a slight return

That London skyscraper they're taking down floor by floor to build the Cheesegrater has had a few technical challenges and some new clever engineering over the last few weeks.

Underground, apparently there are some ex Bank vaults, complete with 1.5 meter thick concrete walls interlaced with sheets of steel. That has given the demolition crew something to think about, according to the news bulletins posted in the area. Makes some of the Bank heist films we all see seem a little less probable when we hear that authorized demolition in broad daylight has problems.

They are also rigging a new 'bracing strut' (my words) to the top of the building to help as they take the top floors down. In the diagram it looks a little bit like a bow and arrow, with the bow as the bracing strut and the arrow as the building.

Actually, there was also quite a bit of photographic interest there when I walked past. I noticed two or three people with normal clickers and a guy with a backpack and some heavy duty cameras, all taking snaps. I wonder if there's a competition or something?

And don't forget you saw it on rashbre central before the BBC.

alert

Its been interesting visiting other major cities as part of my vacation. As a Londoner, there are certain innate security minded things one does or doesn't do, reinforced over years of poster campaigns and similar, which are less well-emphasized in other countries. So returning to London, today was a case in point where I saw several signs that even if its the holiday season, there's still a certain vigilance about the Capital.

Firstly, as I moved into the central City area, I noticed two policemen manning the security booths at the start of the formal city boundary.

Secondly, I'd arranged to meet someone at a coffee shop and before they arrived, there was a minor disturbance whilst the (tourist) owner of a large wheeled case was located. They'd stood their ominously large bag in a corner whilst they queued many metres away for coffee.

Thirdly, a little later, there was a similar situation in a magazine shop at the train station. Someone had brought two sports bags in and left them on the ground, presumably whilst searching for a magazine. The security guard was becoming more and more loud as he attempted to track down the owners. I had left before this had been resolved.

And still, in some key areas there's no bins to place rubbish, as a deliberate security precaution.

What is it they say about the price of freedom being eternal vigilance?

Anosov diffeomorphism

In addition to the problematic sofa, the rest of rashbre central's lounge has been going through some form of transformation.

This is a bit like the shearing of a picture into ever smaller ribbons of chaos and then, through a progressive continuation, the eventual reappearance of order.

Parts of this change occurred whilst I was wandering Nordic parts, so there was that moment of truth upon returning to a scene which fortunately looked fine.

So now rashbre central is refixing door handles and similar items. All this creates an ongoing feeling of slight instability, which will, I suspect, last at least until sofa Mark Three appears. we shall see.

Sophistry

My new sofa arrived!

This is a replacement for my last new sofa that arrived back in April. The first one was supposed to be brown, but when it arrived the Big Mistake was that it was yellow.

The first one was lovingly made by craftsfolk in Italy and then transported by road and ship to the UK. Although an L shape, it was splint into two pieces for the journey as well as being covered in foam and cardboard packaging for the long journey. It arrived immaculately but in the wrong colour.

The second one was also made lovingly by craftsfolk in Italy. Still an L shape, it was also transported in bubble-wrap by road and ship to the UK. This one was tantalizingly well covered so it was impossible to tell the colour until the packing was removed and - Hooray - it was now correct!

As it was removed from the packaging, I noticed the shape looked slightly different from the last one. And then, before the second half had been carried in, I realized the second Big Mistake.

It was a Right Hand Facing L shape instead of a Left Hand Facing L shape. This may not seem much, but trust me - it makes all the difference about how it fits into the room.

So I now have a second temporary sofa; this one sticking out into the room in the Right Colour, but the Wrong Shape.

And the factories in Italy are on vacation for the whole of August.

knobs and knockers

Gordon the painter did a great job whilst I was trekking in Scandinavia. I'd asked that the doorhandles and some switchplates were left off because they were to be replaced. No problem to find the new silver ones but the powerdrill and electric screwdriver had disappeared into the bowels of the garage. So do it manually with an old fashioned screwdriver? No! rashbre central demands electronics for such matters.

This allows a good demonstration of Newton's Fifth Law; "Anything requiring 'do it yourself skills' requires an equal and opposite amount of futile trips to the stores."

So the original door handles, switches and electrical sockets to be replaced all required some form of substitution because of depth or dimension problems. They say a bad worker blames the tools, but in this case there were strange shaped screw heads needing obscure allan keys and all manner of minor obstacle to turn a two hour task into a two day endurance test.

I won't blame the tools, but more the concept of trying to do this seemingly minor task in a small amount of time.

We are now all shiny and happy, however.

old bull

Generally speaking, Irish bars seem to outnumber British pubs during travels abroad (maybe except in some parts of Costa del Sol).

So I was amused to see this hostelry lurking in Sweden, with a typically ironic name, which whilst sounding plausible, is usually a term for 'nonsense' or 'telling lies'.

Although when I glanced into the relatively modern English slang dictionary, the phrase didn't seem to be mentioned.

internet sparks

I've swapped internet providers!

Something not usually for the faint of heart, what with the need to get MAC codes and all. I arranged for the swap to be done whilst I was on vacation, with a view to giving enough lead time for the new arrangements to be made and then a day for the new codes to be delivered when I returned.

And everything actually went to plan.

The old service was still working the day I returned and then at 23:00 (late enough) it stopped working.

Today, the new gadgets arrived, along with the codes needed to activate the service. I keyed in the new codes to my existing setup and zippee the whole thing has started working as before, but twice as fast and at around 60% of the old cost. Well worth the crossed fingers.

Lund

Back in the UK now, and half way through unpacking my bags from the little jaunt around Scandinavia. I seem to have a rather large collection of photos and some video footage too, and this may take a little while to sift, what with work, domestic catch-up and all.

The picture today is from Lund, which is a University town in Sweden, with a student population of around 40,000 - quite a high number for a country whose total population is only seven million. Lund is in the southern part of Sweden, which has seen ownership fluctuate between Sweden and Denmark over the centuries. There's also a good and well-preserved old town section and the click through should take you to my small photoset.

powershot G7

Dear Canon,

I like your G7 Powershot camera and took one on vacation.

It is reassuringly well built and has many adjustments on it to make it both a simple point and shoot and also a highly customisable camera which can take quite clever photographs.

I wanted to see whether I could take a small camcorder and a small camera that together could take a wide range of shots yet fit into a tiny bag.

The camera has a more or less instantaneous shutter release when the button is pressed, rather than that lag that some cameras still have nowadays. Its quite heavy and has attractive styling reminiscent of a retro 35mm rangefinder.

The thing is, the wide angle of the lens isn’t quite wide enough for this to be the all-purpose pocketable camera. I know there is a bulky attachment to improve the wide angle, but I think it would be better to move the wideangle end of the lens down to something more like 28mm (equivalent) rather than extoll the virtues of a really long zoom range. I know zooms sell (like the camcorders with the impossible to hold 2000 times zooms). But let’s be practical. The sort of person that wants something like a G7 would probably like to be able to take pictures indoors and get in most of the action.

So when you release an update, bring the wide angle down a few more degrees without needing to add oodles of further zoom.

satellite

Before this journey, I updated the satellite navigation DVD in the car. It covers the whole of europe to street level and I suppose a few things had changed since I put the last one in about two years ago. It will be refreshing to have the whole of the M6 toll road now recognised instead of a section described alarmingly as 'off road'.

But what has also changed is the way certain things get described by the voice commentary in the latest version. The lady's voice now also says 'go straight ahead at the roundabout' as well as things like 'take the third exit on the left' which is a pleasing surprise, even more so with complicated instructions which do seem clearer. I've also found that deliberately ignoring an instruction and taking a different route is now rewarded with far less 'make a U turn where possible' and much better adaptation to the new route.

I do still take a paper road atlas too, though.

sounds of the city

There's something quite reassuring about living in the centre of a town. For a while I lived at the junction in the centre of a small town with a church with loud bells, a couple of noisy pubs (Bierbrunnen, in particular) - a Wienerwald restaurant and a cinema that also showed late night Turkish movies. The road junction had interesting traffic light sequences and was on a hill and if it snowed then cars would struggle, rev noisily and slither sideways and the pubs, cafes and cinema meant there was a reasonable amount of late night noise.

So tonight, here in Gothenburg, I feel quite reassured, in a well-established hotel which looks out onto a main thoroughfare with the same type of evening sounds. I've already been for a delightful candlelit meal in the nearby Kellaren and have been spending a few minutes watching the world go by. It may be past 10p.m. but its still good daylight here and it looks as if there will be a few parties before the sun starts to wake again at around 3 a.m.

dropping a columbian

Sometimes the only hit that will do is strong columbian.

We're talking Magnum here. Thats the ice cream known in UK as Wall's and here in Scandinavia as GB Glace. Pro capita ice cream consumption in Scandinavian countries is amongst the highest globally, and Sweden is only second to Finland for coffee consumption per head. So a magnum opus of ice cream and columbian coffee with crunchy bits and chocolate hits the wuzzometer pretty hard.

The only problem is the consistent Magnum moment, which affects most consumption.

Picture this; the wrapper is off, you've crunched through the top still slightly frozen chocolate, applauded the crunchy sub strata, tasted the top mouthful of ice cream and are just breaking into the swirly bit.

Then it happens; a segment about the size of half a watch strap falls from the lower corner, grazes clothing enough to indicate the presence of chocolate and falls to the ground.

The dilemma. Its a big enough piece of the experience to warrant a rescue operation...Does the rule of three apply (you know, if its on the floor for less than three seconds its still retrievable). Who is looking? What does the floor look like? Is there really enough to go around without that piece. But why o why does it always happen.

We should be told.