2005 is getting ever nearer. I'm still feeling a bit under the weather, so I'm giving the town's pubs a miss and trying to get into the spirit of things at home. As I've done in the past, I've used to the net to tune into radio stations around the world as New Year arrives in the various timezones. No great celebrations hear from Kyrgyzstan, Reunion or Russia's radio stations, although a couple of Russian stations played the Kremlin Chimes and the full national anthem, although I think this is fairly standard practice.
Coming up next in GMT+2 countries are central African states, Israel, Finland, the Baltic states and Cyprus.
20041231
New look Channel 4
Judging from today's redesigned Channel 4 news and the new station idents that followed it, Channel 4 is heading back to the segmented "4" so familiar to us during the 80s and much of the 90s. They have of course given it a 21st century spin, but some of idents are clear replicas of those from years ago, when the various fragments would come together to form the "4". My favourite variation was shown prior to Channel 4's then NFL coverage, which was an American football helmet on top of the channel 4 logo...
The best bit of course was when the helmet snorts blasts of air into the (supposedly) cold morning air.
Fair Isle, Viking, Forties
I was surprised to see a book today in Waterstones that shares the name of this blog. Apparently it's all about the shipping forecast, as is this blog of course :)
20041229
Following events around the Indian Ocean
Living in something of a communications black hole in the rural North of England, I've been in search of more in-depth coverage of the Indian Ocean disaster than the reduced-length Christmastime TV news programmes have allowed. The BBC World Service has been the best source I've come across so far, with extensive coverage, interviews, discussion and analysis offered on a regularly basis. The World Service also takes a wider interest in events, beyond the national focus generally pursued by domestic media outlets, and is really worth a listen. Tune in on DAB, digital TV, MW 648 in North West Europe or Worldwide on Shortwave and satellite.
I'm surprised that there are not more missing Britons in the area. The BBC say there are "dozens" still missing in Thailand, but if correct, it's a great deal less than the many, many hundreds of missing from Sweden, German, Switerland and elsewhere. However our focus must be now on the millions living in the region affected without homes and basic amenities. With this in mind, an appeal website has been set up by the Disasters Emergency Committee which is something of an umbrella organisation for a number of charities. Alternatively it is possible to donate to a specific charity such the British Red Cross (link below) or Oxfam.
I'm surprised that there are not more missing Britons in the area. The BBC say there are "dozens" still missing in Thailand, but if correct, it's a great deal less than the many, many hundreds of missing from Sweden, German, Switerland and elsewhere. However our focus must be now on the millions living in the region affected without homes and basic amenities. With this in mind, an appeal website has been set up by the Disasters Emergency Committee which is something of an umbrella organisation for a number of charities. Alternatively it is possible to donate to a specific charity such the British Red Cross (link below) or Oxfam.
20041228
Illness and Earthquakes
Sorry about the lack of updates over the past few days; I've been laid low with a nasty bug and am only just and so getting over it now. Not the making of the best Christmas ever, but at least it helped limit my food intake. I did promise some White Christmas photos, so here's one taken in the Lake District on Boxing day. Oddly, there was actually more snow on the low-lying areas around here than in the lakes. I'll add some local wintry shots when I get the chance. The snow lasted fairly well for this country - only yesterday's rain saw off the last of it.
I think it's fair to say that the festive spirit was given a considerable dampener by the devastation caused around the Indian Ocean by Sunday morning's massive earthquake and resultant tsunamis. The death toll, number of injuries and amount of damaged caused it already astronomical and is certainly set to rise. I was shocked this evening to read that 1,500 Swedish tourists are currently missing in Thailand.
I'm not entirely sure what to do as regards helping the relief effort. Normally after such events you see these appeals on TV with a number to call, but in this case there's nothing so clear, and with revelations always being published about how little money given to charities actually reaches the intended party, i.e. those in need, it's not exactly encouraging to make the effort.
The British Red Cross strikes me as as good a start as any though, and they've already got systems set up for donating on-line and through other means. They're encouraging people to give "just one hour", i.e. one hour's salary, preferably each month or as a one off payment. I'm rather leaning towards giving a one off payment for now, but giving rather more than just an hour's salary.
I think it's fair to say that the festive spirit was given a considerable dampener by the devastation caused around the Indian Ocean by Sunday morning's massive earthquake and resultant tsunamis. The death toll, number of injuries and amount of damaged caused it already astronomical and is certainly set to rise. I was shocked this evening to read that 1,500 Swedish tourists are currently missing in Thailand.
I'm not entirely sure what to do as regards helping the relief effort. Normally after such events you see these appeals on TV with a number to call, but in this case there's nothing so clear, and with revelations always being published about how little money given to charities actually reaches the intended party, i.e. those in need, it's not exactly encouraging to make the effort.
The British Red Cross strikes me as as good a start as any though, and they've already got systems set up for donating on-line and through other means. They're encouraging people to give "just one hour", i.e. one hour's salary, preferably each month or as a one off payment. I'm rather leaning towards giving a one off payment for now, but giving rather more than just an hour's salary.
20041225
White Christmas!
That rarest of event has occured: a White Christmas! Maybe not on the Met Office roof, but here in the North West of England there's snow a plenty on the hills and underfoot. Photos to follow!
Bed time
Another fine Christmas Eve comes to an end.
Norad shows Santa as having reached Brazil.
Still no White Christmas yet...but who knows what might transpire between now and Christmas morning.
MERRY CHRISTMAS and goodnight!
Norad shows Santa as having reached Brazil.
Still no White Christmas yet...but who knows what might transpire between now and Christmas morning.
MERRY CHRISTMAS and goodnight!
20041224
The sleigh's progress...
...currently passing over the Himalayas
No sign of snow yet. The bookies might get to keep their money. They'd lose £1 million if it was officially a white christmas, but then that's based on a snowflake landing on the Met Office roof in London, so don't hold you breath on that one. However surely a White Christmas for most people is if you get snow lying where-ever you may be, so keep your fingers crossed, unless you're needing to travel across country tomorrow...
No sign of snow yet. The bookies might get to keep their money. They'd lose £1 million if it was officially a white christmas, but then that's based on a snowflake landing on the Met Office roof in London, so don't hold you breath on that one. However surely a White Christmas for most people is if you get snow lying where-ever you may be, so keep your fingers crossed, unless you're needing to travel across country tomorrow...
The new scourge of long-distance journeys
Just when we thought long train rides wouldn't get any more noisy and disturbed than crap mobile ring-tones playing at top volume and mis-behaving children ignored by their scumbag parents, we have a new crowned monarch of irritation on public-transport. It is the portable-DVD player. I had seen this coming, with laptops on earlier journeys I've taken being used to play DVDs, but now the affordability of portable-DVDs allows the same scumbag parents with their loud mobiles and screaming kids to ensure not a moment's peace is had by anyone around them, by playing a DVD throughout the journey....through the speakers. You see, playing a DVD wouldn't cause much if any disturbance when used with the headphones as they are intended, but to play the film's audio loudly, through the speaker, on confined public transport...
T'is grumpy old men season again!
T'is grumpy old men season again!
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