Growing up in the 1970s he was a real life superhero.

He had a cape, a rocket powered bike and seemed to survive anything. That summer we waited for him to come to London to jump thirteen buses. I can remember kids making jumps from planks of wood and seeing how far they could get on their bikes.

Despite him failing to land the bike safely and with a broken hand, a broken pelvis, and a compression fracture of a vertebra he insisted on leaving the arena on foot.

With then-ABC announcer Frank Gifford helping him out of the arena, Knievel was overheard saying, “I’m hurt awful bad, and I think I’m going into shock.” Gifford proceeded to plead with Knievel that he has proved enough and to use the stretcher, Knievel refused again, insisting, “I walked in, I want to walk out!”

It says on Evel’s website, “For every adversity there is an equivalent seed of benefit. You only have to look for it. Believe in yourself and get up if you fail”. That sums up the man who fought a terminal illness for many years and finally lost the fight today.

As his long time friend and promoter Billy Rundel said :

EVEL KNIEVEL MAKES HIS FINAL JUMP

“It’s been coming for years, but you just don’t expect it. Superman just doesn’t die, right?”

Posted by Mark at 10:13 PM | Permalink

In 1910 Henry Laurence Gantt invented the Gantt Chart and changed the way project planning was done forever.

They were originally developed so that a foreman could easily see if a project was on schedule, ahead or behind. One of their first successes was the Hoover dam.

I think the Gantt chart I received today would make Henry laugh. Broken in two to meet the deadlines imposed by someone, somewhere I think the task tomorrow is to review the WBS and to try to create a more logical “order of work”.

Posted by Mark at 11:43 PM | Permalink

We walk slowly through the graveyard behind the coffin.

My arms around Alex and Elizabeth, my eyes fixed on Karen walking ahead of us comforting the girls.

I try to focus on details, to move between the tragedy of what we are doing and the banal to avoid getting swept away in just how sad this day is. The names on the gravestones. The impressive bulk of the Victorian monuments giving way to the more modern stones surrounded by windmills and solar lights.

Then one simple, fresh, sandstone gravestone. The regimental cap badge. The word Iraq. The age - 18.

The words of the committal. The sound of the seagulls. The winter orange slash of colour cutting through the cloud.

Wife, mother, daughter, sister, best friend. In a part of the graveyard which many years ago before it was consecrated she kept her horses, close to her home and under a wide Sunderland sky we said goodbye and laid Gillian to rest.

Posted by Mark at 11:53 PM | Permalink

I spent half of today chasing the wake of Karen’s tail lights up the M1 for a day neither of us thought we’d see.

I think we must have traveled almost all of the 193 miles of the motorway (which forms part of the European route E13, although this route is unsigned and is just an agreement between countries.

Posted by Mark at 7:23 AM | Permalink

I’m stocking up for Christmas tonight :

• Some Vietnamese coffee from Ca Phe VN
• Pfeffernüsse from The German Deli
• Gentleman’s Relish
• Stone’s Green Ginger Wine
• Goldschlager

Posted by Mark at 10:18 PM | Permalink

No matter how hard I try I can’t sleep.

I just sit and wonder what it will be like and how best I can help.

Posted by Mark at 11:59 PM | Permalink

It’s unusual for me to be driven around.

In part that’s because I actually enjoy driving, in part it’s the shuffling around of cars we have to do.

So, today was a rare treat : a chance to sit back, relax, watch the countryside slip by and observe the standard of driving.

What a shock I had. This was supposed to be an early festive trip with Christmas presents to share with loved ones. It turned out to be peppered with some rather direct language.

Perhaps next time I will drive….

Quote of the Day

K observing the standard of driiving on the M25 :

“What is wrong with these plonkers. Don’t they know how to use a microwave ?”

Posted by Mark at 11:06 PM | Permalink

It seems to have been a day for fiendish puzzles and challenges.

Mine involved a lack of common languages, timescales and project.

Fhai’s was the small yellow puzzle I keep in a drawer.

As we all sat in the kitchen we caught up with each others news from the week and started planning Christmas.

As they left Richard had one last go and finished the puzzle. I may give him a copy of Project for next week…

Posted by Mark at 11:26 PM | Permalink

In Pimlico today Winter seemed a long way away and the Christmas decorations looked very odd against a clear blue sky…

Posted by Mark at 11:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We just aren’t good enough.

From Barwick to MacLaren, the FA who sanction a stadium without a roof resulting in a waterlogged pitch, allowing an NFL game to ruin the pitch weeks before an important game,a team of players who celebrate bling rather than bathe in a golden glow - it was simply dire.

We didn’t deserve it - we didn’t get it.

Now is the ideal chance to shake things up from the FA down to the players. We need serious reform.

We simply can’t suffer another night like this.

Posted by Mark at 10:43 PM | Permalink

I hope someone will tell me or I’m in for a real quest.

At the moment none of this seems as easy as it should be…

Posted by Mark at 8:18 PM | Permalink

Right in the middle of a normal day I get a phone call which stuns me.

Suddenly all the stress and problems I was mulling over a moment ago seem so insignificant.

Posted by Mark at 6:51 PM | Permalink

Here’s a look around the Internet tonight :

• The Girl in the Cafe makes me wish I’d sorted out that trip before Christmas with her latest report
• Stpiduko provides a useful collection of Youtube videos including some covering the Holga camera.
• Rachel North is back and blogging and reports on a man who had gone into a diabetic coma on a bus in Leeds was shot twice with a Taser gun by police who feared he may have been a security threat.
• In Sweden Francis Strand enjoys a glass of julmust as Christmas approaches
• While Henry tells us why should be savouring Baileys Irish Cream

I’m off for a warming brandy to try to shift this cold…

Posted by Mark at 8:02 PM | Permalink

Just when you need to carry Christmas shopping the mystery affliction of Hurty Arms appears.

It seems none of us are particularily well. Martin has been off work sick, K now has Hurty Arms (an affliction so bad that it makes you knock over full glasses of wine) and I have a dose of Man Flu (an affliction so bad that you don’t care that your wine has been knocked over).

At least today we made a start on the Christmas shopping and walked around our old, winter haunts of last year.

Posted by Mark at 7:11 PM | Permalink

“You can’t be optimistic if you have misty optic”, I can remember my Father saying as he cleaned his glasses.

He was right and as I sit here looking at the pictures I have recently taken I realise I need to be a lot more careful about the optics (and sensors) on my camera.

I had a nice picture to post here today but not even careful use of the dust and scratches filter in Photoshop will clean it up.

I’ve wondered for a while about CCD cleaning but the complexity of the process and the cost of the kits have put me off. I even tried a local photography shop which offered CCD cleaning as a service but that fell foul of a lack of cable at the shop.

I’m now considering getting a Giottos GTAA 1900/1901 Rocket to try to clean the insides of my camera.

Hopefully, if it works, normal service will be resumed without me needing to spend hours in Photoshop…

Posted by Mark at 7:23 PM | Permalink

“Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.” ~George Eliot

Posted by Mark at 7:59 PM | Permalink

Next time I’m there it just won’t be the same.

The AMT stall is no longer there, the smiling and happy staff lost forever. I liked AMT and not just for the quality of the service. AMT had the contract to supply fourteen London railway stations and only used Fairtrade coffee. Closing these stalls means the company will sell 20,000 fewer cups of Fairtrade coffee each day. That’s a loss of £7,000 in investment for the growers communities, as well as the stability which comes with Fairtrade contracts and minimum prices. It’s a real shame that Caffé Nero, who will take over these locations, don’t automatically offer Fairtrade coffee. How London will reach it’s target of being a Fairtrade City by 2008 with decisions like this is a little hard to see. If you feel strongly then Email Barbara Barnes, the Head of Customer Service at Network Rail at Barbara.Barnes@networkrail.co.uk

Opposite the AMT stall was the entrance to Eurostar. Early in the morning I’d stop and watch people heading down the escalator and onto trains that went to Paris and beyond. I missed out on the era of those classic trains like The Golden Arrow and The Bournemouth Belle and always hoped to travel on the Eurostar. Now, alas, with it’s movement to St. Pancras I doubt I will. With the additional time and trouble to cross London on the Underground Bournemouth airport looks a quicker and more convenient option.

So, sadly, there will be two empty spaces in J.R. Scott’s station and I can no longer watch the arrivals and depatures at the now empty Waterloo International terminus but for me it’s still a magical gateway to an amazing city.

Waterloo - knowing my fate is to be with you.

Posted by Mark at 6:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

In the words of the ancients, one should make his decision within the space of seven breaths. It is a matter of being determined and having the spirit to break through to the other side.

Hagakure

Well no swift decisions but an email arrived today so perhaps the mists are clearing and some work will happen along soon.

Posted by Mark at 8:04 PM | Permalink

History is slipping away - there is literally nothing we can do to stop it.

The end of the first World War was only eighty nine years ago yet only twenty two verified veterans exist in the world.

In the UK three people still survive, in Germany there are two and in Austria there are three.

As I sit here and wonder at the few casualties in my family tree and why the only one was fighting for New Zealand time is slipping away for Henry Allingham, Harry Patch and William Stone.

The surviving veterans of World War I are listed here

Posted by Mark at 7:45 PM | Permalink

“When I am laid, am laid in earth, May my wrongs create
No trouble, no trouble in thy breast;
Remember me, but ah! forget my fate,
Remember me, remember me, but ah! forget my fate”

Dido and Aeneas : Henry Purcell

Posted by Mark at 7:17 PM | Permalink

With the fire burning, fireworks being let off and the promise of pasta with roasted tomato sauce with ragu, chocolate torte with ice cream and cheese and biscuits we finally all met together to celebrate Guy Fawkes…

Posted by Mark at 11:05 PM | Permalink

This week’s unanswered questions :

• Just how did Ciss know Mary Burberry and where did she get the money to buy the post office from her?

• Did the brothers buy the garage from Thomas Burberry?

• Where is Cacharien in Germany and who was August’s father?

• How did Alfred Victor leave Hampshire and end up living in Sumner, Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand?

• How do I find out who William’s brother was and he is the petitioner mentioned here?

Posted by Mark at 7:37 PM | Permalink

As I walk into the kitchen, avoiding the splinters of wood I need to cut off later on and fill, a mixture of smells meets my nose.

I’ve been trying to make no-kneed bread this evening. As a first attempt it’s not been too bad although with around 14 to 20 hours rising time it’s more of a mathematical challenge to produce it on time.

That said, it’s a small price to pay for not having to kneed, prove and re-kneed the dough although you do need to remember it’s in the airing cupboard.

I used the recipe from notmartha.org which is here. The whole no-need bread phenomenon has been rolling around the Internet for a while now and has even resulted in a Flickr group for people to post pictures of their breads.

With a little more time I think I will try the Nigel Slater recipe posted at The Amateur Gourmet but for now I’m off to enjoy salmon en papillote with ceviche of salmon and lime.

Posted by Mark at 6:13 PM | Permalink

To round off another exciting day I walk past the large picture frame in the hall and brush against it.

At that moment the frame cracks, the glass slides out and the corner of the glass cuts a gouge into the skirting board before wedging itself into the carpet.

Now I need to find a replacement frame the same size. Luckily it’s not a replacement foot.

Posted by Mark at 10:20 PM | Permalink

“Life is not an easy matter… You cannot live through it without falling into frustration and cynicism unless you have before you a great idea which raises you above personal misery, above weakness, above all kinds of perfidy and baseness.”

Leon Trotsky

What I need is that great idea, and I need it fast …

Posted by Mark at 10:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The last time I did any work on a car was Penny’s Morris Minor.

Even then I had to get Douglas from over the road to help. He went on to greater things and serviced tanks. Perhaps my inability to shift the spark plugs inspired him.

Today I got my car back and handed back Stan the Getz.

If any of you out there have an Alfa I’d urge you to head over to Roberts Aerospace and read their tips to keep you car running.

Especially take note of the points related to cam belts as, clearly, not every service center knows this.

In the long run that will save you a lot of hassle and cost.

It must have been easier back in Joe’s time - even if you did need a ladder to wash the roof of your car.

Posted by Mark at 10:41 PM | Permalink

Posted by Mark at 8:58 PM | Permalink

“I couldn’t be bothered to light all those individual fireworks so I got this with one fuse”, said James as he carried in something that looked like Russian army surplus ordnance.

With the best home made hollandaise sauce, pheasant and cheese and port to finish it was a very successful surprise birthday party : probably all the more surprising for the neighbors when one of the fireworks went astray…

Posted by Mark at 10:18 PM | Permalink

Because it’s not every day you can lie in bed and watch a fireworks display…

Posted by Mark at 10:08 PM | Permalink

The problem with anything analogue is that we just don’t have the time, or the technology, to deal with it any more.

I’m sitting on the floor surrounded by piles of pictures and negatives. Year after year of birthdays and Christmases with the same themes of cakes, Champagne, party poppers and floors strewen with discarded wrapping paper. Before Elizabeth came along it was hard to tell one year from another. Even with her presence I couldn’t tell you which year they were taken in, it’s just a little easier to put them into some rough chronology.

I separate photographs from negatives and give up counting the prints when I reach the thousandth. It’s not the first time I have done this but then the sorting was done at a more painful time and the box was put away to be dealt with another day. Lost on these bits of celluloid are Nicola’s face, the band rehearsing before a show, my first car, holidays in France, my wedding, Elisabeth on my back as we walked in the Lake District.

To sort them out I would need a lightbox, a lupe to magnify them and the ability to get my brain around seeing this world inversely as a negative image. I would need to index and catalogue them and I would probably need more space to keep them rather than the old cardboard box where they rest now. Despite that effort it would still be hard to track down the one shot I wanted a week from now.

I probably have more digital pictures taken in recent years than I do ones taken on film. I store them on DVDs and I have them roughly catalogued. It is fast and easy to preview them as thumbnails and the images are positive and full colour. I don’t need to keep a large lightbox nor do I need to dust down the negatives before I scan them or remove the scratches when they are in Photoshop.

I doubt many of these pictures will ever been seen again. Most of them were snaps, many of them record a time long since past. Perhaps in a few years I will let go of the negatives but until then the problem can rest in this box.

Blogfriday.net

Posted by Mark at 10:09 PM | Permalink