going underground...

Sometimes, the feats on this planet astound me. They have just opened a new tunnel through the alps. At 21 miles long, it's the longest tunnel above ground in the world, and the 3rd longest ever. That's amazing. 21 miles is a very long way! They did it in 8 years, and I applaud them.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6755953.stm

There have been some amazing feats in recent years of engineering. The bridge at Millau is just stunning. We were in France before it opened, but it was all but finished and the sheer size takes your breath away.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millau_Viaduct

Just goes to show what happens when you get the best in the field together to complete a joint aim.

A good night last night, attended a University wine tasting at Malmaison in London.

What was brilliant was the guy who ran it - his job title is "Director of wine and Spirits", surely a job I could do? However, even better was his name - Jonny Walker!

New levels of despair today. Checked with my manager that we were still on for a quarterly review. She replied that yes, so long as the travel wasn't the only reason I was going there as there were still restrictions on meeting travel for internal meetings. Now, this is my manager, the person supposedly responsible for my career, who is restricted from travelling to meet her own staff - surely it's not just me that finds that very bizarre?????

Bean counters and processes, hold you back and get in the way.

wow

Every now and again, you come across a wonderful piece of software. This is something else - if you store photos on the net and into mapping (GF) this is for you!

Two elements to it, the second half is unbelievable.
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/129

(I won't tell you who makes it for fear of prejudice! Interesting where the source photos are though). This to me is what was promised in Vista, but not delivered.

You can try it here:
http://labs.live.com/photosynth/

Press

Interesting couple of days focussing on scanning software. Very in depth but very powerful software and has got the brain juices flowing again.

Seems to be a bit of the usual press mis-reporting going on about Alonso and Hamilton. For example, it's all o ver the press that he thinks Hamilton was "lucky" to win on Sunday and the press are taking it as a pop at boy wonder. However, the full sentance reads:

"Lewis's win is good for the team. But it was very lucky as well as we were on similar strategies and if the safety car came out one lap before Lewis's stop we would have been eighth or ninth."

That is a valid point. Had Alonso been leading he would have pitted first (as is the leaders right) and he would have won and Hamilton much lower.

As they say, don't believe a word of truth the press say...

Fore!!!

Another busy but most enjoyable weekend.

Spent the weekend with some friends in Yorkshire. They stay in an idyllic little village, north of York with views out onto open countryside. Cracking little place.

Saturday we all went to Whitby, the boys playing golf and the girls shopping. The golf was good fun, this being the first time I've been able to try out my new driver. It was immense. Every drive straight (bar one where I got over excited and tried to hit it too hard over some trees) and long. Very long! Had to play across a couple of ravines which was interesting, but easy with the monster club in the bag. A good round let down though by some lost balls. Not that I played bad shots to lose the balls I would add! I hit one at a house when i got the length wrong (very badly wrong...), one went into some mild rough never to be seen again and it's those that really annoy you. Ruined the overall score, but if I take the lost balls out of it it was a great round. Something to work on, you can't expect to pick it up from where you left off when you've not played in weeks.

Went to a great local pub called the Rose And Crown on the Saturday night. Brilliant food, would love to have somewhere like that on my doorstep.

Nice drive back in the new car, it really does make for easier motorway driving having the bigger engine. It's just got that bit more torque so it's a lazier drive. Just what I need!

It's hectic as anything, apologies!

Been listening to the Beatles a lot of late, before all the 40th anniversary of Sgt Pepper. It's really nice to go back to albums you've loved for years, but haven't heard in ages.

Well, the car has been delivered to me. And it's great :-)

I'm really annoyed at the Olympics in London today. What on earth is that shambles of a logo? Looks cheap, nasty, and has all the signs of a 40 year old bloke trying to be "down with the kids". Who then got very patronising on the radio about it all.

Get a grip.

Kids don't go the sports centre for other reasons other than it's not cool. They don't go because a PS3 or a Wii is fun, and some of the sports I did at school were definitely not fun. Nothing beats a of Daley Thompson Decathlon in the old Commodore 64, and I put the vreal track and field in that (mainly as I sucked at it).

Sports these days is all about skateboards and moutain biking - they've been made cool by people like Tony Hawks. Badminton isn't cool. That's why the nearest kids get to sports centres now is doing tricks in the car park.

Yesterday I met up with some people the Missus used to work with in Limehouse (it's in East London. No, I didn't know that either.) Anyway, as we walked down the road the italian was on, I see a pub called the Narrow. Now, I've never been anywhere near this area in my life, but I know about the Narrow as it's just recently opened, and is owned by a Mr G Ramsey. So, kicking myself that the missues friends hadn't booked us there, I went to the italian and gazed out the window wondering what the food is like.

After lunch, we went up to the Narrow. It's on a bend and as it was a glorious day, we stood outside with beer in hand. It's not badly priced, (75p cheaper for a pint of Peroni than I'd paid in Wimbledon the week earlier no less), and the food is slightly more than you'd pay in a pub, but no more than you would in a gastro pub. It's quite hard to gauge all the food prices as I've never seen calves cheek on the menu in the local boozer. The place is in a brilliant setting on the river, and will do well there. A return visit is in order on a sunny weekend soon.

A walk through back to Bank station (yes, we took the DLR back to Tower and not Bank...) meant a very pleasant wander through the city when there is nobody about. The architecture there is amazing and with it being quiet, we could appreciate it all the more.

Today has seen us prove a pub discussion from yesterday wrong. The missus reckoned that a bike ride from Wimbledon, to Richmond park, a complete circuit of it and back, would take all day. Pah! Knocked that out in 2 hours dead overall time, which included a stop for an ice cream :-) A mere 16 miles or so in total, and was great to see the deer out in force again. This afternoon has been quiet with trips to the supermarket and garden centre. The missus has spent most of it pottering about in the garden while I watched the touring cars race live (well, the bit I was awake for...) and then a spot of tiling to finish off a DIY job. Needless to say, I pooped :-)

Not a happy bunny.

All the paperwork had been done, collection of the new car arranged. So I drive there, do all the paperwork, and then the dealer realises the finance company transfer of funds hasn't completed - this means I can't take the car away.

It turns out the finance company had said they would do an overnight transfer and actually did a BACS 3 day transfer. As the money had been sent on Wednesday, it won't hit the account till Monday sometime. The dealer was very apologetic (as he should be) and I'm expecting a boot full of goodies to make up for it. He did offer me a brand new 3 series coupe for the weekend, but my parking is all done with permits this was just going to be a hassle. Hopefully I'll get the new one on Monday. Will be VERY annoyed if I don't.

Anyway, to cheer me up, I came across this, the powertool drag race. Now this sounds like a recipe for disaster - people make drag racers out of power tools, blades and all. It made me think about a collegue, but no matter how much I looked at the photos, I couldn't see the GorseFox's entry!

My favourite is the funny car made out of 8 chainsaws...

http://www.silverlinetools.com/power_tool_drag_racing_2006.html

I see the Gorse Fox has a great journey home last night. Wish I had...Leaving a bit later than normal, I seemed to hit every pocket of traffic going. M5, M40, M25 (although it was much better than normal as I got there much later than normal).

Makes you wonder why you do it.

The new car doesn't currently have a CD autochanger in the boot (although the wiring is all there so it's easy to do). I'm active on a couple of mini and bmw forums (Mini for historical reasons as I used to have a couple) and asked what the options were for ipod integration. One solution that has come back is quite interesting and I can't decide it's madness or a good solution.

There is an Alpine interface that connects into the standard BMW head unit for use with Alpine extras (such as their own CD changer, DAB radio etc) but it also has an interface for an ipod. However, to use the ipod properly you need an Alpine head unit, which I don't have. So this company have made an interface box that connects between the Alpine interface and your ipod and let's you control the ipod via the head unit and also have a CD changer in the boot (which also has support for MP3 CDs with ID3 tags shown as well).

It's neat, and relatively cheap, however it's all a bit beta tester for my liking as it's not been officially released. Still, there is demand for the parts so if I buy it and don't like it, I can always sell it, and still use the MP3 changer.

Busy weekend so I apologise for lack of action!

Wembley was brilliant on Saturday, although the place feels very clinical. It lacked that special feeling I got when I went to other similar places for the first time, other big stadiums such as Murrayfield, Old Trafford, the Nou Camp. Even Schalke's ground had that feeling and it's a fair bit smaller (61,000). Maybe it'll get it after a few big games, but the noise inside was immense and the view was brilliant. Easy to get to and from, but it just didn't have that something special for me.

We've also seen two wedding photographers this weekend, one of whom is a hot favourite. One more to go, but will see if we actually go with her or if we want to see a few more.

We also introduced my parents to the joy of Buzz on the playstation - it's very amusing in groups like that!

Shame the weather was so blooming awful all weekend, and typically it's glorious sunshine today in Worcester (and London earlier).

!!!!!

Mental day yesterday with work, but all settled down nicely by the time I headed home.

The parents have arrived for the weekend, so had fun last night with them sitting in the garden and having dinner. Packed them off to bed early (well, they had been up since 4 to get on the red eye from Aberdeen) so they are fully refreshed today!

The boys (my Dad, myself and two fellow Aberdonians, 1 who lives in London and one who's visiting) are all off to Wembley today to watch the playoffs. We are all football fans and watch it where we can when we are together (that did include an under 15's school match once - yes we are that sad) and the opportunity to go to Wembley was too much. Can't wait.

Tomorrow see's another busy day in Oxfordshire. Meeting a potential photograpgher and then on to the wedding venue to see it finally finished! They are hosting a party tonight to celebrate Laurence Oliver 100th birthday, so it will be a star studded event apparently, which officially opens the place since it's been re-done. All very exciting.

Oh, and new car looks like it's on the way...if all things work out and I like it, should get it at the end of next week.

I have an interest in animals these days, with cows rapidly becoming a speciality. However this story I liked - Dairy cows in Spain get water beds, air con and Mozart to improve yield. LINK

Now, onto more important matters - what happened last night to Liverpool? They could easily have won it, with Stevie G fluffing a shot he should have buried. They lost an unlucky goal just before half time, which improved my level of regard for Inzaghi - I think he's one of the most over-rated strikers in top level football.

Overall, they did well to get there, should have won but where unlucky. Maserchano should have been left on the park though as I don't think they would have scored the second with him to break it up.

Always next season...

I know it's the way it works, but I wish politicians would realise how stupid they sound sometimes.

The issue of HIPS seems to have come to a head, and good riddance for the moment. As I see it, there are a number of issues:

1 - there is EU legislation that says all the member states need to be able to show emisions on housing by 2009

2 - the government took bad advice on what else could be wrapped into the HIPS by people who were actually going to make money out of it (nothing new there...)

3 - mis-information supplied/spoken by government ministers on the numbers of people qualified.

I can see a benefit to them, but only if they provide something useful. An energy rating on a new house is useful. But if I'm looking at buying a victorian terrace, I know it's going to have rubbish loft insulation, no cavity walls and probably a fairly old boiler. So what's the point?

What has also annoyed me is David Camerons response. "How can you support green issues when you don't support this". Make your mind up man, a week ago you didn't want them. Stop bleating, get some policies and a position - people are looking for alternatives. Had an election come immediatly after your appointment, you'd have got in. But people want action, and your just letting off steam just now. Goodwill doesn't last forever.

Gorgeous day in Worcester, stunning sunshine. Makes a change from the recent spell of wet and windy weather.

Last night we all met up at the Cardinals Hat, followed by a great (but SO SLOW) meal at Amigos. The food there is great but just takes so long to come. They actually turned a couple away - there were only 12 people in the place and it seats about 70!!!

Come on you reds!

Ah, sweet feeling of success :-) Aberdeen win to finish third in the SPL, and with it comes European Football next season. Happy day yesterday, especially as to do it we beat Rangers who, to be fair, had it coming as we'd not taken any points from the forces of darkness all season, and it would have been the first time since the 70's we'd gone a year without taking any points off them.

So, just need Celtic to win the cup and we go into the first round proper of the UEFA cup - if Dunfermline fluke it, then we go to the qualifiers and they go to the 1st round. Seems a stupid way of doing it, as they were relegated this year, but what can you do. The SPL really should make it 3rd and 4th get the UEFA spot as last year it was Gretna in the UEFA cup and they were also in division 1. It's 21 years since Aberdeen got past the 2nd round in the cup (got close in the early 90's - Rico's 35 yard thunderbolt in 92 (?) nearly put us through.

So, all in all, good day, an optimism for next season what with the signing of Macnamara.

Also, did you know, Aberdeen has one of the most "1st"s in football? 1st team in the UK to have an all seater, all covered stadium? 1st team to have dug outs in the UK? 1st team to lose on penalties in a European competition? 1st team to win 2 European trophies in Scotland? I could go on :-)

Stand Free, Wherever you may be, We are the famous Aberdeen!

Traffic problems

Having spent a year complaining about my 3Com router, I think it needs a slight apology. The problem I have with it is that occasionally (and always when I'm in a hurry) my wireless router gives me an IP, but refuses to connect to the Internet. After rebooting it a few times it springs into life, but sometimes it just takes a while. On closer inspection, it gets a connection with the ISP, has an IP, all is well. But I can't get out and use it.

Friday morning saw this occur. I decided to investigate it further. Turns out about 4 layers into the config, hidden very well in a menu you'd never find, there is a setting which determines how the connection is initiated. It was set (by default I would add!) to be "only on traffic", and not "always on". I changed the setting to be always on, it immediately sprang to life. So hopefully, that's one of life's little challenges resolved, but why would you ever want your ADSL line to connect only on traffic? Especially when the router doesn't work when it gets traffic. Answers on a postcard...

Late night music

Late night last night, trying to fix a wireless issue. Now resolved, but meant leaving the office about 3 hours later than I would normally to get back to London. On the plus side, the drive home was bliss with no traffic on the M25 at all, so did it in record time: and no, I wasn't speeding officer! I had cruise set the whole time. Bit of chilled out music on the stereo (Zero 7 and then some Beth Orton) and all was good in the world.

I actually changed the CD's in the autochanger yesterday for the first time in ages. Zero 7 is a great CD to have in the car on evening/late night drives where you just pass the miles by on the motorway and I forgot just how good it was. It got me thinking about bands I'd seen live with my other half as we'd seen Zero 7 and loved it. I've been to more gigs in the last few years in London than ever, in fact I'd only been to about 5 before that (although, that included REM at Murrayfield, Oasis at the same place and U2 at Celtic Park which was just brilliant). It also included Neil Finn, who is one of my favourite musicians who I've seen a couple of times now as well. We've had to cut down on gig going at the moment as all the money we would normally spend on gigs is going into the wedding fund, but one we had to get is Beth Orton with Bert Jansch and Bernard Butler at Somerset House. It's going to be such a summer highlight for me. Can't wait.