up the creek canal without a canoe

The intriguing story about the missing fifty-something year old canoeist who returned after five years with an apparent memory lapse continues to unfold (unravel) with a fair amount of speed.

Allegedly, John (the canoeist) originally re-appeared on his wife's doorstep after only one year away and then took up living back at home as well as in a next door bedsit - wait for it - with a secret door in the wardrobe back to the main house. Somehow this was kept from his son, family and friends.

Apparently, along the way, the major debts he had created were resolved (presumably from life assurance) and more recently a planned move of his wife (and then him) to Panama took place.

Then in the last few days the famous detective work where someone typed "John Anne Panama" into Google and immediately found a picture of them together on the relocation website as a publicity shot. My almost Wordless Wednesday post featured this and I was slightly surprised at the number of non sticky hits based on the 'John Anne Panama' title I gave to the post (tee-hee)...

What I also noticed though, were the number of news-reporter sites set up to trace extra stories about the couple; there is clearly short term money to be made for people who know the couple if they want to sell stories to the Sun, Mirror and even the BBC has a news gathering addition to its blog entries about this story.

Is this another sign of the times, where the media set up fake websites to attract googlers who may know something about a story? I suppose its easier than chasing people along the street with microphones and cameras.

Having said that, Terry McAnish took a tiny 4cm square picture which is on Sky, and I've rendered into a painting summarising the occasion. Here's John, again in hiding under a blanket, being driven by police.

Technorati Tags: rashbre, john, anne, panama, john+anne+panama, google,

salsa

Dancin' days are here again, as the song goes and tonight (tonite?) its Cuban which means mohito fuelled Salsa.

So instead of putting the dancing shoes on, I think the idea is to kick them off and dance in bare feet.

En Nueva York y Chicago
En San Francisco también
En Los Ángeles querido
Y en Miami que pasa
Hey!

Canto a la salsa
Es el ritmo que me hace
Me hace mover
Me hace gozar
Me hace levantar para bailar

or words to that effect.

Here's my gentle iZotope remix to set the scene.
El Cuarto de Tula

britney & rashbre piece of me - brig remix

Yes, from the holodeck and then through the bars of the brig of JLP's Enterprise, Ensign Britney and I decided we'd better make a video as part of our collaboration before we both blasted back off into our own separate news stories.

The video on here is suitably squished for web loading. A slightly better fidelity version is over on MTV here.

Technorati Tags: rashbre, britney, britney+spears, pieceofme, piece+of+me, mtv, remix, collaboration, latest , spongebobsquarepants

party time

I've been pretty busy at work recently, but I did manage to get along to the Enterprise Christmas Party over at JLP's on Wednesday. My date was Ensign Britney and we decided even with the theme being Las Vegas, that it would be fun to go along dressed as Pirates.

I managed to take one picture of Brit on the Holodeck, but I'm afraid it came out a bit blurry. The party was a blast and actually its still going on, but I have a couple more this week and need to save myself for Cuba on Friday and then the Masque of the Red Death Ball on Saturday (and probably Sunday as well).

That will be four parties in a week, if I count the impromptu Birthday party for Britney,too.

space hopper

A wordless wednesday to enjoy. Go on, click the pic!

john anne panama

This week's competition - Hunt the canoeist.

Technorati Tags: rashbre, john, anne, panama, john+anne+panama, google

the long and short of it

The new London Overground which is like the Underground, but runs at ground level - (similar to railways) - has had a problem surface. Actually its quite a long flat problem surface. But not a very wide one.

The new train service was due to start on 11th November, but has been having a bit of bother with Shepherd's Bush train station. Its the platforms. They've some how been made too narrow to stand upon to wait for the trains.

Apparently measurements of ABCs (Average British Citizens) were taken when the line was first being designed back in the late 1990s. A combination of increases in shopping bag size and some side effects from genetically modified carrots mean that the widths of the platforms are now insufficient for modern commuters.

The station cost around £65 million to create and now a fairly substantial retaining wall needs to be dismantled and moved back before it can be declared fit for purpose. This is not news to London Connections which alonng with Private Eye reported something was awry back in October.

Part of the problem is the lamp-posts on the already narrow platform that can only be passed by crossing onto the yellow safety zone part of the platform, which is supposed to be kept clear except when boarding a train.

I gather moving the retaining wall back a minimum half metre to widen the platform is estimated to cost £7million. I'm not sure whether sawing down the lamp-posts and putting lights on the wall would do the trick.

iPhone Oyster hack for London

Live in London? Use the tube and buses? Then you've got an Oyster card. There's an experiment at the moment to integrate them with phones and Nokia are trying it out with a pilot.

Here's the rashbre central unofficial pilot for iPhone users, but it works fine for other phone makes too.

The iPhone is great. It looks fabulous but in regular use its a bit slippy. So I bought a 'tight fittlng rubberised case' from incase.. Oooh, I hear you cry.

So as an experiment, I've added extra functionality to the phone by inserting my Oyster card into the case before putting it around the phone.

Then simply wave the phone by the Oyster touch-points.

Works brilliantly and makes me smile.

rashbre iPhone oyster london londonist apple hack Tfl tube buses

(b) log

I seem to have spent most the weekend working, apart from our little excursion to Windsor yesterday afternoon.

Aside from the upward vertical rain and fighting through mad shoppers trying to buy scented candles and single pyramid shaped tea-bags for £2.50 each, the main reason was to visit the theatre.

To be honest, it was disappointing. I've seen the same play with different direction and thought a lot of clever allusions in the previous version were not expressed in this equivalent. I suppose it was a late afternoon performance, so perhaps the cast were saving themselves for the evening, but I doubt they would be able to pull a lot more from the hat.

Then time for an early evening bite to eat and we scrambled between various busy venues along by the Windsor Castle until we reached the brasserie by the oddly festooned Christmas tree outside the castle entrance. Here a pleasant supper with jazzy saxophone accompaniment before home to more work until about 23:30.

And more work today, from the start of the day until about four thirty in the afternoon. A short ten minute shopping expedition to buy milk, and my first outdoor sighting of Santa this year, parked with his sleigh outside Tescos.

So mysteriously, a chocolate yule log fell into my shopping basket along with the milk. And that's what I'm eating a slice of right now.

rashbre xmas chocolate yule yule+log

rashbre radio 2

I'm working again this morning, but hope to be 'let out' this afternoon to head over to Windsor for a while. My 'big project' continues and is still consuming nearly all available time. I seem to have adapted back to a no sleep/little sleep model again at the moment, but I also know when that stops working is when I start to get 'sense of humour' failures - although that has not quite occurred yet.

In other news, 24 hour non-stop rashbre radio now has an overhaul to the new look. Never listened? Its always been there in the little tab at the top of the blog and it can be undocked to be a continuing companion on the desktop. And if you get fed up with my choices you can (a) skip forwardto the next track or (b) change channels!

And now back to the project.

rashbre radio last.fm lastfm rashbreradio widgets blog

Das Blinkenlighten

I finished last night very late again, probably still buzzing from the last cups of 'spresso lungo.

So as I headed for bed I became aware of the various scattered piece of technology in the bedroom blinking little lights back at me. Normally, if I am away, I can have nearby parties, streetbrawls and in room full screensavers blattering away through the night whilst my poor little PC defragments itself and I don't notice a thing. But last night I was aware of the various tiny flashing lights from phones charging, the radio, the bluetooth headset and a stray Powerbook in snooze mode.

So I slid into sleep thinking about the old, but still true Blinkenlights...



rashbre blinkenlights

Un Boxing Day

I thought I'd post a picture of the rashbre central Christmas Decorations. Er...Its still November though, so they are still in the box.

Most of the area has been stealthily adding trees, lights and baubles to the public spaces since around mid October, and in some areas like Oxford Street the surreal purple trees were already on the buildings many weeks ago. Sloane Square is lit up and Peter Jones's store has had a positive cascade of lighting all down the front for weeks. Folk I know have already been to see the "Nightmare before Christmas in 3D", and others have even returned with bags laden with Christmas goodies.

Hereabouts, I shall wait until we are into December to begin the countdown. No fancy blog based-advent calendars, but maybe a twinkling light or two, probably after I've been on a bulb-expedition.

rashbre xmas santa lights christmas