. They all stare straight ahead, sometimes at themselves in the mirror, or they stare at weights, assessing which ones to use next, presumably. Obviously to participate in this enforced zonality one needs to have ones own sounds. I happen to have some good stuff on my phone – Donna Summer’s Greatest Hits, Abba Gold and other quality material that has stood the test of time. My selection is fairly limited though so after 4 sessions it has become quite repetitive. I’m going to have to get some new tunes.

In the meantime the gym does provide four channels of TV on a screen at each workstation (or whatever it’s called). Most of what’s on offer is either crappy daytime TV or quite naturally, music channels. The music videos are quite illuminating. I’m sorry if this is not news to you but a big percentage of them seem to feature semi naked women jiggling around on screen.

In my day we had Pan’s People and Hot Gossip but they were tame compared to what seems to be standard fare nowadays. I dunno. To understand where I’m coming from you need to realise that my fave movie is Mary Poppins. Nuff said.

Yesterday I plugged in to the gym sounds and fair play they were upbeat enough to up my pace and get my pulse going – the exercise did that, not the videos. The hardest part about going to the gym is that I have to walk home afterwards. Up Steep Hill for those who know Lincoln. For those that don’t know Lincoln Steep Hill is about a 1 in 1 gradient, or at least that’s how it feels even without having been to the gym. It’s not called Steep Hill for nothing.

You will be getting periodic updates on my progress in the gym, the regularity of which will depend on whether there actually is progress. If there is none I’ll be keeping quiet but expect to hear something soon:) My only short term problem is that at the end of next week I’m off to the Genband Perspectives conference in Orlando which will involve a week of conspicuous over consumption. It is the US of A after all. Let’s hope the hotel has a gymnasium eh?

Stay tuned. Hear it first on trefor.net.

Other really interesting exercise related posts:

There aren’t any. You will have to settle for these great food related posts instead:)

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

End User travel

Wall on walk to work in Lincoln

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Thursday, 29 May, 2014
No Comments on Wall on walk to work in Lincoln

Because I try and vary my route in to work each day I get to notice lots of different sights. I will have seen most of them before but it is only when you have the time to your own thoughts that you really take the sights on board.

This week I was merrily heading officeward when someone who had been hanging around the traffic lights in front of me looking a little shifty asked me for directions to the station. He was clearly not from ’round here and I set him straight. I was heading in that approximate direction myself.

Now I am a slow walker and this guy soon went on ahead but at the next junction stopped to adjust his hair in his reflection in a car window. He was obviously unsure of his way. I pointed in the same direction I had pointed a hundred yards back and off he went again. At that time I branched off and took a different route. He was almost certainly ok but it was a bit odd that he kept hanging back with me and played safe. Was he going to try and rob me? In my bag I had a container of pea and ham soup for my lunch. Would have been a nuisance had he pinched that:)

Lincoln is generally safe anyway. I assume he got to the station. Probably never see him again.

My branched off route took me past St Mary’s Prep School whereupon I paused to take these photos. Hidden Lincoln. This wall is perhaps 700 – 800 years old and has clearly had one or two modifications done to it in its time. It looks as if it forms part of the wall to the grounds of Lincoln Cathedral but I could be wrong.

In one sense the wall represents power. The power of the church. On the inside you were safe, part of the gang. The wall kept the riff raff out. In some respects it performed the same job as my change of route. I wasn’t sure about that guy so I avoided him.

Now I’m safe in the office behind a door that requires a walk past the receptionist and a passkey to get through. The only riff raff are the other start ups in the same corridor. They probably think that of me:)

Today it took me about ten more minutes than is usual to get in to work. How so I hear you say. It was all down to the traffic. Pedestrian traffic. I bumped into five people I knew on the way down and stopped to chat to three of them. The only reason I didn’t chat to the other two was that I was already deep in conversation, sharing some witticism or anecdote, or in one case sympathising because she was on her way back from the dentist. You get it all when you walk to work.

Gotta go. Business to do, moves to make, trees to shake.

I leave you with a second pic cos I know you like that sort of thing.

The Bench

I just ordered a bench. A made to measure wooden job for the garage to be precise. To be even more precise it’s 1400mm long, 580mm wide (deep?) and 1050 high with a 44mm thick top.

Every bloke should have a bench. I particularly need one because two Christmases ago I got a vice. It’s bloomin’ heavy and needs a solid bench to sit on. Never used it other than once last summer to straighten out some tent pegs. Just seemed the right thing to have. Soon my vice will have a permanent home instead of just sitting in its box on a shelf in the garage.

Once my bench is in place I will have to make sure I have all the right tools – circular saw springs to mind but I’m sure there will be others that I need. I will only find out when the bench appears and I know how much space I really have.

The garage is undergoing a makeover, as they say on reality TV fix my house up and redo my curtains programmes. First thing I did was replace the extremely dim energy saving bulb installed by Mrs Davies some time ago but which gave off so little light that we needed a torch every time we went to look for something in the garage.

Then I bought a moveable bike rack from Halfords. They had sold out of the brand new ones so I got an ex display model for 25% off (I asked for 50% but hey…). It’s in perfect, “as new” , nick. You will also note from the picture that the top box has moved up the wall using an innovative hook and chain combination to maintain its position. Reg from B&Q, the guy who sold me the Makita drill, suggested the method and it works by golly. Thanks Reg. Works a treat.

Next up then is the bench which I am expecting to get delivered on Saturday if it is the will of a Greater Being (Postman Pat). In researching this post I looked up the manufacturer’s eBay shop. If you want to buy anything else made from wood he does it all. Products are named to work well for SEO. I list some of them here:

wooden bondage stocks fetish spanking
bondage cage fetish kinky fifty shades
Chicken Feeding Station, Field Shelter
2.4m x 1.2m work bench 8×4
garden planter seat bespoke sizes available
spanking horse whipping bench bondage kinky
bondage cross dungeon spanking furniture
solid wood floating wine rack
solid wood floating shelf shelves

Came as a bit of a surprise but hey. A bondage fetishist has to get his or her equipment from somewhere and what better material than a nicely sanded wood. I did think about asking the joiner what proportion of his sales were bondage products. Didn’t think it would be striking up the right kind of conversation somehow. Who can blame him though. We all have to earn a living. Adds a new dimension to the saying “where there’s muck there’s brass”. ~~Innit. It would be interesting to see how he got into that product range in the first place.~~ No it wouldn’t – stay out of there Tref 🙂

I’ll stick up a photo of the bench when it is in situ. I know some of you will be getting excited already. Pic of bikes in bike rack below – floor needs a bit of a clean – I think we will paint it when we put the bench in.

bikes in a new bike rack