messing about on the Thames

We were messing about on the river during Sunday, amongst other things.

Here's Tower Bridge just after we'd passed under it, and at the point where it is letting through a traditional red-brown sailed Thames barge.

We'd been having a Latin afternoon accompanied with a dash of rock music and were, at this precise moment, on the way to a riverside pub.

World Cup: Pandorica vs England

The stadium picture is not exactly high definition, not least because my own eyesight has been affected by the pollen over the last few days. Even with anti-histamines, the lumpy air has some how 'got me'.

But even if it hadn't, I don't think it would have improved my view of the world cup football. That's two matches with England where some of the allegedly finest players have struggled against teams which are considerably lower in the pundits' rankings.

With my recent pollen affliction, I can understand the irritation to the very eyeballs of the followers of England who have trekked to South Africa to support some rather lack-lustre football.

It's not a completely fair comparison, but my enjoyment from the latest episode of Doctor Who was vastly higher than watching a set of ponderous and slightly disenchanted white shirts be outmanoeuvred by a set of enthusiastic, industrious, camouflaged green shirts during Friday's match.

I realise that the amassed forces of an imaginary universe may be pitched against our heroes in one show, but the ostensibly less formidable opponents in the football show didn't even have a good backing track, just that parping noise.

Monotonous and irritating rather than dramatic. I know which one I'd miss and I know which one I'll definitely record in case I'm out next week.

motorway

Another evening on the motorways, tonight with a surprising number of high-performance police vehicles overtaking me along the outside lane.

There was a mixture of cars comprising unmarked saloons with blue lights and chequered motorway units and they passed me at few minute intervals.

At one stage I thought it was some kind of training exercise, as they sped along with their headlights doing that alternate flashing thing.

Then later I saw a few trucks flashing their emergency lights and a helicopter hovering over a field adjacent to the motorway. As I drove closer I could see the extensive collection of police cars pulled onto the hard shoulder and what appeared to be an extra car being searched whilst its occupants were being escorted to one of the waiting police vehicles.

Of course, my eyes were mainly on the traffic ahead, but it certainly looked as if some drama was playing out by the roadside.

new lion squeaker

We even bought a new lion squeaker for the World Cup football, caught in the soccer madness that had led me to expect Sainsbury's to be empty.

Wrong.

The pre-match car park was almost full which made me wonder how many had decided to watch the afternoon matches ahead of England vs USA.

Like many, we scrunched down in front of the telly, with a few beers and munchies as well as the attractive distressed England beach towel(£3), the lion that shouts 'goal' and 'penalty' when you press a button (£2) and some hair extensions in Union Jack colours(£1), which confusingly are the same as the USA's.

We had well and truly invested in this match, in as ITV described, "the unforgettable experience'' of its High Definition splendour.

By now, everyone knows the result, so it is almost superfluous to mention the England team performance, except for the lightning fast first five minutes which led to a spectacular goal. Unfortunately, our television didn't show it because the ITV HD service decided to play a car advert. We were most confused, especially when the match returned and someone said 'look England have scored'.

We missed the whole goal and the post goal cheers because of the wrong button pushing by someone at ITV command central - who are already blaming another organisation for the problem.

As play resumed, the HD allowed us to see the layering in Cappello's hair style, but for some reason the on field play was sometimes rather jerky, as if the HD frame buffer was not keeping up.

I can't swear to it, but it then looked to me as if the rest of the game (after the jerky bits) was shown in standard definition on the HD channel. Don't worry ITV, its our little secret, but annoying to those who've gone out specially to get HD for the occasion.

Well, so what to make of the match? I suppose a few of the US players are also in the UK leagues, so they should be OK. I still think that a country that positions its soccer as the national game should be able to trounce a country where its something of an afterthought, behind their version of Football and Rounders.

Oh well, c'mon engerland etc.

A595

My work meetings routed me to the west of the Lake District on Friday and I found my sat-nav sending me along the A595 and through the town of Whitehaven, which is where the recent tragic gunman events unfolded.

It's one of those moments where something detached becomes that bit more real, as I drove through the centre and past the taxi stand where there were flowers piled high.

I'm not familiar with this area across the far side of the Lakes, but Whitehaven was showing itself well in the sunshine and with many people going about their daily business. There was a noticable police presence and some TV vans with satellite dishes, but overall I was struck by the apparent normality a few days on from the shocking events.

business on the road

One of those days where in the morning I'm passing the elephants that currently stand in the middle of Sloane Square and by the evening I'm in the Lake District. Along the way I've dialled various conference meetings before the longish drive to the other side of the Lakes.

At some point along the way I stopped in the Pennines to buy some milk before everywhere closed and as I exited my air conditioned car I caught the blast of Pennine air with grass, peat, and a dampness that reminded me of trekking around the area with a backpack.

Tonight's stop was brief before onward chasing the late night sun, which was setting far more towards the North than we customarily see down South. Indeed, as it approach eleven pm, there was still light on the horizon and almost a sense of early morning.

But I had to reach my evening destination, to be 'in position' for Friday.

world cup willie

The marketing of the World Cup has stepped up over the last few days. This morning, I noticed smug television segments beamed from airports in South Africa as reporters arrived and its not hard to spot England flags sprouting from cars as well as substantial pub redecoration in time for the occasion.

Like the Olympics, there's a special mascot for the event, which is a sort of green and yellow leopard - in South African colours and named Zakumi - which is "ZA" = South Africa and "Kumi" = ten.

Of course, England once had a world cup mascot "World Cup Willie" - which had all but disappeared until this time around. I think it was used properly back in 1966 and even sported a Union flag instead of the England flag. I see the 2010 re-make has moved to an England strip and even features one of those little stars.

Now I must wait to see which team I am awarded in the Office Sweepstake.

under cover

It's short duration commuting for me this week, across London to Canary Wharf which means I'm travelling mainly under cover and under ground.

Compared with last week, where I could see the sky almost continuously, this week I'm protected from the elements by various man-made constructions unless I decide to break cover at lunchtime.

movie time?

I've been using one of those Flip Mino HDs for quite some time for conveniently capturing pocket-sized bits of video. It works rather well and is significantly better than the stuff one can capture in most phones - both as picture and also sound.

My guess was that the "HD type technology" of the Flip would appear in a phone, which needs a better lens and sensor, some image stabilisation and a decent way to capture sound in such a small device.

It seems that Apple have had a go in the new and finally announced iPhone and are also adding iMovie support as well as WiFi based video calling.

We all know it is still consumer based video capture, but I've been quite impressed with what can be squeezed out of the Mino format and look forward to see what can be correspondingly achieved in the new phone.

radial anxiety

Back from a short break with plenty of good experiences and a whole extra layer of dust inside and outside of the car.

Despite using bicycles for some of the travelling I have also needed to take the car for a spot of attention. I'm now the proud owner of a new tyre on each corner of the car.

Muicking around

We're heading way down south to Manchester today, thereby saying 'farewell' to the glens and lochs for a while.

The usual accompaniment of pictures and narrative hasn't been so easy this week, what with relaxing and all.

But now it's time to load the car and check around for those last few items, which I suppose had better include this computer.

staccato bursts from the north

We're still crossing rivers and climbing hills as well as a spot of cycling along what would once have been railway tracks. The bird and squirrel bait has worked quite well attracting all manner of livestock to our locale and a few inevitable photo opportunities.

The lack of bandwidth here precludes extensive uploads so these short telegrams from a tranquil place will have to suffice until we are back in better contact.

Of course, that's the original idea behind rashbre north, a place where we can chill without the usual pressures. It may also explain why its three years since we were last here.