Amanda came around today for lunch and a movie. We were both tired and settled for a little escapism with XXX 2: Next Level Fun, amusing and not too straining on the brain.

Do you ever get the feeling life is leaving you behind ? You hear some news and think, "I never did that and now is it too late ?". I had one of those moments today. Here I am and what have I accomplished ?

Perhaps we should have gone to a more intellectually demanding film to stop my mind wandering..

Posted by Mark at 6:15 PM | Permalink

I have lists everywhere, and piles of work behind the lists. From needing to get Dave the Wrench back to working out my expenses I seem to be trying to defeat piles and piles of work...

It's going to be a long day....

Posted by Mark at 8:15 AM | Permalink

I'm tempted to try to paint again. Not that I really did before. I have a block with a piece of paper and pencil that I use a camera to defeat.

Now, I'm tempted to try again. Nothing too complicated but the odd sketch. In part I was inspired by Danny Gregory's site and his work, like this.

So, I have a book on order and some pencils to sharpen. Let's see what happens.

Posted by Mark at 5:14 PM | Permalink

Well after three plus years working here I have finally got my job grade reviewed. No more am I seen as a Senior Telecoms Analyst with goals to design PABX and voice systems but I have finally, almost, settled into a code which reflects what I do. Or at least what I should do. Farewell Buzby.

Posted by Mark at 7:45 PM | Permalink

• How to keepup with a dozen blogs every day

• Make PDF file from any document for free

• Make your own marshmallows

• Put your life on a USB Key with these programs designed to run from one.

Posted by Mark at 5:27 PM | Permalink

Ten years ago a child was stolen. He’s one of the youngest political prisons in the world. He was six then. Today is his sixteenth birthday and he is still missing.

Tibet is a place close to my heart. I love the scenary, the people and the religion. It’s a quiet place, born from many years of war into a stable, abiding Buddhist country. The invasion by the Chinese has seen many atrocities but none more upsetting that the deliberate abduction of a child for political reasons.

Tibet’s stolen child is Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, recognised by His Holiness The Dali Lama as the His Holiness The Panchen Lama. The Panchen Lama is the second most important figure in Tibetan culture, religion and politics, after His Holiness The Dalai Lama.

The title Panchen Lama originates back to the Fifth Dalai Lama who in 1642 gave the title Panchen Lama, meaning Great Scholar, to his teacher the Abbott of Tashilhunpo Monastery in order to consolidate Gelugpa power. Since then it has traditionally been the role of the Dalai Lama and Panchen Lama to act as the teacher of the new incarnation.

Regardless of if you beleive any of that or not at 16 years old, having spent 10 years in prison, he deserves better.

Take a moment to join one of the many petitions here. Don’t let another year, or ten, slip by.

Tashi delek Gedhun, Happy Birthday.

Posted by Mark at 6:01 PM | Permalink

What’s in your fridge and what do you throw away ?

There was a report in the paper this week which said that every year Britain throws away £20bn of unused food. That’s equal to five times our spending on internation aid and enough to lift 150 million people out of starvation.

We have an obligation to cut our 22.5 million tons of domestic rubbish and 3.4 million tons of that is waste food.

At least 3 million tons is thrown away by the retail sector, including supermarkets. So much food is discarded that people now choose to purchase as little as possible to contribute to the waste less.

Freegans are people who are concerned so deeply with the social and ecological impact of economic over-consumption that they choose to buy and work as little as possible and, instead, to live directly off the massive waste created by our modern society. Freegans avoid contributing labor or wealth to an economy based on materialism, explotation, greed and waste by refusing to participate in it. Instead of producing their own waste, Freegans sustain themselves off the already existing waste thereby curtailing garbage and pollution and lessening the over-all volume in the waste stream.

Taken from http://freegan.info/

Clearly we need to catch up in this country is we are to meet the EU target, already achieved in Scandinavian countries, of recycling 45% of waste by 2020.

Posted by Mark at 5:18 PM | Permalink

It's amazing how much stuff accumulates in a few weeks, and how much dust.

Chores, chores and more chores today - from catching up with email and people, washing and cleaning to a well needed haircut.

It's nice to be home.

Posted by Mark at 4:36 PM | Permalink

Over fours hours to get back ....

Tired, but happy to be here, despite the piles of post and email.

Now, sleep.

Posted by Mark at 10:19 PM | Permalink

The problem with eating alone if that they either put you near the toilet or the band, tonight it was the band.

Times beginning to drag a little now. The last two days and I'd like to be home, my own bed and not wondering where I'm eating tonight.
The day was nice and sunny today and I went for a walk at lunchtime, through the factory and down the river. After an hours work in my room I drove back to Newark for a good look around. The setting sun was low and shining through the church windows as I walked past it and down to the local theatre. The end of it wasn't as stunning as Lincoln Cathedral but its impressive nevertheless. The local theatre looks like a mosque with minarets. It seemed to be doing a good trade with a film on tonight.

The food in the Cafe Bleu was nice, the guitar player a little rough in places but it was a nice final evening to day goodbye to Newark. Last day tomorrow.

Posted by Mark at 11:25 PM | Permalink

Another day of confirming things I've tried before rather than learning anything dramatically new. I certainly have a long list of things to do and try when I get back. Some relate to the course, some don't. I spent the other evening with Outlook, sorting tasks and trying to get everything down in one place for all the things I need to do : it's a long list.

I went out exploring again today to the North. This was clearly a prosperous town at one time with a large, impressive Town Hall looking out onto the market square. The thing you notice is the groups of kids. Hanging round the empty market stalls; on the benches or climbing on the recycling bins. It seems they have no where to go. I wandered around looking for somewhere to eat and didn't find anything other than a kebab shop so I headed back to Newark.

I parked at the top of the town and wandered into the local Thai restaurant. The owner looked a little shocked at someone speaking Thai to her but got her revenge as she spoke more and more and my Thai become less and less. She seemed happy to have a solitary diner and, unlike the Indian last night, I got a decent seat and no odd looks as I sat down to read my book with a Thai beer. After being asked where I learnt my Thai we sat and talked and it turns out that she was from Essan like Fhai, which perhaps explains why I thought I recognised some of the music.

The food was really nice, fishcakes to start with, egg fried rice, chicken curry with loads of Thai basil and Tom Yam soup. They weren't at all anxious that I should move and were happy to serve me another beer and let me alone to read.

“No Thai girlfriend ?”, she asked as I left, “Fat falang&rdquo I replied.

Posted by Mark at 10:04 PM | Permalink

I've been to many seaside towns, both in and out of season and Skegness seems to be the worst.

An earlier start today. The course is good but more an affirmation of things I've used before, albeit at home, rather than breaking new ground for me, It's good to have some formal time set aside to cover all of this though as I had planned to do it at some time but never got around to it.

The course is using a room at one of the local manufacturers, Hoval Boilers. A large site, most of which seems to be derelict now, I guess a feature as manufacturing processes scale down and orders dry up. It's odd to be back in this kind of environment and standing at the door of one of the buildings the warm smell of oil and metal swarth takes me back to when I worked at the Mill.

Despite the weather not being as nice I decided to head for the sea and after a trip back to the room to upload my work email I set off to Skegness. A drive up over the Lincoln Wolds and through the outskirts of the town to the sea front. It's empty, abandoned with only the amusement arcades open to a few kids dressed in football shirts and too much gold. Even the sea front is empty with no one out walking taking the sea air. I wandered down to the pier, watching the mist rolling in from the sea and decide it's time to cut my losses and head out.

After a drive back across the Wolds, chased by the mist, which came down fast making it seem more like Autumn than Spring I stopped in Newark to eat at the local Indian. The food was ok, but boiling hot, perhaps they use a Hoval boiler ?

Posted by Mark at 11:01 PM | Permalink

There's really good news on the TV this morning, Frank Gardener, the BBC Security Correspondent shot during the Gulf War was back at work today. Confined to a wheelchair he's haunted by the memories of the shooting and by dreams in which he thinks he can walk and run. It has to terrible, the memories and the long road ahead and all the time the knowledge that his cameraman, Simon Cumbers, wasn't as lucky as him and that he died in the attack.

Day one, and quite a productive one. Almost all the people on the course have used Unix before and I have to admit I was a little worried about coping with Vi and the other subtleties of the operating system. That said I didn't cope too badly with it all and left quiet pleased. It was a lovely afternoon to drive back and I came off the main roads to drive past the fields, freshly ploughed, the soil warming in the sun.

After an hour of picking up email and working I set out to find somewhere to eat. I was aiming for Broughton, a decision based purely on the name, when I swung away from that route and headed to Lincoln instead. The road over the top of the hills have a good view of the power stations, orange in the sun. It was a nice quiet road with few cars, small villages and a toll bridge.

In Lincoln I headed for the old part of the town and to parking stress. If you are ever in Lincoln read the parking machine directions. After trying a pound, two pounds and 50p none of which seemed to work I moved the car to a different car park with the same issue I read the directions. You have to put in the numbers of your car registration, I guess to stop you being kind and passing on our ticket to someone else....

I was right to come to Lincoln. The cathedral looked amazing bathed in late evening sun, burnt orange, warming the stones, the clock chiming away.

So after taking a few pictures I set off for somewhere to eat. This end of the city seems to have only a few restuarnts and they were all full so I set off down the hill into the main part of the city. The streets are a little odd and the nicest seemed to be Pizza Express...

So after a meal and back up the hill, a few pictures of the cathedral at night and a listen to the owl I'm back here, ready to read, sleep and listen to the pigs in the field outside my window.

Posted by Mark at 11:54 PM | Permalink

Well The Plough at Caunton was really nice. A pleasant country pub with a mix of pictures of the Royal Naval ship of the same name and the local hunt. The owners seem to be having a stressful evening as the kitchen staff had lost the ice cream scoop, a terrible calamity given all the puddings were ice cream based. That said the steak was good and the pint of local bitter even nicer. So back to the room, a little TV with no channel hopping and then some reading. School tomorrow.

Posted by Mark at 11:00 PM | Permalink

I think I could write a guide book for the M1 after the last week. I'm back on it today, further north and settled into a faceless room with a TV with no remote and no radio. I should have brought a DVD or two and put the (non approved) DVD viewer onto this laptop. I've brought some music with me, some things I should have sorted a while back for home and work and a stack of books to read. Ok it's clean and dry but it has no character at all, stuck by the main road with little prospect of a reasonable meal. I seem to have lucked out even on the local pub which isn't doing food as the landlord's wife is ill.

I need to go and explore.

Posted by Mark at 6:51 PM | Permalink

After almost a week on the road I have home chores, things online and a new laptop to setup. I had a few things to sort for Amanda's site, some things for her new diary system before I moved onto finishing off Elizabeth's site.

Chores, everywhere....

Posted by Mark at 10:50 AM | Permalink

We're all recovering from last night. It was, simply amazing. I'd seen Tony Bennett once before a couple of years back and he's lost none of his class. The voice is like liquid New York, amusing, warm, sometimes loud, sometimes quiet.

Posted by Mark at 11:49 AM | Permalink

Well, we’ve been counting the days and at last it’s arrived. We’re off to the city for an early dinner then to the Royal Albert Hall to see Tony sing to us.

Catch you all later.

Posted by Mark at 4:25 PM | Permalink

I can't decide when the birthday of all this actually is.

Is it June 2003 when I first installed Movabletype in an attempt to not clutter up someone's inbox or October 2004 when I got brave and added in pictures and started to really write for me, or for you, but definately with a different motivation from when I started ....

What do you think ?

Posted by Mark at 12:28 PM | Permalink

As today wore on and on it was more obvious that this whole episode was doomed. From downloads that didn't work to missing software someone had clearly upset the Computer Gods and it just wasn't going to happen. So, before they broke anything else and we broke them I called it a day. I'm sure tomorrow I'll need to justify that decision a few times but it seems the best for all. We all come out of it tired, but with a little honour remaining.

Posted by Mark at 11:22 PM | Permalink

There's a pattern emerging. I don't just mean the early rise, 3 hour journey and then the day's work, I mean the fact that they aren't here yet.

Today was another wash out with them arriving late, and without all the things they need to complete this work.

I can't say I'm suprised, this whole episode seems cursed.

Off again to sleep. Maybe tomorrow will be better.

Posted by Mark at 10:11 PM | Permalink

A three hour journey one way for something that was delayed a day and I wasn't informed until this morning.

*sigh*

Off to sleep.

Posted by Mark at 9:27 PM | Permalink

Off today to the temple to celebrate Songkran.

It’s amazing how evocative smell is and the smell of the incense from the burners outside the Wat brought back all the memories of my trip to Thailand. It came back even stronger when we wandered around the food stalls looking for sticky rice and chicken to eat. Martin and I had the most amazing flat cakes with some sort of spinach in them, fried and hot and tasty.

We went to pour water and flower petals over the Buddha, sit inside to do prayers, then picnic and eat while we watched the dancing and entertainment outside.

It was really warm, making it seem all the more like being back in Thailand , and good fun just to watch the beauty contests, the traditional dancing and the singers, none of whom I could understand.

What you really notice is how much there is a sense of community with in the Thai people in the UK. You see the same people at every event we have been to, greeting each other with the traditional Wai and a warm, broad smile.

We all came away happy, well fed, a little suntanned and very blessed.

Check out the pictures here.

Happy New Year !

Posted by Mark at 11:43 PM | Permalink

I've added a new widget here to let me update this via email. It doesn't do everything, categories are a little missing absent from it, but it does mean that as long as I have email I can update things here.

Posted by Mark at 9:36 PM | Permalink

Well, after getting some sleep I woke up to find Amanda curled up on the sofa having given up trying to play a movie to soothe her head. She soon gave up sleeping and decided to head home. I spent the morning trying to remove blue and yellow feathers from the treasure hunt last night from a beige carpet then watched the royal wedding and the Grand National.

I thought things were odd at 10am when Martin’s curtains weren’t opened. At 6pm Richard came up the road to tell me that Daddy was an adult and should know better than to drink so much and he hadn’t been out of bed all day.

Seems to have been a long day for everyone.

Posted by Mark at 4:36 PM | Permalink

Well, a treasure hunt, Pacman, wine, champagne, food, more food and a whole lot of noise.

We went out late to watch stars, too cold, too early in the season and too late for the bats.

Listen to the noise here :

A great party !

Posted by Mark at 11:35 PM | Permalink

Well my mission, actually, is to transform all of this into :

• home made pizza dough
• home made pizza topping
• chicken stuffed with spinach and cheese with a cream and saffron sauce
• chocolate cake with cream

All to feed Amanda, Martin, Fhai and the kids later tonight.

Ready ? Steady ? Cook !

Posted by Mark at 10:17 AM | Permalink

Posted by Mark at 8:20 PM | Permalink

Busy day today. From early on with the online calender, through writing procedures to setting up accounts. At work I have been sorting stuff out for the next two weeks and reading documentation.

In the middle of this I discovered I'd broken the headset on the office phone so, armed with superglue, I fixed it. It wasn't until later, on a call, that I discovered the glue wasn't really set and that it was slowly drying to the back of my ear.

After prising it off it seems the glue doesn't stick this plastic together, only the plastic to other things. Like paper, kitchen work surfaces and ears....

Posted by Mark at 6:21 PM | Permalink

I'm always suprised at how people use their weblogs. From straight writing, photoblogs, moblogs, video blogs and audio blogs each is a little different and pushes the form in new directions.

I was looking over at the Six Apart site today and found the blog of Danny Gregory. As well as having a great site he has a neat weblog.

Check out the wonder illustrations which make this a kind of online sketchbook. The kind of thing I wish my Moleskin notebook would look like.

Posted by Mark at 6:07 PM | Permalink

I'm introducing a new category here to write about life hacks.

So what is "life hacks" all about ? The term came up at the O'Reilly conference last year, Life Hacks: Tech Secrets of Overprolific Alpha Geeks.

bq. "Technologists consume Big-Gulp-loads of information, and write, code, and edit reams of output. Author Charlie Stross notes that he reads and digests more in his morning bookmarks than most literate 18th-century readers would process in a year. Linus Torvalds and other open source leaders hold down day jobs, and still have time to create wonders in their spare time. Everyone at ETech juggles amounts of email that would stun an ox."

So, faced with all this information how did they manage? They sought new ways to process, store, manage information. This, in turn, broadened out to describe ways of doing things smarter.

So, here's a few to get us started :

* How to chill wine really fast

* How to look after your dishwasher

* Make your own gift wrap

Get more time, use some life hacks.

Posted by Mark at 8:58 PM | Permalink

It's hard to imagine another Pope with the same experiances in life, the same authority and the same contradictions.

Karol Wojtyla grew up under the Nazi repression, watched his friends both Polish and Jewish suffer, then watched them suffer again under the Stalinists. He had a rapid rise within the Church. A bishop at 38, a cardinal at 47, and Pope at 58. He fought for years to have a church built in the town of Nowa Huta. He was an athlete, a musician, actor and a linguist. When, in the year of the three Pope's his name came forward he was a complete outsider. Yet he won the Church over to be a unifier, strong willed, not afraid to speak his mind nor to be controversial. People often loved the messanger but hated the message. His stance on birth control, gay rights and women priests was completely out of tune with popular, or in some cases rational, thinking. But, he was a man who travelled, who took time to understand other cultures and religions. An amazing intellect; a Pope who spoke Yiddish.

Once, on a trip to some African nation he was introduced by the ruler to a woman who was described as the Queen Mother. She was clearly younger than the King and the Pope asked who she was. "She's the mother of some of my children, I have many wives", explained the King. "Ah yes", said the Pope, "I forgot you were still living in the Old Testament."

Posted by Mark at 9:30 AM | Permalink

Loads of sun today meant the annual clean the patio furniture ritual. I needed to do it in any case as Amanda was due over today from a postponed visit from last night. We were going to the movies but it was such a nice day we decided to laze in the garden with some drinks and some mezze. After a trip to the garden centre I sat out to read until the kids arrived to paint the flagstones in the sun with water and watch the artwork magically disappear. A nice lazy day, just what I needed.

Posted by Mark at 10:26 PM | Permalink

We all need a little time away from everyday life and that was today for me. With Martin, Richard and Joanne I went into London for a trip on the Tube, a walk down the South Bank and food at Borough Court. It was a really nice day in the city today with warm sun and not too many crowds.

Our first stop was the Royal Festival Hall which was having an African day with music and dance. After a brief stop there we wandered down the South Bank watching all sorts of boats on the river from police boats to fire boats.

Next stop was Borough Court Market for lunch : burgers, sausages and for Martin and me Spanish Chorizo with pepper and rocket in a bun from Brindisa. After a freshly made smoothy we wandered down to Tower Bridge for an ice cream then over the bridge to catch the water taxi from the Tower of London back to the Houses of Parliament.

The water taxi's are nothing like the one's Richard and Joanne are used to in Thailand. They are a lot larger, there's no man crouched at the back of the boat tending a noisy engine and they don't stop where you tell them. Despite all that we had a lot of fun and it was nice to rest our legs.

Even nicer was coming home to fresh Thai food, a few beers and a snoooze on the sofa. Check out the pictures here.

Posted by Mark at 11:58 PM | Permalink