Friday Firteen (V36)

A Thursday Thirteen on a Friday? It must be Christmas.
1) I've go the Christmas lights working, although one of the transformers has died. This year's lights have a different style of connector, too, so I've just had to buy a new complete set.
2) This year's bulbs are a different colour also from last year. More white than yellow. Planned obsolescence?
3) Someone gave me a box of chocs at work. They were Green and Black's and we put them in an open area so that everyone could try them. An hour later they had all gone except the cherry ones.
4) I had to (ahem) borrow some selotape (3M, Scotch) from work, because I don't have any. I will replace it, of course.
5) I could not park in Sainsbury's. This is a first. It was full.
6) Fog has disrupted a lot of UK travel today. roads are bad and the airport was struggling.
7) I was working until 02:00 in the morning yesterday and then started again at 07:30. At least I have finished most of the pre-Christmas tasks.
8) I shall try to find some time to play guitar during the break.
9) My work inbox has started to slow down and I've received a few more amusing end of year pictures and thoughts.
10) Its quieter this evening, like a silent night, oops I feel a carol coming on.
11) I have seen four sets of carollers today.
12) Seasonal Greetings
13) Time for a mince pie and a tipple.

Here's a few version of Silent Night to entertain.
Sinead O'Conner
German choir
Christina Aguilera
Trans Siberian Orchestra
Bad Beatles remix with fake vox ouch


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OTA Wordless Wednesday

saddest street corner in New York celebrates Christmas

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replacement bulbs

More from Santa tonight.

He seems to be having the same problems as me about getting the Christmas lights working again. I need some B12 bulbs, but they don't seem to make them this year. The set of lights with the computer controlled chaser won't light up at all, let alone chase and I suspect that it is suffereing from a programming error.

Never mind. Here's something festive.

run santa

santa vision

My first woodland Santa sighting has occured in the last day or so. I was driving along the M3 motorway, when I saw an MGB car parked on the hard shoulder, and in the nearby wood were two Santa Claus.

Regular readers know I usually publish completely factual accounts with proper photographs, but on this occasion I must declare that I am using a Santavision recreation of the event, complete with virtual reindeer.

tree

Shopping today for a Christmas tree, it turned out that the shop had run out of the netting to make the tree compact for travelling. Apparently this weekend was peak for buying trees in the UK so the shop had to send out for netting from another garden centre.

I've also heard my first proper Christmas carols this weekend..."We Three Kings", sung by some carollers and then "Oh, come all ye faithful." on the television tonight.

The Dorchester

Arriving back at Heathrow in the early hours of Saturday, I then had a fast turnaround before travelling to Central London, to the Dorchester, for lunch. We met there at just after one o'clock and managed to make lunch last until five, before heading from Park Lane across to Chelsea.

The always friendly Dorchester was brightly decked out for Christmas, and the bright sunshine of day when we arrived gave way to the darkness and cold of early eveing by the time we left.

jet

A view from my lounger in JFK Airport, just before the flight back to the UK. After the bustle of checking in without wearing shoes and going through metal detectors and all manner of scanner, its eventually pleasant to land softly in the tranquility of the Terraces lounge. Gentle fountains, chirping birds and mood lighting convey a sense of ease. To relax with a cocktail makes a pleasant way to ease into the overnight flight back to London.

no copy whatsoever

I see that the New York Times has evaluated the differences between Microsoft Vista and Apple OS X and made a helpful video.

They report that some are saying that Microsoft's new Aero interface in Vista is a copy of the Apple's Aqua.

Maybe Microsoft did rename "My Documents" and "My Computer" to "Computer" and "Documents," as they are in Mac OS X. Maybe the search icon in Vista is almost identical to Tiger's Spotlight icon, but the magnifying glass icon does turns the other way. If the new Vista buttons and other interface details have a shiny bulbous look similar to those in Mac OS X, perhaps its just coincidence.

And the new 3D chess game in Vista doesn't have the same options for the board as the many year old version in Mac. No there's no Grass in the Microsoft version, but Porcelain instead.

Of course "search as you type" has been in the Mac since 2002, and now its also in Vista, but I suppose this is justa logical extension.

And those smart folders in Mac, which allow (e.g.) everything with the word 'song' in it are now called virtual folders in Vista.

But the video mentioned above explains this very clearly. I expect Microsoft will add it to their web site, just like Apple have done already.

W aiting

At some hotels, waiting for taxis or baggage reclaim can be a somewhat boring experience. The place I stayed in Manhattan seemed to have this problem solved, however. There was a bustling lobby area filled with moving lights and general pyrotechnics. The people moving in and out seemed to be somewhat unique too, so it was a great opportunity for a small amount of people watching.

And over in the corner, a Christmas tree acted as a reminder of the season, even if the world outside looked bright and sunny and somehow more like October than a few days before Christmas.

winter wonderland

Tonight's theme for the party was 'Winter Wonderland', with ice sculptures, icicles and other generally wintery decoration.

It was something of a co-incidence that I was around for this rather large event, and luckily Jennifer had realised I would be in town and invited me.

By the time we arrived, everything was in full swing, with a DJ playing, and plenty of dancing, drinking and chatter from the extensive array of guests.

As the evening progressed, the group I'd arrived with seemed to be about three times as many and very animated. But, as I've got an early start again tomorrow, I was good and left fairly early.

international moments

This continues to be an erratic week for blogging posts because of the way that I am on the road. I've been doing some things that have pretty much used all available hours and I'm still Mac free so my pictorial content will continue to be low.

Yet this evening was one of those sets of mad co-incidences. I finished my day job and was drinking a celebratory coffee in my hotel room when I was called by a New Yorker friend who I haven't seen for the best part of a year. He was in the area and we arranged to meet in a nearby bar in the next town. I grabbed a cab and when I arrived, he was with two other folk I knew from Australia. So a drink and a ceasar salad later we'd all caught up on what each other had been doing.

Then we piled into my friend's Mercedes to head back to my hotel, passing a somewhat dubious bar on the way. Lets say it was called Beamers.

Back at the hotel, I run into another friend from Germany, who was returning from a shopping expedition to 5th Avenue, so we all sit together in the bar. Half an hour later I spot an Irish friend who normally lives in Paris, sitting chatting to someone I don't know. So I say Hi. Then a Belgian and Italian friend arrive, rather sheepishly from the dubious bar I'd passed earlier. They'd been brought back in a rusty car driven by someone they had met outside the bar and we formed an ever increasing circle of conversations. And I'd planned an early night. But its almost one in the morning now and I'm surrendering.

nights on broadway

I may be a tourist in this city, but I do love New York. Just step out of the door and into the white light of the center of the city (see I even used American spelling). I've uploaded a selection of snaps now.

Click the picture above to go for a wander around my flickr stream.

New York New York, its a helluva' town, the Bronx is up and the Battery's down.