20041127
The return of Frank Sidebottom?
Way back in the 80s there was a character on TV with a big, round papier-maché head called Frank Sidebottom. I don't recall exactly what he did or what he was in, aside from starring in the Saturday morning childrens' programme "Number 73". I was browsing the Swedish TV website today when I saw a picture of what seems to be Frank - well a painted head looking exactly the same in any case. The video-clip only shows the character for a moment, so I've no idea if there's any link to the character who appeared on the British TV all those years ago.
20041124
Earl's Court station quiz night?
Was anyone else passing through Earl's Court station yesterday evening (Tuesday 23rd Nov) and heard what sounded like some sort of odd quiz? I only court a moment of it as I jumped off one train and on to another, but it went along the lines of:
"Sentence 8: Describe the shoes of a Dutchman"
"Sentence 23: How are books bound together?"
all recited in a well spoken and clear BBC-English accent. It resulted in a mix of confused looks and laughs from those waiting on my train. I would love to know what it was all about. Did it serve some purpose, or was it simply another fine example of the unique British randomness?
"Sentence 8: Describe the shoes of a Dutchman"
"Sentence 23: How are books bound together?"
all recited in a well spoken and clear BBC-English accent. It resulted in a mix of confused looks and laughs from those waiting on my train. I would love to know what it was all about. Did it serve some purpose, or was it simply another fine example of the unique British randomness?
20041120
Saturday photography: Apple Store Opening
A typically innaccurate weather forecast for today and the much hyped event of the opening of the Apple store on Regents Street (that's Apple as in Apple Computers, although I'm not sure if that's their title nowadays) got me heading into central London bright and early to see what, if anything, was doing.
Apple's enticement to the opening of their shop had been well publicised: a "lucky bag" costing £249 which contains over £700 of goods. Judging by the line of people at 8:45 on Saturday morning, that seemed to do the trick. 300 lucky bags were for sale, but I estimate that several hundred more were queueing up, although as some consolation the first 3000 people in the shop receive a free t-shirt.
There was plenty of build-up as the hour approached; staff arriving were whooping and hollering in the sort of American self-congratulatory way which grates on many Brits, but fair play to the queuers who are obviously first class Apple fans to have braved the increasingly wintery weather for all those hours.
I didn't actually go in the store as I didn't fancy waiting until everyone in the queue had gone in, which would have probably taken hours. At the end of the day it's another Oxford Circus area shop whose presence and location is there primarily, in my view at least, is to give kudos and status to the brand. More interestingly though for those who live or frequent London is that it represents part of the renewal of Regent Street. The rather tacky touristy shops near Piccadilly Circus are closing imminently, their long-term leases at an end, and the land/property owners have plans for the future. What exactly, I don't know, although I expect we will probably see less tack and more wall-to-wall brands. I could be wrong, but we'll see in time.
Central London is an interesting experience pre-10am. There's a certain unreal air about it all. The shops haven't yet opened, and so there's no particular reason to be there. People are around of course, but in an odd purposeless way, that you don't feel when there the streets are lined with retail, entertainment and tourism draws. It's interesting, and certainly pleasant compared to the crowds which are present during the rest of the day.
Apple's enticement to the opening of their shop had been well publicised: a "lucky bag" costing £249 which contains over £700 of goods. Judging by the line of people at 8:45 on Saturday morning, that seemed to do the trick. 300 lucky bags were for sale, but I estimate that several hundred more were queueing up, although as some consolation the first 3000 people in the shop receive a free t-shirt.
There was plenty of build-up as the hour approached; staff arriving were whooping and hollering in the sort of American self-congratulatory way which grates on many Brits, but fair play to the queuers who are obviously first class Apple fans to have braved the increasingly wintery weather for all those hours.
I didn't actually go in the store as I didn't fancy waiting until everyone in the queue had gone in, which would have probably taken hours. At the end of the day it's another Oxford Circus area shop whose presence and location is there primarily, in my view at least, is to give kudos and status to the brand. More interestingly though for those who live or frequent London is that it represents part of the renewal of Regent Street. The rather tacky touristy shops near Piccadilly Circus are closing imminently, their long-term leases at an end, and the land/property owners have plans for the future. What exactly, I don't know, although I expect we will probably see less tack and more wall-to-wall brands. I could be wrong, but we'll see in time.
Central London is an interesting experience pre-10am. There's a certain unreal air about it all. The shops haven't yet opened, and so there's no particular reason to be there. People are around of course, but in an odd purposeless way, that you don't feel when there the streets are lined with retail, entertainment and tourism draws. It's interesting, and certainly pleasant compared to the crowds which are present during the rest of the day.
20041109
Relationship between IQ and voting patterns
I was forwarded this website yesterday which shows that in the US Presidential election the states with higher IQs average vote for Kerry and those with lower IQs vote Bush. The bottom of the pile being an average IQ of 85 in Mississippi!
It'd be interesting to see how something similar in the UK would turn out...
It'd be interesting to see how something similar in the UK would turn out...
20041104
The transatlantic divide
What can be said about the result of the American presidential election? I can only conclude that there is a divide between Europe and the US far greater than previously realised. I've yet to speak to a Bush supporter, not just since Tuesday's election but actually since his initial election in 2000. I simply don't know anyone in Europe who even partially receptive to the line of reasoning put across by the White House. Everyone appears to be in a state of disbelief that Americans have apparently bought this nonsense about being under threat this great unseen enemy, that Iraq had anything to do with the Al Qaeda and that the current war is fighting the terrorist threat. They also seem to have overlooked the rising unemployment under Bush's "watch", and that America has altered for many around the world from being a symbol to idolise to an object of loathing. The country is, after all, marketed and exported as a brand, of which the President is the CEO. When the brand is tarnished, so are all the products associated with it, the American Dream included.
Yet the majority of American voters must have favoured Bush for some reason. Americans' fears and beliefs, patriotism, concepts of good and evil... these and more we can only attempt to understand, but how detached it seems from the way of thinking in the increasingly secular, questioning, social democracies of "Old Europe".
Yet the majority of American voters must have favoured Bush for some reason. Americans' fears and beliefs, patriotism, concepts of good and evil... these and more we can only attempt to understand, but how detached it seems from the way of thinking in the increasingly secular, questioning, social democracies of "Old Europe".
20041031
End of British Summertime
Life has largely got in the way of me updating the website during much of October, so as we reach the end of the month and put the clocks back to GMT (or whatever your local equivalent may be), it's a good opportunity to look both back and ahead.
The main event of October for me was a trip to Valencia, Spain's 3rd largest city, lying near the county's East coast. It was a short trip, a long weekend really, but it was great to get away from the big smoke and get abroad for the first time this year, which is remarkably infrequent by my standards.
For me Spain will always remind me of childhood holidays to Majorca or the Costas. Happily many elements that made Spain memorable back then remain. As I booked my flight very much last minute, I ended up taking indirect routes to avoid paying an arm and a leg. In the end this took me via Palma, Majorca on the way out, and via Madrid on the way back.
I looked forward to going to Majorca to rekindling some old memories. I wasn't staying there; in fact I only went between the terminals at the airport when changing flights, but seeing the distinctive windmills around Palma was heartening. I assume there are still the same twig-like sun shades on the beaches of the resorts. I've heard that many of the 1970s hotels are being knocked down and replaced by more modern constructions, but at least Palma airport was reassuringly 70s, which in some ways is part of my image of Spanish holidays.
Valencia was an interesting city: historic yet modern, by the sea but not a seaside town. It took a while to get used to eating at 10pm, and then on a few occasions going to a Valencia nightspot until 5am with my Spanish friends. I'm too used to British opening hours, obviously.
Although the reason for my trip was to visit a friend, the fact that the sun was shining, and the temperature was akin to a good 6-weeks earlier in the UK (i.e. summer), it made it feel all the more like a conventional holiday; something which, as much as I enjoy it, a winter trip to Sweden just doesn't convey :) It's years since I've been on a beach-holiday. Now don't get me wrong, this wasn't a beach holiday, but having visited the beach on a couple of occasions it was certainly the nearest I've been in a while. I suppose when you get to a certain age you want something more engaging than working on the melanoma, the city-breaks take over as the preferred type of holiday.
So it was: I had a fine few days in Valencia, and you can view the pictoral evidence on my photography website.
Now speaking of photographs I've got new content coming in that respect thanks to a new camera I've got. More soon on that.
The main event of October for me was a trip to Valencia, Spain's 3rd largest city, lying near the county's East coast. It was a short trip, a long weekend really, but it was great to get away from the big smoke and get abroad for the first time this year, which is remarkably infrequent by my standards.
For me Spain will always remind me of childhood holidays to Majorca or the Costas. Happily many elements that made Spain memorable back then remain. As I booked my flight very much last minute, I ended up taking indirect routes to avoid paying an arm and a leg. In the end this took me via Palma, Majorca on the way out, and via Madrid on the way back.
I looked forward to going to Majorca to rekindling some old memories. I wasn't staying there; in fact I only went between the terminals at the airport when changing flights, but seeing the distinctive windmills around Palma was heartening. I assume there are still the same twig-like sun shades on the beaches of the resorts. I've heard that many of the 1970s hotels are being knocked down and replaced by more modern constructions, but at least Palma airport was reassuringly 70s, which in some ways is part of my image of Spanish holidays.
Valencia was an interesting city: historic yet modern, by the sea but not a seaside town. It took a while to get used to eating at 10pm, and then on a few occasions going to a Valencia nightspot until 5am with my Spanish friends. I'm too used to British opening hours, obviously.
Although the reason for my trip was to visit a friend, the fact that the sun was shining, and the temperature was akin to a good 6-weeks earlier in the UK (i.e. summer), it made it feel all the more like a conventional holiday; something which, as much as I enjoy it, a winter trip to Sweden just doesn't convey :) It's years since I've been on a beach-holiday. Now don't get me wrong, this wasn't a beach holiday, but having visited the beach on a couple of occasions it was certainly the nearest I've been in a while. I suppose when you get to a certain age you want something more engaging than working on the melanoma, the city-breaks take over as the preferred type of holiday.
So it was: I had a fine few days in Valencia, and you can view the pictoral evidence on my photography website.
Now speaking of photographs I've got new content coming in that respect thanks to a new camera I've got. More soon on that.
20041001
Where did the summer go?
My God it's October already. The heating has been switched on in the building, the shops are (to the irritation of everyone I've heard from) filling with Christmas related merchandise, and we're a few short weeks away from the clocks going back.
I was hoping this weekend might allow a last glorious blast of summer, but it's not looking particularly likely so far, with Sunday looking like a potential washout. Nevertheless, if there's a sign of sun, I shall be making an effort to get out and about. At least it's still quite mild, and not unconducive to enjoying the great outdoors.
I was hoping this weekend might allow a last glorious blast of summer, but it's not looking particularly likely so far, with Sunday looking like a potential washout. Nevertheless, if there's a sign of sun, I shall be making an effort to get out and about. At least it's still quite mild, and not unconducive to enjoying the great outdoors.
20040922
Travel in pictures
Images are now being added to the travel section of the website to add a bit of colour to the guides. The pages about Britain are the first to see images added (as I've the most choice of photos to go on) but more will be added in due course. At the same time I'm also continuing to add and update the information on the pages.
20040919
Over 500 photos!
Updates to both this blog and the website are definitely due, so I've added a couple of new sections to the photo gallery website, bringing the total number of images in the gallery to over 500. The latest sections are those photos taken during September so far, and from the excellent Proms in the Park, which took place last weekend in Hyde Park. There are still more shots to be added to the August section when I have a spare moment.
Photos still needing to the travel section. I haven't forgotten. Actually I'm rather fancying some more trips around Europe at the moment, as there's certainly no chance of a bigger trip before next year. I'm not sure where yet, but as I've signed up for a German course Germany, Austria or Switzerland may well be on the cards. That said, the Baltic states are coming well recommended, and Ryanair is starting flights to one of the capitals (I forgot which) from the end of October.
It's Open House Weekend in London this weekend, where there's the chance to look around hundreds of the capital's landmark buildings that are normally out of bounds for the general public. I was hoping to go to the Gherkin until I heard today that people were queueing 4 hours. That's a long wait for a good view.
Photos still needing to the travel section. I haven't forgotten. Actually I'm rather fancying some more trips around Europe at the moment, as there's certainly no chance of a bigger trip before next year. I'm not sure where yet, but as I've signed up for a German course Germany, Austria or Switzerland may well be on the cards. That said, the Baltic states are coming well recommended, and Ryanair is starting flights to one of the capitals (I forgot which) from the end of October.
It's Open House Weekend in London this weekend, where there's the chance to look around hundreds of the capital's landmark buildings that are normally out of bounds for the general public. I was hoping to go to the Gherkin until I heard today that people were queueing 4 hours. That's a long wait for a good view.
20040906
Going digital
I decided to go shopping at the weekend and enter the world of digital radio and television. I've been suitably impressed by both so far.
DAB radio offers around 50 stations covering a wide variety of formats and musical genres. Strangely though, or perhaps not so strange; of the stations programmed into the radio's presets, many are the same I'd listed to on analogue radio - BBC Radio 4, 5 Live and the like. It's fantastic to be finally able to receive the World Service in high-fidelity, and 6 Music is sounding good so far too. As for the commercial offerings; well I've never been a great fan of commercial radio, although many of the digital stations seem to be fairly light on advertising for the time being, which is fine by me. Planet Rock plays a good few quality tracks you'd not hear elsewhere, and I'm working my way through many of the other stations, sampling a few minutes of programming from each. There's something for most moods; it's just a matter of trying to remember everything that's available to listen to!
Freeview was a less expensive secondary purchase from the weekend. Remarkably easy to set up, and no signal problems at all, considering I'm just using an internal area sitting on the dining table. Saying that, there's a direct line-of-sight to Crystal Palace from many places around here, so it's perhaps not terribly surprising, but it's good to see that the sound 1920s construction of the building doesn't block all signals. (Wireless internet is not so lucky.)
There aren't a great number of stations of Freeview, since many of the higher profile ones such as E4 and Discovery are subscription based. Nevertheless, for news-junkies such as myself there are three news channels and a UK History channel which shows a good number of documentaries. Even the Sky Travel channel shows some decent fare, such as vintage Whicker's World. Fantastic! BBC Four has also been looking good, and seems to be the place where World Cinema has now relocated. I remember in the past there being a decent amount of films on Channel 4 and BBC2, but this seems to have dried up in recent years. There was a great French film on over the weekend though, and it looks as if my fortunes are looking up.
DAB radio offers around 50 stations covering a wide variety of formats and musical genres. Strangely though, or perhaps not so strange; of the stations programmed into the radio's presets, many are the same I'd listed to on analogue radio - BBC Radio 4, 5 Live and the like. It's fantastic to be finally able to receive the World Service in high-fidelity, and 6 Music is sounding good so far too. As for the commercial offerings; well I've never been a great fan of commercial radio, although many of the digital stations seem to be fairly light on advertising for the time being, which is fine by me. Planet Rock plays a good few quality tracks you'd not hear elsewhere, and I'm working my way through many of the other stations, sampling a few minutes of programming from each. There's something for most moods; it's just a matter of trying to remember everything that's available to listen to!
Freeview was a less expensive secondary purchase from the weekend. Remarkably easy to set up, and no signal problems at all, considering I'm just using an internal area sitting on the dining table. Saying that, there's a direct line-of-sight to Crystal Palace from many places around here, so it's perhaps not terribly surprising, but it's good to see that the sound 1920s construction of the building doesn't block all signals. (Wireless internet is not so lucky.)
There aren't a great number of stations of Freeview, since many of the higher profile ones such as E4 and Discovery are subscription based. Nevertheless, for news-junkies such as myself there are three news channels and a UK History channel which shows a good number of documentaries. Even the Sky Travel channel shows some decent fare, such as vintage Whicker's World. Fantastic! BBC Four has also been looking good, and seems to be the place where World Cinema has now relocated. I remember in the past there being a decent amount of films on Channel 4 and BBC2, but this seems to have dried up in recent years. There was a great French film on over the weekend though, and it looks as if my fortunes are looking up.
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