Digital Water Pavillion
Posted: Wed 7 November, 2007 Filed under: Geeky, Travel Leave a comment »I think that this idea for the Expo ’08 in Zaragoza, Spain is an absolute stunner.
Basically, a curtain of water coming through a whole load of computer-controlled nozzles, allowing messages to be written in the water. Fantastic. It’s enough to make me want to go and see it live at Expo ’08. Even the prices don’t look too bad – although of course you’ve still got to get over there, I suppose.
Collecting Birds
Posted: Mon 5 November, 2007 Filed under: Animals, Domestic, Travel Leave a comment »Well, we now have three chickens, as well as the coop, food and so on.
We kept them in the coop overnight, so we’ll be letting them out properly for the first time this morning, introducing them to their new home. Oh, and introducing Hound (and perhaps Psycho Cat) to them to see how they all react. That should be amusing, if nothing else.
Collecting the birds went fine – I’d rented a long wheel-base Ford Transit for the day, so we went over, got everything in, and came home. Pulling into our own drive, I managed to put a scratch down the side of the van, so we’ll see how much that’s going to cost me when I talk to the rental company today. Ah well.
All the same though, driving the van was fun, and (other than that one minor interaction with the gatepost) no real problem at all. The change in driving position was weird to start off with, as was the difference in the gearshift – seriously long throw with it still being floor-mounted, rather than the dashboard-mounted shift you see on most transit-type vans now. (Turns out that it’s on the new ones, just not the one I was driving, which was an ’04 plate) Still, it was fun to drive.
So there we are. I’ve turned thirty-six today, and we’ve got new chickens. Funny the way things work out.
Train Seats
Posted: Tue 30 October, 2007 Filed under: Cynicism, MOTB, Travel Leave a comment »There are some occasions where being a bastard really amuses me – and one of those occasions is when I can upset selfish tosspots on the train.
Yesterday morning was a prime example – the train was busy, with no free pairs of seats. Not that I need a pair of seats particularly, but if there’s a free pair, you sit in one of them rather than cramming in next to people. If there isn’t, hey ho, you just have to sit next to someone. No big deal one way or the other, really- or at least, that’s my attitude.
However, there were a couple of tables where two people were trying to fill up the entire four seat with their stuff, and that always annoys me. If you’re going to do that, pay for all four tickets. Or pay to sit in first class – there’s no other sod in there most of the time, so just go for it. But just trying to block up the seats with a bag, or a jacket, that’s always going to be a target for me, I’m afraid.
So that’s where I sat. I was polite, I didn’t intrude into their conversations, I just sat and got on with stuff on the laptop. But man did it annoy them to have their nice plan to secure some space ruined. As the man said, “My work here is done”.
Get Up And Go
Posted: Wed 24 October, 2007 Filed under: Introspective, Thoughts, Travel 1 Comment »Or the last couple of days, I’ve been thinking (again) about the way my body and brain work in the mornings. It’s interesting to me because the way I work just doesn’t appear to be the way most other people do when it comes to this early morning guff.
First of all, I know that my body-clock is deeply screwed. ‘Twas always thus. The main part of it seems to be that I actualy get proper sleep between the hours of 7am and 9am – which is obviously fairly unfeasible with regard to work, for obvious reasons. If I get to sleep between 7 and 9, I’m pretty good for the rest of the day. On the other hand, if I’m woken up in that time, I’m like a bear with a sore head for the rest of the day.
As a result, I tend to get up earlier than 7am. About 5.30, for the most part. In many ways it actually suits me – I get the 7am train to work, I’m in just after 8am, I leave at about 3.45pm, get home for about six, and all’s good. In some ways I would say I’m on autopilot for the first few hours, but that’s not really true. Admittedly when I’m getting up I do use/need some form of routine, so I can do stuff while gradually waking up.
But the thing is, the alarm goes off, and bang, I’m awake and moving. I don’t do this thing of lying in bed, I just get moving. I’ve always been like that to some degree – even at school age I would get up ad go, rather than trying t stay in bed. It’s just the way I’m wired. It shifted up a gear when I was running shops, pubs and hotels, because of having to be able to deal with alarms in the middle of the night, and all that joy.
I’ve never really lost that ability. I’m sat on the train while writing this, going to work. It’s 7am, and a good 80-85% of the other passengers are asleep while I’m writing stuff for D4D™, and also doing other stuff for clients, writing web pages, database migration bits and the like.
I was thinking about this yesterday morning too, while driving to work. I’d woken up at half five, and was on the road by six. Not tired at all – although God knows, I should’ve been- and absolutely fine to drive. Admittedly, I stopped off for a quick break at about eight, just for breakfast, but that was it – no tiredness and no hassle.
I don’t know why I’m wired this way, but given the choice of sleeping an extra hour on the train, or getting work and writing done, I know which I prefer.
On The Road (Again)
Posted: Sun 21 October, 2007 Filed under: Travel 1 Comment »Today is another big drive – seeing friends up in Middlesbrough. The AA routefinder reckons it’ll be about 4-4½ hours all told.
Ah well, I’m sure it’ll be fun. Honest.
Driving Hours
Posted: Thu 11 October, 2007 Filed under: Travel 1 Comment »Yesterday turned into one hell of a long day, what with fixing the problems at work first thing in the morning, and then driving to and from London. It meant I covered about 400 miles all told, and drove for abut 7½ hours.
OK, it was spread out – an hour to Cambridge, then 3 hours there, and an hour back. Later on, three hours in the car (thanks to a nasty accident in Whitechapel meaning a diversion) so we arrived at about 6.15, then leaving That There Lunnun at 10.45, and finally arriving home at 1am. The drive home was a pig, with fog on the roads, and an accident on the A11 meaning we had to do a small diversion, but we still made good time all told.
It made for one hell of a long (and knackering) day, and I’m still recovering today – I must be getting old, the recovery speed just isn’t the same as it used to be – but it was well worth it all the same.